Debra Winger, presenting her new book at the Distinguished Author Series

A Note From the Chair

Editor's Corner

RESEARCH IN CHICAGO LIBRARIES, ARCHIVES AND MUSEUMS & PREPARING FOR A GENEALOGICAL CONFERENCE

About the Library

Library eConnection June 2008

Search our Online Catalog at www.lfjcc.org

The Astor Judaica Library annual and popular USED BOOK SALE begins Thursday, June 5th!

Used Book Sale: June 5 to 15, 2008 (closed on Saturday)
Open during Lawrence Family JCC open hours, closes on Sunday, June 15 at 4pm.
Don't miss this opportunity to browse through thousands of titles from classics to current releases for children and adults:

Debra Winger presenting her new book at the Distinguished Author Series

Debra Winger, Undiscovered

Tuesday, June 17, 2008 • 7:30 P.M.
at the Lawrence Family JCC
Debra Winger, three-time Oscar-nominated actress, known for her performances in "Shadowlands," "Terms of Endearment," "An Officer and a Gentleman," and "Urban Cowboy," discusses her debut book, "Undiscovered," a series of vignettes from her life. The actress reveals how she has drawn on her creative talents to transform a successful career into a fulfilling life. Hear her discuss her life as an actress, a mother and a daughter, in an intimate glimpse of an artist wide-ranging in her gifts, providing inspiration for those who seek to navigate life's unknowns and forge new pathways beyond work and career.

Special evening co-presented with the UJF Women's Division, the Jewish Women's Foundation and Hadassah, co-sponsored by the National Council of Jewish Women, Or Shalom, Congregation Beth El, Tiferet Israel and Temple Solel.

Admission: $20/JCC Member; $24/Non-Member

NOTE FROM THE CHAIR:

JEWISH BOOK COUNCIL CONFERENCE

I have just returned from Los Angeles where I attended the annual Jewish Book Council Conference with Jackie Gmach and members of the Book Selection Committee of the San Diego Jewish Book Fair. In order to provide the approximately thousand titles for sale at the Book Fair, the committee starts reviewing the possibilities in February. Along with the arduous task of picking books for the Book Fair, the Book Selection Committee helps identify new books for the library’s collection. 

The Jewish Book Council promotes Jewish-interest literature. They determine the winners of the National Jewish Book Awards and publish a quarterly, Jewish Book World.  For more information about the Jewish Book Council, see their website: http://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/

NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARDS for 2007

Jewish Book Council Lifetime Achievement Award
Rabbi Harold S. Kushner

Jewish Book of the Year Award
How to Read the Bible: A Guide to Scripture, Then and Now by James L. Kugel

Winner – Reference
The Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic and Mysticism by Rabbi Geoffrey W. Dennis

Winner – History
Churchill’s Promised Land: Zionism and Statecraft by Michael Makovsky

Winner – Fiction
A Pigeon and a Boy by Meir Shalev

Winner – Poetry
The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain, 950-1492, Peter Cole, editor

SAMI ROHR PRIZE FOR JEWISH LITERATURE

The 2008 winner of the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature was awarded to Lucette Lagnado for The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: My Family’s Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World.

The Sami Rohr Prize, which began in 2006 in celebration of Sami Rohr’s 80th birthday, is the largest monetary prize (a total of $100,000 to the winners) of its kind in the Jewish literary world. 

Shalom Chaverim!  It’s almost summer – though we seem to have moved into May Gray and June Gloom after that odd record-breaking hot spell.  So - with thoughts of summer in our minds, let’s start looking at some great fiction for summer reading fun.  This month we’ll do adult fiction, and next month we’ll look at children and young adult material. I will also be writing about a great program – the PJ Library – so be sure to come back in July.  Even if you are not a parent or grandparent or great-grandparent, you probably know friends who are – and you can share the column with them – as well as keep it as a reference for purchasing gifts for children you know.  (In fact, why not pass on the monthly e-Connection to everyone you know – especially avid readers – they may appreciate the information and want to learn about and support the Astor Judaica Library!)

Now - on to adult reading for the coming months…

To begin, I want to recommend my all-time favorite book – Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer. Some of you may have seen the movie – but the book is infinitely superior.

Have you ever wondered would it sound like if a foreigner wrote a novel in broken English? Believe it or now, it is absolutely hysterical! Every other chapter of the book is narrated by Ukrainian student Alex Perchov, whose hilarious malapropisms and words chosen from a thesaurus will keep you laughing throughout the novel. Alex works for his family's travel agency, which caters to Jews who want to explore their ancestral shtetls. Jonathan Safran Foer, the novel's other hero, is an American college student looking for the Ukrainian woman who hid his grandfather from the Nazis. Jonathan, Alex, Alex's depressive and blind grandfather (the driver) and his grandfather's "seeing-eye bitch" (a mongrel dog named Sammy Davis Junior) set out to find the woman in a picture Jonathan found in his father’s belongings.

Alex’s letters recounting their journey alternate with Jonathan’s own mythical history of his grandfather's shtetl, beginning with the tale of Jonathan's great-great-great-great-great-grandmother Brod during the 18th and 19th centuries. This is a kitschy tale with a magical realism element, but the story will really hold you as it unfolds.  As I read the book – I’d be reading Jonathan’s story and couldn’t wait to read Alex’s next letter, and I’d be reading Alex’s letter and couldn’t wait to read the next episode of Jonathan’s history.

If this sounds like a Holocaust novel, rest assured that is the most atypical Holocaust novel I’ve ever read.  Alex’s misuse of the English language will have you rolling on the floor laughing (ROFL for you 21st century text-message devotees) and Jonathan’s outrageous family history will keep you on the edge of your seat.  As I said – it’s my all-time favorite book.

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If you like a good mystery/spy novel, look into the work of author Daniel Silva – from The Kill Artist, The English Assassin, and Death in Vienna (all available from the Astor Judaica Library) or his other books about his protagonist Gabriel Allon, a Mossad agent who doubles as an art restorer – The Confessor, The Prince of Fire, The Messenger, The Secret Servant – and, to be released in July – Moscow Rules. Throughout the series, Allon is a reluctant spy who prefers to lose himself in the restoration of Renaissance art – from paintings at the Vatican to frescoes inside churches.  However, he continues to get pulled into espionage by friends inside the Israeli government, by agents who’ve worked against him, and by the projects themselves. Silva is a journalist turned novelist who made a great career transition and is a blessing to those of us who like a thrilling page-turner that’s easy to read and hard to put down. I must confess that I love these “airplane read” novels and eagerly look forward to the next one.  For male readers amongst us, you should know that my husband Jeff is equally taken with Silva’s stories and completes them more quickly than anything else I’ve ever seen him read!

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Are historical sagas more your pleasure?  What better place to begin than Herman Wouk’s series about World War II and the State of Israel! Wouk is a great storyteller – even his early and “dated” work Marjorie Morningstar has been reissued with greatly positive popular response.  You may remember the TV series based on Wouks’ epic Winds of War and War and Remembrance about American families taken up with the events of World War II, its prelude and its aftermath.  Both volumes are available in the library, as are The Hope and The Glory, which deal with the early and middle years of Israel’s history, respectively. Wouk captures the sweep of history in these novels, which are well grounded in extensive research, rich in character, and full of drama.  Wouk intermingles his fictional cast of characters with real-life historical figures so deftly that you often aren’t sure where fact ends and fiction begins. If you’ve never read the entire series, you might consider taking on all four epics as your summer reading project. (I did this a long time ago.)

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If you like the convenience of short fiction, so that you can read an entire story in one spell of sitting on the beach or by the pool, try Lost Tribe: Jewish Fiction from the Edge edited by Paul Zakrzewski (pronounced Zak-shef-ski). This writer, editor and literary events curator has compiled a collection as unique as his name. Funny, raw, dark, and sometimes incredible, the 25 contributions to Lost Tribe explore such diverse themes as conflicted identities, sexual fetishes, religious intolerance, and the legacy of the Holocaust. Featuring stories and commentary from both critically acclaimed and emerging authors (Nathan Englander, Myla Goldberg, Rachel Kadish, Tova Mirvis, Gary Shteyngart, Aryeh Lev Stollman et al.), this anthology paints a provocative portrait of contemporary Jewish life.

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For something a little more esoteric and spiritual, Mitchell Chefitz’s The Seventh Telling: The Kabbalah of Moshe Katan is one to look at.  You will learn a lot about Kabbalah within the intriguing story of a group of kabbalah students who have secrets to hide and share, and personal discoveries and growth – including a Kabblistic intervention when the health of a beloved group member is in danger.  I read this book when it first came out, and I really enjoyed the intellectual challenge of learning while following a fictional tale. I had the good fortune to meet Rabbi Chefitz and his very bright wife Walli when they visited our synagogue.  We became friends at once and we’ve kept in touch over the years. Unfortunately, Mitch’s rabbinic duties have distracted him from his novel writing – but I hope he returns to serious storytelling one day, as I really enjoyed this first fictional effort.

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Since this is our “Israel at 60” year, this summer would be a good time to delve into Israeli fiction.  Be forewarned that Israeli writing style, subject, and emotion is very different from what we are accustomed to in American writing – and that not every translation is perfect.  However, almost all Israeli writing has a serious element that gives us a much deeper view into the Israeli mindset and culture.

You might try AB Yehoshua for starters. The Library has his more recent Open Heart (about the difficulties Israel youth have in understanding the Zionist passion of their parents and grandparents) and A Liberated Bride (which examines Israeli-Palestinian relationships with an optimism of which he no longer is certain.)  However, to me, his greatest oeuvre is Mr. Mani, an account of six generations of the Manis, a Jewish family living in the Middle East. Arranged in the form of five “conversations,” with the speech of only one of the two speakers present on the page, the narrative moves backward from 1982 to 1848, tracing family drama against the backdrop of historical events. Yehoshua has a gift for exploring the realms of mystery, coincidence and fate, as well as writing a believable and captivating realistic tale. He shares with us the tragedy that haunts every generation of the Mani family, but his overall message is about the resilience of family ties.

Other Israeli novelists to consider include Aharon Appelfeld, Batya Gur, and David Grossman.  Appelfeld’s works include All Whom I Have Loved, The Conversion, Baddenhim 1939, The Iron Tracks, and The Retreat. Honestly, I’ve never read his work, but I’ve been encouraged to do so by an Israeli relative for many years – and this summer I plan to give him a try.

Batya Gur wrote mysteries set in Israel. Two in the library are Murder Duet: A Musical Case and Murder in Jerusalem.  The first is highly recommended for music-lovers by an avid reading friend, and another recommends the second.  I’ve read Murder on a Kibbutz and enjoyed it very much.  Gur’s tales have a different pace and tone than more American tales of suspense such as Daniel Silva’s work, but they each offer a serious look into some aspect of life in Israel.  The one I’ve read helps the reader understand the philosophy and workings of a kibbutz, and reveals the reality of kibbutz life and the kibbutz movement in our times, as well as in its original form.

David Grossman has several volumes in the Astor Judaica Library: The Yellow Wind, Be My Knife, Duel, The Zig-Zag Kid, and See Under:Love.  Although the last title is the one that intrigues me, I’ve heard that Be My Knife, a story of unrequited love, may be his most admired work.  Yair Einhorn, a neurotic, compulsive rare-books dealer, writes a passionate letter (that he refers to as “a restrained suicide note)” to Miriam, a beautiful, mysterious woman he glimpses at his class reunion. To his joy and amazement, she writes back, and thus begins an extraordinary love affair by letter. I’m adding Grossman to my summer reading list as well.

If you haven’t read Israeli authors, this summer is a good time to experiment with something new. Whether you like Israeli fiction or not, you will have an enriching and enlightening experience.

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Among books in the Astor Judaica Library’s collection that I’ve recently read and can therefore recommend personally:

1. The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Michael Chabon is both a noir detective novel and an inventive alternate history in which Jews settled in Alaska rather than Israel in the 1940’s when Interior Minister Harold Ickes designated Sitka as a safe haven for a 60-year period and the Jews have created their own little world that moves to the music of Yiddish. As the territory is about to revert to Alaskan control, detective Meyer Landsman investigates a murder and gives the reader insight on a wide range of issues from the personal (faith, obsession, and salvation) to the universal (identity, assimilation, mass culture and the nature of evil).



2. Sanctuary by Faye Kellerman is one of her detective stories featuring Sgt. Peter Decker and his Orthodox Jewish wife Rina Lazarus. When Rina’s high school chum leaves her diamond-merchant husband and appears at the Deckers’ front door, Peter is investigating a double homicide involving another Jewish diamond merchant and his family.  Eventually the Deckers travel to Israel and risk their own lives to solve these interconnected cases. What makes Kellerman’s novels so interesting is that the mystery is always balanced by the intricacies of family life in the modern Orthodox Jewish community.



3. Suite Française by Irene Nemirovsky is the first 2/5 of a War and Peace type epic about the German occupation of France by a gifted and renowned novelist whose daughters preserved her manuscript while they were in hiding during WW II. Irene and her husband died in Auschwitz in 1942, but it was 62 years before the two novellas were published to critical acclaim in France. The American volume includes the first two “movements” in her symphony, as well as her plans for the next three. While the book merits your reading time just for its witty characterizations, mesmerizing prose, and insightful observations, the fact that she wrote this historical story while its history was actually taking place – and that she was so prescient about what was to come – makes it a “must read.”



4. Peony: A Novel about China by Pearl S. Buck is profoundly different from everything else she wrote. Not only does Buck capture a piece of Jewish history with which most of us are unfamiliar, but she also gives us that history from the perspective of a Christian missionary, albeit sympathetic to Judaism. This love story between bondmaid Peony and the Jewish family’s son for whom she is nursemaid is based on true events in China over a century ago.  It has a profound implication for the modern assimilation of Jews – we must learn a lesson from how the Chinese devised to “conquer” the Jewish element in their midst by accepting them into social as well as economic society, so that Jewish intermarriage with the Chinese would (and did) lead to their disappearance as a people.



5. Joy Comes in the Morning by Jonathan Rosen is a relatively easy beach-read, but deals with modern personal and communal issues.  When unmarried Rabbi Deborah Green visits Henry, a hospitalized Holocaust survivor who has attempted suicide, she meets his secular and religiously skeptical scientist son Lev, and a romantic relationship ensues. However, this is not a simple romance novel, because it deals with issues of identity, career choice, the conflict between science and spirituality, family dynamics, as well as the difficult questions of Henry’s life of tragedy, facility, love and hope.



6. The River Midnight by Lillian Nattel poignantly and humorously depicts shtetl life through the interwoven life stories of four Jewish women from the mythical turn-of-the-century town of Blaszka. Nattel’s modest magical realism celebrates a culture that values scholarship, charity, closely-knit community as well as individual freedom. In following the lives of four “vilda hayas” from youth through adulthood (childless Hanna-Leah, restless Faygela, American immigrant Zisa-Sara and independent midwife Misha), Nattel captures a lost way of life with fluid prose and Yiddish aphorisms. Her well-researched details of food preparation, religious ritual, and family living help paint a rich picture of life in the Jewish shtetl.



7. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant, when first published in 1997, was quite controversial with its feminist retelling of the patriarchal saga. However, since so many more controversial midrashim have been written, Diamant’s tale has become the classic example of women’s right to offer their perspective on the Biblical tales. In this case, Diamant tells her expanded fictionalized version of the incident of the rape of Dinah, daughter of Leah and Jacob, a version which some say is an example of the biblical legacy we would claim, had women written the Torah instead of men. Last year was the 10th anniversary of the publication of this imagined account of the tradition and turmoil of ancient womanhood – the world of the “red tent” where women supposedly resided during menstruation and birthing when they are commanded to separate themselves from men.



8. The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander transports readers to 1976 Buenos Aires during Argentina’s “dirty war” – the internal program of terror launched by the military after ousting Isabella Peron –the major activity of which was the “disappearance” of anyone suspected of being opposed to the regime.  This timeless story of the father-son relationship takes place in a world turned upside down, a world in which the nature of truth itself is subverted by a corrupt government’s whims. When one typically contentious family has its own “desaparecido,” the parents are brought to their knees in the unyielding corridors of the Ministry of Special Cases, the refuge of last resort.

Finally I share with you my own potential summer reading list of not-yet-read books that interest me:

1. Reunion by Michael Oren – This imagined reunion of the 138th Infantry Battalion five decades after its members fought the Battle of the Bulge contains well-documented history interwoven with Oren’s father’s real WW II experiences.



2. From a Sealed Room by Rachel Kadish – The interactions of a group of people confined to a sealed room during the scud missile attacks of 1993 helps an American student in Jerusalem confront the ghosts of her past and the difficult bonds of family.



3. Somebody’s Baby by Elaine Kagan – Jewish teen Jenny Jaffe takes up with ex-con Will McDonald in 1959 Kansas, becomes pregnant and must give up her daughter for adoption, a daughter who searches for her parents 30 years later – Redbook calls it “a fun beach read.”



4. The Death Committee by Noah Gordon (an author I really enjoy) – Three brilliant young doctors face the hospital life dramas of trial and triumph as they work in the shadow of the committee that investigates every death and assigns blame when deemed appropriate



5. The Romance Reader by Pearl Abraham – The eldest daughter of a Hasidic rabbi, Rachel is expected to follow a traditional life but yearns for the world she reads about in forbidden paperbacks.



6. Dancing with Einstein by Kate Wenner – Raised in 1950’s Princeton during the age of McCarthyism and “duck and cover” drills, Marea must confront her past (as the child of a pacifist mother and a Manhattan Project father who was friendly with Einstein) when she reluctantly returns home from 1970’s New York.

Phew!  What a long list of choices for you to explore! I hope it gives you plenty of ideas for your own summer reading list and that you have a great summer of reading pleasure, with help from the Astor Judaica Library at the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center. Remember that you can check out the Library Catalog online at http://sdcjc.lfjcc.org/ajl - and be sure to come back to the July e-Connection for summer reading possibilities for children and teens!

e-Connection Editor
Hliber@aol.com

RESEARCH IN CHICAGO LIBRARIES, ARCHIVES AND MUSEUMS & PREPARING FOR A GENEALOGICAL CONFERENCE

June 8, 2008 1:00 PM
Meeting of the San Diego Jewish Genealogical Society in the Senior Activity Room at the Lawrence Family JCC.

Speaker:  Marge Kealey, San Diego based genealogist who knows Chicago well.

RESEARCH IN CHICAGO LIBRARIES, ARCHIVES AND MUSEUMS  
Marge Kealey, a retired librarian, has had much experience researching her own family using the resources In Chicago.  Find out how to find vital records, Chicago naturalizations, city directories, and other important family data. 

Free to all. 

The International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies (IAJGS) conference on Jewish Genealogy will be held in Chicago, August 17-22, 2008.
For more information, log on to the conference website:
http://www.chicago2008.org/

Thank you to all of our Astor Judaica Library supporters and volunteers.
The Astor Judaica Library is a community resource. If you have a program that you would like to introduce to the community by using the Library venue, please contact Jackie Gmach.

LIBRARY CONTACTS:
Astor Judaica Library Chair: Roberta Berman
Jackie Gmach, JCC Program Director: 858-362-1150 jackieg@lfjcc.com
Hadas Blinder, Program Assistant: 858-362-1174 hadasb@lfjcc.com
LIBRARY ADVISORY COMMITTEE:
Sir Martin Gilbert, Francine Klagsbrun, Rabbi Danny Landes, Rabbi Jack Riemer