More members of the Jewish Book Festival Committee

By Gayle Dorio, Jewish Book Festival Chair

Iran out of room in my column last month about our interesting, hardworking, wonderful committee members and thought you would enjoy reading about what a few more of them had to say about themselves:

Judith Finer Freeman

• I grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a place where there is a thriving Jewish community.

• I wrote a book in 2010 on the new (at the time) generation in the workplace.

• My favorite book is “D-Day” by Stephen Ambrose. It reads like fiction but sadly it’s not fiction. It’s very educational.

Carol Hirsch

• I authored a linguistic reader workbook (in 1978).

• I play flute and piccolo.

• I didn’t get my driver’s license until I was 22.

• My favorite book of all time is “Gone with the Wind.”

Nancy Wiadro

• I was a Curved Bar Girl Scout who spent many, many summers digging latrines, putting up tents, cooking on a fire and camping in the woods or by lakes (including the very lake where our granddaughter was just married).

• I sang in my childhood Temple’s choir from age 13 to adulthood while hearing my grandfather and father blow the shofar.

• I taught myself to play an acoustic guitar and performed folk songs in France, Connecticut and Boston, often in harmony with my sister, Jane.

• My favorite book is “The Weight of Ink” by Rachel Kadish.

Lenore Greenstein

• I was the nutrition editor, food and wine writer and lifestyle journalist for the Naples Daily News and, before that, in Jacksonville, Florida and Dayton, Ohio.

• I was nutrition consultant at Canyon Ranch Health Spa in the Berkshires, and count Joanne Woodward and Mary Tyler Moore as my former clients.

• I did my master’s thesis in food science on the best way to cook broccoli to retain all of its nutrients!

• I am a hopeless romantic, so “Gone with the Wind” is the first book I absolutely loved!

Phil Jason

• I am the author of some 20 books.

• My academic work has been published in dozens of journals.

• I maintain a strong connection with Beth Tikvah of Naples, a conservative synagogue for which my wife Ruth and I are founding members.

• I have had columns in several local newspapers.

• I ran the first annual Jewish Book Festival in Collier County.

• One of my favorite Jewish books is “The Ruined House” by Ruby Namdar.

Ida Margolis

• I was an elected office holder in New Jersey.

• I received a lovely, personal handwritten letter from President Richard Nixon after sending him reports my students had written about his excellent book, “Leaders.”

• I read banned books.

• My favorite book is “Words that Hurt, Words that Heal” by Joseph Telushkin

We are truly blessed to have such talent on our committee!

Please pardon the error

In the October committee member article, when Carole Greene provided the name of her favorite book, she mistakenly indicated the author’s last name and has asked that it be corrected for the record. “A Prayer for Owen Meany” was beautifully written by John Irving.