Baaaack and ready for the 8th Jewish Book Festival!

By Gayle Dorio, JBF Chair

So, what did you do over your summer vacation? Remember when this was a familiar question? Many of us enjoy a “perpetual vacation” here in paradise. Some snowbirds divide the year into “season” and “going back.” I hope you enjoyed your time these past few months and are now ready to get back. Yes, we are ready for another exciting Jewish Book Festival, sponsored by Jewish Federation of Greater Naples – number 8!

In May, the Jewish Book Council (JBC) in New York offered more than 250 authors on Zoom. Emily Berkowitz, Jan Goldman and Carol Hirsch joined Reneè and me to listen to the author presentations over three long days. We hoped we’d fi nd interesting books and entertaining authors. Some authors still hadn’t mastered speaking on Zoom, had difficulty looking at the camera and/ or staying muted. Some books didn’t get positive reviews. Imagine our excitement when both the book and author captured our attention – when they both came together!

The JBF committee did an outstanding job reading lots of books, sending in reviews, (over 100 book reviews!) and discussing their preferences for possible authors to invite. Iris Shur and Steve Yussen tied for the most reviews sent in (ask them about their prizes!). It’s essential to have a committee that works together so effectively. Thank you all!

Our goal is to offer an assortment of nonfiction and fiction books offering a variety of subjects we feel you will enjoy. We plan to showcase memoir, historical fiction, environment, news, business, a book about basketball, one about Coco Chanel and a fun cookbook author we expect to pair with a brunch!

The current plan is to have 14 events, most (nine) on Zoom, and five in person. Many people told us they enjoy Zoom – no need to dress up, drive anywhere and one always gets a front row seat! Zoom also enables us to invite authors who live far away. Many, however, enjoy events in person, where they are able to socialize with friends and meet the author. We plan to livestream the in-person events as technology allows.

As you well know, inflation rages around us and everything costs more. continued on page 7

There was some concern about pricing for this year. I am very pleased to say that we will be maintaining the same prices as last year — no price increase! Instead, we hope more people will decide to support the book festival and the number of patrons from last year will double! Thank you in advance for your support!

Please choose to be a Platinum patron at $500, a Silver patron at $225 or a Bronze patron at $118. Also, if you have a business or know some businesses that would like to sponsor an event, please contact Reneè Bialek with that information so she can provide details. It’s all on the naplesjewish.org website!

Another thing on the website is the registration for the Preview Event! Zoom in on Sept. 29 at 2 p.m. (E.T.) to learn all about the authors/books/events. Remember, as always, the Zoom link will be emailed two hours prior to the start of each event to those who had registered.

We owe thanks to Larry Israelite, who diligently works on the registration site, making it easy for us to register for events. Reneè is the one who does the website. Check it out. Let us know what you think.

How many of you will visit the website? I wonder…

I must share a poem by Julia Donaldson about books!