Jewish Book Festival 2020 Program…
–
PROLOGUE
Beckoned by the Light
Thursday, January 30 | 7:00pm in the Gallery
LINDA FRIMER/ DOT (in preparation for publication)
FREE
“From the time I was a young child living in the wilderness town of Wells, BC, I have followed the light in creation and sought to immerse myself within it. I grew to understand that nature and culture rise inseparable in creation, and I devote my art to ennobling the sacred light within them both, as this light beckons me every day.” Linda’s memoir DOT is the art story of her life, still in the process of being prepared for publication. She will read from the manuscript and showcase some of the publisher’s design elements going into the making of her book.
A Vancouver painter and writer, LINDA FRIMER has spent her life expressing the innate unity in all of life’s forms. She has become a champion of environmental and health issues, a cultural and community facilitator for the release of trauma through creativity, and a teacher.
“It is so full of brilliant visuals and musicality all focused on complex ethics yet appropriate for children. A daunting task that she has met with delight.” – Lynn Szabo
“A profound and authentic book that can change your life. Because Anne Andrew had the courage to see her child’s behavior problems as ‘cries for love,’ they became opportunities for growth for both her and her child.” – Peggy O’Mara
What is spiritual? What is religious?
The book brings together business and spirituality in a cohesive and engaging narrative to answer the big questions that preoccupy employers and employees. Biblical stories are interwoven with real business stories to illustrate many lessons that apply to other life situations.
“Gila Green paints in all the colours/hues of the Jewish palette. These gritty yet shimmering stories are rich in intimate details, peopled with a cast of heart wrenching characters at once familiar and unique.”
The session will review the changing roles of female authors in Zionist history and in Israel today. The lives and achievements of key female role models, past and present, will be discussed.
Bouncing between a stolen house in a Polish shtetl and a pop bottle on Vancouver’s East Side, the book is a fresh and telling portrait of the relationship between prewar Polish shtetl life and Jewish lives today. In these old and new worlds a mystery lurks, and Ravvin lovingly recovers the past of both. A novel of city life, music-making, and the repercussions of large and small crimes.
The Inheritors is a timely book on generational trauma that helps readers move forward from the unrelenting sense of sadness, loss and betrayal. Inherited trauma affects us, consciously or unconsciously, engendering thoughts and feelings about devastating events that happened when we were very young or before we were born. The Inheritors also addresses the descendants of perpetrators, collaborators and bystanders who may feel guilt and shame or anger and hate. Dr. Baack believes that the untold and unprocessed stories by this group represent the inherent cause for the perpetuation of hatred, racism and violence.
“Kurgan has achieved something rare in this book: a truly dynamic fusion of text and image.” – Ivan Vladislavic
“Original in perspective, range and tone, Confessions of a Yiddish Writer offers a powerful and remarkable presentation of Holocaust-related memoir and careful readings of key Yiddish and European writers. Rosenfarb addresses many of the key themes of 20th century history and Jewish daily life, in her wonderfully intimate and wry way. And she sets herself apart from the crowd on any number of familiar themes.” – Norman Ravvin
A vibrant, compelling memoir from a remarkable young woman that bravely reveals the real-life havoc wrought by depression and the urgent search for solutions. Illuminating, completely engaging – it is essential reading for all.
“There are few people who can talk about meatballs for ten minutes while keeping an entire table under their spell. Haya Molcho counts among the few.”
Nattel has brilliantly blended fact with fiction in this unique, thrilling, sometimes terrifying novel based on the life and death of Lily Litvyak, a female Soviet flying ace and fighter pilot shot down behind German lines in the World War II. Lily Litvyak is no one’s idea of a fighter pilot: a tiny, dimpled teenager with golden curls who lied about her age in order to fly. But in the crucible of the air war against the German invaders, she becomes that rare thing – a flying ace, glorified at home and around the world as the White Lily of Stalingrad. The real Lily disappeared in combat in August 1943, and the facts of her life are slim, but they have inspired Lilian Nattel’s indelible portrait of a courageous young woman driven by family secrets to become an unlikely war hero.
ADRIENNE DROBNIES / Salt and Ashes
ALEX LESLIE / Vancouver for Beginners
LAURA ZACHARIN / Common Brown House Moths
“Seamlessly blends impeccable science with Indigenous knowledge and offers a hopeful call to action to save our planet and ourselves. Beautifully written, poignant and mind-expanding, this outstanding book deserves a broad global audience so that we can begin right now to find our way back to our place in nature.” – Mark Bekoff
A young Canadian woman’s search for her own identity brings her to Paris in 1982, and face to face with the terror of an age-old enemy. Sarah is the youngest of the three Levine sisters. At twenty-five, she is rudderless, caught in a paralysis which keeps her from seizing her own life.
To control information is to control the world. This innovative history reveals how, across two devastating wars, Germany attempted to build a powerful communication empire—and how the Nazis manipulated the news to rise to dominance in Europe and further their global agenda.
From bestselling author Daniel Kalla comes the thriller that everyone is dying to read…This riveting new novel, set between modern day and medieval plague-ridden Italy, weaves together a compelling historical account, a medical and political drama, timely social insights, and a page turning race-against-the clock.
When Gloria Levi was 19, she traveled to the new State of Israel—and her life changed forever. What was supposed to be a trip between university semesters turned into an enduring love affair with the man she met onboard the ship to Israel, and with the land of Israel itself. Told through the eyes of a young woman and mother, her memoir recounts the painful and poignant journey of a young family trying to integrate into Israeli society in the 1950s and her realization that her path to Israeli identity is both complex and multilayered.
“There have been other histories of anti-Semitism in Toronto and Canada during the 1930s, but none as creative as Jamie Michaels’s Christie Pits… A significant and worthy literary achievement for readers of all ages.” – Allan Levine
”Agnes, Murderess haunted me in a way only brilliant stories can. What a rich portrait of a mysterious and exceptional woman! Sarah Leavitt’s drawings are so delicate, fragile and beautiful that I feel for every single character in this book. I want to get them warm clothes and a bowl of soup.” – Anna Haifish
“Lukas has given us an elegiac novel of Cairo with a bit of Berkeley thrown in. His prose is deeply evocative…but his greatest flair is in capturing the essence of that beautiful, haunted, shabby, beleaguered, yet still utterly sublime Middle Eastern city.” – Lucette Lagnado
“Michelle Paymar’s brilliantly conceived and executed film will captivate the general public.” – Mark Cohen
Tommy Schnurmacher has written a book that could change your life. It changed his. As a writer, Montreal media icon Schnurmacher is an intense force of nature, a seismic swell of visceral empathy, laser-sharp wit and courageous self-analysis. Now meet Olga. Auschwitz prisoner A-25057, aka Mom. A fearless, dramatic and unpredictable maverick. An original.
