If there’s such as thing as a Golden Age of Jewish literature, it probably had its start 60 years ago, when authors like Isaac Bashevis Singer and Saul Bellow unstintingly declared the Jewish presence in American society. Nobel prizes would eventually follow for both men, and soon, works reflecting the uniquely Jewish experience were part of the mainstream book trade.
That was then, and this is now. To say that Jewish literature has kept pace with today’s 24-hour news cycle is to understate the burgeoning presence of Jewish book fairs, seminars and websites. Recently, the San Diego Jewish Book Fair has become a major factor atop this landscape – and if you set aside some time on Nov. 8 to 10 and Nov. 13 to 16 for points in Cardiff-by-the-Sea and University City, you’ll have fun in your trek through a genre that’s singularly impressive in its own right.
Events take place at Cardiff’s Temple Solel the 8th and 10th and UC’s Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center for the second installment – and Marcia Wollner, director of literary arts and education at the community center’s Center for Jewish Culture, said the Cardiff venue reflects one growth phase as the book fair marks its 20th installment. “It’s our movement into North County,” Wollner said. “Almost half of the book fair is up in North County, with Temple Solel. We have events at [North County retirement community] Seacrest Village and one at [Rancho Santa Fe], so we’re really trying to capture more audience from all over, La Jolla, East County, North County. That’s the big difference in the growth over the last 20 years.” This year marks Wollner’s fourth as book fair spokesperson.
Twenty-four authors and 5,000 patrons are expected at this year’s events, Wollner said, adding that the central figures are vetted by New York’s Jewish Book Council.
Fair officials, Wollmer added, are scrutinizing the program choices more closely. “This year,” she explained, “we have more than just having a speaker talk about their book. [Attendees will] see more events this year that have panels. The authors have been the ones to suggest people we should bring to the table.” Liel Leibozitz’s “A Broken Hallelujah,” for example, looks at the life of poet-turned-musician Leonard Cohen, composer of hits like “First We Take Manhattan” and “Bird on the Wire” – Leibovitz’s talk will include a dash of live Cohen tunes.
“We’re just trying to round it out a little more,” Wollner said. “That’s something we’ve really made the effort to do this year.”
Enter Eddie Shapiro, whose Nov. 15 talk will be backdropped by members of J*Company Youth Theatre. They’ll perform Broadway medleys and vignettes to color his talk on his “Nothing Like a Dame: Conversations with the Great Women of Musical Theater.” Shapiro’s loaded with stories about 20 Broadway performers, like 81-year-old Chita Rivera’s seven decades in show business, Angela Lansbury’s five Tony Awards, Carol Channing’s impromptu concert at an L.A. hotel (“Carol’s crazy-smart,” Shapiro said) and the changes the art form has seen over the decades.
Laura Silver’s cooking-based “Knish: In Search of the Jewish Soul Food”: biographer Kai Bird’s intrigue-driven “The Good Spy: The Life and Death of Robert Ames,” which chronicles the CIA operative’s 1983 assassination in Beirut; music historian James Grymes’ “Violins of Hope: Violins of the Holocaust—Instruments of Hope and Liberation in Mankind’s Darkest Hour”; food authority Daron Joffe’s “Citizen Farmers: The Biodynamic Way to Grow Healthy Food, Build Thriving Communities, and Give Back to the Earth”: They’re all parcel of an author conclave whose command of Jewish
themes is as formidable as their command of the language, their colossal work ethic and their unique worship-driven take on secular life.
“Jewish literature is growing,” Wollner confirms. “In the past, you could only talk about a few authors, but now there are so many. [Holocaust] and [second-generation] survivors still have the opportunity to tell their story and their parents’ stories. That’s one small piece of what’s available at the book fair. We want to make sure that all those legacies and testimonies come to life,” thus sanctioning a future for an indispensable part of American society.
For more on the fair, see sdcjc.org/sdjbf.