Laila Lalami

The American Bar Association is going to start publishing novels, as part of an effort to “educate the public about the inner workings of the justice system in a creative way.” The series is called “Great Stories from Great Lawyers” and the first literary offering is a roman a clef titled The Shadow of Justice, by criminal defense attorney Milton Hirsch.

Ha’aretz offers up a review of a new anthology of studies on medieval Rabbinic literature by Yisrael Ta-Shema.

The Hasidim of Ashkenaz, who lived at the end of the 12th and 13th centuries in the important centers of Jewish life in Germany (Mainz, Speyer, Regenburg, etc.), were firm believers in the Torah, and very pious, devoted and observant Jews. But in chapters 19 and 20 of [this anthology], we discover that this solid faith did not keep them from reaching some bold conclusions on such matters as the writing style and authorship of Judaism’s holiest texts. Ta-Shema offers, for example, much evidence of the doubt in their mind about the uniformity of the Book of Psalms and its wholesale attribution to King David.
These scholars of Ashkenaz even question the uniform authorship of the Bible itself. Based on their careful study of the text and familiarity with rabbinic literature, they suggest that certain words, verses or passages were not written by Moses, but by someone who lived in much later times. The publication of this material some 30 years ago caused a great outcry in the ultra-Orthodox community. In the eyes of the Haredim, it was not possible that a revered figure like Judah the Hasid would say such things. They insisted that it was a forgery, and forced the publishers to recall the book and omit some of the objectionable pages.

I’m not entirely surprised to hear about such progressive exegesis to come out of the supposedly unenlightened times, but I think it’s cool to see it acknowledged in a historical anthology. You can read the rest of the article here.

Only a week to go before the Frankfurt Book Fair, where the guest of honor this year is the Arab world. This Die Welt article rounds up some of the debate that has happened so far, and reiterates some countries’ decision to organize their own programs separate from the official one.

A few days ago, Moroccan culture minister and poet Muhammad al-Ashari said he found it hard to understand that Arabs, in 22 very diverse nations, were invited to the fair as a whole entity. Morocco, along with Kuwait, Libya, Algeria and Iraq, is not participating in the official program of the Arab League at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

Night Train’s Issue No IV is now available, with work by Pia Ehrhardt, Pasha Malla, Roy Kesey, among others. You can peruse the table of contents here. While you’re there, you can also check out this interview with editors.

Wait, so now you’re saying The Daily Show viewers are also better informed than those of other late night shows?

Thanks to Terri Brown-Davidson for taking over Moorishgirl yesterday and best of luck to her with her new book, Marie, Marie, Hold on Tight.

Today, Moorishgirl is hosting author Terri Brown-Davidson, who’s here to shares her adventures in publishing. Terri is on the fiction and poetry faculty at Gotham Writers’ Workshop. Her work has appeared in numerous journals and was featured in the anthology Triquarterly New Writers. She has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize seven times and has received many other honors. She is also an assistant editor for Zoetrope: All-Story. Her first book of poetry, The Carrington Monologues was published in 2002. Her first novel Marie, Marie, Hold on Tight, has just been published by Lit Pot Press.

Bill O’Reilly has once again put his foot in his mouth. During Jon Stewart’s appearance on his show a while back he kept referring to people who watch the Daily Show as ’stoned slackers.’ Comedy Central was not too pleased, so they did some research.

And guess whose audience is more educated? Viewers of Jon Stewart’s show are more likely to have completed four years of college than people who watch “The O’Reilly Factor,” according to Nielsen Media Research.

Wait–you mean to say to that folks who watch O’Reilly are not as educated as…er…others? You don’t say! Related: For a similar study about how Fox viewers are uninformed, read this older post: This Is Your Brain on “Fair and Balanced.”

This has moved from the pathetic to the horrifying. After Norma Khouri left Australia in the wake of the Honor Lost debacle, she left her children in the care of a friend, and two months have gone by without anyone collecting them.

Previous editions of the Khouri Report: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9.

Last spring, a law that forbids doing commerce with certain countries currently in disfavor with the administration was brought to bear on a publishing matter. At that time, the IEEE wanted to publish articles by scientists from embargoed countries and asked the Office of Foreign Assets Control at the Treasury Department whether doing so violated any laws. The OFAC’s response was yes. By the summer, the rules were somewhat relaxed, but still made it difficult for publishers to do their work. Now, Edward Wyatt reports in the NY Times about the latest developments.

Treasury Department regulations against editing manuscripts from Cuba, Iran and other countries under American economic sanctions violate the First Amendment of the Constitution and should be overturned, a group of American publishers said in a federal lawsuit filed yesterday.

Read the article here and older posts here, and here.