Author Hanna Temkin

Temple Beth Tzedek 1641 North Forest Road, Williamsville, NY, United States

Hanna Temkin, nee Rabinowicz, was born into a traditional, working-class Jewish family in Lodz, Poland in 1921. In many ways her story is like that of others who lived through some of the most horrific episodes of the 20th century, WW2, and the Holocaust. Yet, it is also quite unique in that she introduces the readers to the little known, particularly in the English language literature, wartime Soviet Union where she had to contend with dislocation, hunger, and entirely different social, linguistic, and political systems, starting at the tender age of 18. In the later part of the book, she describes returning to Poland, and then barely 20 years later undergoing another forced emigration this time going west. Purchase a Copy Here My Involuntary Journeys: A Memoir Father seemed strangely agitated sending me off. “Go,” he said, “Hanele, go, it’s time!” He urged me as if he were glad to see me go; as if he knew somehow that he was sending me off to live. In -My Involuntary Journeys, Hanna Temkin shares her story for the first time, shedding light on lesser-known aspects of Jewish life and survival in Eastern Europe before, during, and after the Holocaust. Moreover, Hanna’s story is […]

Elisa Boxer

Virtual Event

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. […]

Dov Linzer

To Be Determined Buffalo, NY, United States

Rab­bi Dov Linz­er is the Pres­i­dent and Rab­binic Head of YCT Rab­bini­cal School of Yeshi­v­at Chovevei Torah. He has writ­ten for The For­ward, Tablet and The New York Times and pub­lished over 100 teshu­vot (respon­sa) and schol­ar­ly articles.

Author Abigail Pogrebin

Canterbury Woods Performing Arts Center 705 Renaissance Dr., Williamsville, NY

Abi­gail Pogre­bin is the author of My Jew­ish Year: 18 Hol­i­days, One Won­der­ing Jew which was a final­ist for a 2017 JBC Nation­al Jew­ish Book Award and Stars of David: Promi­nent Jews Talk About Being Jew­ish. She has writ­ten for The Atlantic, The For­ward, and Tablet, and mod­er­ates con­ver­sa­tions for The Stre­ick­er Cen­ter and Jew­ish Broad­cast­ing Service. Title: It Takes Two to Torah: An Ortho­dox Rab­bi and Reform Jour­nal­ist Dis­cuss and Debate Their Way Through the Five Books of Moses Description: For the first time, read­ers can take a tour of the entire Torah through the medi­um of a sin­gle instruc­tive, irrev­er­ent, involv­ing con­ver­sa­tion. Over a two-year peri­od, an Ortho­dox rab­bi and Reform jour­nal­ist talked through the Five Books of Moses with can­dor, humor, emo­tion, per­son­al rev­e­la­tion, and schol­ar­ship. Pogre­bin and Linz­er engaged in these short dia­logues — ten min­utes per par­sha — on a pod­cast for Tablet Mag­a­zine, and these live­ly exchanges have now been col­lect­ed and edit­ed by Fig Tree Books. Dov is a renowned expert in Torah, whose val­ues run egal­i­tar­i­an, but who has clear para­me­ters about what is cor­rect and com­fort­able when it comes to Jew­ish law. Abby is the relat­able every Jew in Amer­i­ca — immersed in Jew­ish life, but less through obser­vance and prayer; more through study, report­ing, syn­a­gogue, and com­mu­ni­ty. This book is for any­one look­ing to access […]

Author Larry Tye

Canterbury Woods Performing Arts Center 705 Renaissance Dr., Williamsville, NY

Lar­ry Tye is a for­mer reporter at The Boston Globe, off now writ­ing books and run­ning a Boston-based fel­low­ship pro­gram for health jour­nal­ists. The Jazzmen is his ninth book, with oth­ers includ­ing Home Lands, the upbeat tale of a thriv­ing Jew­ish dias­po­ra; Super­man, the biog­ra­phy of America’s longest-last­ing (Jew­ish) hero; and Bob­by Kennedy, which looks at RFK’s trans­for­ma­tion from Joe McCarthy’s pro­tege to a lib­er­al icon. Purchase a Copy Here The Jazzmen: How Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie Transformed America The Jazzmen looks main­ly at these three mae­stros’ lives off the band­stand, and how they wrote the sound­track for the civ­il rights rev­o­lu­tion. It also explores the Black-Jew­ish alliance of old— one where each of these African-Amer­i­can band­lead­ers had a Jew­ish man­ag­er and band­mates —and how that might offer a mod­el for today. The George Scoot Big Band will also be preforming at this event. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Hilary Zaid

To Be Determined Buffalo, NY, United States

Hilary Zaid has been a Ten­nessee Williams Schol­ar at the Sewa­nee Writ­ers’ Con­fer­ence, a James D. Hous­ton Fel­low at the Com­mu­ni­ty of Writ­ers and a two-time atten­dance of Tin House Writ­ers’ Work­shop. Her work has appeared in Moth­er Jones, Eco­tone, Day One, Lilith Mag­a­zine, and else­where. Long-list­ed for the 2018 North­ern Cal­i­for­nia Inde­pen­dent Book­sellers’ Award for Fic­tion, her nov­el Paper is White is a 2018 Fore­word Indies sil­ver medal­ist and the win­ner of the 2018 Inde­pen­dent Pub­lish­ers’ Book Awards (IPPY) in LGBT+ Fic­tion. Her nov­el For­get I Told You This, is the inau­gur­al win­ner of the Bar­bara DiBernard Award. Title: For­get I Told You This Description: Amy Black, a sin­gle moth­er and an aspir­ing artist in love with cal­lig­ra­phy, dreams of a cov­et­ed artist’s res­i­den­cy at the world’s largest social media com­pa­ny, Q. When a stranger asks Amy to tran­scribe a love let­ter for him, his dis­ap­pear­ance leads her straight to Q — with the chance to style her­self a 21st-cen­tu­ry sofer­et—and to a group of data pri­va­cy vig­i­lantes who want her to burn Q to the ground. A very con­tem­po­rary Jew­ish nov­el about faith, free will and what it means to believe, For­get I Told You This asks us what it means to see and be seen in a world in which our every move is surveilled.