SAN DIEGO (special)--The Nov. 13-16 San Diego Jewish Book Fair at the Lawrence Family JCC will be a building-block event not just for the JCC's Samuel and Rebecca Astor Judaica Library, but also for a Jewish library system planned to link the collections of synagogues, schools agencies and centers throughout San Diego County and Tijuana.

As workmen hammered in the background, chairman Gene Berkenstadt and other members of the JCC's library committee recently outlined the plans both for the upcoming, star-studded book festival and for a unity project that will make Jewish learning available to readers regardless of where they live in the county, or what movement in Judaism they belong to.

"A local temple could have a book and we could have a different book and they could be moved across the community in one day or in a matter of hours," Berkenstadt said. "We want everybody to be on a computer system so that we know where a book is; so that we don't have to reinvent the wheel." Jacqueline Gmach, associate director of the JCC's San Diego Center for Jewish Culture, said she foresaw a process by which libraries cooperating through

FUTURE SITE--Checking out the fututre library of the  Lawrence Family Jewish Community center are,from left,Lauren Berkenstadt, her father Robert Rothenberg, Jacqueline Gmach,  Leslie Caspi and Gerne Berkenstadt.

the Association of Jewish Libraries would be "working together by meeting on a monthly basis, by defining our inventory and by identifying the needs of each other."

While no formal interagency agreements have yet been proposed, Gmach said "we know that the San Diego Jewish Academy has a library that is scholarly oriented; Beth Israel has a library; Beth El has an interesting and complete Talmudic library, and there are a number of others. And there is an association they call the Tijuana-San Diego chapter of the Association of Jewish Libraries."

At the center of the proposed cooperative system will be the Astor Judaica Library which has been in storage at the UCSD Annex since 1998 following the sale of the 54th Street Jewish Community Center to the North Park Apostolic Church. The library, founded by the Lawrence and Astor families, will be transferred into a brand new second-floor space of the Lawrence Family JCC sometime before the grand opening of the center's addition planned in March.

The new library will be able to house 25,000 volumes on premises, according to Berkenstadt. Between 18,000 and 20,000 volumes already are in the Astor collection, but some of these are on non-Jewish subjects and are expected to be sold or traded to acquire Jewish titles.

Berkenstadt's wife, Lauren, has been methodically cataloguing the collection. Recently the JCC hired a full time librarian, Barbara Sutton, who has a master's degree in library science and previous experience working with the libraries of various schools, synagogues and Jewish agencies in San Diego County.

The 3,800-square-foot library will be divided into sections for a main collection, special collections on Israel and the Holocaust, a Jewish music collection and Jewish children's literature. A librarian's office, circulation desk, and a working area where books can be repaired also will be incorporated into the space. The JCC's Holocaust collection and its 1,000 volume-strong Tillie Astor Lawrence Israel collection will be shelved in a room that will double as the library's senior center.

Leslie Caspi is the great-granddaughter of Samuel and Rebecca Astor, granddaughter of Tillie Astor Lawrence and daughter of M. Larry Lawrence for whose family the JCC in La Jolla was named. As an active committee member, Caspi has been helping to acquire new books for the library.

"The Caspis and the Berkenstadts have gone far and wide to purchase and collect books for the library to fill in the gaps from when the library was closed at 54th Street," she said. "We have had some really interesting adventures in the last few years going to Los Angeles to libraries that are being closed and purchasing their books. We ended up with some really wonderful books as a result."

Another source from whom the library has made arrangements to obtain books is San Diego's "Bookman," Irwin Herman, who along with helper Leonard Pearlman, picks up books from people who are giving them away then places them for free in various institutions ranging from the JCC to school libraries to prisons and hospitals.

Berkenstadt said in exchange for some Judaic books that Herman has assembled, the JCC library may give to Herman's non-profit organization books that are not of specific Jewish interest.

The book fairs have been important building blocks in the library's acquisition program. Gmach assiduously has collected books of every author who has been a speaker in the five-year history of the book fair under her direction, even as Mollie Harris -- the beloved, longtime librarian at the 54th Street JCC -- assembled many titles through book fairs during her tenure.

Gmach has made it a point to get most of the speakers to autograph their works for the library, which should enhance the value of the collection considering the high quality of speakers who have been attracted to the event.

Just looking at this year's line-up provides the flavor of the autographed collection. Playwright Neil Simon, promoting his autobiographical The Play Goes On, was the preview event speaker Oct. 10.

The 5th annual book fair formally opens with an 8 p.m. lecture on Saturday, Nov. 13, by attorney Alan Dershowitz, who will discuss his latest novel Just Revenge, which brings back a character from his first novel The Advocate's Devil. Dershowitz is also the author of such non fiction works as Reasonable Doubts, Reversal of Fortune, Chutzpah and The Vanishing American Jew.

With organizers intending the fair to have programs of interest for all age groups, Sunday, Nov. 14, will be a day to meet five authors and an illustrator.

The day starts at 10 a.m. with Marjorie Agosin, author of Always From Somewhere Else: A Memoir of My Chilean Jewish Father. HERITAGE book editor Leslye Winkelman Lyons will facilitate a discussion with the author whose grandparents immigrated from Russia to Chile. The author's father, Moises, was a doctor, scientist and musician, but nevertheless always felt like an outsider.

At noon, Batya Gur, literary critic of the Israeli daily newspaper Ha'aretz, will discuss her book Murder Duet, a mystery novel that weaves music and detective work together in a fast moving plot.

At 1:30 p.m., Naomi Graetz of Ben Gurion University of the Negev will tell of her non-fiction work, Silence is Deadly: Judaism Confronts Wifebeating. Her lecture will be the 14th annual Robert Siegel Memorial Lecture, brought to the Book Festival under the auspices of San Diego State University's Lipinsky Institute for Judaic Studies.

At 2 p.m., children will have the opportunity to meet Sandra Curtis, author of Gabriel's Ark, which was written for children between the ages of 8 and 11. It is the story of a family's involvement and dedication as Gabriel, a boy with special needs, prepares for his bar mitzvah.

At 4 p.m., illustrator Mark Podwal will discuss his work which not only appears between book covers but has been collected by such institutions as the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He has illustrated such children's books as You Never Know: A Legend of the Lamed-vavniks by Francine Prose; Moses and the Angels by Ileene Smith Sobel and King Solomon and His Magic Ring by Nobel peace prize winner Elie Wiesel.

At 7:30 p.m., Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, world-renown translator of the Talmud into English, tells of his newest book Simple Words: Thinking About What Really Matters in Life. 

On Monday, Nov. 15, five more authors will make personal appearances at the Lawrence Family JCC.

The day begins at 9:30 a.m. with Anne Roiphe, who will talk about her autobiographical 1185 Park Avenue: A Memoir. She is the author of four nonfiction works and seven novels. In 1996, her nonfiction Fruitful was a finalist for the National Book Award. Some of her other titles include Up the Sandbox, Long Division, Torch Song and If You Knew Me.

At 10 a.m., Peter Hellman, an expert on the Righteous Gentiles who helped to rescue Jews during the Holocaust, gives the first of his eight book fair lectures to Jewish day school students on his book When Courage Was Stronger Than Fear. He will repeat his lecture for day school students at 12:30 p.m., give a third lecture to supplementary school students at 4:30 p.m., and provide a fourth lecture at 7 p.m. for students of the High School of Jewish Studies and the youth group of the Church of the Good Samaritan (in the church's social hall). The next day he will repeat the program for four other audiences.

At noon, Sandy Schreier, author of Hollywood Dressed and Undressed: A Century of Cinema Style, will share her knowledge of film fashion.

Next up, at 4 p.m., culinary expert Deborah Bernstein will demonstrate recipes from her book Secrets of Fat-Free Kosher Cooking.

At 7:30 p.m., short story writer Nathan Englander, author of For the Relief of Unbearable Urges, will tell about his tales which are drawn from the richness of the Orthodox world in which he grew up.

Six more authors come to the book fair on its final day,Tuesday, Nov. 16.

The day begins at 9:30 a.m. with Gina Nahai, an Iranian-born Jew, who tells about the experience of immigrating to the United States in Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith.

At noon, journalist and commentator Ruth Gruber lectures on Exodus 1947: The Ship that Launched a Nation, a book that draws on her own eye witness notes to the beginning of the State of Israel.

Three collaborating authors appear together at 4 p.m. in a presentation of an academic work: Women and the Holocaust. They are Esther Fuchs, associate professor of Hebrew Literature at the University of Arizona; Lawrence Baron, director of the Lipinsky Institute for Judaic Studies at San Diego State University, and Zev Garber, professor of Jewish Studies at Los Angeles Valley Junior College.

The finale of the San Diego Jewish Book Fair will be an appearance by Ernestine Schlant Bradley, author of Language of Silence: West German Literature and the Holocaust. Adding to the excitement around the appearance of this Montclair State University professor of German and Comparative Literature is the fact that she is the wife of Democratic presidential candidate and former U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley.

Other books will be highlighted at the book fair through children's activities and book reviews -- and these books too will be collected by the JCC library. These include Annushka's Voyage by Edith Tarbascu (and illustrated by Lydia Dabcovich); Shalom, Salaam, Peace by Howard Bogot (and illustrated by Norman Gorbaty); Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom; The Year Mom Got Religion by Lee Meyerhoff Hendler; The Lexus and the Olive Tree by Thomas Friedman; The River Midnight by Lillian Nattel, and The Times of My Life and My Life With the Times by Max Frankel.

Another way in which the Astor Judaica Library is building its collection is through an "adopt-a-book" program by which an $18 contribution entitles a donor to dedicate a special plate that will be pasted inside a book's cover. These may be dedicated as memorials or to honor special occasions.

Besides the books which are featured in the book fair, many more books will be for sale (and possible dedication) at tables and display areas that will be located within the JCC complex. This year booksellers will include Barnes & Nobles/ Bookstar; The White Rabbit Children's Books; Mid-City Chabad, and Eric Chaim Kline, a seller of old and rare books. Music and video on sale will be provided by Sounds Write Productions Inc, and Ergomedia Inc. Additionally books in Hebrew will be offered for sale.

With the library coming on line, other programs with authors are planned in the near future, according to Gmach. On Sunday, March 19, Tova Mirvis, author of The Ladies Auxiliary, will be featured in a moderated discussion about her novel that deals with an Orthodox sisterhood. On Sunday, April 9, mystery writer Rochelle Krich will participate in a similar program about her latest work, Dead Air.

Berkenstadt emphasized in an interview that while the library space has been secured, the library still has tremendous financial needs. In particular, he said, is a needs for sufficient shelving for the 25,000 volumes.