45th STL Jewish Book Festival Held This November
This November, the 45th STL Jewish Book Festival will be held. Especially during this time of grief and turmoil in Israel and when antisemitism is rampant throughout the world, it is a good time for Jews and non-Jews alike to come together in solidarity and mutual understanding. What better way to do that than through the written word and spoken analysis of those cogent words.
Following are detailed descriptions about each of the fair’s more than 25 authors and a synopsis of their individual presentations. A kaleidoscope of viewpoints and experiences will be offered up by Jewish authors. The fair takes place on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis at designated locations. The festival runs from Sunday, November 5th through Sunday, November 19th.
Sunday, November 5
Opening Night Program with MARTIN FLETCHER
Martin Fletcher — Teachers
7pm | $40 | Edison Gymnasium
Teachers are the people Martin Fletcher met throughout his work as a news correspondent, often on the worst day of their lives. He watched as they picked up the pieces following personal tragedy and discovered the invaluable lesson of carrying on, no matter the circumstances. Considered for decades the “gold standard of TV war correspondents” by Anderson Cooper, Martin Fletcher was an NBC News Correspondent and bureau chief in Tel Aviv for nearly thirty years. Fletcher has won five Emmys and a Columbia University DuPont Award—a Pulitzer for work in television—as well as many other prestigious honors and awards.
Monday, November 6
REBECCA ROSEN — What’s Your Heaven?
7pm | $40 | Edison Gymnasium
In What’s Your Heaven?, Rebecca offers a powerful, positive answer to the eternal question: Why are we here? Her connection to the spiritual realm has taught her that every one of us was assigned a purpose at birth; our job in this “Earth school” is to fulfill this destiny. And yet, painful family histories, personal trauma, and unhealthy cycles distract and confuse us, preventing us from enjoying a heavenly life. Born with extraordinary gifts, psychic medium Rebecca Rosen occupies an in-between place, serving as a bridge between two worlds—the physical world of everyday problems and the spiritual world where surprising assistance is there for each of us to access. As an intuitive, she can tap into a deeper source of wisdom, and over her decades of experience with this work, the biggest lesson is that each of us has a divine purpose, and it is our greatest responsibility to fulfill it.
Tuesday, November 7
Cookbook Night with ANDREW REA
Andrew Rea — Basics with Babish
7pm | $40 | Edison Gymnasium
In his wildly popular “Basics with Babish” series, YouTube star Andrew Rea, who has amassed millions of subscribers, attempts, often fails, but always teaches cooking techniques for all levels of cooks. He’s explained everything from how to make challah bread and English muffins to Asian dumplings and homemade bacon. Now those classic, essential recipes (and many more) are compiled into an authoritative cookbook which contains hundreds of step-by-step photographs with tips and tricks to help you troubleshoot anything from broken butter to burnt bread to bony branzino. Basics with Babish isn’t just a kitchen Bible for a new generation of home chefs, it’s a proud reclamation of mistakes which encourages you to learn from your and Andrew’s missteps alike.
Wednesday, November 8
Andrew Mellen — Calling Bullsh*t on Busy
10:30am | $30 | PAC
People think they can manage time the way they manage money and other tangible things. But Andrew Mellen, the “Most Organized Man in America”, has discovered that the only way to increase productivity sustainably is to change our relationship with time—our most precious and nonrenewable resource. Combining cutting-edge neuroscience with common sense and compassionate tough love, Mellen will help you call bullsh*t on the cultures of FOMO and wearing “busy” as a badge of honor. By getting real about how you’re currently spending your time, you will learn how to quickly set yourself free from the stories that have kept you stuck— feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, and stressed out every day.
Game Day with RUTH WEINER
Ruth Weiner — The Mahjong Mavens of Boca Raton
10am Lunch & Play | $18
1pm Author Presentation | $20 | Edison Gymnasium
Back by popular demand! Partake in a relaxing day with your friends and favorite games: mahjong, bridge, scrabble, or whatever you prefer. Enjoy lunch, 3 hours of game time, and gather to hear Ruth Weiner discuss her book, The Mahjong Mavens of Boca Raton where four misfits at the Boca Raton Senior Center are thrown together because no one else will play mahjong with them. A fragile friendship is quickly forged, and Jayne, a beautiful younger woman joins them unexpectedly. The women vie for her attention, but Jayne has a secret. When Jayne’s motives are revealed, will the outliers rise above their individual differences and accept each other, warts and all?
Women’s Night with REBECCA MINKOFF
Rebecca Minkoff — Fearless
5pm Expo & Refreshments
7pm Author Presentation
$50 (1 ticket, 1 book) | $75 (2 tickets, 1 book) | Edison Gymnasium
Luxury fashion mogul and social activist Rebecca Minkoff built a fashion empire through hard work and a relentless drive to live her dream. It wasn’t easy and took tremendous resolve to remain hungry and persevere. By never giving up, she has created a space for herself on the shelves of luxury department stores across the world. In Fearless, Minkoff shares her own stories and teaches you how she was able to reach her goals to become the successful fashion designer she is today.
Before Minkoff presents Fearless, we’ll host a local Women’s Business Expo alongside light refreshments to give you a chance to learn more about local trailblazers here in St. Louis.
Interviewed by Ellen Futterman, Editor-in-Chief of the St. Louis Jewish Light.
Thursday, November 9
DIANA FERSKO - We Need to Talk About Antisemitism
1pm | $30 | PAC
Antisemitism is on the rise in America, in cities and rural areas, in red states and blue states, and in guises both subtle and terrifyingly overt. Rabbi Diana Fersko is used to having difficult conversations with members of her congregation about the issues they face—from the threat of violence to microaggressions and identity denial. In We Need to Talk About Antisemitism, she gives all of us the ultimate guide to modern antisemitism in its many forms.
Exploring topics like vile myths about Jewish people and the intersection of antisemitism with other forms of discrimination, We Need to Talk About Antisemitism gives readers the tools they need to understand the state of antisemitism today. Fersko shows Jews and non-Jews alike how to speak up and come together, spreading a message of solidarity and hope. This is a timely read for anyone passionate about fighting for social justice.
Kristallnacht with WOLF GRUNER
Wolf Gruner — Resisters
7pm | FREE | PAC
Drawing on 12 years of research in dozens of archives in Austria, Germany, Israel, and the United States, Resisters tells the story of five Jewish people—a merchant, a homemaker, a real estate broker, and two teenagers—who bravely resisted persecution and defended themselves in Nazi Germany. These stories have not been told until now, and each case is one of many, as Gruener shows by resurfacing similar accounts of Jewish refusal to accept persecution and violence in Germany and Austria between 1933 and 1943, upending the notion of passive Jews and expanding the concept of resistance.
Friday, November 10
ANDREW MEIER - Morgenthau
10:30am | $30 | Takes place in Graham Chapel on Washington University of St. Louis campus
After coming to America from Germany in 1866, the Morgenthaus made history in international diplomacy, in domestic politics, and in America's criminal justice system. With unprecedented, exclusive access to family archives, award-winning journalist and biographer Andrew Meier vividly chronicles how the Morgenthaus amassed a fortune in Manhattan real estate, advised presidents, advanced the New Deal, exposed the Armenian genocide, rescued victims of the Holocaust, waged war in the Mediterranean and Pacific, and, from a foundation of private wealth, built a dynasty of public service. In the words of former mayor Ed Koch, they were "the closest we've got to royalty in New York City."
Saturday, November 11
Sports Night with - EVAN DRELLICH
Evan Drellich — Winning Fixes Everything
7:30pm | $40 | PAC
Baseball, that old romantic game, has been defaced and consumed by corporate America. As Moneyball-thinking and Ivy League graduates grabbed hold of the sport, the Astros set out to build a cost-efficient winning machine on the principles of the outside business world, squeezing every dollar out of every transaction, player and employee. In Winning Fixes Everything, Drellich reveals the rise and fall of the Astros to be a collision of subcultures. The team’s top boss was a former McKinsey consultant who lived on the bleeding edge with no guardrails. He hired outsider after outsider to change the organization as quickly and cheaply as possible. The wins piled up, and so did the cash for the billionaire owner with a checkered business past. But not even a World Series title could cover up the rot.
Sunday, November 12
MISSOURI’S OWN: HOMEGROWN TALENT
7pm | $40 | PAC
St. Louis loves local and so do we! Featuring four local authors, including retail mogul Martin Sneider and Humans of St. Louis photographer Lindy Drew, Missouri’s Own showcases fantastic writers from the Show-Me state. Hear them talk about their craft in a panel discussion and then break out for a tabling session where you can meet the authors and buy their books, directly.
LEA RACHEL - Seeking Forgiveness
Semi-autobiographical novel with deep roots in the St. Louis community about inter-racial adoption and the unique struggles surrounding it.
JEFF BENDER - Apparel Has No Gender
A thoughtful commentary from a dad raising a transgender child, including guidance for parents wanting to learn more about gender identities and expression.
MARTIN SNEIDER - Shelf Life
An engrossing saga of a Jewish- American family and how their (fictional) fashion shoe empire, Fratelli Massimo, enriches, splits, and ultimately devastates three generations.
LINDY DREW - Humans of St. Louis
A collection of photos and touching narratives which document intimate perspectives into the lives and struggles of the people of St. Louis, from the social media sensation of the same name.
Monday, November 13
International Fiction
1pm | $30 | PAC
AARON HAMBURGER - Hotel Cuba
Fleeing the chaos of World War I and the terror of the Soviet Revolution, practical, sensible Pearl Kahn and her lovestruck, impulsive younger sibling Frieda sail for America to join their sister in New York. But discriminatory new immigration laws bar their entry, and the young women are turned back at Ellis Island. With few options, Pearl and Frieda head for Havana, Cuba, convinced they will find a way to overcome this setback. A heartbreaking, epic family story, Hotel Cuba explores the profound courage of two women displaced from their home who strive to create a new future in an enticing and dangerous world far different from anything they have ever known.
WEINA DAI RANDEL - Night Angels
1938. Dr. Ho Fengshan, consul general of China, is posted in Vienna with his American wife, Grace. Shy and ill at ease with the societal obligations of diplomats’ wives, Grace is an outsider in a city beginning to feel the sweep of the Nazi dragnet. When Grace forms a friendship with her Jewish tutor, Lola Schnitzler, Dr. Ho requests that Grace keep her distance. His instructions are to maintain amicable relations with the Third Reich, and he and Grace are already under their vigilant eye. Inspired by a remarkable true story, Night Angels explores the risks brave souls took and the love and friendship they built and lost while fighting against incalculable evil.
BENYAMIN COHEN - The Einstein Effect
7pm | $40 | PAC
Award-winning author and journalist Benyamin Cohen has a bizarre side hustle as the manager of Einstein's official social media accounts, which have 20 million followers—more than most living celebrities. In The Einstein Effect, Cohen embarks on a global quest to unearth Einstein's ongoing relevance today. Along the way, he meets scientists and celebrities, speaks to dozens with the last name Einstein (including two rabbis), and even tracks down the brain of Einstein, stolen from his body during the autopsy. Cohen shows us the myriad ways the Nobel Prize winner's influence is still with us, giving an in-depth—and often hilarious—look at the world's favorite genius like you've never seen him before.
Tuesday, November 14
MICHAEL STRASSFELD - Judaism Disrupted
1pm | $30 | PAC
How do you hold on to faith in a modern world? Rabbi Michael Strassfeld digs deep into the Jewish tradition to help us get to the root of the matter: our need to create connection - to our past, to our present, to each other. To connect with the unity underlying the universe that draws us all together. Judaism Disrupted is about the future of Judaism-starting now. Do the time-honored traditions of rabbinic Judaism meet our spiritual needs? Do we feel spiritually sated after a Shabbat service? Is there another way to be a Jew? It's time for a new Judaism.
Wednesday, November 15
MARLENE TRESTMAN - Most Fortunate Unfortunates
1pm | $30 | University City Library
Marlene Trestman’s Most Fortunate Unfortunates is the first comprehensive history of the Jewish Orphans’ Home of New Orleans. Founded in 1855 in the aftermath of a yellow fever epidemic, the Home was the first purpose-built Jewish orphanage in the nation. It reflected the city’s affinity for religiously operated orphanages and the growing prosperity of its Jewish community. In 1904, the orphanage opened the Isidore Newman School, a coed, nonsectarian school that also admitted children, regardless of religion, whose parents paid tuition. By the time the Jewish Orphans’ Home closed in 1946, it had sheltered more than sixteen hundred parentless children and two dozen widows from New Orleans and other areas of Louisiana and the mid-South.
World War II Memory Panel
7pm | $40 | PAC
CYNTHIA EHRENKRANTZ - Seeking Shelter
Cynthia Ehrenkrantz was six in 1939 when Britain entered World War II. She was 12 in 1945 when the war ended. Seeking Shelter is her vivid child's-eye account of life in wartime England as she lived it: an adored only child in a large Jewish clan whose comfortable existence becomes one of food shortages, gas masks and air-raid sirens, and - worst of all - being sent away for months and years at a stretch to escape German bombs. Contending with bullies, rushing from a warm bed to a backyard shelter when sirens wail. Life is hard but also good: shining in a school play, collecting foil for the war effort, celebrating Passover: These are the mixed realities of wartime that mark young Cynthia forever in ways only adult Cynthia can understand.
JEREMY EICHLER - Time’s Echo
With a critic’s ear, a scholar’s erudition, and a novelist’s eye for detail, Eichler shows in Time’s Echo how four towering composers—Richard Strauss, Arnold Schoenberg, Dmitri Shostakovich, and Benjamin Britten—lived through the era of the Second World War and the Holocaust and later transformed their experiences into deeply moving, transcendent works of music, scores that echo lost time. Summoning the supporting testimony of writers, poets, philosophers, musicians, and everyday citizens, Eichler reveals how the essence of an entire epoch has been inscribed in these sounds and stories. Along the way, he visits key locations central to the music’s creation, from the ruins of Coventry Cathedral to the site of the Babi Yar ravine in Kyiv.
Thursday, November 16
ROSEANNE LEIPZIG - Honest Aging
10:30am | $30 | PAC
From Dr. Rosanne M. Leipzig, a top doctor with more than 35 years of experience caring for older people, Honest Aging is an indispensable guide to the second half of life, describing what to expect physically, psychologically, functionally, and emotionally as you age. Leipzig, an expert in evidence-based geriatrics, highlights how 80-year-olds differ from 60-year-olds and why knowing this is important for your health. With candor, humor, and empathy, this book will provide you with the knowledge and practical advice to optimize aging.
Friday, November 17
Mystery Panel
1pm | $30 | PAC
ANNE BURT - The Dig
When Sarajevo-born siblings Antonia and Paul were adopted by a wealthy Midwestern family in the 1990s, a series of events with deadly consequences was set in motion. Now, with her career on the line and her idealistic brother missing, Antonia must race against the clock to uncover a sinister secret and prevent history from repeating itself. Informed by timely issues of immigration, capitalism, and justice, yet timeless in its themes of love, identity, and competing loyalties, The Dig, inspired by the Greek tragedy Antigone, portrays a woman at odds with her history, forced to choose between her own ambitions and her loyalty to her beloved, idealistic brother.
NINA SIMON - Mother Daughter Murder Night
High-powered businesswoman Lana Rubicon has a lot to be proud of: her keen intelligence, impeccable taste, and the L.A. real estate empire she’s built. But when she finds herself trapped 300 miles north of the city, convalescing in a sleepy coastal town with her adult daughter Beth and teenage granddaughter Jack, Lana is stuck counting otters instead of square footage—and hoping that boredom won’t kill her before the cancer does. In Mother-Daughter Murder Night, with Jack and Beth’s help, Lana uncovers a web of lies, family vendettas, and land disputes lurking beneath the surface of a community populated by folksy conservationists and wealthy ranchers. But as their amateur snooping advances into ever-more dangerous territory, the headstrong Rubicon women must learn do the one thing they’ve always resisted: depend on each other.
Sunday, November 19
Closing Night Program with MITCH ALBOM
Mitch Albom — The Little Liar
7pm Edison | Gymnasium
$50 (1 ticket, 1 book) | $75 (2 tickets, 1 book)
Beloved bestselling author Mitch Albom returns with his most important novel ever, inspired by real events. A powerful story about truth and lies, The Little Liar, Albom’s first novel set against the backdrop of the Holocaust moves from a small neighborhood in Salonika, Greece, through the concentration camps of Auschwitz, to post-war America, all in Albom’s signature style of pathos, inspiration and brisk, tight storytelling. Nico, who becomes a pathological liar, his brother Sebastian, and their schoolmate Fannie, who survive the death camps and marry as teenagers, and Udo Graf, the Nazi officer who duped Nico into losing his soul all find their stories masterfully intertwined. Scattered after the war, they spend years interweaving with one another, each paying a price for their haunting experiences, and coming together decades later in an unforgettable and heart-wrenching climax.
For more information, please go to their website jccstl.com.
