2003-10-31 San Diego Jewish Book Fair
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| It's all between the covers at Jewish Book Fair S. D. Jewish Press-Heritage. Oct. 31, 2003 |
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2003-10-31 San Diego Jewish Book Fair |
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By Donald H. Harrison There are special times when different themes in Jewish life seem to come together, and the Ninth Annual San Diego Jewish Book Fair provides one of those occasions. Between Nov. 8 and Nov. 12, dozens of authors with national reputations will tell about their Jewish-interest books and sign autographs during what Carolyn Starman Hessel, executive director of the National Jewish Book Council in New York, lauds as "one of the largest and most successful Jewish book fairs in the country." It also will be a time when the Lawrence Family JCC, Jacobs Family Campus, once again demonstrates its commitment to inclusion, the educational philosophy that says children with disabilities belong in classrooms and activities alongside children without disabilities— for the benefit of both groups. Each summer, the JCC's Camp Jaycee proves the soundness of that philosophy, and on Sunday, Nov. 9— "family day" at the book fair— children's book author Sylvia Rouss will read The Littlest Pair, a story about a pair of termites who come aboard Noah's Ark, much to the consternation of the other animals. The animals fear that the termites will eat the wood of the ark and sink them all. But the termites instead gnaw on wood Noah provides them and create enough sawdust to make the decks of the ark less slippery. The Braille Institute and Pitspopany Press will sponsor Rouss' reading, which will be enhanced for children with blindness by a special version of the book in Braille, so that they will be able to feel the animals in the story. Protruding representations of the animals will be formed on plastic sheets for the children to run their fingers over. Jackie Gmach, the book fair's coordinator, said that for this program, the Braille Institute "had to figure out a way to represent the termites in braille." Call it a coincidence, but the week this edition of Heritage reaches your homes is the same one that concludes in synagogues around the world with the reading of the Torah portion about Noah and the Ark. In recognition of this fact, San Diego artist Jacqueline Jacobs produced for Heritage a front-page drawing of Jewish books supported by Noah's Ark bookends. Prior to the reading time with the children, Rouss also will sign copies of her new story, Tali's Jerusalem Scrapbook, which she dedicates to the memory of Marla Bennett, the young San Diego woman who was murdered by terrorists who bombed the cafeteria of Hebrew University in July of last year. Another Rouss book, Sammy Spider Goes to Israel, will be the basis for a new production to be presented by the J*Company, the youth theater of the JCC. Books on Israel and the Holocaust long have been staples of Jewish book fairs, says Hessel, and both subjects are, of course, represented at the San Diego Jewish Book Fair. The Holocaust is addressed at this year's book festival with Evi Blaikie's Magda's Daughter: A Hidden Child's Journey Home; Lev Raphael's novel, The German Money; Yaron Svoray's Blood from a Stone: The Quest for the Life Diamonds, and Alexandra Zapruder's Salvaged Pages: Young Writers' Diaries of the Holocaust. Israeli subjects are represented at the festival with singer- actor Theo Bikel's Theo: An Autobiography, coupled with his O Jerusalem: Day by Day and Minute by Minute, The Historic Struggle for Jerusalem and the Birth of Israel. Also along these themes will be Warren Bass' Support Any Friend: Kennedy's Middle East and the Making of the U.S.-Israel Alliance, Jonathan Wilson's A Palestine Affair, Sherri Mandell's The Blessing of a Broken Heart and Gerald Kobernick's mystery novel, Reactor. Hessel, the Jewish book maven, said while more and more Holocaust memoirs are being produced by survivors responding to entreaties from friends and families, there has been a "slowdown in interest" among the book-buying public. She urged the Holocaust survivors to nevertheless commit their stories to writing, so that they will become part of the indelible record of the Holocaust. She also said that events in Israel come so fast and furiously that there is a realization in the publishing world that "anything we would publish today would be outdated yesterday," so there is reluctance on the part of publishers to deal with current events in the Middle East. On the other hand, she said, there is a demand for books that look back at important turning points in Israeli history, such as Bass' book on John F. Kennedy's relations with the Jewish state, Michael Oren's Six Days of War about Israel's fight in June 1967, and Howard Blum's The Eve of Destruction concerning the days before the 1973 Yom Kippur War. "They're not books about the present situation, but they give understanding about where we are today," said Hessel, who as director of the Jewish Book Council has considerable say in determining what books win recognition and exposure as important additions to the Jewish canon. Following the philosophy of "something for everyone" that has guided her since the first book fair in 1995, coordinator Jackie Gmach and the Book Fair Committee headed by Julie Potiker have scheduled fiction and nonfiction authors on such broad general topics as the American Jewish experience, cooking, European Jewry, poetry and essays, religion and travel. There are estimates that America's Jewish population, while accounting for less than 3 percent of the total U.S. population, is responsible for approximately 20 percent of all hardcover book purchases, Hessel said. "We buy a lot of books," Hessel said. Sometimes those books can really touch hearts. For example, she said, "Many people read the book Exodus by Leon Uris, which did more for Zionism than anything else because it touched people's hearts. "And look at the book Night, by Elie Wiesel," which propelled the Holocaust into the nation's consciousness. "It touched people, we had to read it in school, and my kids read it in school. "We always hope that a book will take a reader to the next level— to commitment — and I know many people who have been turned on because of books." With Jewish communities around the United States worried about low affiliation rates, book festivals play an important role, Hessel said. They help the unaffiliated reconnect with the Jewish community in a non-threatening venue. "Somebody who is just Jewish, but doesnąt identify with the community in any way, can come into a book program and enjoy it," she said. Such Jews don't have to worry about whether they know enough Hebrew as they might in synagogue —"yhey can just come in and feel welcomed." Besides the books on the Holocaust and Israel, here are some other topics, authors and books that will be featured during the San Diego Jewish Book Fair. American Experience: Sol Wachtler, Blood Brothers; Edwin Black, War Against the Weak: America's Crusade to Create a Super Race; Robert Meeropol, An Execution in the Family: A Son's Journey; Daniel Levitas, The Terrorist Next Door: The Militia Movement and the Radical Right; Michael Shapiro, The Last Good Season: Brooklyn, the Dodgers and Their Final Pennant Race Together. Cooking: Levana Kirschenbaum, Levana's Table: Kosher Cooking for Everyone. European Jewry: Robert A. Rosenstone, The King of Odessa: A Novel of Isaac Babel; Anita Diamant, Kafka's Last Love: The Mystery of Dora Diamant. Poetry and Essays: Anita Diamant, Pitching My Tent: On Marriage, Motherhood, Friendship and Other Leaps of Faith; Richard Lederer, A Time of Language and Laughter; Rodger Kamenetz, the lowercase jew Religion: Richard Elliott Friedman, The Bible with Sources Revealed: A New View Into the Five Books of Moses; Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, Opening the Tanya: Discovering the Moral and Mystical Teachings of a Classical Work of Kabbalah, coupled with his The Miracle of the Seventh Day: A Guide to the Spiritual Meaning, Significance and Weekly Practice of the Jewish Sabbath; Stephen Fried, The New Rabbi: A Congregation Searches for Its Leader; Sue Fishkoff, The Rebbe's Army: Inside the World of Chabad-Lubavitch; Rabbi Tirzah Firestone, The Receiving: Reclaiming Jewish Women's Wisdom Travel: Ruth Gruber, Inside of Time: My Journey from Alaska to Israel |
