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October 25, 2002/Cheshvan 19 5763, Vol. 55, No. 9
Book fair offers pleasures, rewards
VICKI CABOT
Contributing Editor
Rabbi Joseph Telushkin
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Tell me a story.
What child - or adult - has not reveled in the joys of reading or listening to a well-crafted tale? And what child or adult has not become richer for it?
Jewish Book Month, observed each November, celebrates both the simple pleasures of storytelling and the incredible wealth of stories now available for Jewish readers.
According to Carolyn Hessel of the Jewish Book Council, national sponsor of the month, the annual celebration of books was first initiated in 1925 in Boston. It quickly spread to other communities and grew to a month-long observance in 1943. Originally coinciding with the holiday of Lag B'Omer, traditionally regarded as the scholars' festival, the event was moved to the pre-Hanukkah period in 1940 to promote Jewish books as holiday gifts.
Today, Jewish Book Month provides an opportunity to showcase the ever-growing number of Jewish books and Jewish authors.
"The Jewish book business, once centered in Europe but devastated by World War II, has been reinvigorated here in North America and is once again flourishing," explains Hessel from the council offices in New York. She noted that books have played a signal role in Jewish cultural and religious life, helping to develop and strengthen Jewish communities throughout the world.
Here, Jewish book month will be marked with 10 days of events and programs sponsored by the Valley of the Sun Jewish Community Center at its new location at the Ina Levine Jewish Community Campus, 12701 N. Scottsdale Road. Sandy Adler is chairing the series.
Tricia Serlin, JCC director of adult services, notes the importance of recognizing the vast Jewish literary resources we have available.
"We need to support Jewish authors and learn from them," she says.
Learning is the focus of the activities planned.
Keynote speaker Rabbi Joseph Telushkin will kick off the series, 7 p.m., Nov. 4. Telushkin, author of a raft of Jewish books including "Jewish Literacy: The Most Important Things to Know About the Jewish Religion, Its People, and Its History," the best-selling Jewish book of the past two decades, will speak about his new book, "The Golden Land: The Story of the Jewish Migrations to America."
"It's really a happy story, a success story," says Telushkin of the book that tells the story of how the Jews came to America. In a telephone interview from his New York home, Telushkin explained that the book is a pastiche of written text and historic artifacts that illuminate the stories. For example, he explained, a section in the book discussing the migration from Eastern Europe is juxtaposed with an envelope containing Yiddish playbills from a New York theater.
The result, he says, "makes you feel as if you are touching history."
The immigrant story resonates for Telushkin as it does for most American Jews. His grandparents came from a place near Minsk, then known as White Russia. He was raised in Brooklyn in an Orthodox neighborhood that was home to many Holocaust survivors.
While there was discrimination, there was also a level of acceptance. That combination is what defines the American Jewish experience, he says.
"Because America is a nation of immigrants, we are more open to different people than other societies."
That has made it a land of opportunity for the Jews, he says, a place where "we have the capacity to fulfill our dreams."
On Wednesday, Nov. 6, novelist Victoria Zackheim will lead workshops that help novices trace their own histories and turn family lore into written records.
"Turning Your Family History into Fiction: A Writer's Workshop" is at 10 a.m., "Documenting Your Family History" is at 1:30 p.m.
Zackheim is author of "The Bone Weaver," a contemporary novel that intersperses the story of an immigrant family with that of a young woman seeking to deal with the untimely death of a close friend.
Zackheim explained in a telephone interview from her San Francisco home that the novel began in 1977 as a project researching her late father's family history. She put it aside after six months and did not look at it again until 1984 when she was working on her first novel.
"I started to work on a novel about a woman dealing with her grief and discovering all the things she did not do in her life. I wondered about her history..."
Zackheim pulled her historical notes from a storage crate and began to create a history for Mimi, the protagonist, from her own.
"I spread out the pages (of my research) on the dining table and cut them into paragraphs and then sat down with the draft of the novel, and I began to go through the story and piece in the paragraphs where (Mimi) could flash back into her family."
The result is an intriguing read, interspersing chapters of Mimi's contemporary life with that of her grandmother, Rivka.
Zackheim emphasizes that her book is fiction, but that fiction can be a "wonderful way to document reality as long as it remains clear what is fiction and what is reality."
Her workshop seeks to teach participants to take the wonderful stories of their families and turn them into fiction. A second workshop will focus on interview techniques useful in researching a family history.
"People find out that writing is not so difficult if you are writing about something you know or feel," she says. "You're writing about something that sits on the edge of your heart."
That may lead you to discover what is in your heart, she notes.
"Learning about my family, I learned a lot about myself," she admits. "A window popped open."
Details
- Who: Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, Victoria Zackheim and 12 other authors
- What: Valley of the Sun Jewish Community Center Jewish Book Fair 2002
- When: Nov. 4-15
- Where: Ina Levine Jewish Community Center Campus, 12701 N. Scottsdale Road
- Cost: Series pass for participation in 17 events, $36 for JCC members, $45 for nonmembers. Series pass includes a $10 coupon towards purchase of $50 or more at the book fair. Individual events, $5 for JCC members, $8 nonmembers and a $1 coupon toward book purchase of $10 or more.
- Call: 480-483-7121, ext. 1206
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