Page 4 - Jewish News_October-2020

4 October 2020 FEDERATION NEWS

People of the Book...continued from page 1
Jewish Film Festival comes to town), medium she uses to express her love Gilman’s new hilarious work of fiction, one of the modern world’s most deadly
People of the Book will feature one to those around her. She is looking for- a 45-year-old ‘bad Jewish girl,’ recov- forms of hatred.
week each month when three or four ward to bringing more peas and love ering alcoholic and flamed-out punk May: Women
authors will present. These authors into the world by helping others gather rocker, leaves her dentist husband and To celebrate Mother’s Day, the three
are part of the Jewish Book Council people around tables everywhere, filled his dominatrix, and narrates her road books chosen for May celebrate women.
Network. We’ve divided the authors’ with yummy food and happy tummies! trip. A final sharp twist in the novel In America’s Jewish Women: A History
books into monthly themes: Memoir, Next are Stephanie Butnick and provides it with a special meaning.” from Colonial Times to Today, Pamela
Jewish Identity, Arts & Culture, Fic- Liel Leibovitz, authors (with Mark Rachel Barenbaum’s A Bend in Nadell asks what it means to be a Jew-
tion, History, Women, Holocaust. Oppenheimer) of the Stars was named a New York Times ish woman in America. Informed by
November: Memoir The Newish Jew- Summer Reading Selection. Grounded the shared values of America’s found-
During the week of November 2, four ish Encyclopedia, in history, the novel is an epic love sto- ing and Jewish identity, America’s Jew-
authors will share their memoirs. (For a highly entertain- ry and heart-pounding journey across ish women – the well-known and the
dates and times, please see the insert in ing encyclopedia WWI-era Russia about a brilliant scores of activists, workers, wives and
this issue or visit jfedsrq.org/books.) of all things Jew- young scientist racing against Einstein mothers whose
Alexandra Silber, who graced ish and Jew-ISH, to solve one of the greatest mysteries names linger
Sarasota audiences at last season’s covering culture, of the universe. on among their
People of the Book, kicks off the week religion, history, habits, language and Based on true events, The Last communities –
talking about her second book, White more. Train to London, by Meg Waite Clay- left deep foot-
Hot Grief Parade. Told with raw pas- Rabbi Corinne Copnick, ordained ton, tells the story of a Dutchwoman prints in the
sion, candor and wit, it’s an ode to the a rabbi at the age of 79, concludes the who, working with British and Austri- history of the
restorative power of family and friend- 2020 events with A Rabbi at Sea, in an Jews, faces down Adolf Eichmann nation they call
ship – and the unbreakable bond, even which she narrates 40 interconnected to rescue thousands of children from home. Nadell
in death, between father and daughter. stories of her travel experiences as a Nazi-occupied Vienna. won the 2019
Bess Kalb, Emmy-nominated TV guest rabbi on cruise ships. On every In The Wartime Sisters by Lynda National Jewish Book Award for Book
writer, saved every voicemail her journey and in every country visited, Cohen Loigman, two estranged sis- of the Year.
grandmother, Bobby Bell, ever left she discovered and explored Jewish ters, each burdened with her own Janice Kaplan, former editor-in-
her. Bobby was a force – irrepressible, life. Offering a global perspective, she shocking secret, are reunited at the chief of Parade magazine, will share
glamorous, unapologetically opin- presents a host of insights about the Springfield Armory in the early days her latest book, The Genius of Wom-
ionated. Bobby doted on Bess; Bess culture and the people she encountered of WWII. While en (From Overlooked to Changing the
adored Bobby. Then at 90, Bobby died. throughout her travels. one sister lives World). Kaplan explores the power-
But in the debut memoir Nobody Will January: Arts & Culture in relative ease ful forces that have rigged the system
Tell You This But Me, Bobby is speak- We start off the new year with one of the on the bucolic – and celebrates the women geniuses
ing to Bess once more in a voice as funniest people around. Alan Zweibel, Armory campus past and present who have triumphed
passionate as it ever was in life. Re- author of Laugh Lines – My Life Help- as an officer’s anyway. Using her unique mix of mem-
counting both family lore and family ing Funny People Be Funnier, weaves wife, the oth- oir, narrative and inspiration, Kaplan
secrets, Bobby brings us four gener- together his own stories and interviews er arrives as a makes surprising discoveries about
ations of indomitable women and the with his friends and contemporaries, war widow and women geniuses now and throughout
men who loved them. including Rich- takes a position history in fields from music to robotics.
Kirkus Reviews sums up Jason ard Lewis, Eric in the Armory Bill Haltom’s Why Can’t Mother
Rosenthal’s My Wife Said You May Idle, Bob Sag- factories as a “soldier of production.” Vote? is the story of Joseph Hanover,
Want to Marry Me with, “An essay et, Sarah Sil- Resentment festers between the two, an unsung hero of the fight for wom-
gone viral leads to this memoir about verman, Dave and secrets are shattered when a mys- en’s suffrage, 100 years ago. Hanover,
deep loss and nav- Barry and Carl terious figure from the past reemerges an Orthodox Jew, had fled Poland
igating profound Reiner. Zweibel in their lives. in 1895 to escape the Czar of Russia
grief…filled with was one of the April: History and the pogroms. This immigrant and
advice and sup- first writers at Join us the week of April 13 for some his family found a new life in Mem-
port for anyone Saturday Night intense and intriguing non-fiction. phis, Tennessee. He went to night law
else going through Live, where he First up is Raffi Berg, author of Red school, became a lawyer and was elect-
similar circum- penned classic material for Gilda Rad- Sea Spies (The True Story of Mossad’s ed to the Tennessee Legislature. There,
stances.” Rosen- ner, John Belushi and all of the original Fake Diving Resort). This page-turner in August 1920, he led the successful
thal shares how “Not Ready for Prime Time Players.” tells the story that fight for the ratification of the Nine-
his wife Amy’s The next evening, join us for inspired the re- teenth Amendment to the Constitution,
Modern Love column became her fi- OMG WTF Does the Constitution cent Netflix dra- giving women the right to vote.
nal gift to him, granting him the free- Actually Say? (A Non-Boring Guide to ma The Red Sea June: Holocaust
dom to imagine what the rest of his life How Our Democracy is Supposed to Diving Resort. The 2020-21 People of the Book series
could look like. Work) with author Ben Sheehan. The What began with concludes the week of June 15 with
Parnaz Foroutan concludes Mem- book walks us through the entire Con- one cryptic mes- three intense Holocaust-related stories.
oir Week with Home is a Stranger. stitution, from its preamble to its final sage pleading for Debbie Cenziper’s Citizen 865 – The
Parnaz leaves Los Angeles for Iran amendment (with a bonus section on help, turned into Hunt for Hitler’s Hidden Soldiers in
19 years after her family fled the re- the Declaration of Independence). The the secret evacua- America, a story spanning seven de-
ligious police state brought in by the Hollywood Reporter named Sheehan tion of thousands cades, chronicles the harrowing war-
Islamic theocracy. Struggling with her one of entertainment’s 35 Rising Exec- of Ethiopian Jews and the spiriting of time journeys of two Jewish orphans
own identity in a culture that feels both utives Under 35. them to Israel. who outran the soldiers of Trawniki,
foreign and familiar, she tries to find a Rounding out the “Arts & Culture” Steven Zipperstein follows the Poland, and settled in the U.S., only to
place for herself between the American theme is Myla Goldberg’s Feast Your next day with Law and the Arab-Israeli learn that some of their onetime cap-
girl she is and the woman she hopes to Eyes. Framed as the catalogue notes Conflict. During the early years of the tors had followed. Ariel Burger, author
become. from a photography show at the Muse- Arab-Jewish conflict in Palestine, the of Witness: Lessons from Elie Wiesel’s
December: Jewish Identity um of Modern Art, Goldberg tells the parties repeatedly used the law to gain Classroom, who spoke at last season’s
December will see four authors at three life story of Lillian Preston: “Ameri- leverage against each other and influ- People of the Book, said, “Citizen
“Jewish Identity” events. First up is ca’s Worst Mother, America’s Bravest ence international opinion. By the late 865 reads like a
Danielle Renov, author of Peas Love & Mother, America’s Worst Photogra- 1920s and 1930s, the conflict had be- thriller, but it is
Carrots, a cook- pher or America’s Greatest Photogra- come as much a battle fought in the so much more...
book for every- pher, depending on who was talking.” courtroom as in the streets, playing out [It] tells an es-
one, filled with February: Fiction in three separate trials. The arguments sential and un-
over 360 recipes If you love a good novel, historic or the parties made in those trials con- known tale of
of all varieties. otherwise, clear your calendar the tinue resonating in the conflict today, post-war justice
From her kitchen week of February 8 for four best-sell- nearly 100 years later. and the search
in Israel, Renov ing novelists. Susan Jane Gilman’s The Betrayal of the Duchess by for truth, link-
creates delicious Donna Has Left the Building is an un- Maurice Samuels overflows with in- ing the events of
and approachable forgettable tale about spiritual awaken- trigue and lush detail. It is the riveting the Holocaust to
recipes, lifestyle tips and hacks, and ing and what it really means to love in story of a high-spirited woman, the the familiar, more recent past. Telling
shares all things motherhood and fam- today’s big, broken, beautiful world. charming but volatile young man who this story of a decades-long quest for
ily related. But mostly, it’s food – the The National Book Review said, “In double-crossed her, and the birth of continued on page 6