Who by Fire

After I met novelist Jon Papernick, he put me on his mailing list and I have been enjoying his occassional updates for a few months or more. Most recently he has been writing about his quest to become the Perfect Jew. Most recently Jon wrote about observing the stringent rules relating to the Jewish Sabbath. Each of his articles has been touching, funny and sharply observant of the place where unthinking practice meets thinking unpractice... a place you can find many modern Jews of most denominations.

It is through reading Jon's articles that I have come to appreciate another side of Peoplehood. The notion of Peoplehood is one I have been learning about from Yossi Abramowitz and his Peoplehood.org blog. Yossi challenges us to find what unifies us as a people and fulfil the purpose that we have in the world. Yossi's work is a critique of both unthinking practice and of thinking unpractice. He exhorts us to think and to act and to practice projecting our age-old values into this complex world.

Jon's novel "Who by Fire" is due to be published later this year. I received an email from him describing the 1001 book project encouraging people to pre-order his book in order to encourage a US publisher to take it on. Based on enjoying Jon's articles so much I immediately went ahead myself, and offer you the same opportunity. Perhaps we can have a book club meeting after it comes out ...