Journeys to Freedom
Speakers: Julia Neiberger, Joanne Newman, Rosie Whitehouse Two highly respected writers join Julia Neuberger to discuss the Jewish exodus from Europe before, during and after the war. In Nearly the New World: The British West Indies and The Flight from Nazism 1933-1945, Association of Commonwealth Universities secretary general Joanna Newman reveals the little-known story of […]
A Human History of the Oceans
Speakers: David Abulafia, Sam Leith For most of human history, the seas and oceans have been the main means of long-distance communication between peoples. To this day 90% of global trade is conducted this way and it has been pivotal to the spread of ideas and religion since the Polynesians in the first century. Historian David […]
Love in Wartime
Speakers: , Stuart E. Eizenstat The Holocaust remains a subject difficult to grasp and almost impossible to document. Award-winning photographer Max Hirshfeld searched for decades for the right way to share his Auschwitz survivor parents’ story of love and perseverance before, during and after. The result was Sweet Noise, combining transatlantic love letters with stunning […]
Heinrich Heine: Poet, Writer, Critic
Speakers: George Prochnik, Abraham Socher Born in 1797 Heinrich Heine was a virtuoso German poet, satirist and visionary humanist whose dynamic life story and strikingly original writing are ripe for rediscovery. In Heinrich Heine: Writing a Revolution, George Prochnik, who won a National Jewish Book Award for his biography of Stefan Zweig, explores both his […]
Israel: Its Own Worst Enemy?
Speakers: Ami Ayalon, Anshel Pfeffer A three-decade military career that began in 1963 saw Ami Ayalon awarded the Medal of Valour, and a meteoric rise to the position of Commander of the Israeli Navy, before becoming head of the Shin Bet security agency and later serving in the Cabinet. Now in his Friendly Fire: How Israel […]
Lionel Shriver in Conversation with Zoe Strimpel
Speakers: Lionel Shriver, Zoe Strimpel The Orange Prize winning author of We Need to Talk About Kevin and The Mandibles returns to Jewish Book Week to discuss her career and give a preview of her next novel. Lionel Shriver’s most recent book The Motion Of The Body Through Space was described as “scabrously funny” by […]
Why Do Jews Love The Godfather
Speakers: Rich Cohen, Harlan Lebo, Jonathan Freedland Five decades on, Francis Ford Coppola’s adaption of Mario Puzo’s novel remains at the top of numerous greatest movies ever lists. What is it about this very Italian-American film series that has captured the imaginations of generations of Jewish men in particular? Jonathan Freedland is joined by Vanity […]
You Talkin’ to Me
Speakers: E.J. White, Harry Mount From ‘con man’ to ‘rush hour’, New York City has given us numerous popular words and phrases, along the way fashioning a recognisable dialect all its own. In You Talkin’ to Me? The Unruly History of New York English E. J. White explores a hidden history encompassing social class, immigration, real estate, and the original plan […]
Cities of Strangers
Speakers: Miri Rubin, Dominic Selwood In her latest book Miri Rubin illuminates life in European towns and cities for both the settled population and the newcomers who joined them between 1000 and 1500 AD. Some city-states enjoyed considerable autonomy and invited groups from afar, as well as professionals such as physicians, notaries and judges to […]
The House of Fragile Things
Speakers: James McAuley, Patrick Bade Between 1870 and 1945 several prominent French Jews, pillars of an embattled community, invested their fortunes in France’s cultural artifacts, sacrificed their sons to the country’s army – and were ultimately rewarded by seeing their collections plundered and their families deported to Nazi concentration camps. James McAuley, Paris correspondent for […]
Taking Liberties: Jewish Women Poets
Speakers: Aviva Dautch, Jacqueline Saphra From Bible stories to re-envisioning the work of great artists, Aviva Dautch and Jacqueline Saphra explore, with conversation and readings, what it means to be a Jewish woman poet. Previously poet-in-residence at the Jewish Museum and commissioned by Bradford Literature Festival and the British Museum, Dautch has read her work on […]
Modern Jewish Literature
From mass emigration out of Eastern Europe to the creation of Israel, the last century transformed Jewish life. The same was true of Jewish writers: their novels, plays, poems and memoirs provided intimate access to new worlds of experience. In The Blessing and the Curse: The Jewish People and Their Books in the Twentieth Century, […]