Guest Column: Short & Sweet — Jewish Stories

[helloladies]

I’m Jewish and I love seeing that part of my identity reflected in SFF. Like many Jews I have kind of quirky relationship to my Jewish identity. But despite my fairly unconventional approach to Judaism I do find it an important source of meaning. So of course I love stories that play with and expound upon Jewish traditions.

While there are many Jewish writers of SFF there are not tons of stories that have explicitly Jewish characters doing Judaism in some way. There’s a certain atheist strand in some science fiction that seems to believe in the future religion won’t exist, but I find that very unlikely. Jews have been around for a long time, and the future without us seems wrong and painful. I still hope for a future where diversity is celebrated. I also love to see Jewish elements in fantasy. This can be specifically Jewish creatures like golems, and dybbuk, but also Jewish ways of doing magic like ritual meals. Judaism has a rich tradition of fantastical things.

There is no one way to be Jewish so there’s no one way to write Jewish SFF. People coming from a Christian background are sometimes confused by the way Judaism doesn’t center faith and belief but instead places more importance on practice and debate. Jews vary in our beliefs and level of observance of Jewish law and customs, as well having wide variety of Jewish traditions to draw from. The stories here feature a variety of Jewish experiences and ways of interacting with the world. I love them for their variety and hopefulness.

"Seven Commentaries on an Imperfect Land" by Ruthanna Emrys — This story was written in response to a conversation about the lack of "Jewish Narinas" and it features people form our world visiting other worlds. But it also features growing communities and sharing food in ways that feel very Jewish to me.

"Three Partitions" by Bogi Takács — This story features a lot of things I like. There’s cool ecological world building, a community that is struggling with its less conventional members, and of course Jewish themes. I love how this story shows very observant Jews living on another planet and approaching that Jewishly.

"Uncle Chaim and Aunt Rifke and the Angel" by Peter Begal — This story does such a good job of capturing a very specific flavor of Judaism, the little details of time and place. It’s also a lovely story about art and inspiration.

Sing for the Coming of the Longest Night by Katherine Fabian and Iona Datt Sharma — I love this contemporary fantasy novella set in London so much for so many reasons. One of these was the Jewish characters. The way they related to Jewish tradition made me feel extremely seen. There’s a Shabbat dinner celebrated by some of the characters that made me cry. Just having characters do Jewish ritual for the same kind of reasons I do was really meaningful to me.

"Avi Cantor Has Six Months To Live" by Sacha Lamb — A story about a trans Jewish boy figuring out family and also making deals with a demon. Avi struggled with his Jewish identity in this story in a way that felt very real to me. He wanted to engage more with Judaism but wasn’t sure how his non-Jewish community would react, but at the same time he didn’t really have a Jewish community to support his practice. That’s something that a lot of people I know have struggled with.

I hope you enjoy these stories and the variety of ways of being Jewish within them. What are your favorite SFF stories with Jewish characters?

forestofglory is a fan, crafter, an avid reader of science fiction and fantasy short fiction, and a mom. You can find her on Dreamwidth and on Twitter at forestofglory.