25th Annual Jewish Book Festival: Jewish Community Center.
Nov. 4-16 & 18. Display and sale (at retail prices) of more than 2,000 new books by Jewish authors, ranging from cookbooks, expensive gift books, children’s books, and reference books to books by local authors and new titles hot off the presses. (Publishers plan their releases for November, which is Jewish Book Month.) The fair also includes a number of talks and performances by various Jewish authors.
Nov. 4: Matt Biers-Ariel, an English teacher from California who has done commentary for All Things Considered, discusses The Bar Mitzvah and the Beast: One Family’s Cross-Country Ride of Passage, his humorous, thoughtful memoir about a cross-country bike ride he took with his 13-year-old son as a substitute for the bar mitzvah his son had refused.
Nov. 5: Atlanta novelist Zoe Fishman discusses Saving Ruth (7 p.m.), her coming-of-age novel about a Jewish girl who returns for the summer to her Alabama home to work with her brother as a lifeguard when a near drowning on their watch forces them to confront long ignored truths about their town, their family, and themselves.
Nov. 6: No special events.
Nov. 7: U-M creative writing professor Eileen Pollack discusses Breaking and Entering (noon) her new novel, set against the backdrop of the Oklahoma City bombing, about a Christian-Jewish couple who move with their daughter from California to rural Michigan in an attempt to save their marriage. Violinist and arts educator Aaron Dworkin, the founder and president of the Detroit-based Sphinx Organization who was President Obama’s 1st nominee to the National Çouncil on the Arts, discusses Uncommon Rhythm: A Black, White, Jewish, Jehovah’s Witness, Irish Catholic Adoptee’s Journey to Leadership (7 p.m.), his recently published memoir.
Nov. 8: CUNY John Jay College of Criminal Justice sociology professor emeritus Lydia Rosner discusses The Russian Writer’s Daughter (12:30 p.m.), her collection of lively autobiographical stories about growing up in a Russian-American Jewish household in the stifling political atmosphere of the Cold War. Deborah Feldman discusses Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots (3:30 p.m.), her memoir about growing up in and escaping from the strict Hasidic community of Williamsburg in Brooklyn. The evening concludes with a panel discussion (7 p.m.) with U-M Center for Judaic Studies Frankel scholars, Deborah Dash Moore (Jew of Gotham), Zvi Gitelman (Jewish Identities in Postcommunist Russia and Ukraine: An Uncertain Ethnicity), Harvey Goldberg (Contemporary Jewish Collective Identities), Joshua Miller (Narratives of Dissent: War in Contemporary Israeli Arts & Culture), and Lisa Silverman (Becoming Austrians: Jews and Culture Between the World Wars).
Nov. 9: CUNY John Jay College artist-in-residence and The Mozart Academy president Caroline Stoessinger discusses her nonfiction book A Century of Wisdom: Lessons from the Life of Alice Herz-Sommer, the World’s Oldest Holocaust Survivor (12:30 p.m.).
Nov. 10: Veteran journalist Larry Tye, author of a biography of baseball legend Satchel Paige, discusses his cultural history Superman: The High-Flying History of America’s Most Enduring Hero (7:30 p.m.).
Nov. 11: Local Authors Brunch (9 a.m.), a panel discussion over brunch with several local writers, including Barbara Cain, Andrei S. Markovits, Geri Markel, Irene Miller, Ken Waschberger, Marina von Newumann Whitman, Mitchell Rycus, and Ivan Sherick. Former Israeli minister of defense and ambassador to the U.S. Moshe Arens discusses Flags over Warsaw Ghetto (noon), his groundbreaking account of the heroic uprising against the German attempt to liquidate the Warsaw ghetto. Kids of all ages invited to dress up as their favorite superhero (3 p.m.) and meet with Superman historian Larry Tye (see Nov. 10 listing above).
Nov. 12: Gold Star Mortgage Financial Group founder Daniel Milstein discusses business guide The ABC of Sales (12:30 p.m.), and Israeli Labor Party veteran senior member Avraham Burg discusses Very Near to You (7 p.m.), his new interpretation of the weekly Torah reading.
Nov. 13: NYC artist Andrea Strongwater discusses Where We Once Gathered: Lost Synagogues of Europe (12:30 p.m.), her collection of vibrant paintings depicting synagogues that were eradicated before and during WWII. Local psychoanalyst and pianist Julie Nagel discusses Melodies of the Mind (7 p.m.), her study of the relation between music and the unconscious, and she also performs with her father, U-M piano professor Louis Nagel.
Nov. 14: Times of Israel reporter Matti Friedman discusses The Aleppo Codex: A True Story of Obsession, Faith, and the Pursuit of an Ancient Bible (12:30 p.m.), his book about the fate of a 10th-century annotated bible once hidden in a Syrian synagogue. Zingerman’s cofounder Ari Weinzweig discusses his business guide A Lapsed Anarchist’s Approach to Being a Better Leader (7 p.m.).
Nov. 15: Washington Post reporter Ann Marie O’Connor discusses her cultural history The Lady in Gold: The Extraordinary Tale of the Gustav Klimt Masterpiece, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer (12:30 p.m.). U-M grad Devan Sipher discusses The Wedding Beat (7 p.m.), his novel that draws on his experience as the New York Times wedding columnist.
Nov. 16: Aviva Nadia Kleinbaum and her son Aric Mutchnick discuss and prepare a lunch from their family cookbook Fusion by Nadia: A Quilting of Flavors from Iraq, Israel, and America (noon).
Nov. 18: Former Daily Show with John Stewart executive producer and head writer David Javerbaum discusses The Last Testament (12:30 p.m.), his hilarious satire that takes the form of God’s final memoir.
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9 a.m.-9:30 p.m. (Sun.-Thurs.), 9 a.m.-6 p.m. (Fri..), & 7:30-9::30 p.m. (Nov. 10), Jewish Community Center, 2935 Birch Hollow Dr. (off Stone School Rd. south of Packard). Free. Lunch available at noon before the Nov. 7-9, 12-16, & 18 early afternoon programs for $15 ($10 in advance). 971-0990. [map]
