Toronto Jewish Book Festival
June 4 – 7, 2012
The Bram and Bluma Appel Salon
at the Toronto Reference Library
789 Yonge Street (at Bloor), Toronto
NEW NAME! NEW DATE! NEW PLACE!
After 34 successful years, Toronto’s much loved Jewish Book Fair is reborn as the Toronto Jewish Book Festival, celebrating Jewish books and authors uniting the two biggest Jewish literary events in Canada under one roof! Featuring author talks, readings, panels, exclusive book launches, musical events, films and slideshows, student programs, hundreds of books for sale and more. The Festival culminates in the Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Awards on June 7 at 8 PM.
The Toronto Jewish Book Festival is presented by the Koffler Centre of the Arts.
DOWNLOAD THE 2012 TORONTO JEWISH BOOK FESTIVAL BROCHURE (PDF)
TICKETS Advance tickets for the 8 PM sessions on sale NOW:
Online | Phone: 416.638.1881 x4281 | E-mail: hredner@kofflerarts.org
All other tickets can be purchased at the door.
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FULL TORONTO JEWISH BOOK FESTIVAL SCHEDULE:
OPENING NIGHT
Monday, June 4, 2012 | 8 PM | $25 at the door
An Evening with Shalom Auslander interviewed by Michael Wex
Join us for a rare opportunity to hear brainy, angst-ridden, hilarious andno-holds-barred Shalom Auslander, author of Hope: A Tragedy, just released to rave reviews!
Shalom Auslander has been called “America’s hottest, funniest, most controversial young Jewish memoirist” and his work has been dubbed “blackly hilarious.” He is the author of the short-story collection Beware of God and the acclaimed memoir Foreskin’s Lament. The New York Times Book Review hails him “a virtuoso humorist, and a brave one: beware Shalom Auslander; he will make you laugh until your heart breaks.”
Shalom Auslander will be interviewed by Toronto author Michael Wex, winner of a Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Award and author of Born to Kvetch and The Frumkiss Family Business. His newest book, Shlepping the Exile, will be out later this year.
Sponsored by Zukerman Family Foundation.
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MONDAY, JUNE 4, 2012
1 PM | $5 at the door
Reinventing Israel and the Jews: David Berlin and Dr. Dan Mendelsohn Aviv
David Berlin is an Israeli-born journalist who grew up in Canada but served his Israeli military duty as part of Ariel Sharon’s reconnaissance unit. He has taught at several universities, founded The Walrus and was editor-in-chief of The Literary Review of Canada from 1998-2011. The Moral Lives of Israelis – Reinventing the Dream State, is a blend of memoir, reportage and original thinking about Israel in the world. Berlin asks: how can Israel move forward?
Dr. Dan Mendelsohn Aviv has been engaged in Jewish learning as an educator, lecturer, professor, and published scholar for almost twenty years. He has recently returned to his greatest passion: classroom instruction at the Toronto Heschel School. In End of the Jews: Radical Breaks, Remakes and What Comes Next, Aviv writes that the Jewish people have weathered radical breaks with their past and are doing so again in the present moment. Who and what is the next Jew?
2 PM | $5 at the door
Bernie Finkelstein, interviewed by Jake Gold
Producer, record label owner, singer/songwriter and band manager Bernie Finkelstein speaks on his new book, True North: A Life Inside the Music Business. Finkelstein founded Canada’s oldest independent record company – True North Records – in 1969. With over 400 releases, 49 Junos, 40 gold and platinum records, he has played a pivotal role in bringing great Canadian music to the rest of the world. He is a member of the Order of Canada and an inductee of The Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame.
Jake Gold is one of Canada’s most successful artist managers. He was a judge on TV’s Canadian Idol. In addition to Idol participants, he has managed popular Canadian artists like The Tragically Hip and The Watchmen.
5:30 PM | $5 at the door
Mal Coven
Mal Coven, author of How to Succeed in Retirement by Really Trying and The Bi-Way Story, speaks on his fabled career at Filene’s, Biway and Dylex. Since retiring he has devised original entrepreneurial projects and he has many tips for young entrepreneurs.
“Mal Coven is ’the determinator’- a man who achieves what he seeks and succeeds at what he does. Mal rose to his ultimate goal in the competitive retail world by allowing determination, personality and people skills to drive his agenda. The result is a winner in business and life.”
– Paul Godfrey, Chairman and CEO, Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission
6 PM | $5 at the door
Who Do You Think You Are: Jewish-Style
Four contributors to Tracing Our Roots, Telling Our Stories read their stories of immigration, integration and identity so that their families pasts can be shared with future generations. With Peter Jassem, Sharon Singer, Edwin Goldstein and Bonnie Lawrence Shear. These stories will be enriched by projected photographs contributed by the 44 authors to the anthology. Program moderated by author and contributor Ben Schlesinger.
Published by the Jewish Genealogy Society in celebration of its 25th anniversary.
Sponsored by Jewish Genealogy Society of Canada – Toronto.
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TUESDAY, JUNE 5, 2012
11 AM | Free School Program, ages 9 – 13
Public Welcome
Celebrating Hana: Karen Levine, author of Hana’s Suitcase, presents the 10th Anniversary Album
Join us as we celebrate the 10th anniversary of Hana’s Suitcase, the international bestseller that took the world by storm and won our hearts. Author Karen Levine will discuss the book’s success and share a visual presentation of the special edition content which includes: commemorative letters from Karen, Fumiko, and George, reactions from readers around the world, letters and art from children and much more.
1 PM | $5 at the door
Brody on Lanzmann
Richard Brody, esteemed writer for The New Yorker, reviews renowned filmmaker Claude Lanzmann’s autobiography The Patagonian Hare: A Memoir. Brody will give us an inside look into the director of Shoah, one of the most important films in the history of cinema.
Lanzmann’s autobiography is the story of a man who has searched at every moment for existential adventure, and who has committed himself deeply to what he believes. It illustrates his obsession with prolonging life, summed up by the Auschwitz survivor who told him: “I wanted to live, live with every fibre of my being, one minute more, one day more, one month more. You understand? To live.”
The Patagonian Hare, a number-one bestseller in France, has been translated into Spanish, German, Italian, Hebrew, Polish, Dutch, and Portuguese and this memoir has been widely acclaimed as a masterpiece.
Sponsored by Chaim Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre.
2 PM | $5 at the door
Arthur Fleischmann and Carly’s Voice: Breaking Through Autism
At the age of two, Carly Fleischmann was diagnosed with severe autism and an oral motor condition that prevented her from speaking. Doctors predicted that she would never intellectually develop beyond the abilities of a small child. Although she made some progress after years of intensive behavioral and communication therapy, Carly remained largely unreachable. Then, at the age of ten, she had a breakthrough.
Arthur Fleischmann, Carly’s father, describes Carly’s journey toward self-realization. Carly’s Voice is one of the first books to explore first hand the challenges of living with autism, blending Carly’s own words with her father’s story of getting to know his remarkable daughter. It brings readers inside a once-secret world and in the company of an inspiring young woman who has found her voice and her mission.
5:30 PM | $5 at the door
The Lives of Legends: an in-depth look into Canadian icons Celia Franca and John Hirsch
Born into a working-class family in 1921, Celia Franca, though a capable dancer, was an unlikely candidate for ballet greatness. In Carol Bishop-Gwyn’s biography The Pursuit of Perfection: A Life of Celia Franca, we learn of a woman possessed with a drive that was almost unrivaled. Franca went on to become one of the most important figures in Canadian ballet in the twentieth century.
Legendary giant of Canadian theatre, John Hirsch arrived in Winnipeg in 1947, a 17-year-old Hungarian orphan of the Holocaust, knowing no English. Ten years later, he co-founded the Manitoba Theatre Centre and went on to direct award-winning productions in Los Angeles, New York, Stratford and Toronto. In A Fiery Soul: The Life and Theatrical Times of John Hirsch, Fraidie Martz and Andrew Wilson tell the life and untimely death of the man with the notorious fiery temper, budget—blowing sets, and artistic risk-taking.
Writer and dance historian Carol Bishop-Gwyn has worked as a producer and broadcaster for CBC Radio, a freelance journalist and an educator with Ryerson University, the School of Toronto Dance Theatre and other major dance programs. Fraidie Martz and Andrew Wilson first worked together on Open Your Hearts, a book about Jewish war orphans who came to Canada after World War II, of whom Hirsch was the most famous.
6 PM | $5 at the door
Writing the New Toronto
Diaspora Dialogues invites audiences to enjoy readings from four diverse Toronto authors, each exploring what it means to live and co-exist in our city. Three exciting emerging voices, Catriona Wright, Amina Farah and Irving Ellman, share the stage with celebrated lawyer and author Robert Rotenberg. These readings turn Toronto into a staging ground for heartbreak, revelation and white-knuckle crime solving.
Diaspora Dialogues supports the creation and presentation of new fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry, and drama that reflect the complexity of the city, as seen through the eyes of its richly diverse writers.
TOK: Writing the New Toronto is Diaspora Dialogues’ successful anthology series featuring new fiction, drama and poetry from the brightest Canadian writers, as well as the most promising new voices. Each book contains a collection of stories and poetry that reflects the complexity of the city we inhabit seen through the unique eyes of its storyteller. May 2012 marks launch of the seventh edition of TOK with a new set of narratives connecting readers to the locations and experiences created by the writer.
Co-presented with Diaspora Dialogues.
8 PM | $15 at the door
** SPECIAL 2-FOR-1 TICKETS IF PURCHASED AT THE DOOR DURING BOOK FESTIVAL HOURS ON TUESDAY, JUNE 5 **
Past, Present, Future – Feminism in Canada and Israel:
Michele Landsberg with Dr. Rachael Turkienicz
Michele Landsberg wrote over 3,000 columns in the Toronto Star and was the first feminist writer to have a regular voice in a Canadian daily newspaper. Writing the Revolution weaves together key columns from 1978 to 2003 with reflections, anecdotes and analysis of the heady days of Second Wave feminism and beyond. She also writes about the new face of feminism and reminds us of how far we have come and how far we still have to go.
Michele Landsberg began her journalism career with The Globe and Mail in the 1960s and later joined Chatelaine Magazine. She is the author of three best-selling books: Women and Children First, Michele Landsberg’s Guide to Children’s Books and “This is New York, Honey!”. She continues her work as an activist and is a regular reviewer of children’s literature on CBC Radio.
Dr. Rachael Turkienicz is the Founder and Executive Director of Rachael’s Centre, involved in informal Jewish Education and pluralistic Judaism. She is a newspaper columnist, radio panelist and television host. Her community involvements include international and national Jewish advocacy agencies.
Sponsored by The ShaRna Foundation.
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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 6, 2012
11 AM | Free School Program, ages 4 – 8 | Public Welcome
Aubrey Davis reads: A Hen for Izzy Pippik
When Shaina finds a magnificent hen, she knows that Izzy Pippik, the hen’s owner, is sure to return for her. In the meantime, Shaina decides she will care for the animal. But when dozens of eggs hatch and rowdy chickens scatter throughout the village, Shaina must fight the entire town if she has any hope of protecting the birds. Inspired by Jewish and Islamic traditional texts, this is a beautiful tale about doing the right thing, even in the face of adversity.
Before becoming a storyteller and author, Aubrey Davis worked as a logger, farmer, salesman and teacher. He also discovered the ancient art of storytelling. “At first I told stories to my own children, then at a weekly gathering in Toronto. I told in nursing homes, festivals, jails and later, on national radio and television.”
His book Bagels for Benny, has won multiple awards including the Sydney Taylor Award, The Mr. Christie Award (Silver) and the Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Award in Youth Literature. He is also the author of Kishka for Koppel.
Noon | $5 at the door
A Little Music! A Little Yiddish!
Jewish Music Week presents Live at Lunch: Russian Yiddish Folk Songs. Join us for an afternoon of music by Ukrainian soprano Inga Filippova-Williams. This will be followed by a lecture presented by Professor Kalman Weiser, author of Jewish People, Yiddish Nation: Noah Prylucki and the Folkists in Poland.
Unlike synagogue music, Jewish songs in Russia creatively reflected the voice of the working class. Take a break in the middle of the day and join us as award-winning Ukrainian soprano performs popular and beloved folk songs in Russian and Yiddish.
After the concert hear Kalman Weiser, Silber Family Professor of Modern Jewish Studies at York University, speak about Noah Prylucki, a leading Jewish cultural and political figure in pre-Holocaust Eastern Europe.
Presented together with Jewish Music Week.
1:30 PM | Free School Program, ages 12 – 14 | Public Welcome
The Baby Experiment by Anne Dublin
Johanna is a 14-year-old Jewish girl who lives in Hamburg, Germany in the early 18th century. She feels stifled by the daily drudgery of her life and dreams of seeing what lies outside the confines of the Jewish quarter. Lying about her identity, Johanna gets a job as a caregiver at an orphanage, realizing too late that the orphanage harbours a dark secret.
Anne Dublin is an award-winning author of historical fiction and biographies for young people. Her books include Bobbie Rosenfeld: The Olympian Who Could Do Everything, winner of the IODE Violet Downey Book Award and the Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Award in Youth Literature, and The Orphan Rescue, finalist for the U.S. National Jewish Book Award. She lives in Toronto.
Sponsored by the Tyrus Reiman Memorial Fund for Children’s Programs.
5:30 PM | $5 at the door
New Takes on Jewish Montreal
Authors Sara Ferdman Tauben, Seymour Mayne and B. Glen Rotchin will each discuss Jewish life in Montreal, its history and its people.
Sara Ferdman Tauben is the author of Traces of the Past: Montreal’s Early Synagogues. She will discuss the architecture and social history of the rise and fall of Jewish communal life in Montreal’s old centre.
Seymour Mayne’s latest book, The Old Blue Couch and Other Stories, gives rise to hilarious predicaments that are endearing and deliciously comic.
B. Glen Rotchin, author of Halbman Steals Home, enters the same Yiddish Montreal we have come to love through the words of Mordecai Richler and pulls it off with humour and warmth.
Sponsored by Ronald P. Frye & Company and Co-sponsored by the Vered Jewish Canadian Studies Program, University of Ottawa.
6 PM | $5 at the door
Happy Birthday Jewish Fiction .net!
The wonderful, free, online journal that publishes first-rate Jewish fiction from around the world, celebrates its second birthday with readings by three celebrated authors: Morley Torgov, George Jonas and Nora Gold. An added exciting feature of this joyful birthday party: Mr. Torgov will be launching his new book, The Mastersinger of Minsk.
Nora Gold, the creator and editor of Jewish Fiction .net, is the winner of the Louis Lockshin Prize for Short Fiction, one of the Jewish Book Awards, and was also shortlisted for the Danuta Gleed Award for her book Marrow and Other Stories.
Morley Torgov, a lawyer and author, has been awarded a City Of Toronto Fiction Prize, a Jewish Fiction Prize, and is the two-time recipient of the prestigious Leacock Medal for Humor, as well as having one of his novels adapted as a feature film and a CBC television series.
George Jonas has published 15 books and about 2000 articles, he has written, produced and/or directed 200 dramas and docudramas for radio and TV, and his awards include an Edgar, two Nellys, a Gabriel, two Geminis, and three National Magazine Awards.
8 PM | $15 advance or at the door
What we talk about when we talk about ‘Jewish Science’?
Steven Gimbel, author of Einstein’s Jewish Science asks: Is Relativity Jewish? The Nazi’s denigrated Albert Einstein’s revolutionary theory by calling it “Jewish science.” You cannot understand Einstein’s science Steven Gimbel says, without knowing the history, religion and philosophy that influenced it. Einstein’s Jewish Science intertwines science, history, philosophy, theology, and politics in fresh ways to solve the multifaceted riddle of what religion means – and what it means to science. “A fascinating engagement with the nature of Judaism and of science,” says Rabbi Michael Lerner.
Steven Gimbel is the Edwin T. and Cynthia Shearer Johnson Professor for Distinguished Teaching in the Humanities and Chair of the Department of Philosophy at Gettysburg College. He is the author of books on science and philosophy.
Sponsored by Canadian Friends of Hebrew University.
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THURSDAY, JUNE 7, 2012
10:30 AM | Free School Program, ages 4 – 8 | Public Welcome
Yuvi’s Candy Tree by Lesley Simpson
Yuvi’s Candy Tree is a picture book by Lesley Simpson based on the true story of a five year old girl who outwitted robbers in her exodus from Ethiopia to Israel. The story if based on the real life of Israeli Yuvi Tashome who was part of Operation Moses, the exodus of Ethiopian Jews. This program will include a hands-on activity of readers making their own ‘candy trees’.
1 PM | $5 at the door
Spotlight on the Azrieli Foundation
A special screening of five Azrieli series short films, 9- to 12-minute films that profile the new authors in the Azrieli Series of Holocaust Survivor Memoirs and give us a glimpse of their individual stories of survival.
In these short films, the survivor-authors reflect on their experiences from childhood through the war to their present lives in Canada. A portion of each multimedia film also shows the authors reading an excerpt from their published memoir, combined with animation and narration to bring the accounts to life. The films are personal introductions to the nature and character of the survivor-authors and their inspiring and dramatic accounts of the Holocaust.
Some of the authors will be available after the presentation for book signing.
2 PM | $5 at the door
All about Survival: Two Family Stories with Lilian Nattal and Dolly Beil
Lilian Nattel speaks on her new book Web of Angels, which depicts families coping with inner hidden demons and outwards acts of violence. Despite feeling flawed and ill-equipped to handle what life throws at them, they find the strength to prevail and keep the family whole.
Lilian Nattel was born in Montreal and lives in Toronto with her husband and two daughters. Her first novel, The River Midnight, was published to international acclaim and won a Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Award. Her second novel of historical fiction is The Singing Fire.
Dolly Beil speaks on her new book Growing Up in Jewish. Beil spent the first part of her life in the Chinese cities of Tsingtao (Qingdao), Mukden (Shenyang), Harbin, and Tientsin (Tianjin). Her father, owner of a jewellery store and a businessman, descended from the prominent family of Solomon Guterman, who owned an estate in Irkutsk, Russia. Her mother was one of three daughters of Grigory Lazarovich Gershevich, who built the firt hotel in the northern city of Harbin, located on Pacific Road.
Beil's entertaining stories draw the reader into an usual blend of European and Asian life in the country of her early joys and sorrows - China, the county that she loves so much to this very day.
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CLOSING NIGHT
Thursday, June 7, 2012 | 8 PM | FREE
Helen and Stan Vine Canadian Jewish Book Awards
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