Erica Baas

Errol Craig Sull, well-known baker and long-time JCC member, will be offering baking demonstrations.  This is an event you do not want to miss!  Each event begins with Errol’s Fun Food Facts, then goes into the interesting science behind baking (e.g., just why IS it called double-acting baking powder?), and the piece de resistance:  each person in attendance gets to sample the desserts!  Errol is well-known for his monthly baking demonstrations at Whole Foods, his over-the-top cakes (you’ll never find them in a bakery), and gregarious personality. You must register for this presentation. 

Errol Craig Sull, well-known baker and long-time JCC member, will be offering baking demonstrations.  This is an event you do not want to miss!  Each event begins with Errol’s Fun Food Facts, then goes into the interesting science behind baking (e.g., just why IS it called double-acting baking powder?), and the piece de resistance:  each person in attendance gets to sample the desserts!  Errol is well-known for his monthly baking demonstrations at Whole Foods, his over-the-top cakes (you’ll never find them in a bakery), and gregarious personality. You must register for this presentation. 

Errol Craig Sull, well-known baker and long-time JCC member, will be offering baking demonstrations.  This is an event you do not want to miss!  Each event begins with Errol’s Fun Food Facts, then goes into the interesting science behind baking (e.g., just why IS it called double-acting baking powder?), and the piece de resistance:  each person in attendance gets to sample the desserts!  Errol is well-known for his monthly baking demonstrations at Whole Foods, his over-the-top cakes (you’ll never find them in a bakery), and gregarious personality. You must register for this presentation. 

Fearless Women, Powerful Stories: A Three Part Virtual Series Little Edna's War A True Story of Resistance and Hope Though she fought armed with a pistol, Edna's true weapons were wit, bravery, and an unshakable love for her sister. Disguised as a Catholic girl, she even earned a medal from Pope Pius XII, who never knew he was honoring a Jewish child who had outsmarted the Reich. Drawn from more than five hours of firsthand testimony recorded by the USC Shoah Foundation, this powerful memoir traces Edna's extraordinary journey—from the ashes of a shattered birthday celebration to the brutal reality of a POW camp, and from escaping the Warsaw Ghetto to finding hidden safety inside a convent sanctuary. Edna Szurek should not have survived the Holocaust. But she did. And her story will stay with you forever. Janet Bond Brill Janet Bond Brill was born and raised in New York City, the daughter of a prominent stage and screen actor and a psychoanalyst. After graduating from Walden School at sixteen and earning her B.S. in Biology from the University of Miami, she spent seven years as a flight attendant for Pan American World Airways before returning to academia. Dr. Brill holds […]

Fearless Women, Powerful Stories: A Three Part Virtual Series Hostage A Memoir of Terrorism, Trauma, and Resilience Passengers aboard Trans World Airlines Flight 741 were held on board for six days in sweltering heat without flushable toilets or running water. Most were eventually sent home. Mimi, however, was accused of being an Israeli soldier and held with thirty-one other hostages in Amman, where they feared for their lives as a violent civil war erupted around them. In Hostage: A Memoir of Terrorism, Trauma, and Resilience, Mimi recounts her survival of the hijacking of TWA Flight 741—an event that became one of the most significant episodes in aviation history and an early defining moment of international terrorism. Told with courage and empathy, Hostage explores not only what happened in those terrifying days, but how trauma can shape a life long after the immediate danger has passed. Mimi Nichter Mimi Nichter is an award-winning cultural anthropologist, public speaker, and professor emerita of anthropology at the University of Arizona. Her essays have appeared in Newsweek, HuffPost, Brevity Blog, and Career Authors. Her memoir, Hostage, was a finalist for the Literary Award in Nonfiction at the 2026 Tucson Festival of Books and has received both the 2026 Next Generation Indie Award for […]

Fearless Women, Powerful Stories: A Three Part Virtual Series Loudmouth: Emma Goldman vs. America A Love Story Born in Lithuania in 1869, Emma Goldman grew up knowing what it meant to resist expectations. Her father wanted a dutiful son, not a headstrong daughter. Emma had other plans. When she arrived in America as a young woman, she was inspired by its promises of democracy and freedom, but appalled by the hypocrisy she saw around her. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness seemed to belong only to those at the top. So Emma spoke up. Soon she was delivering fiery speeches about workers' rights, feminism, inequality, and capitalism, challenging audiences to imagine a freer and more just society. Loudmouth is both the story of Emma's complicated love affair with America and the story of the romances, convictions, contradictions, and radical ideas that shaped her remarkable life. Deborah Heiligman Deborah Heiligman is the author of 31 books for children and teens. Her acclaimed nonfiction work has earned some of the highest honors in children's and young adult literature. Her book Vincent and Theo: The Van Gogh Brothers received six starred reviews and won the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Nonfiction. Her other books include The Boy […]

The Wannabe Classical Music Aficionado 46 Insights to Make Your Next Concert a More Enjoyable Experience Drawing on more than thirty-five years on stage with the New York Philharmonic, violinist Allan Schiller shares 46 practical, insider insights that reveal what really happens in the concert hall—and how to listen with greater ease and pleasure. You'll learn how to read a concert program, when to clap, what conductors actually communicate without words, why zoning out is part of real listening, and how centuries of musical tradition quietly shape what you hear today. Along the way, Schiller blends lived experience, backstage stories, and plain-spoken wisdom that turns formality into invitation. Whether it's your first concert or your fiftieth, this book helps classical music feel less like a mystery—and more like your own seat in the hall. Allan Schiller Allan Schiller is a retired violinist of the New York Philharmonic, where he performed from 1964 to 1999 under legendary conductors including Leonard Bernstein, Zubin Mehta, and Kurt Masur. His musical life began after his family escaped Poland in 1939, when his father gave him his first violin—an act of hope in the shadow of the Holocaust. Raised in Tel Aviv, Paris, and New York, and […]