Nextbook: insights into the Jewish soul through literature

By Stuart Eskenazi
Seattle Times staff reporter

	Michael Chabon
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Seattle and its suburbs may not know a good pastrami sandwich from a lousy Swedish meatball, but the area is fast developing a broad and eclectic menu to satisfy Jewish book enthusiasts as well as those only remotely curious.

Along with Chicago and Washington, D.C., two cities that appreciate the necessity of caraway rye, white-bread Seattle has been chosen to take part in a new national initiative to promote the understanding of Jewish culture through reading. Called Nextbook, its programs are aimed at Jews and non-Jews, religious and non-religious.

It's a little like having Jewish book month all year round.

Nextbook's first major contribution to the local scene is to bring 2001 Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Chabon to town Wednesday to launch a writers series. But the New York-based organization already has been busy throughout the year building a relationship with local libraries — buttressed by a three-year, $725,000 grant — and other events with decidedly secular Jewish themes.

"What made Seattle an interesting place for Nextbook is it has a really good library system, a growing Jewish population, and it is a city of readers," said Matthew Brogan, a non-Jew who left his position as head of Seattle Arts & Lectures to become Nextbook's program director. "We aren't promoting religion. We're really about cultural literacy."

Upcoming events Writers Series Michael Chabon, winner of the 2001 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay," will give an autobiographic talk: "Golems I Have Known, Or Why My Elder Son's Middle Name is Napoleon." Wednesday, 7:30 p.m. at Benaroya Hall's Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall, Second Avenue and Union Street. Free. Advance registration is closed, but a limited number of general-admission tickets will be available at the door on a first-come, first-served basis. Box office opens at 6:45 p.m. History, Culture & Ideas Series At 2 p.m. Sunday at Soundbridge: Seattle Symphony Music Discovery Center, Second Avenue and Union Street, music critic Gigi Yellen-Kohn will give a talk on "Kaddish," the Jewish mourners' prayer, in advance of the Symphony's performance of Leonard Bernstein's Symphony No. 3, "Kaddish," on Nov. 20, 21 and 23. Admission to the lecture is free (425-369-3298 or Nextbook)

Chabon, whose family tree blooms Russian-Polish with one Lithuanian branch, said he considers his Jewish identity more cultural than religious, although the two often seem to overlap.

"Part of what makes Jewishness so unique and special is that it is very difficult to separate out the cultural from the religious, the ethnic from the liturgical," he said. "It's one big blur, and that is part of what has made Jews so puzzling to others over the years. Unfortunately, at many moments throughout history, that puzzlement has turned quite ugly."

Chabon, who lives in Berkeley, Calif., said that when he sets out to write, he does not think about whether what he is writing will contribute to the overall understanding of Jewish culture. When creating Jewish characters, he said his main objective is that they come across as authentic. "Real people with Jewish issues and questions," he said.

He said he thinks of himself as an American writer, a Jewish writer and a Jewish-American writer, but other labels that have nothing to do with his cultural identity, such as post-modern, also fit.

"To the degree I think about my work as Jewish, I probably tend to think more in terms of what other Jews will think about it," he said.

Nextbook is a project of Keren Keshet — The Rainbow Foundation, which formed in 1999 to increase awareness and understanding of Jewish culture while paying respect to the differences among Jews in their levels of religious observance. Its partnership with libraries is no accident, said Julie Sandorf, Nextbook director.

Good reads Here is a list of books the Nextbook staff recommends for Seattle Times readers who want to learn more about Jewish culture, literature and ideas: "Out of Egypt: A Memoir" by Andre Aciman "An Orphan in History" by Paul Cowan "Turbulent Souls: A Catholic Son's Return To His Jewish Family" by Stephen Dubner "Bee Season: A Novel" by Myla Goldberg "When I Lived in Modern Times" by Linda Grant "Unsettled: An Anthropology of the Jews" by Melvin Konner "Maus: Vols. 1 and 2" by Art Spiegelman Additional reading lists can be found on the Nextbook site.

"Immigrant Jews at the beginning of the 20th century learned how to become Americans by going to public libraries," she said. "The trustees of the foundation thought those doors could swing both ways and that public libraries also could be the gateways for Jews and non-Jews to learn more about Jewish culture."

Michele Yanow sold her half of Tree of Life Judaica & Books in Ravenna last December to become Nextbook's full-time fellow, working with both the King County and Seattle library systems. So far, Nextbook has piggybacked existing library programs, such as sponsoring a visit by a Jewish husband-and-wife team to take part in an annual storyteller festival. Eventually, Nextbook hopes to help libraries expand their collections of Jewish books.

When she selected the inventory for her bookstore, Yanow had to develop a sixth sense for what constituted a "Jewish book."

"The soul of it had to be Jewish," she said. "It had to illuminate something about Jewish culture, history or character, or the experience of the Jewish people. For a Jew reading it, whether religious or nonreligious, the book would have to resonate with them. For a non-Jewish reader, it had to deepen their overall understanding of Jews."

Nextbook's Web site, www.nextbook.org, offers an annotated list of recommended reads that is also available in print form for posting at branch libraries.

"There is this amazing treasure chest of literature and nonfiction that can provide great insights to what it means to be a Jew," Sandorf said. "The answers to be found are as varied as the Jewish experience itself."

Those who attend the writers series will be handed another list of suggested books specially selected to relate to the author in town. The list tied to the Chabon visit features books about comic strips and ghosts, two themes of his prize-winning novel, "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay."

"We will always be encouraging people to read that next great book that will help them understand another aspect of Jewish culture," Brogan said.

Stuart Eskenazi: 206-464-2293 or seskenazi@seattletimes.com

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