JCC

Before evolv­ing into a writer, Car­ol Good­man Kauf­man worked as an indus­tri­al and orga­ni­za­tion­al psy­chol­o­gist and crim­i­nol­o­gist. Her pub­lished works span mul­ti­ple gen­res, includ­ing aca­d­e­m­ic re- search, food his­to­ry, trav­el, human inter­est, children’s lit­er­a­ture, and mys­tery short sto­ries. The First Mur­der is her first novel. Title: The First Murder When Mary Jane Ben­nett is found dead in her bed — alone, stran­gled by her own scarf, and with every door in the house locked — the med­ical exam­in­er rules her death acci­den­tal, the result of a sex game gone hor­ri­bly awry. State police decline to inves­ti­gate fur­ther, but Queens­bridge Police Chief Caleb Crane doesn’t buy for a minute that his good friend died this way, so he under­takes his own inves­ti­ga­tion. Fac­ing town coun­cilors afraid of bad pub­lic­i­ty, an angry med­ical exam­in­er, and his own per­son­al demons, he labors to solve what he believes is the first-ever mur­der in his pas­toral Berk­shire Hills vil­lage. Com­pli­cat­ing things: the list of sus­pects includes some of the peo­ple to whom he is clos­est — includ­ing his own wife. Run­ning through­out the book is the sto­ry of Purim and its mes­sages. Who is the killer hid­ing behind a mask? CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Dr. Nora Gold is the prize-win­ning author of five books and the founder and edi­tor of the pres­ti­gious lit­er­ary jour­nal Jew­ish Fic​tion​.net. Her books have won both The Cana­di­an Jew­ish Lit­er­ary Award and The Vine Cana­di­an Jew­ish Book Award, and her writ­ing has been praised by Alice Munro, Cyn­thia Ozick, and Dara Horn. Title: In Sick­ness and in Health / Yom Kip­pur in a Gym This new book by award-win­ning writer Nora Gold is com­posed of two novel­las: In Sick­ness and in Health and Yom Kip­pur in a Gym. In Sick­ness and in Health is an intro­spec­tive nar­ra­tive writ­ten in the sec­ond per­son. It fol­lows five days in the life of a woman named Lily, who suf­fers from an undi­ag­nosed ail­ment that leaves her bedrid­den for near­ly a week every month. When­ev­er Lily has a series of awful sick days and can’t get out of bed, her mind goes down a rab­bit hole: she assumes that her hus­band is hav­ing an affair. To express this anger, Lily learns how to say ridicu­lous curs­es and angry phras­es in oth­er lan­guages. She regur­gi­tates them in a list, momen­tar­i­ly light­en­ing the seri­ous­ness of her con­di­tion.. Because Lily’s ill­ness comes and goes reg­u­lar­ly, she describes feel­ing like two dif­fer­ent peo­ple who can­not coex­ist. Gold writes clear­ly about […]

Dr. Nora Gold is the prize-win­ning author of five books and the founder and edi­tor of the pres­ti­gious lit­er­ary jour­nal Jew­ish Fic​tion​.net. Her books have won both The Cana­di­an Jew­ish Lit­er­ary Award and The Vine Cana­di­an Jew­ish Book Award, and her writ­ing has been praised by Alice Munro, Cyn­thia Ozick, and Dara Horn. Title: Jew­ish Sto­ries Trans­lat­ed from 18 Languages  Read­ers who are tempt­ed by slim vol­umes of short sto­ries will take great plea­sure in 18: Jew­ish Sto­ries Trans­lat­ed from 18 Lan­guages. Edit­ed by Nora Gold, the book deliv­ers on its promise to share beau­ti­ful­ly craft­ed fic­tion that trans­ports read­ers across the globe in fif­teen min­utes or few­er. Instead of try­ing to answer the age-old ques­tion, ​“What makes a Jew­ish sto­ry a Jew­ish sto­ry?,” the col­lec­tion allows the diverse sto­ries and voic­es of the authors to take cen­ter stage. Cer­tain­ly Jew­ish hol­i­days, com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers and insti­tu­tions, impor­tant his­tor­i­cal events, and anti­semitism appear as threads through­out the book, but they serve more as an orga­niz­ing and the­mat­ic tool than as a state­ment about the Jew­ish canon. These short sto­ries don’t pro­vide escape from cur­rent events. If any­thing, the inten­si­ty of our moment only height­ens the com­plex­i­ty and nuances of these works. The result is that although these sto­ries can be read in just […]

Ari Gold is a film­mak­er and win­ner of the Stu­dent Oscar. His films have been select­ed at Sun­dance four times, and his upcom­ing movies Heli­copter and Broth­er Vers­es Broth­er are com­pan­ions to this book. Title: Father Vers­es Sons: A Cor­re­spon­dence in Poem Description: A lush­ly illus­trat­ed ​“cor­re­spon­dence in poems,” ranges across the life, fam­i­ly, and death of a remark­able father. The father and his sons write ten­der­ly of their hunger for con­nec­tion, about the woman that all three men have lost (a moth­er, a wife), and about the pas­sion that all three seek. Ulti­mate­ly, these poems tell a sin­gu­lar sto­ry of men bum­bling their way towards love.

Rusty Ros­man is a for­mer teacher and com­mer­cial real estate bro­ker. Rusty has served as pres­i­dent and fundrais­er for sev­er­al non­prof­it com­mu­ni­ty orga­ni­za­tions. In her com­mu­ni­ty where she has lived her entire life, Rusty is a mem­ber of the Zon­ing Board of Appeals and the Prop­er­ty Tax Board. Rusty and her hus­band Stephen are the very proud par­ents of two adult chil­dren and grand­par­ents to six grandchildren. Title: Two Envelopes: What You Want Your Loved Ones To Know When You Die Description: When you die, there are so many things your fam­i­ly and loved ones imme­di­ate­ly need to know. Two Envelopes is your voice, con­vey­ing your wish­es regard­ing your death and your estate. With a unique blend of wis­dom, humor, and empa­thet­ic sto­ry­telling, Rusty Ros­man delves into the often-avoid­ed top­ic of death, offer­ing read­ers a guide to nav­i­gate the com­plex­i­ties of both prac­ti­cal and emo­tion­al aspects of end-of-life plan­ning. Rusty’s wis­dom and heart­felt way of guid­ing her read­ers make this book unique among the oth­er end-of-life plan­ning work­books avail­able online. We all know this to be true: • We all die. • We all mourn the pass­ing of loved ones. • We all must deal with the details relat­ed to our loved one’s death. Your […]

Elisa Box­er is an Emmy-win­ning jour­nal­ist and Syd­ney Tay­lor Hon­or-win­ning author who has writ­ten numer­ous non­fic­tion books for chil­dren. She has a pas­sion for telling sto­ries about unsung heroes who have found the courage to defy social norms and cre­ate change, espe­cial­ly dur­ing dark times in his­to­ry. Her books include The Voice that Won the Vote, Cov­ered in Col­or (called ​“com­pelling from cov­er to cov­er” in a Kirkus starred review) and Hid­den Hope, which earned three starred reviews and the Syd­ney Tay­lor sil­ver medal. Elisa lives in Maine and has many more books on the way. Title: The Tree of Life: How a Holo­caust Sapling Inspired the World Descriptions: This del­i­cate­ly told, beau­ti­ful­ly illus­trat­ed true sto­ry is rec­om­mend­ed by the pub­lish­er for ages five to nine — but, in real­i­ty, it’s suit­able and use­ful for chil­dren of all ages. It cen­ters on a spe­cial maple tree whose descen­dants are plant­ed in many loca­tions, includ­ing the Muse­um of Jew­ish Her­itage in New York City. Dur­ing the Holo­caust, a group of inmates, some of them chil­dren, smug­gled a small sapling into their con­cen­tra­tion camp and cared for it. It was so impor­tant to them that they shared their mea­ger water rations with it. Watch­ing it grow and thrive remind­ed them that, despite their harsh sur­round­ings, a future was pos­si­ble. […]