JWA chats with Jessica Jacobs, poet and founder and executive director of the organization Yetzirah: A Home for Jewish Poetry. 

JWA: What makes a poem Jewish?

Jessica Jacobs: I could mention a particular angle of humor, or craft grounded in trauma and resilience, but for any qualifier I might offer I can then immediately think of counterexamples. In Yetzirah’s reading series, we say that whatever the subject matter—be it politics, getting a tattoo, or even eating a ham sandwich—Jewish poets write Jewish poetry. And what I’ve seen in my own work is that when I was living my most secular life, looking back at those poems, I can still see a sensibility derived from growing up in a Jewish household, which was invisible to me at the time I was writing them. We write who we are. So my poems are inevitably the poems of a queer woman, an athlete, a daughter, a teacher, a Jew, etc. All the lenses are ever-present; the question is which is foregrounded.

JWA: Can you tell us about your own poetry?

JJ: After straying from that aforementioned secular life, I read the Torah in its entirety for the first time in my early thirties, and for the next seven years took a deep dive into the book of Genesis and related Midrash, commentary, and contemporary scholarship. unalone, poems in conversation with Genesis, parshah [verse] by parshah, is the result and will be out with Four Way Books on March 15. Those morally challenging and often painful ancient stories urged me to look outward—at subjects like systemic racism, antisemitism, and the climate crisis—and inward too, writing more personal poems of love, loss, and family.

JWA: What was your inspiration for founding Yetzirah? 

JJ: Poetry led me back to Judaism and Judaism in turn deepened my poetry and changed my life for the better. This felt like an experience that was vital to share in community. So I founded Yetzirah as a space in which Jewish poets of all denominations and flavors of diversity could show up as their full selves—as poets and Jews and everything in between—and see how the essential parts of their identity informed and encouraged each other. Though we’re only in our second year, the enthusiastic response of poets and poetry lovers around the US and abroad has been inspiring. 

JWA: Can you tell us about the work that Yetzirah does? 

JJ: We have an annual online reading series, curated by Jehanne Dubrow; the Yetzirah Book Club with hosts Rick Chess and Yerra Sugarman; live and asynchronous online workshops run by our program manager Danny Kraft (next up, a one-day workshop on “Poetic Lineages” with Ilya Kaminsky!); a bevy of resources for publishing opportunities and Jewish literary festivals and organizations; and the searchable Discover Jewish Poets database, to which poets can add themselves and which is already in frequent use by event planners and educators. And the whole thing rests on our keystone offering of an in-person Jewish Poetry Conference in Asheville, North Carolina.

JWA: What should people know about the Yetzirah Book Club?

JJ: Each season, we take a deep dive into four poetry collections that celebrate the expansive range of Jewish poetry, with talks by authors, scholars, and translators, and opportunities for discussion. The four books include a book by a poet no longer living, one by a contemporary poet, a book of poetry in translation, and a book by an international poet. Next up, March 3, we’ll read In the Hour of War: Poetry from Ukraine, with its editors Ilya Kaminsky and Carolyn Forché, and then, April 7, we’ll be in conversation with American Israeli poet Linda Zisquit. We also have some fun merch, including “Read Jewish poets.” t-shirts and hoodies.

JWA: In addition to your virtual programming, why is it important to you to offer an in-person annual conference?

JJ: Something transformative happens when people set aside a week of their lives to devote themselves to poetry—to write together in workshops, share meals, read their poems and listen to the poems of others, and stay up into the wee hours talking, laughing, and, because we’re Jews, engaging in spirited debate. The cohort of writers from our inaugural conference still keeps in close touch, and it’s been beautiful to watch the ways in which they’ve supported each other—especially since October 7. 

This year’s faculty are Dan Bellm, Jessica Greenbaum, and Dana Levin, with our keynote speaker Eleanor Wilner, and Rodger Kamenetz and Alcia Ostriker providing manuscript consultations. We’re open for applications until March 1, and will also have rooms reserved at a nearby hotel for poets and poetry lovers of all traditions who’d prefer to take the morning to write or explore the mountains before joining us on campus for public events.

JWA: Which contemporary Jewish poets should we be following?

JJ: Our invaluable board of directors—Maya Bernstein, Richard Chess, Jehanne Dubrow, and Yerra Sugarman—also happen to be brilliant writers, as is our program manager Danny Kraft. And because there are truly too many Jewish poets about whose work I’m excited, I’ll instead recommend spending some time with our Discover Jewish Poets database, where you might just discover your next favorite poet.