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We Need Printed Books Now More Than Ever
Reading print as a subversive act
Then there were the quiet orders, the orders that were not published, that were within the bureaucracy, that were oral. And finally, there were no orders at all. Everybody knew what he had to do.” ~ Raul Hilberg
At fourteen, I entered a new high school where 80% of the students were Jewish and 20% were goy like me. It was a good experience. I learned a lot about Jewish culture, or at least the version of it practiced by suburban, affluent, assimilating Jews, back in the 1960s.
At first, I found Jewish people a bit off-putting. I wasn’t used to their way of speaking and gesturing. But I came to like them, and learned things from them.
When a manuscript for a physical book is accepted for publication, edited, printed and distributed to bookstores and libraries, or printed to order from an author’s website, it’s not as pliable as digital information.
I also found out what it felt like to be a minority in my school.
It wasn’t long before I was reminded that I was anything but a minority, especially when one of my friend’s mothers stood in her kitchen and…
