Good Slut: Michael Gove & Zoe Strimpel
Despite the fear-mongering from across the political spectrum, Zoe Strimpel argues that there has never been a better moment to be a woman. As Good Slut: How Money, Sex and Power Set Women Free is published, the author and Sunday Telegraph columnist returns to Jewish Book Week. She joins Spectator editor and Cabinet veteran Michael […]
Philip Roth: A Life
Few writers were more devoted to their craft than Philip Roth, even while mixing with the Kennedys and navigating a string of famous and infamous romances. For all his writing on sex and self, the Pulitzer winner saw himself as a socially withdrawn “unchaste monk”. Stanford professor Steven J. Zipperstein joins us to discuss Stung […]
The Work of Writing: Ten New Voices
This year’s cohort of Genesis JLF Emerging Writers describe their projects, processes and writing journeys alongside their mentors, which this year include Thomas Harding, Kate Worsley, Ben Markovits, Adam Kammerling and Stav Poleg. Books being developed in this year’s programme include a history of a Jewish circus family, a graphic memoir of personal scars and […]
Fin-de-siecle Emigré collectors: A British Story
Exalted in Edwardian society for their philanthropy and cultural patronage, a circle of German-Jewish magnates emerged as the foremost art collectors in fin-de-siècle Britain. But during the dark days of World War One their loyalties were condemned, their collections scattered after their deaths, and their legacy largely erased from art history. Magnates & Masterpieces is the […]
Mel Brooks: The Almost 100 Year Old Man
Brownsville, Brooklyn, June 28th, 1926: on a tenement table is born a baby who will transform comedy. To commemorate his centenary, we celebrate Mel Brooks and his dazzling seven decades on stage and screen, from The 2000 Year Old Man and Young Frankenstein to The Producers and History of the World, Parts I & II. […]
Matchmaker, Matchmaker: A Practical Guide
Catch me a catch! Renowned American-Israeli relationship coach Aleeza Ben Shalom shot to international fame as the star of Netflix’s Jewish Matchmaking. Now, with hundreds of successful matches to her name, she joins us in London for a special event around her paradigm-shifting, highly original book Matchmaker, Matchmaker: Find Me a Love That Lasts. With her signature mix of […]
The Global Yiddish Story
It was the everyday language of most of the world’s Jews for a thousand years, shaping a cultural legacy of remarkable diversity and achievement. The Yiddish Book Center in Massachusetts is the first museum devoted entirely to this heritage, with its immersive permanent exhibition Yiddish: A Global Culture at its core. Its chief curator, journalist […]
Hidden Histories: Spies, Secrets and Survival
Extraordinary true stories of espionage come to life as Daria Santini presents A Woman Named Edith, the first full biography of Edith Tudor Hart, a Jewish-Austrian exile, photographer, anti-fascist, and Soviet agent who recruited Kim Philby yet eluded capture. Drawing on newly declassified material, Helen Fry returns with The White Lady, a major history of […]
Latin American Journeys: Memory & Belonging
Join authors Jordan Salama, winner of this year’s Peter Gilbert Prize, awarded by the Woolf Institute for his piece published in Jewish Renaissance magazine, and Eduardo Halfon for a conversation with literary translator Daniel Hahn about the interweaving of family, memory and identity across generations. Salama traces his Arab-Jewish heritage from Syria and Iraq to […]
Every Hostage Has a Story
In the days after October 7, 2023, the National Library of Israel created a stark and moving installation: rows of empty chairs, each paired with a carefully chosen book dedicated to one of the abducted hostages. Conceived and led by NLI Reference Librarian Dorit Gani, the project fused scholarship, sensitivity, and profound human care. The empty chairs […]
Who Jew Think You Are? Live
Join Eylan Ezekiel, host of the Who Jew Think You Are? podcast, in conversation with authors Jordan Salama and Samantha Ellis. They explore how stories, language and food keep Jewish heritage alive across generations – from Iraqi and Syrian Jewish families to Latin American diasporas—and reflect on memory, identity and the parts of Jewish experience […]
Mamdani: A New New York
New York, home to the largest Jewish community outside Israel, is experiencing a profound political and cultural shift. What do these changes mean for Jewish identity, security and civic life? Zohran Mamdani’s shock election as mayor saw senate minority leader Chuck Schumer declining to endorse his fellow Democrat. Jane Eisner, who led The Forward for […]