18 Questions for the Jewish Kidlit Community
This transcribes questions that I asked on Twitter on Feb 4th (tweets lost due to my tweetpurge.) This is exactly transcribed, with the except of additions/clarifications inside of brackets. And I do in fact want this to be a discussion. Please feel free to leave comments or talk about this on Twitter, FB, and other places.
The thread:
I think in the Jewish bookish community, there are a whole bunch of questions we have to be asking ourselves right now. This is specifically about kidlit.
Are Holocaust books mirror books?
Are Holocaust books window books?
Are we treating non-Jewish people who write about the Holocaust as ‘righteous gentiles’ and uplifting them in a way that fails to make room for Jewish voices who write our stories?
Who do each of us, in our respective roles, serve? Who is serving the reader?
Who IS the reader?
What role does Jewish children’s literature play in this time of rising antisemitism, nationalism, and fascism?
Who has agency in Jewish children’s literature? Who do we give the power? Who do we center?
In a [swiftly approaching] time without Holocaust survivors, how do we navigate and interact with fiction about the Holocaust versus non-fiction?
What is a Jewish book?
How Jewish does a Jewish book need to be to be Jewish?
How do we as Jewish book creators interact with both gatekeepers and the market?
How do Jewish book gatekeepers see themselves and interact with the market/the wider field of Jewish children’s literature?
How do we actively and consciously make room for non-Ashkenazi voices?
How do we combat racism inside the Jewish community with Jewish children’s books?
How do we sustain Jewish children’s literature through what’s to come in this country?
How do we make success, engagement, and learning inside Jewish children’s literature economically equitable?
How do we teach ourselves and then our readers to talk about Israel in Jewish children’s books?
Who do we as a Jewish children’s book community want to be?