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Just announced! Ari Y. Kelman is one of the five finalists for the 2010 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, one of the most prestigious awards in the industry! Congratulations to our December author, and don't miss your chance to hear him at the 16th Street J!Zoë HellerThe BelieversTuesday, October 20, 7:30 pmIn conversation with Ron Charles, Senior Editor of The Washington Post's Book World.Book clubs that read The Believers will receive discounts on the book and event tickets. Sign your book club up by emailing litfest@washingtondcjcc.org. Please include the name of the club and an approximate number of members.
Set in New York City in 2002, this social satire dissects the dysfunctional family of renowned leftist lawyer Joel Litvinoff, a life-long radical who suffers a stroke in court while defending a Muslim man accused of terrorist activity. The Believers follows the Litvinoff clan as they spin off from Joel’s irresistible orbit and begin to examine the long-held articles of faith that have formed the basis of their lives together and their identities as individuals. In the end, all the family members will have to decide what—if anything—they still believe in. Zoë Heller is the author of Everything You Know and What Was She Thinking? Notes On A Scandal, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2003.Part of the Hyman S. & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival. Festival Fiction is sponsored by Francine Zorn Trachtenberg and Stephen Joel Trachtenberg in loving memory of Bruce J. Zorn.Purchase Tickets and/or the Book Dara HornAll Other NightsTuesday, October 27, 7:30 pmWith an introduction by Laura Cohen Apelbaum, Executive Director of The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington.
How is tonight different from all other nights? For Jacob Rappaport, a Jewish soldier in the Union army during the Civil War, it is a question his commanders have already answered for him; on Passover, 1862, he is sent to New Orleans and ordered to murder his own uncle—a cousin of confederate leader Judah Benjamin. Jacob is then recruited to pursue another enemy agent. But this time, his assignment isn’t to murder the spy, but to marry her. Dara Horn was named one of Granta’s “Best Young American Novelists” in 2007 and received the National Jewish Book Award for her first two novels, In the Image and The World to Come.Part of the Hyman S. & Freda Bernstein Jewish Literary Festival. Festival Fiction is sponsored by Francine Zorn Trachtenberg and Stephen Joel Trachtenberg in loving memory of Bruce J. Zorn.Co-sponsored by the Jewish War Veterans of the USA, the National Museum of American Jewish Military History and the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington.
Supported by a grant from the Humanities Council of Washington, DC.Purchase Tickets and/or the Book
Ari Y. KelmanStation Identification: A Cultural History of Yiddish Radio in the United StatesWednesday, December 16, 7:30 pm
Just announced! Ari Y. Kelman is one of the five finalists for the 2010 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, one of the most prestigious awards in the industry! Congratulations to our December author, and don't miss your chance to hear him at the 16th Street J!This study examines the culture of Yiddish radio in the United States during radio's golden age. Ari Y. Kelman explores the dynamic relationships between an immigrant population and a mass medium and between audience and community. By focusing on voices previously excluded from radio histories, this treatment of non-English-language radio breaks new ground in the study of both American mass media and immigrant culture. Yiddish radio directly addressed the everyday lives of Jewish immigrants, while providing them with invaluable guidance as they struggled to become American. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, radio created a virtual place where Jewish immigrants could listen to voices like theirs and affirm the sound of their community as it evolved, particularly in light of World War II and the years that followed. Ari Y. Kelman is Assistant Professor of American Studies at the University of California, Davis. Purchase Tickets Buy the Book
David KushnerLevittown: Two Families, One Tycoon, and the Fight for Civil Rights in America's Legendary SuburbThursday, January 7, 7:30 pm
Lucette LagnadoThe Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: A Jewish Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New WorldWednesday, June 17, 7:30 pmBuy the Book
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