Twin Cities Jewish Book Fair begins Oct. 27

AJW Staff Report

The St. Paul JCC will celebrate the significant contributions of today’s authors during the 2010 Twin Cities Jewish Book Fair, which will run Oct. 27 through Feb. 23, 2011.

The book fair will kick off with a pre-event fundraiser for the JCC featuring Joan Nathan, whose newest cookbook is Quiches, Kugels and Couscous: My Search for Jewish Cooking in France (Knopf).

Lynne Rossetto Kasper, of American Public Media’s “The Splendid Table,” will interview Nathan at a luncheon 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 19 at FACES on Mears Park, 380 Jackson St., St. Paul. Tickets are $45 for St. Paul JCC members (pre-sale for members only through Oct. 4) and $55 for the community (tickets on sale starting Oct. 5).

The book fair will begin with a keynote reception with Rabbi Harold Kushner 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 27 at the JCC, 1375 St. Paul Ave. Kushner will present his 12th book, Conquering Fear: Living Boldly in an Uncertain World (Knopf), in which he discusses fears of natural disasters, terrorism, growing old, rejection and death.

Click “Keep reading” for the rest of the book fair’s lineup (all events take place at the St. Paul JCC, unless otherwise noted).

• Gregory Levey, author of How to Make Peace in the Middle East in Six Months or Less without Leaving Your Apartment, will speak 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 4. Levey describes the bizarre circumstances in which, at the age of 25, he served as the Israeli government’s speechwriter and one of its delegates at the United Nations, and then went on to become senior foreign communications coordinator and English speechwriter for Prime Ministers Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert.

• Yale Strom, author of Dave Tarras: The King of Klezmer, will speak 7 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 7. Musician and ethnomusicologist Strom introduces readers to the life and music of klezmer clarinetist Dave Tarras. Strom’s book contains stories, photos, and scores for 28 of Tarras’ original klezmer tunes published for the first time.

• Lucy Rose Fischer, author of I’m New at Being Old, will speak 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 9. Offering wit, whimsy and fanciful art, this picture book for women explores the personal experience of a most common phenomenon — getting older.

• Gal Beckerman, author of When They Come for Us We’ll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry, will speak 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 11. Beckerman has chronicled the story of nearly three million Jews who were trapped inside the Soviet Union at the end of World War II.

• The 2010 Community Reads selection is Daniel Levin’s The Last Ember; he will speak 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 13. The book spans the high-stakes worlds of archaeology, politics and terrorism in its portrayal of the modern struggle to define — and redefine — history itself.

The Twin Cities Jewish Book Fair continues with two more events in 2011.

Rimon: The Minnesota Jewish Arts Council will join forces with the Twin Cities Jewish Book Fair to host Jennifer Gilmore, author of Something Red, at a Rimon Artist Salon 3 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 9, 2011. As O Magazine describes the book: “Generations and politics collide in a stellar story about the legacies and secrets of the 1960s.”

Also, Sue Fishkoff, author of Kosher Nation: Why More and More of America’s Food Answers to a Higher Authority, comes to town 11 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 23. In her account of a Bible-based practice that has grown into a multibillion-dollar industry, Fishkoff travels throughout America and to Shanghai, China, to find out who eats kosher food, who produces it and who is responsible for its certification.

Tickets range from $6 to $10 for JCC members, and $9 to $15 for the community. People of the Book Series passes are $45 for members and $65 for the community. For tickets and information, visit: www.stpauljcc.org or call 651-698-0751.

(American Jewish World, 10.15.10)