Tue 11/3-Mon 11/16
The Mandel Jewish Community Center, in partnership with the Cuyahoga County Public Library and support from the Eugenia and Henry Green Family Foundation, presents the Cleveland Jewish Book Festival, staged at five locations: the Mandel JCC, Siegal College Building, Suburban Temple-Kol Ami, B’nai Jeshurun Congregation, and Temple-Tifereth Israel in Beachwood and Pepper Pike.
The 16 books and authors featured during the two-week event are impressive. A local author afternoon, mah jongg games in the evening and a children’s event round out a number of evening author appearances. The Book Festival celebrates Jewish authors and their books with a variety of authors that range from scholars to truthsayers.
On opening night, Tue 11/3 @ 7:30pm, Ambassador Dennis Ross, will talk about his book, Doomed to Succeed, at the Mandel JCC. The book provides historical insight into the U.S.-Israel relationship from Truman to Obama. The New York Times review of the book states that Ross offers one suggestion for how the Israeli government might show the world it’s willing to compromise — stop adding to or building new settlements on the West Bank except those areas likely to be annexed to Israel in peace deals. Ross’s thoughts on the Palestinian Question are sure to lead to much discussion.
In the following evenings, many more opportunities present themselves for intellectual discourse. The following evening, join Joshua Muravchik for insight into his book Making David Into Goliath — How the World Turned Again, which takes a look at how the world’s opinion of Israel has been reshaped. Later on, we are challenged to think about the Civil War era as a time of arrival of many Jews into the U.S., and Abraham Lincoln’s discourse and relationship with the new immigrants when Jonathan Sarna talks about his book Lincoln and the Jews: A History.
The stories of people’s lives are told by many of the authors involved in the book festival. Other authors include Steve Gimbel, author of Einstein: His Space & Times, and Daniel Cohen, author of Single Handed: The Inspiring True Story of Tibor “Teddy” Rubin — Holocaust Survivor, Korean War Hero, and Medal of Honor Recipient. Both books provide insight into men who lived well.
Two memoirs, Rebecca Alexander’s Not Fade Away: A Memoir of Senses Lost and Found, about the journey of losing sight and hearing, and Shulem Deen’s All Who Go Do Not Return, which explores Hasidic life, will be featured. The audiences on these evenings will relive the challenges portrayed in these books when the authors talk about their lives and how they attempted to tell their stories as fully as possible.
Fiction is also represented. Ronald Balson’s novel Saving Sophie, which will be featured on Thu 11/5, is a thriller about a father’s protection of his daughter during a time of religious and political persecution of a nation caught in a civil war. On Mon 11/9, Christopher Noxon will talk about his novel Plus One, a humorous novel about an interfaith family living in Los Angeles.
Cleveland has its own Jewish authors, whose voices tell their own tales during an afternoon of readings featuring these local Cleveland authors: Betty Ruth Shear, Sharona Hoffman, Geraldine Powers, Marcy Levy Shankman, Leona S. Green and Anne Trubek. Make time to support these writers on Sun 11/8 @ 3-4:30 at the Mandel JCC.
The book by Karen Gooen — Searching for Bubbe Fischer – The Path to Mah Jongg Wisdom — sounds intriguing. One immediately remembers the intensity of the movie about chess player Bobby Fischer that its title plays off of. Ms. Gooen will be giving a lecture and book signing after a light dairy dinner and followed by mah jongg playing starting at 6:00PM on 11/11. The evening will be entertaining.
All this adult stuff . . . what is there for the kids? A character breakfast with Curious George, of course. Bring the whole family, including grandparents, to the Mandel JCC on Sun 11/15 @ 9:30-11:30. The antics of the monkey will be sure to amuse. I smile just looking at his picture.
Get the whole schedule of events at mandeljcc.org/festival-of-jewish-books-authors/book-festival/. This is a true festival—something going on all the time—not so different than our favorite film festival, only with books instead of movies.
Beachwood, OH 44122