The Jewish Writing Project

A few weeks ago I received an email from Bruce Black. His email started as follows:

“I discovered your blog by accident while reviewing “hot” blogs on the WordPress site, where a few weeks ago I founded a blog of sorts called The Jewish Writing Project (http://jewishwritingproject.wordpress.com), where I hope Jews of all backgrounds will feel at home sharing stories, poems, memories, experiences–even random thoughts–about being Jewish. (Interviews are welcome, too.)

Since moving with my wife and daughter to Florida six years ago, I’ve noticed more and more Jews becoming strangers to each other as they move with their families across the country (and the world) in search of new jobs or retiring to new communities. (And I’ve watched, too, as more and more elderly Jews are passing away, their stories lost to their children and to us).
So I founded The Jewish Writing Project as a way of encouraging Jews to explore what it means to be Jewish and to share and preserve their Jewish stories. Just imagine if Jews from all over North America, Israel, and the rest of the world contributed stories or poems about experiences that might have made an impact on them as Jews, or shared memories of holidays, or interviewed a person who might have influenced their understanding of Judaism.

With luck, the project will serve as an archive of Jewish stories, memories, poems, interviews, etc., bringing together Jews of all backgrounds and ages, and shedding light on what it means for so many of us to be Jewish today.”

I went over to the site and read some of the posts, and I must say I was impressed. I was not very interested in Judaism until I was about 17 or 18, and by then three out of four grandparents had passed away. I missed out on the stories they might have told me if I had expressed interest. That is why I think this blog site is so wonderful.

I offered a story of my own, and Bruce graciously agreed to publish it (it is a shortened version of a post written for my blog a while ago).

I urge my readers to go over and read some of the wonderful stories, and send in some of your own!