FOR IMME­DI­ATE RELEASE CON­TACT: Evie Saphire-Bern­stein, evie@​jewishbooks.​org

MAY 17, 2023 Jew­ish Book Council

Inau­gur­al Event for Glob­al Jew­ish Lit­er­ary Alliance Con­nects Jew­ish Writ­ers and Readers 

May 17, 2023 – The Glob­al Jew­ish Lit­er­ary Alliance offi­cial­ly launched with a vir­tu­al kick-off event on Thurs­day, May 4th. The event, enti­tled A Glob­al Lit­er­ary Con­ver­sa­tion: Artists in Cap­tiv­i­ty, fea­tured the 2023 Wingate Prize win­ner Simon Parkin, and his book, The Island of Extra­or­di­nary Cap­tives: A Painter, a Poet, an Heiress, and a Spy in a World War II British Intern­ment Camp, and the 72nd Nation­al Jew­ish Book Award win­ner for the Young Adult lit­er­a­ture cat­e­go­ry, Susan Wider, and her book, It’s My Whole Life: Char­lotte Salomon: An Artist in Hid­ing Dur­ing World War II/ The con­ver­sa­tion was mod­er­at­ed by Doron Krakow, CEO of the JCC Asso­ci­a­tion of North Amer­i­ca, and you can watch their con­ver­sa­tion here.

The Glob­al Jew­ish Lit­er­ary Alliance is a new inter­na­tion­al col­lab­o­ra­tion with Jew­ish Book Coun­cil, The Wingate Prize, JW3, and the JCC Asso­ci­a­tion of North Amer­i­ca. The Glob­al Jew­ish Lit­er­ary Alliance aims at con­nect­ing writ­ers and read­ers togeth­er across the globe. It will pro­vide resources and com­mu­ni­ty for Jew­ish writ­ers, and those writ­ing books of Jew­ish inter­est, and encour­age more writ­ers to write Jew­ish con­tent and explore what that might be, as well as pro­vide annu­al­ly updat­ed resources to con­nect pro­fes­sion­als and writ­ers and cre­ate com­mu­ni­ty. The Alliance hopes to sup­port a glob­al ecosys­tem of Jew­ish arts and cul­ture, with a spe­cif­ic focus on the lit­er­ary arts, ensur­ing writ­ers have the resources they need to write Jew­ish books, that read­ers are aware of these works, and that Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ties and insti­tu­tions have the resources they need to cre­ate mean­ing­ful pro­grams and events around Jew­ish literature.

The Covid pan­dem­ic showed the ben­e­fits of con­nect­ing with peo­ple around the world and showed the pos­si­bil­i­ties of trans-Atlantic col­lab­o­ra­tions, some­thing upon which the Glob­al Jew­ish Lit­er­ary Alliance will expand.

The event also launched the Glob­al Jew­ish Lit­er­ary Alliance’s online Resource Cen­ter, which will pro­vide infor­ma­tion on fund­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties, res­i­dences, and events for the Jew­ish writ­ing com­mu­ni­ty. Addi­tion­al resources will be added on a bi-year­ly or year­ly basis.

The found­ing mem­bers of the GJLA are The Wingate Prize (UK), Jew­ish Book Coun­cil (US), JCC Asso­ci­a­tion of North Amer­i­ca (US and Cana­da) and JW3 (UK). Addi­tion­al orga­ni­za­tions in mul­ti­ple coun­tries will be invit­ed to join as mem­bers in the future.

For more infor­ma­tion, please vis­it www​.jew​ish​book​coun​cil​.org or con­tact Jew­ish Book Coun­cil at evie@​jewishbooks.​org or (212) 201‑2920.