VERY URGENT REQUEST
Children Of Israel Are Never Alone
Hey, beloved tribe.
The night before last, I returned from two weeks away, most of it in Israel. I meant to write a column yesterday, but I was jet-lagged beyond expression and could barely put one foot in front of the other when I went out for a (blessedly cool and rainy) walk. I lay down for a 15-minute catnap in the very early evening and didn’t wake up again until this morning.
Tomorrow I will resume my regular newsletter. And I can’t wait to process my time in Israel with all of you — the many highlights, a few complexities, the dangers, the rewards, the revelations and epiphanies.
For today, I have a VERY URGENT REQUEST:
Dara Horn’s event — wherein we will be discussing her newest book ONE LITTLE GOAT — is TONIGHT at 5 pm west coast time, 8 pm eastern.
Please register HERE to get the zoom link.
It feels very vulnerable to admit this, but I’m feeling a little bit demoralized on the book club front, and here is why: more than 250 people said they were coming, but as of now, only 77 have registered.
Yesterday morning, there were only 21 people registered. I spent most of the day messaging those who’d said they would come, one by one. Many of them thanked me for the reminder and registered. Others had scheduling conflicts that had arisen between the day they’d RSVPed and now. Still others expressed that the cost of the book was a hardship, and I have no trouble believing this, given all that’s going on with our economy. Which brings me to another unfortunate facet of this:
The Jewish Book Council initially believed they could offer registrants a deep discount on the book, and I announced that at the outset. But because the timing of this evening’s talk has found Dara between print runs, they were not able to manage the book buy they’d hoped to do. My early emails to those who’d RSVPed yes assured them that the Kindle version was only $9, and that I imagined the Jewish Book Council would not have been able to offer a lower price than that.
But unbeknownst to me, Amazon — which at first was offering the Kindle version for that price — had entirely doubled it since then, making it even more than the hardcover, which is just ridiculous. An $18 price tag for the Kindle version of a children’s book really does feel like price-gouging when the hardcover, which they’d need to mail out, is $17.
So I’m feeling a little bit defeated on this front. The overarching point of the book club is to mount a fierce fight against the way Jews are currently being pushed out of the book world, by sending a Jewish author to the New York Times bestseller list every single month.
On the face of it, there is no early reason we shouldn’t be able to do this. We are People Of The Book, and we are millions strong in the U.S. Getting 5,000 of us to buy the same book on the same day each month should be a realistic goal.
But at this point, I feel that I need to face the fact that I don’t know how to make this happen by myself.
So, I have a series of requests:
Please register and come tonight if you possibly can, or even if you can’t. I will make the recording of my conversation with Dara available to every registrant.
Please invite your Jewish friends to do the same and explain the mission of the Never Alone Book Club to them.
If you’re in a comfortable place financially, please consider contributing to a fund for Jews who are presently of more modest means. Inwardly, I’d resolved to buy the book for up to 5 people who wanted to come but felt they could not afford the price. It would be wonderful if I could continue to do this, drawing from a community kitty for this purpose.
Also please let me know if you’d like to help me build the book club. If you’re part of a considerable literary community within the Jewish world, it would be great if you could commit to bringing people to these events.
Please, if you have any ideas I haven’t listed, share them with me.
For those who are coming, I know it will be a wonderful conversation, well beyond worthwhile. Dara is a formidable scholar but utterly down-to-earth and relatable. The depth and breadth of her Jewish knowledge is incredible and she’s simultaneously warm and irreverent and entertaining. I truly hope that if you can come, you will be there.
And again, I will resume the regular newsletter tomorrow, and tell you about my time volunteering on an IDF base and many other aspects of the trip.
Hoping to see you all tonight.
Much love in the meantime.
Am Yisrael Chai.
Where can we send donations?
I bought the book through kobo.com for $12.99 and was able to get it for free with points. And yes, I have registered. Sending hugs and love and support.