The First Lady of Fleet St
Yehuda Halevi
Speakers: Hillel Halkin, Anthony Julius Ron Arad is a central figure in contemporary design, renowned for his willingness to push boundaries between disciplines and experiment with processes and materials. Many of his designs such as the Rover chair and the Bookworm bookshelf are iconic. His architectural projects including the Tel Aviv Opera House and Holon […]
60 Years On: George Webber Memorial Evening
Speakers: Linda Grant, Simon Schama, Emily Maitlis, Eva Hoffman 2012 marked the sixtieth anniversary of the first Jewish Book Week in London. It was first organised by the Jewish Book Council in November 1952 under the chairmanship of Dr George Webber. Remarkably it has taken place every year since. It began as a fairly modest […]
Peter Mandelson in conversation with Nick Cohen
Speakers: Peter Mandelson, Nick Cohen Watch as we were joined by Peter Mandelson and Nick Cohen for the launch of the paperback of The Third Man: Life at the Heart of New Labour.
Simon Wiesenthal: The Life and Legends
Speakers: Tom Segev, Jonathan Freedland In his research for his biography of Simon Weisenthal, Tom Segev had access to previously unseen and recently declassified papers, rendering this the first fully documented biography of the world-renowned Nazi-hunter. Segev uncovers and places into context, Wiesenthal’s relationship with Mossad, his real involvement in Eichmann’s arrest, the unlikely friendships […]
The Punishment of Gaza
Speakers: Gideon Levy, Johan Hari Gideon Levy has been called “a propagandist for Hamas” by Israeli right-wingers but sees himself as a patriot who wants to be proud of his country. He told Johann Hari what makes him angry and ashamed, his duty to fight injustice and inhumanity with his pen and his hopes for […]
Vasily Grossman
Speakers: Janet Suzman, Robert Chandler, Janet Wolff Vasily Grossman is famous for his masterpiece Life and Fate and his writing as a reporter embedded within the Red Army, particularly for his powerful report on Treblinka. Robert Chandler (his translator and editor of The Road) revealed to us Grossman not only as a heroic witness, but […]
We Had It So Good
Speakers: Linda Grant,Joan Bakewell Linda Grant spoke to Joan Bakewell about her new novel, We Had It So Good, which takes us from the late 60s to today, following the lives of a group of friends from youthful idealism to middle-class successes, until the events of late middle-age and the new century force them to […]
Who Do We Think We Are
Speakers: Gary Younge, Jeffrey Kaye, Hannah Pool Journalists Gary Younge and Jeffrey Kaye wrestled with “identity” in this thought-provoking session. Younge assessed that identity politics may be a great place to start an idea of self and community but a terrible place to conclude. Kaye examined what he terms ‘coyote capitalism’, a strategy which defines […]
Howard Jacobson in conversation with Jonathan Freedland
Speakers: Howard Jacobson, Jonathan Freedland The Finkler Question is the ‘first unashamedly comic novel’ to win the prestigious Booker Prize and flagrantly Jewish to boot. Howard Jacobson and Jonathan Freedland – two restlessly questing souls – will wrestle “finklerisms” in intellectual combat: Does Jewishness provide a “way in” to the deep and meaningful questions of […]
True Tales
Speakers: Meg Rosoff, Jake Wallis Simons, Clive Sinclair, Debbie Chazen, David Flusfeder, Stella Duffy, Benjamin Markovits The totally true storytelling club returned for JBW 2011. We selected some of our favourite writers who revealed true moments of beauty, awkwardness, tragedy and hilarity all packaged in 10-minute stories and told with no notes. JBW 2011 theme […]
Translating Anne Frank
Speakers: Daniel Hahn, Shaun Whiteside, Sam Garrett Most of Anne Frank’s readers come to her diary through a translation. How much has this affected our experience of this iconic piece of writing? How much is the voice we feel we know so well really the creation of her translators? Two prize-winning Dutch-English translators produced independent […]