Frigid temperatures make curling up with a good book even more enticing, and the JCC Jewish Book Festival is ready to warm up your winter nights. From February 11-16, the Festival hosts fascinating authors from across Canada, USA, Israel and Germany, and welcomes audiences back to in-person events.
Plan for lively conversations about the many engaging books and topics to have come out of these challenging pandemic years. The themes emerging from across the globe and current situations bring focus on mental health and a better understanding of our inner selves, the incredible diversity within the Jewish communities in Canada and around the world, the increasing relevance of political reality in literature, new waves of generational fiction and the treasure trove of authors we have here in BC.
“We look forward to welcoming our live audiences to the joyful experience of a shared literary event! The Jewish Book Festival strives to reflect and showcase recent literature that revels in the lively and pivotal ideas stemming from the modern world, and in the process expose our city and community to meaningful and captivating conversations about the written word in every shape and form” says Festival Director, Dana Camil Hewitt. “And while the nucleus of our festival is Jewish-themed, our speakers, events and audience happily represent a diversity of experiences and cultures that defy narrow categorization. We are attuned to timely and universal themes and we thrive on the interdisciplinary, always inviting visual arts and performance art into our events”.
The 2023 Festival begins February 11th at Norman & Annette Rothstein Theatre with an Opening Night: Focus on Mental Health with Dr. Gabor Maté, MD, in conversation with Marsha Lederman discussing his latest bestselling book The Myth of Normal Trauma, Illness & Healing in a Toxic Culture.
Thursday February 16th, the Closing Night: Opera in Times of War, live performances are included as the evening features bestselling investigative journalist Isabel Vincent’s Overture of Hope: Two Sisters’ Daring Plan that Saved Opera’s Jewish Stars from the Third Reich uncovers the amazing story of the British spinsters who masterminded a plan to spirit dozens of Jewish stars of the German and Austrian opera to England and save them from a terrible fate under the Third Reich.
In between Opening and Closing, the JCC Jewish Book Festival highlights an a treasure trove of incredible international authors as well as a host of BC authors in events, readings, panels, presentation and pitches. From fiction to biographical works, to historic and educational non-fiction and graphic novels, the Festival has something for everyone. ?
An Epilogue Event on February 28th follows the Festival with the launch of Unlikely Insider: A West Coast Advocate in Ottawa the memoir of former federal cabinet minister and senator The Hon. Jack Austin.
Find details and tickets for all of these events and more at jccgv.com/jewish-book-festival
