The United Jewish Federation of Tidewater & Simon Family JCC’s Lee and Bernard Jaffe Family Jewish Book Festival is an annual celebration of Jewish authors, illustrators, and books, providing the community with opportunities to engage with some of the most popular writers and topics of the year.
Twenty authors, countless stories
This year’s festival features a first responder at the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, a former US congresswoman, journalists, doctors, novelists, and more.
Something for everyone
Whether it’s the intersection of basketball and the Holocaust, the history of Italy’s Jewish cuisine, the secrets our families keep, or solutions for ending bias in our community, everyone can find something to connect with at this year’s festival.
Connect in your own way
Attend events in person or from the comfort of your home or office. Get inspired at lunch with thought-provoking speakers, join us for free evening programs, or explore moving illustrations in the Leon Family Gallery.
Support the Festival
By purchasing books through BookShop.org, you can receive 10% off the regular retail price. In turn, UJFT and indie bookstores nationwide each receive 10% of the proceeds.
New this year
The Arts + Ideas Book of the Month is a collection of books with intriguing topics, characters, and stories for book-club-style conversations that will allow the community to engage personally with some of this season’s most exciting authors.
Whether joining us at the Simon Family JCC for Dr. Alla Shapiro’s discussion about her experience being dispatched to Chernobyl, at the Chrysler Museum of Art with New York Times bestselling author Lisa Barr to discuss the international art scandal in her novel Woman on Fire, or online with one of our other five Book of the Month authors, we hope you can find a book that speaks to you.
Have questions? Feel free to reach out for more information!
Hunter Thomas Director, Arts + Ideas HThomas@UJFT.org 757-965-6137
UPCOMING EVENTS
Unless otherwise noted, all events are FREE and open to the community and take place at the Simon Family Jewish Community Center on the Reba & Sam Sandler Family Campus of the Tidewater Jewish Community. Pre-registration is required for all events.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 7
12:00 PM
ABOUT THE EVENT
DEBBY APPLEGATE
Madam: The Biography of Polly Adler, Icon of the Jazz Age
Tuesday, February 7, 12:00 PM
A colorful and unusual history of Jewish life told through the perspective of a “good Jewish girl” from a Russian shtetl who immigrated to Brooklyn and rose to become “the Female Al Capone.”
REGISTER FOR EVENT
BUY THE BOOK
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15
12:00 PM
ABOUT THE EVENT
MICHAEL F. ROIZEN, MD
The Great Age Reboot: Cracking the Longevity Code to Be Younger Today and Even Younger Tomorrow
Wednesday, February 15, 12:00 PM
How can current science and technology revolutionize our ability to live longer, younger, and better? How will longer life spans improve our culture, our economy, our work lives, and our finances?
REGISTER FOR EVENT
BUY THE BOOK
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15
12:00 PM
ABOUT THE EVENT
MICHELLE SEGAR
The Joy Choice: How to Finally Achieve Lasting Changes in Eating and Exercise
Wednesday, March 15, 12:00 PM
• $12 admission, $6 ages 55+ (lunch included)
• $37 for lunch & signed book
• Special pricing for lunch & book ends March 8
Discover the easy, flexible, and three-step joy-infused decision tool that works with the chaos of daily life, guiding you to achieve your eating and exercise goals once and for all— and enjoy doing it!
REGISTER FOR EVENT
BUY THE BOOK
TUESDAY, MARCH 21
12:00 PM
ABOUT THE EVENT
LISA BARR
Woman on Fire
Tuesday, March 21, 12:00 PM
at the Chrysler Museum of Art
Woman On Fire is a gripping tale of a young, ambitious journalist embroiled in an international art scandal centered around a Nazi-looted masterpiece—forcing the ultimate showdown between passion and possession, lovers and liars, history and truth.
After talking her way into a job with the leading investigative reporter in Chicago, Jules Roth is given an unusual assignment: Locate a painting stolen by the Nazis more than 75 years earlier: legendary Expressionist artist Ernst Engel’s most famous work, Woman on Fire.
Lisa Barr is a New York Times bestselling author of three novels. In addition, she served as an editor for The Jerusalem Post, among other publications, and has been featured on Good Morning America and Today. Actress Sharon Stone is set to produce and star in the upcoming film adaptation of Woman On Fire.
In partnership with the Holocaust Commission of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater and the Chrysler Museum of Art Book Club.
Sponsored by Klein, Rowell, & Shall, PLLC, Attorneys at Law
TESTIMONIALS
“Incredibly fast-paced and savvy, Lisa Barr takes readers into the high-stakes world of art theft through the eyes of a young, gutsy journalist. Thick with history, scandal, romance, and deceit, Woman on Fire is a truly compulsive read.”
— Mary Kubica New York Times bestselling author of Local Woman Missing
REGISTER FOR EVENT
BUY THE BOOK
TUESDAY, MAY 9
12:00 PM
ABOUT THE EVENT
MICHAEL FRANK
One Hundred Saturdays: In Search for a Lost World
Tuesday, May 9, 12:00 PM
The remarkable story of ninety-nine-year-old Stella Levi, the vibrant world of Jewish Rhodes, the deportation to Auschwitz that extinguished ninety percent of her community, and the resilience and wisdom of the woman who lived to tell the tale.
In partnership with the Holocaust Commission of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater
REGISTER FOR EVENT
BUY THE BOOK
WEDNESDAY, MAY 17
12:00 PM
ABOUT THE EVENT
IRA ROSEN
Ticking Clock: Behind the Scenes at 60 Minutes
Wednesday, May 17, 12:00 PM
• $12 admission, $6 ages 55+, (lunch included)
• $27 for lunch & signed book
• Special pricing for lunch & book ends May 10
Two-time Peabody Award-winning writer and producer Ira Rosen reveals the intimate, untold stories of his decades at America’s most iconic news show. His story is a 60 Minutes story on 60 Minutes itself. When producer Ira Rosen walked into the 60 Minutes offices in June 1980, he knew he was about to enter television history. His career catapulted him to the heights of TV journalism, breaking some of the most important stories in TV news. But behind the scenes was a war room of clashing producers, anchors, and the most formidable 60 Minutes figure: legendary correspondent Mike Wallace.
Rosen has won every major award in broadcast journalism, including 24 national Emmy Awards, placing him in the top ten all-time news Emmy winners in broadcast history. His report on who is responsible for the opioid epidemic won more awards for 60 Minutes than any segment in the show’s 52-year history.
REGISTER FOR EVENT
BUY THE BOOK
TUESDAY, JUNE 6
12:00 PM
ABOUT THE EVENT
MEG WAITE CLAYTON
The Postmistress of Paris
Tuesday, June 6, 12:00 PM
This haunting novel revisits the dark early days of the German occupation of France, both a love story and a tale of high-stakes danger and incomparable courage.
In partnership with the Holocaust Commission of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater
REGISTER FOR EVENT
BUY THE BOOK
WEDNESDAY JUNE 14
12:00 PM
ABOUT THE EVENT
TAMAR HASPEL
To Boldly Grow: Finding Joy, Adventure, and Dinner in Your Own Backyard
Wednesday, June 14, 12:00 PM
Journalist and self-proclaimed “crappy gardener” Tamar Haspel shows us that raising or gathering our own food is not as hard as it seems. Haspel will take us on a journey as she goes from cluelessness to competence, learning to scrounge dinner from her surroundings and discovering that a connection to what we eat can change the way we think about food – and ourselves.
Haspel writes the James Beard Award-winning Washington Post column “Unearthed,” which tackles food from every angle: agriculture, nutrition, obesity, the food environment, and DIY. She has also written for Discover, National Geographic’s The Plate, Vox, Slate, Eater, Fortune, and Edible Cape Cod.
REGISTER FOR EVENT
BUY THE BOOK
The Lee & Bernard Jaffe Family Jewish Book Festival is held in coordination with the Jewish Book Council, the longest-running organization devoted exclusively to the support and celebration of Jewish literature.
Thank you to the Lee & Bernard Jaffe Family Jewish Book Festival Committee
Wendy Juren Auerbach, Chair
Gail Flax
Anne Fleder
Helen Goldsticker Sissel
Anne Kramer
Joan Laderberg
Sandra Porter Leon
Mark Robbins
Judy Rosenblatt
Annie Sandler
Nikki Shapiro Roth
Patricia Shelanski
THANK YOU TO OUR GENEROUS PATRONS OF THE ARTS AND SPONSORS:
Marilyn and Michel Ashe
Susan Barr
Wendy Jo and Ronald Brodsky
Stephanie Calliot and Don London
Armond and Rose Caplan Foundation
Marsha Chenman
Wall, Einhorn & Chernitzer
Susan and Andrew H. Cohen
Shari Friedman and Andrew King
Barbara Dudley
Susan and Jim Eilberg
Lois and Barry Einhorn
Mona and Jeffrey Flax
Alan and Esther Fleder Foundation
Anne and Lawrence Fleder
Alicia and Robert Friedman
Bootsie Goldmeier
Jeri Jo and William Halprin
Harbor Group
Ellen Hundley
Hyatt Place Virginia Beach Town Center
Connie Jacobson
Jodi and Jay Klebanoff
Anne and Edward Kramer
Ruth and Edward Legum
David Leon
Karen and Richard Lombart
Marcia and Burt Moss
Stacie and Marc Moss
Andrew Nusbaum
Palms Associates
Lisa and Howard Roesen
Sharon and Gene Ross
Shikma and Danny Rubin
Sara Jo and Joel Rubin
S. L. Nusbaum Realty Co.
Beth Scharlop and Roger Schultz
Lynn Schoenbaum
Miriam Seeherman
Patty and Herman Shelanski
Sandy and Norman Sher
Leslie and Larry Siegel
Edward Soltz
Lawrence Steingold
Renee and John Strelitz
Tidewater Jewish Foundation
Jody and Alan Wagner
Wall, Einhorn & Chernitzer
Wilks, Alper, Harwood & McIntyre, PC
Amy and Frank Zelenka
Jennifer and Rabbi Israel Zoberman
Get the books from this years events!
PREVIOUS EVENTS
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE FESTIVAL, TO SPONSOR, OR TO VOLUNTEER
Contact Hunter Thomas, Director of Arts + Ideas, at HThomas@UJFT.org or (757)965-6137.