Stefanie Pervos Bregman is the editor of the anthology Living Jewishly: A Snapshot of a Generation. Stefanie, along with Living Jewishly contributors Rabbi Jason Miller, Rivka Nehorai, and Rachel Wright will be blogging here all week for Jewish Book Council and MyJewishLearning.
As a Jewish blogger and editor, I always say that the period leading up to Jewish Book Month is one of my favorite times of the year. So many books come across my desk for review — I only wish I had the time to read them all. Each author, each new book, is not just a potential article for my magazine or blog post. To me, every author — whether they write fiction or non-fiction— is a storyteller, adding their own piece to our collective Jewish story.
This year the tables have turned, and I’m the one hoping and wishing that Jewish editors and writers will choose my book from among the great pile for review — the thought makes me feel proud, humble and frightened all at once.
In putting together my new anthology, Living Jewishly: A Snapshot of a Generation, I hoped to be a storyteller as well. In the Jewish world, engaging 20- and 30-somethings is a hot button issue — questions like ‘How do we get young Jews to feel connected to Israel? To affiliate with traditional Jewish institutions? To care about Jewish continuity, ritual and tradition?’ float around waiting to be answered.
As a member of this elusive generation myself, I live and breathe these questions in my personal life and as a Jewish professional. As I recently completed my master’s degree in Jewish professional studies, I became determined to tell the story of my generation.
To get started, I sent out a call for stories to my peers:
Are you a Jewish 20- or 30-something with a story to tell? Do you want to be part of a collection of voices that together tell the unique story of our generation?
Within hours, my email box was flooded. I received close to 50 submissions — all remarkable, rich and more diverse than I could have ever imagined.
In Living Jewishly, I put these essays together to create a window into our Jewish lives and identities. Each essay is beautiful, unique, brutally honest and revealing. In truth, it is my contributors who are the real storytellers — without them, the story, the picture, would not be complete.
I often think about what it means to really be a storyteller. To me, this is not a title to be taken lightly. With it comes certain responsibility, not just to inform, but to do so artfully, shedding light on topics that may otherwise have been left untold.
While I don’t think I’ve solved the mystery of my generation, I do have some insights into the types of stories we want to tell. However it is that we express ourselves Jewishly, I’m certain that every Jewish 20- or 30-something has an interesting story to tell — and maybe all we need is the opportunity to tell it.
Check back all week for more from Living Jewishly’s contributors and visit the book’s official website here.
Stefanie Pervos Bregman is the Communications Director at the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, and founding editor of Oy!Chicago. Stefanie earned her Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her Master’s Degree in Jewish Professional Studies from the Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies. Stefanie and her husband Michael live in Chicago with their bichon poodle, Bialy.
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