NY Observer > Laurel Snyder

Katharine Weber On Literary/Religious Identity (and Muriel Spark)

Observer Staff — Mon, 10 Jul 2006 06:41:37 -0400

My report on a literary evening at Makor brought another demurral, on points large and small, from Triangle author Katharine Weber:

I did not say "cramped," but crammed. My mother being raised in a Protestant identity bubble by her Protestant mother, despite being a Warburg in New York City, does signify and pertain to the question at hand, who is a Jew, how are we identified, and by whom?

Laurel Snyder Responds. I Was Inaccurate, and Mean-Spirited. (Oy)

Observer Staff — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 10:02:50 -0400

A week or so back I did a snarky take on Laurel Snyder's new book, Half-Life: Jew-ish Tales From Interfaith Homes and a reading she had at Makor , then walked away whistling. But after trying to comment on my post and being foiled somehow by the Observer's system (apologies), Snyder sent me a (generous and fair and maybe wise too) response.

Here it is:

[T]hough I appreciate that you think I'm pretty, your physical description of me didn't make me feel any better and it didn't seem terribly relevant.
If nothing else, I feel I should be allowed to correct the inaccuracies of your blog post (i.e. that my son had a hospital circumcision , that I "chose" Judaism, etc) I'm not sure how/where you got these ideas... but they're untrue , and anyone present at Makor on June 22 could tell you that. I hope you didn't just dream them up to stregthen your remarks about me. read more »
That would be poor journalism I think. In trying to look past your creative revision of the event at Makor, I'd like to say that regardless of your dislike for me, I'm glad you enjoyed Maya Gottfried's reading. No matter how your blog might have hurt my personal feelings, there are bigger things at stake with a book like this, and if you got something out of the event, that's far more important than my little ego.

My Night With 3 Half-Jewish Writers, and One 3/4, at Makor

Observer Staff — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 05:41:23 -0400

I want to say more about my literary evening at Makor the other night, and about the four authors who read from their contributions to the book Half-Life: Jew-ish Tales From Interfaith Homes.

Laurel Snyder ran the show. The book is her brainchild. She's a tall pretty woman, 32, with high strawberry-brunette coloring and a strong narrow face. She's a go-getter. She got the book idea at the Iowa writers' workshop, as she informed us, and it is a good idea (though she's not the first, my friend Wendy Marston got in on the HalfJew stuff years ago). read more »

You'd think because this is a religious subject, Laurel Snyder might be a spiritual person, but you'd be wrong. She doesn't speak in spiritual terms. She's a busy networker— editors of collections often are—and her talk was full of her networking experiences.