Jewish Book Festival 2021 by Jewish Community Center

November 7 – 18, 2021

FEATURING NATAN SHARANSKY AND GIL TROY

TICKETS on sale now! 314.442.3299 | stljewishbookfestival.org A program of the Jewish Community Center Advertising supplement of the St. Louis Jewish Light

Attend in person at the J or watch the entire Festival from the comfort of your own home! community.jccstl.org COVID-19 SAFETY INFORMATION To protect our community and ensure that we can continue to safely gather at the J, entry to the Festival will require proof of vaccination (both doses of Moderna or Pfizer vaccines or one dose of Johnson & Johnson) OR a negative COVID-19 test result within 48 hours entry. Vaccination card or photo accepted, plus photo ID. Masks must be worn by everyone at all times while attending the Festival. This schedule is as of print date September 10. Any changes will be indicated on the Festival website stljewishbookfestival.org. A final schedule will be emailed to all Festival ticket patrons in early November.

$495 Value!

Premier Pass: $110 plus $8.75 fee

Grants access to all 28 Festival events, plus any other JBF events through June 2022.

Three ways to purchase tickets

1 Charge by phone 314-442-3299

2 In person, M-F 10am-12pm Box Office 2 Millstone Campus Drive Arts & Education Lobby

Order online stljewishbookfestival.org

ADA ACCESSIBLE

RSVP DATES: (BY NOV. 1)

Wheelchair seating and companion seats are available for all author presentations.

housemgr@jccstl.org or 314.442.3299 Including Premier Pass holders The following events require an RSVP: Women’s Event Sports Night

November 8 November 18

FREE Student Tickets

Available to junior high, high school and college students who show a current ID at the door for any author program.

Please Note: All festival ticket and book sales are final. No refunds or exchanges. Due to circumstances beyond our control, programs may be subject to change, rescheduling or cancellation. Every effort will be made to reschedule or replace a cancelled author. The J cannot be liable for non-appearance of any scheduled author or performer nor for any location change – in-person or virtual. Check Festival hotline 314.442.3299 or stljewishbookfestival.org for schedule changes. 2 | St. Louis Jewish Book Festival 2021

Schedule of Events Date

Time

Location

Author(s)

Book Title

November 7

7:00pm

Gym

Keynote & Z3 Track Natan Sharansky and Gil Troy

Never Alone

November 8

10:30am

Virtual

Tracy Walder

The Unexpected Spy

1:00pm

PAC

Arthur Gale Jewish Lives Series David Mikics

Stanley Kubrick

7:30pm

Gym

Women's Night Lisa Napoli

Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie

10:30am

Virtual

Francine Prose

The Vixen

1:00pm

Virtual

Pam Jenoff

The Woman with the Blue Star

7:00pm

PAC

Romance Night Jean Meltzer

The Matzah Ball

10:00am

PAC

Kristallnacht Remembrance Liza Wiemer

The Assignment

7:00pm

PAC

Kristallnacht Remembrance Menachem Kaiser

Plunder

10:30am

PAC

Z3 Track Zack Bodner & Leah Garber

Why Do Jewish?

1:00pm

PAC

Z3 Track Uri Adoni & Vijay Chauhan

The Unstoppable Startup

7:00pm

Gym

Patrick Radden Keefe

Empire of Pain

November 12

12:00pm

Virtual

Jen Silverman

We Play Ourselves

November 13

7:00pm

PAC

Mystery Night Reed Farrel Coleman & Matt Goldman

The Bitterest Pill & Dead West

November 14

7:00pm

PAC

Henry Schvey

Blue Song

November 15

10:30am

PAC

Jean Hanff Korelitz

The Plot

1:00pm

PAC

Missouri's Own with six authors

varies

7:00pm

Virtual

Nourish Paula Shoyer

The Instant Pot® Kosher Cookbook

10:30am

PAC

E. Lockhart & Ken Krimstein

Whistle & When I Grow Up

1:00pm

PAC

Monique Faison Ross

Playing Dead

7:00pm

PAC

Rich Cohen

Pee Wees

10:30am

PAC

Z3 Track Sayed Kashua & David Baddiel

Jews Don't Count & Track Changes

1:00pm

Virtual

Lisa Scottoline

Eternal

7:00pm

PAC

Suzanne Nossel

Dare to Speak

10:30am

PAC

Annabelle Gurwitch

You're Leaving When?

1:00pm

Virtual

Dr. Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

The Disordered Cosmos

7:00pm

PAC

Sports Night Ben Hochman

11 in ’11

November 9

November 10 November 11

November 16

November 17

November 18

Key Gym

Edison Gymnasium (downstairs)

PAC

Carl & Helene Mirowitz Performing Arts Center (upstairs)

Virtual

Via Zoom inside the Virtual J within community.jccstl.org

Author’s Alley – The Festival Bookstore Located in the J’s Arts & Education Building Beit Midrash, off the main lobby. Featuring all the authors’ latest titles as well as books by other local Jewish authors, too! The bookstore opens 30 minutes prior to each in-person event. It closes during presentations but opens immediately afterwards so you may purchase your book and get it signed! For events taking place in the Edison Gymnasium, only the presenting author’s book will be sold. The bookstore will be closed. Purchase three or more regularly-priced books at one time and save 10%. Visit stljewishbookfestival.org to preorder books. Can’t be here? Order a personalized, autographed book from the authors of your choice. Call 314.442.3299 to arrange for signed books. 314.442.3299 • stljewishbookfestival.org

ZIONISM 3.0 Within this year’s Festival, we are pleased to offer a four-part series of authors showcasing Israel and topics affecting Israel and the American Jewish community. The Z3 Project, an initiative of the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto, California, aims to promote a stronger relationship between Diaspora Jewry and Israel. For more information, visit z3project.com

Sunday, November 7 at 7:00pm

Festival Keynote speakers Natan Sharansky and Gil Troy Never Alone See page 5

Thursday, November 11 at 10:30am Zack Bodner and Leah Garber Why Do Jewish? See page 9

Thursday, November 11 at 1:00pm Uri Adoni & Vijay Chauhan The Unstoppable Startup See page 9

Wednesday, November 17 at 10:30am David Baddiel and Sayed Kashua Jews Don't Count & Track Changes See page 15

4 | St. Louis Jewish Book Festival 2021

Thank you to the sponsors of the Zionism 3.0 Track at this year’s Festival. Presenter The Lubin-Green Foundation, a Supporting Foundation of the Jewish Federation of St. Louis Platinum JCC Association Center for Israel Engagement Jewish Federation of St. Louis Adinah & Heschel Raskas Bronze Richard and Joyce Becker Lynnsie Balk Kantor JoAnn Raskas z"l Beth and Donn Rubin Gloria and Sanford Spitzer

Sunday, November 7 Keynote Speakers

NATAN SHARANSKY

AND

GIL TROY

Natan Sharansky traveled countless paths to become the renowned figure he is today: a child chess prodigy, Deputy Prime Minister of Israel, refusenik, Recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Soviet prisoner and Head of the Jewish Agency. In his recent memoir, Never Alone, he recounts how his personal experiences, including nine years as a political prisoner in which he endured force feedings and solitary confinement, forged his political activism and commitments to his faith and his people. Author, Zionist thinker, and presidential historian Gil Troy joins Sharansky on stage as co-author of Sharansky’s memoir. A Distinguished Scholar in North American History at McGill University currently living in Jerusalem, Troy is the author of eleven books on the American presidency. His book Moynihan’s Moment: America’s Fight against Zionism as Racism was designated one of 2012’s best books by Jewish Ideas Daily. Written with frankness, affection, and humor, Never Alone offers us profound insights from a man who embraced the essential human struggle: to find his own voice, his own faith, and the people to whom he could belong.

Interviewed by Peter Maer, a 40-year broadcast journalist who covered the White House for 17 years for CBS News.

7:00pm | $45 Takes place in the Edison Gymnasium 314.442.3299 • stljewishbookfestival.org

Monday, November 8 TRACY WALDER, The Unexpected Spy 10:30am | $10 | Virtual When Tracy Walder enrolled at the University of Southern California, she never thought that one day she would offer her pink beanbag chair in the Delta Gamma house to a CIA recruiter, or that she’d fly to the Middle East under an alias identity.

ARTHUR GALE JEWISH LIVES SERIES: DAVID MIKICS, Stanley Kubrick 1:00pm | $20 | PAC

The Unexpected Spy is the riveting story of Walder’s tenure in the CIA and, later, the FBI. Driven to stop terrorism, Walder debriefed terrorists − men who swore they’d never speak to a woman − until they gave her leads. Then Walder moved to the FBI, where she worked in counterintelligence. In a single year, she helped take down one of the most notorious foreign spies ever caught on American soil. Catching the bad guys wasn’t a problem in the FBI, but rampant sexism was. Walder left the FBI to teach young women, encouraging them to find a place in the FBI, CIA, State Department or the Senate−and thus change the world. Sponsored by Sidney & Bobbi Guller Family Foundation, TuckerAllen, Howard Lesser

The Festival is thrilled to unveil a new series, the Arthur Gale Jewish Lives Series, featuring books from the Yale University Press Jewish Lives series. David Mikics, author of Stanley Kubrick: American Filmmaker, joins us for our inaugural event to discuss the genius behind the films. Stanley Kubrick grew up in the Bronx, a doctor’s son. From a young age he was consumed by photography, chess and, above all else, movies. He was a self-taught filmmaker and self-proclaimed outsider, and his films exist in a unique world of their own outside the Hollywood mainstream. Kubrick’s Jewishness played a crucial role in his idea of himself as an outsider. Obsessed with rebellion against authority, war and male violence, Kubrick was himself a calm, coolly masterful creator and a talkative, ever-curious polymath immersed in friends and family. To learn more about the Jewish Lives book series, visit jewishlives.org Sponsored by Dr. Arthur Gale

Women’s Night featuring

LISA NAPOLI, Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie 6:30pm Expo 7:30pm Author | $25 | Gym | RSVP by November 1 When a pioneering nonprofit called National Public Radio came along in the 1970s, and the door to serious journalism opened a crack, four remarkable women came along and blew it off the hinges. Susan, Linda, Nina & Cokie is journalist Lisa Napoli’s captivating account of these four women, their deep and enduring friendships and the trail they blazed to becoming icons. Hear from the author of four books including Radio Shangri-La and Up All Night: Ted Turner, CNN and the Making of 24-Hour News, at our annual Women’s Night, an evening dedicated to women’s issues. We’ll be hosting a local Women’s Business Expo alongside light refreshments beforehand to give you a chance to learn more about local trailblazers here in St. Louis. Sponsored by Brodsky Library, Robin & David Chervitz, The J Associates 6 | St. Louis Jewish Book Festival 2021

Tuesday, November 9 FRANCINE PROSE, The Vixen

PAM JENOFF, The Woman with the Blue Star

10:30am | $10 | Virtual

1:00pm | $10 | Virtual

Bestselling writer and National Book Award finalist Francine Prose delivers a stunning new novel set at the height of the Red Scare. It’s 1953, and Simon Putnam, a recent Harvard graduate newly hired by a distinguished New York publishing firm, has landed his first assignment: editing The Vixen, the Patriot and the Fanatic, a lurid bodice-ripper improbably based on the recent trial and execution of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. Because Simon has a secret that, at the height of the Red Scare and the McCarthy hearings, he cannot reveal: his beloved mother was a childhood friend of Ethel Rosenberg’s. His parents mourn Ethel’s death. Simon’s dilemma grows thornier when he meets The Vixen’s author, the startlingly beautiful, reckless, seductive Anya Partridge. Gradually, Simon realizes that the people around him are not what they seem, that everyone is keeping secrets, that ordinary events may conceal a diabolical plot—and that these crises may steer him toward a brighter future.

Acclaimed author of The Lost Girls of Paris and The Orphan’s Tale, Pam Jenoff returns to St. Louis with her latest New York Times Bestseller The Woman with the Blue Star. This is the story of Sadie and Ella who become unexpected friends one day when Ella spots Sadie hiding in the tunnels beneath the city of Kraków during World War II. Ella begins to aid Sadie and the two become close, but as the dangers of the war worsen, their lives are set on a collision course that will test them in the face of overwhelming odds. Inspired by incredible true stories, The Woman with the Blue Star is an unforgettable testament to the power of friendship and the extraordinary strength of the human will to survive. Sponsored by Delmar Gardens, Marsha D. Soshnik

Romance Night featuring

JEAN MELTZER, The Matzah Ball 7:00pm | $20 | PAC Rachel Rubenstein-Goldblatt is a nice Jewish girl with a shameful secret: she loves Christmas. For a decade she’s hidden her career as a Christmas romance novelist from her family. Her talent has made her a bestseller even as her chronic illness has always kept the kind of love she writes about out of reach. But when her diversity-conscious publisher insists she write a Hanukkah romance, her well of inspiration suddenly runs dry. Desperate not to lose her contract, Rachel’s determined to find her muse at the Matzah Ball, a Jewish music celebration on the last night of Hanukkah, even if it means working with her summer camp archenemy−Jacob Greenberg. Though Rachel and Jacob haven’t seen each other since they were kids, their grudge still glows brighter than a menorah. But as they spend more time together, Rachel finds herself drawn to Hanukkah−and Jacob−in a way she never expected. Maybe this holiday of lights will be the spark she needed to set her heart ablaze. Sponsored by Kuhn Foundation 314.442.3299 • stljewishbookfestival.org

Wednesday, November 10 Kristallnacht Remembrance Day LIZA WIEMER, The Assignment

MENACHEM KAISER, Plunder

10:00am | FREE | PAC

7:00pm | FREE | PAC

Liza Wiemer expertly weaves a story of moral courage in The Assignment, based on a real assignment given in a New York State high school. When a favorite teacher assigns a group of students to argue for the Final Solution, a euphemism used to describe the Nazi plan for the genocide of the Jewish people, Logan March and Cade Crawford are horrified. Their teacher cannot seriously expect anyone to complete an assignment that fuels intolerance and discrimination. Logan and Cade decide they must take a stand. As the school administration addressed the teens' refusal to participate in the appalling debate, the student body, their parents, and the larger community are forced to face the issue as well. The situation explodes, and acrimony and anger result. What does it take for tolerance, justice, and love to prevail? In partnership with the St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum Sponsored by The Silk Foundation, Gloria Feldman

Menachem Kaiser’s brilliantly told story is set in motion when the author takes up his Holocaust-survivor grandfather’s former battle to reclaim the family’s apartment building in Sosnowiec, Poland. Soon, he is on a circuitous path to encounters with the long-time residents of the building, and with a Polish lawyer known as “The Killer.” A surprise discovery—that his grandfather’s cousin not only survived the war, but wrote a secret memoir while a slave laborer in a vast, secret Nazi tunnel complex—leads to Kaiser being adopted as a virtual celebrity by a band of Silesian treasure seekers who revere the memoir as the indispensable guidebook to Nazi plunder. Propelled by rich original research, Kaiser immerses readers in profound questions that reach far beyond his personal quest. What does it mean to seize your own legacy? Can reclaimed property repair rifts among the living? Plunder is both a deeply immersive adventure story and an irreverent, daring interrogation of inheritance—material, spiritual, familial, and emotional. In partnership with the St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum Sponsored by Norman Pressman & Wendi Alper-Pressman

TO OUR 2021 CO-CHAIRS Special thanks to our 2021 chairs, Jim Bogart and Louise Levine! We are so grateful for your involvement, expertise and dedication throughout the year. Thank you both!

8 | St. Louis Jewish Book Festival 2021

Thursday, November 11 ZACK BODNER WITH LEAH GARBER Why Do Jewish?

URI ADONI WITH VIJAY CHAUHAN The Unstoppable Startup

10:30am | $20 | PAC

1:00pm | $20 | PAC

Zach Bodner, CEO of the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto, joins Leah Garber, Vice President of Israel Engagement of the JCC Association of America and Director of the Center for Israel Engagement in Jerusalem, to discuss what Jewish identity looks like in an era where identity is a choice. Bodner’s recent book, Why Do Jewish? contends that action is the key, and lays out a framework for “doing Jewish” using the word TACHLIS, Yiddish for “getting down to brass tacks.” Garber brings the Israeli perspective to questions of modern peoplehood, drawn from her experience in adult education and developing programming that helps forge ties between North American and Israeli communities in her work with JCC Association. Sponsored by Barnes Jewish Hospital, Rabbi Carnie & Paulie Rose, Sh’ma Listen! - Jewish Federation of St. Louis, RubinBrown LLP

After more than 12 years as a venture capitalist for one of Israel's most successful venture funds, Uri Adoni shares the secrets to Israel’s incredible track record of success in this new guide that will help make any startup unstoppable. In The Unstoppable Startup, Uri Adoni goes behind the scenes to explain the principles and practices that can make any startup, anywhere in the world, become an unstoppable one. In discussion with Vijay Chauhan, a startup CEO of multiple companies in the Life Sciences space including: renewable energy, cancer diagnostics and consumer healthcare. Vijay is leading BioSTL’s initiative to attract Israeli companies to St. Louis that are a fit with St. Louis corporations and investors. Sponsored by Howard Hearsh, In Memory of Betty Hearsh, Adinah & Heschel Raskas

PATRICK RADDEN KEEFE, Empire of Pain 7:00pm | $25 | Gym Patrick Radden Keefe, staff writer for the New Yorker and author of the acclaimed Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland, now turns his investigative eye to chronicling the rise of the Sackler family as owners of Purdue Pharma and creators of Valium and OxyContin. An account of three generations, Empire of Pain leaves no stone unturned as it details the accumulation of the family fortune, the marketing and manufacturing methods they implemented that created one of the greatest public health crises in American history, and the ensuing legal battles as the family leveraged their fortune to escape accountability. Sponsored by Berger Memorial Chapel, The Harold & Ethel Horowitz Family Charitable Foundation, Bernard & Myrtle Kornblum Changing World Fund, St. Louis County Library

314.442.3299 • stljewishbookfestival.org

Friday, November 12

JEN SILVERMAN We Play Ourselves

Interviewed by actor Nick Westrate

12:00pm | $10 | Virtual Zoom in on your lunch break to hear Helen Merrill Award Winner and two-time MacDowell Colony Fellow Jen Silverman discuss her novel We Play Ourselves with TURN actor Nick Westrate. The story of a cancelled New York playwright who gets sucked into the world of a filmmaker documenting a teen girl fight club, We Play Ourselves deals with fame, false friends, and the lengths we go to in order to craft a public image.

Saturday, November 13 Mystery Night with

REED FARREL COLEMAN The Bitterest Pill

7:00pm | $20 | PAC Reed Farrel Coleman is a four-time nominee for the Edgar Award and the mind behind Robert B. Parker’s Jesse Stone series. His latest, The Bitterest Pill, sets an investigation in the idyllic town of Paradise, where a popular high school cheerleader has died of a suspected heroin overdose. It will be up to police chief Jesse Stone to unravel the supply chain and unmask the criminals behind it. As he digs deeper into the case, he finds himself battling self-interested administrators, reluctant teachers, distrustful schoolkids, and overprotective parents… and at the end of the line are the true bad guys, the ones with a lucrative business they'd kill to protect.

Women’s Night featuring

New York Times-bestselling and Emmy Award-winning author Matt Goldman brings Minneapolis private detective Nils Shapiro back for another thrilling, standalone adventure in Dead West. Nils Shapiro accepts what appears to be an easy, lucrative job: find out if Beverly Mayer’s grandson is foolishly throwing away his trust fund in Hollywood, especially now, in the wake of his fiancée’s tragic death. Nils quickly suspects that Ebben Mayer’s fiancée was murdered, and that Ebben himself may have been the target. As Nils moves into Ebben’s inner circle, he discovers that everyone in Ebben’s professional life—his agent, manager, a screenwriter, a producer—seem to have dubious motives at best. Sponsored by Frank and Bessie Spielberg Foundation 10 | St. Louis Jewish Book Festival 2021

AND

MATT GOLDMAN Dead West

Sunday, November 14 Children’s Mitzvah Program with

HENRY SCHVEY Blue Song

7:00pm | $25 | PAC Washington University Professor of Drama and Comparative Literature Henry Schvey returns to the Festival with Blue Song, the first book to document Tennessee Williams' difficult relationship with St. Louis, the city he despised as “St. Pollution,” but never left behind.

Romance Night featuring

Featuring monologues from The Glass Menagerie and recordings of Williams himself performing his own work, Professor Schvey’s presentation reveals how the city of St. Louis was indispensable to Williams’ formation and development both as a person and artist — that, in fact, Williams remained emotionally tethered to St. Louis for a host of reasons for the rest of his life. Sponsored by The Rubin Family Foundation, Gianna Jacobson & Todd Siwak, Gail Glaser, Phyllis & George Markus

Sprin Book g e Even nd t

Sunday, February 27 1:00pm | Free | PAC

Children’s Mitzvah Program with

DEAN ROBBINS Thank You, Dr. Salk

During his St. Louis childhood, Dean Robbins fell in love with Mighty Mouse and Superman, dressing up in superhero costumes and vowing to save the world. When he finally realized he would never have X-ray vision, he found real-life Jewish heroes who could be his role models, including Jonas Salk, the scientist who conquered polio. Dean introduces Salk and many others with Thank You, Dr. Salk. He also reveals the secrets of how kids can become superheroes themselves. Sponsored by Marie & Stuart Block, S. Mirowitz, Real Estate Broker, Inc. 314.442.3299 • stljewishbookfestival.org

| 11

Monday, JEAN HANFF KORELITZ The Plot

MISSOURI’S OWN: 1:00pm | $20 | PAC

10:30am | $20 | PAC New York Times bestseller and Indie Next Pick, The Plot is the darkly harrowing story of failed author and writing professor, Jake, whose student shares a brilliant novel plot with him. But when the student dies with the book unwritten, Jake helps himself to the plot, which rockets him to instant success. But at the height of his glorious new life, an e-mail arrives, the first salvo in a terrifying, anonymous campaign: "You are a thief," it says. As Jake struggles to understand his antagonist and hide the truth from his readers and his publishers, he begins to learn more about his late student, and what he discovers both amazes and terrifies him. Who was Evan Parker, and how did he get the idea for his "sure thing" of a novel? What is the real story behind the plot, and who stole it from whom? Sponsored by Gloria & Sanford Spitzer, Susan Nagarkatti, Staenberg Family Foundation, Clarendale Clayton

St. Louis loves local and so do we! Featuring six local authors, including YA novelist Jamie Krakover and photographer David Henschel, Missouri’s Own showcases fantastic writers from the Show-Me State. Hear them talk about their craft in a panel discussion and then break out for a tabling session where you can meet the authors and buy the books directly. Sponsored by Karin Krakover, St. Louis NORC, Women’s Auxiliary Foundation for the Jewish Aged

BOBBI LINKEMER How to Age with Grace: Living Your Best Life in Your 70s, 80s, and Beyond Linkemer answers the 10 most pressing questions older adults ask to help them live well now and prepare for the years ahead.

JAMIE KRAKOVER

$495 Value!

Tracker220 When everyone has a braininterfacing tracking chip, one glitch threatens the entire network. Kaya Weiss is that glitch.

Premier Pass: $110 plus $8.75 fee Grants access to all 28 Festival events, plus any other JBF events through June 2022.

MIKE WILLIAMS The Bowtown Curvy High schooler Curtie Pomerantz searches for the truth about the mysterious fatal maiden voyage of The Bowtown Curvy, the local rollercoaster his father designed.

12 | St. Louis Jewish Book Festival 2021

November 15 HOMEGROWN TALENT

Nourish with

PAULA SHOYER

The Instant Pot ® Kosher Cookbook 7:00pm | $10 | Virtual Join us for an evening of food! Paula Shoyer has written the first kosher cookbook for the Instant Pot®.

MORT MEISNER ENOUGH TO BE

DANGEROUS ONE AGENT’S LIFE IN TV NEWS AND ROCK & ROLL

MORT MEISNER STEPHANIE

Enough to Be Dangerous: One Agen’s Life in TV News and Rock and Roll Meisner chronicles how his tumultuous childhood and passion for broadcast journalism laid the foundations for his career coaching up-and-comers and taking on the worst of the industry.

Jewish food and the Instant Pot® are a natural fit. So many traditional Jewish dishes are soups and stews—prepared before Friday night and kept warm throughout Shabbat, when observant Jews aren’t allowed to cook—and that’s the sweet spot of the Instant Pot. For decades, Jewish families have relied on slow cookers to achieve the soft, flavor-filled stews of their ancestors, but they lamented the time required. Now, the Instant Pot allows for vastly shorter cooking times without compromising flavor or texture. The Instant Pot Kosher Cookbook includes timeless Jewish favorites tailored to this modern appliance. Sponsored by Harvey Kornblum Foundation, Nancy & Al Siwak

RUOPP

DAVID HENSCHEL The Art of Old Time Black and White Photography Former Jewish Light photographer David Henschel delivers a stunning series of black-and-white images from his career as a photographer.

Don't Forget Your Books! JAN SOKOLOFF HARNESS Look Up:Your Unexpected Guide to Good No matter how grim the headlines might be, there is still kindness, beauty, and joy all around us. It’s up to each of us to see the good, share it, and create more of it. How to start? Look Up.

Bookstore opens 30 minutes prior to each in-person event! Get your favorite book autographed after the presentation.

314.442.3299 • stljewishbookfestival.org

| 13

Tuesday, November 16

E. LOCKHART Whistle

AND

KEN KRIMSTEIN When I Grow Up

10:30am | $20 | PAC New Yorker cartoonist Ken Krimstein joins National Book Award Finalist and author of the stunning #1 New York Times bestseller We Were Liars, E. Lockhart, for a foray into graphic novels. Willow Zimmerman, aka “Whistle,” with her loyal Great Dane Lebowitz, is the first Jewish superhero in the DC universe in over 40 years. Struggling to take care of her sick mother and without health insurance, a desperate Willow reconnects with an estranged family friend, E. Nigma, who opens the door to an easier life. But when Willow and Lebowitz are attacked by Killer Croc, Willow wakes to find she has powers she never dreamed of, and that Nigma is not who he says he is, forcing her to choose between the man who saved her mother’s life and the good of her community. When I Grow Up is a collection based on six of hundreds of newly discovered, never-before-published autobiographies of Eastern European Jewish teens on the brink of WWII, found in 2017 hidden in a Lithuanian church cellar. Krimstein shows us the stories of these six young men and women in riveting, almost cinematic narratives, full of humor, yearning, ambition, and all the angst of the teenage years. It's as if half a dozen new Anne Frank stories have suddenly come to light, framed by the dramatic story of the documents rediscovery. Sponsored by Nancy & Ken Kranzberg

MONIQUE FAISON ROSS, Playing Dead

RICH COHEN, Pee Wees

1:00pm | $20 | PAC

7:00pm | $20 | PAC

Playing Dead: A Memoir of Terror and Survival is a stunning story of resilience, bravery, and grit. Faison Ross recounts her marriage to her high school sweetheart that turned horrifically abusive. When she gathered the courage to leave with her children, he escalated to threats and stalking, ignoring court injunctions and arrests, and finally culminating in a nightmarish car ride that involved car crashes and rape. He mercilessly beat her on the head with a shovel and abandoned her brutalized body in the woods in the rain, believing her dead. Faison Ross not only survived but moved forward on a path to recovery and helping others with her story. Sponsored by Judy Berger

Rich Cohen, the New York Times bestselling author of Monsters: The 1985 Chicago Bears and the Wild Heart of Football and The Chicago Cubs: Story of a Curse, turns his attention to matters closer to home: his son’s elite Pee Wee hockey team and himself, a former player and a devoted hockey parent. Cohen takes us through a season of hard-fought competition in Fairfield County, Connecticut, an affluent suburb of New York City. Part memoir and part exploration of youth sports and the exploding popularity of American hockey, Pee Wees follows the ups and downs of the Ridgefield Bears, the 12-year-old boys and girls on the team, and the parents watching, cheering, conniving and cursing in the stands. It is a book about the love of the game, the love of parents for their children, and the triumphs and struggles of both. Sponsored by Drew & Lisa Acree and Family

14 | St. Louis Jewish Book Festival 2021

Wednesday, November 17

DAVID BADDIEL Jews Don't Count

AND

SAYED KASHUA Track Changes

10:30am | $20 | PAC A lens into the complex identities of Jewish and Israeli society, comedian David Baddiel joins award-winning writer and satirist Sayed Kashua to explore both the humor and deep seriousness of minority identities. In Jews Don’t Count, Baddiel deploys his unique combination of close reasoning, polemic, personal experience and jokes to argue that those who think of themselves as on the right side of history have often ignored the history of anti-Semitism. He outlines why and how, in a time of intensely heightened awareness of minorities, Jews don’t count as a real minority: and why they should. Track Changes blurs fact and fiction in this compelling story of a nameless memoirist who returns from Illinois to visit his estranged and dying father in Israel, leaving his wife and three children behind. His welcome is lukewarm at best. Sitting by his father’s hospital bed, the memoirist begins to remember long-buried traumas, the root causes of his fallout with his family, the catalyst for his marriage and its recent dissolution, and his strained relationships with his children — all of which is strangely linked to a short story he published years ago about a young girl named Palestine.

LISA SCOTTOLINE, Eternal

SUZANNE NOSSEL, Dare to Speak

1:00am | $10 | Virtual

7:00pm | $20 | PAC

The New York Times bestselling author of legal thrillers such as Look Again and Someone Knows turns her talents to the story of Rome during World War II. Elisabetta, Marco and Sandro grow up as the best of friends despite their differences. Elisabetta is a feisty beauty who dreams of becoming a novelist; Marco, the brash and athletic son in a family of professional cyclists; and Sandro, a Jewish mathematics prodigy, kind-hearted and thoughtful, the son of a lawyer and a doctor. Their friendship blossoms to love, with both Sandro and Marco hoping to win Elisabetta's heart. But in the autumn of 1937, all of that begins to change as Mussolini asserts his power, aligning Italy's Fascists with Hitler's Nazis and altering the very laws that govern Rome. As anti-Semitism takes legal root and World War II erupts, the threesome realizes that Mussolini was only the beginning. In time, everything that the three hold dear — their families, their homes and their connection to one another — is tested in ways they never could have imagined. Sponsored by Jennifer & Jonathan Deutsch

Online trolls and fascist chat groups. Cancel culture versus censorship. The daily hazards and debates surrounding free speech dominate headlines and fuel social media storms. In an era where one tweet can launch — or end — your career, and where free speech is often invoked as a principle but rarely understood, learning to maneuver the fast-changing, treacherous landscape of public discourse has never been more urgent. In Dare to Speak, Suzanne Nossel, formerly U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations and Vice President of Strategy and Operations for the Wall Street Journal, delivers a vital, necessary guide to maintaining democratic debate. At a time when free speech is often pitted against other progressive axioms — namely diversity and equality — Dare to Speak presents a clear-eyed argument that the drive to create a more inclusive society need not, and must not, compromise robust protections for free speech. Sponsored by Phyllis & Steve Kamenetzky, Martha & Jim Bogart, Bob Germain & Bruce Glatter 314.442.3299 • stljewishbookfestival.org

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Thursday, November 18 ANNABELLE GURWITCH You're Leaving When?

DR. CHANDA PRESCOD-WEINSTEIN The Disordered Cosmos

10:30am | $20 | PAC

1:00pm | $10 | Virtual

New York Times best-selling author Gurwitch is back with signature sharp wit in her latest essay collection, You’re Leaving When? Adventures in Downward Mobility. Gurwitch details embracing homesharing, welcoming a housing-insecure young couple and a bunny rabbit into her home. The mother of a college student in recovery who sheds the gender binary, she relearns to parent, one pronoun at a time. She wades into the dating pool in a Miss Havisham-inspired line of lingerie and flunks the magic of tidying up. Currently adapting her chapter If You Lived with Me, You’d Be Home By Now for an HBO series, this latest is for anybody who thought they had a semblance of security but wound up with a fragile economy and a blankie.

One of the leading physicists of her generation, Dr. Prescod-Weinstein is also one of fewer than 100 Black American women to earn a PhD from a physics department. Her vision of the cosmos is vibrant, buoyantly non-traditional, and grounded in Black feminist traditions. Prescod-Weinstein urges us to recognize how science, like most fields, is rife with racism, sexism and other dehumanizing systems. In The Disordered Cosmos, she lays out a bold new approach to science and society that begins with the belief that we all have a fundamental right to know and love the night sky.

Sponsored by Aurelia Konrad Charitable Foundation

Sports Night with

BENJAMIN HOCHMAN, 11 IN '11 7:00pm | $25 | PAC | RSVP by Nov. 1 Of the 11 World Series titles the St. Louis Cardinals have won in their formidable history, 2011's victory stands out as something different, something magical. It was the work of a team that seemingly had no business even playing in October yet one that stared down defeat over and over again, refusing to back down until the trophy was theirs. In 11 in ’11, St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Benjamin Hochman offers on-the-ground and behind-the-scenes perspective as he brings to life a cast of characters including Albert Pujols in his final year in St. Louis, team ace Chris Carpenter, Yadier Molina showing his might both behind and at the plate, and of course the unlikely hero, David Freese. Sponsored by Booksource, Judith & Ted Isaacs, Stacy & Greg Siwak, Judi Scissors & Sam Broh

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THANK YOU TO OUR 2021 FESTIVAL SPONSORS Publisher’s Choice Sponsors

The Lubin-Green Foundation, a supporting Foundation of the Jewish Federation of St. Louis

Dr. Arthur Gale People of the Book Sponsors

Sam and Marilyn Fox Foundation

JCC Association, Center for Israel Engagement

Adinah & Heschel Raskas

Gloria & Sanford Spitzer

Authors Circle Sponsors

In Memory of our founder, Sandy Jaffe

Marie & Stuart Block Robin & David Chervitz Gail Glaser Sidney & Bobbi Guller Family Foundation Aurelia Konrad Charitable Foundation

Harvey Kornblum Foundation Karin Krakover Samuel Krupnick Memorial Scholar-in-Residence Fund Kuhn Foundation Howard Lesser Jean & Stan Margul

S. Mirowitz, Real Estate Broker, Inc. Susan Nagarkatti Wendi Alper-Pressman & Norman Pressman Gianna Jacobson & Todd Siwak

314.442.3299 • stljewishbookfestival.org

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2021 FESTIVAL SPONSORS Literary Chair Sponsors Drew & Lisa Acree and Family Joyce & Richard Becker Judy Berger Berger Memorial Chapel Gail & David Berwald Martha & Jim Bogart Judi Scissors & Sam Broh Nonie Cohen & Family Delmar Gardens Sara Epstein Gloria Feldman Bob Germain & Bruce Glatter Howard Hearsh - In Memory of Betty Hearsh

Margie Horowitz HUEosity Judith & Ted Isaacs Phyllis & Steve Kamenetzky Myrtle & Bernard Kornblum’s Changing the World Fund Lynnsie Kantor Nancy & Ken Kranzberg Phyllis & George Markus JoAnn Raskas Jodie & Sue Rich Paulie & Rabbi Carnie Rose

RubinBrown LLP The Rubin Family Foundation Beth & Donn Rubin Dana & Barry Sandweiss Sh’ma Listen! Speaker Series Jewish Federation of St. Louis Nancy & Al Siwak Stacy & Greg Siwak Marsha D. Soshnik Frank and Bessie Spielberg Foundation St. Louis NORC and the Women’s Auxiliary Foundation for the Jewish Aged Sue & Alan Wallach

Dorette & Ed Goldberg Debbi Grebler Deborah Gilula Cindi & Keith Guller Roberta & Dr. Michael Gutwein Rochelle Kraines Harris, in Memory of Les Harris Myrna & Arnold Hershman Irene & Jim Hirschfield Pam Mendelson Holly Joanne & Joel Iskiwitch Margaret & Martin Israel Guy B. Jaffe & Judy Schwartz Jaffe Charitable Fund Gail & Carl Lang Carole C. Levin Louise & Jeffery Levine Boobie & Ronnie Light Merle & Richard Linkemer Jerri & Bill Livingston Rochelle Weiss & Stephen Loeb

Lynn & Carl Lyss Ricki & Neil Marglous Sanford Neuman Phyllis Hyken & Jerome Nuell Edwin Pepper & Associates Mary & Sanford Pomerantz Marilyn & Gary Ratkin Barbara & Don Rubin Julie & Monte Sandler Eileen & Larry Schechter Helen & Julian Seeherman Andy & Stan Shanker Regina M. Shapiro Ann & Alan Spector Julie B. & Tim Stern Elaine & Marc Tenzer Cynthia Payant & James White Barb & Dr. Michael Williams Linda Yatkeman Aleene Schneider Zawada

Pageturner Sponsors Penny & Marc Alper B'nai B'rith St. Louis Missouri Lodge #22 Busey Bank Harvey Brown Marilyn K. & Steven Brown Nancy & Al Charlson Marla & Ed Cohen Sue Matlof & Michael Cohen Florence Cohn Debbie & Jeff Dalin Jennifer & Jonathan Deutsch Eileen Edelman Eidelman & Traub, DDS Gail & Charles Eisenkramer Irene Fox & Floyd Emert Rochelle & Stan Ferdman Enid Weisberg-Frank & Dr. Bruce Frank Julie & Leonard Frankel Hillary & Dr. William Friedman Carolyn & Chuck Furfine

18 | St. Louis Jewish Book Festival 2021

2021 FESTIVAL SPONSORS Community Co-Sponsoring Organizations Bais Abraham Congregation B’nai Amoona Sisterhood Central Reform Congregation Congregation Shaare Emeth Congregation Temple Israel Crown Center for Senior Living Jewish Community Relations Council Jewish Family Services Kol Rinah Sisterhood

The Miriam Foundation National Council of Jewish Woman – St. Louis Section St. Louis County Library St. Louis Friends of Israel St. Louis Jewish Light St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum St. Louis Rabbinical & Cantorial Association Temple Emanuel United Hebrew Congregation

Co-Sponsoring Book Clubs A La Carte Book Club Book Babes The Bookees Novel Women

Page Turners The Roundtable Temple Emanuel Book Club

The Jewish Book Festival and the J sincerely thank each of our dedicated sponsors, many of whom also give their time and expertise. This festival is for you and by you, and its excellence is a reflection of your care and continued support. Thank you!

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2021 St. Louis Jewish Book Festival Executive Board Festival Co-Chairs: Jim Bogart & Louise Levine Vice Chairs Bookstore: Marilyn Brown & Barb Williams Vice Chairs Sponsor Relations: Judy Berger & Julie Frankel Vice Chairs Hospitality: Judy Schwartz Jaffe, Judy Plocker & Judi Scissors Vice Chairs Community Engagement: Bonnie Solomon & Fran Kunitz Vice Chairs Special Programs: Eileen Edelman, Regina Shapiro & Dee Berman Vice Chairs Volunteer Engagement: Bruce Glatter & Pam Holly

Important Information for ALL Events All in-person programs take place at the J’s Staenberg Family Complex in Creve Coeur.

Free parking is available in the J’s Upper and Northern lots. Shuttle buses will run continuously through all J parking lots for 30 minutes prior to each program and 30 minutes after. Guests are asked to enter through the Arts & Education entrance.

Committee Chairs Bookstore Orders & Inventory: Judy Barnett & Marilen Pitler Bookstore Volunteers: Kris Caldwell Bookstore Set-up & Tear-down: Sofia Kent & Phyllis Siegel Raffles: Barb Raznick Missouri’s Own: Hillary Friedman, Linda K. Kusmer, Carole C. Levin & Gloria Spitzer Women’s Night: Debbi Grebler, Barb Kramer & Paula Sigel Sports Night: Rhonda Appel, Myron Holtzman & Earl Salsman Ticketing: Reva Davis & Valerie Shapiro Blue Song Supports: Linda K. Kusmer and Marilen Pitler

Jewish Book Council The St. Louis Jewish Book Festival is proud to be a long-term partner of the National Jewish Book Council. The following authors are represented by the Council: Uri Adoni, Annabelle Gurwitch, Pam Jenoff Menachem Kaiser, Jean Hanff Korelitz Jamie Krakover, Ken Krimstein, E. Lockhart Jean Meltzer, Suzanne Nossel, Francine Prose Monique Faison Ross, Lisa Scottoline, Paula Shoyer, Tracy Walder, Liza Wiemer

Staff Director, Literary Arts: Hilary Gan Manager, Box Office: Aemi Tucker

Thank you to Main Street Books for their support of the Festival.

Thank you to our Festival photographer.

Program of the Jewish Community Center