The Museum Of Jewish Heritage Announce First-Ever New York Jewish Book Festival

The Museum of Jewish Heritage - A Living Memorial to the Holocaust today announced the full schedule for the inaugural New York Jewish Book Festival, featuring a stellar lineup of talks, panels, author talks and signings, and more on Sunday, December 11, 2022.

The daylong event - made possible in part through a community partnership with the Battery Park City Authority - will touch on themes of Jewish heritage, including culture and history, modern life and literature, the Holocaust, food and cookbooks, and books and activities for kids and families.

The New York Jewish Book Festival will run from 10:00 AM to 9:00 PM at the Museum at 36 Battery Place in Battery Park City and is free to all with suggested donation. Throughout the day, books will be for sale in the Museum's Pickman Gift Shop and by individual authors and invited organizations, along with Judaica, just in time for the winter holidays.

"We are proud to present this inaugural event featuring an exciting lineup of authors, panels, and activities that will touch on a range of topics that will appeal to diverse audiences of all ages," said Jack Kliger, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Museum of Jewish Heritage. "We fully expect this to become an annual tradition, one that highlights our commitment to celebrate Jewish life."

"Literature shapes us as a people, our history, our faith, our culture, and our future," said Bruce Ratner, Chair of the Board at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. "The New York Jewish Book Festival will be an opportunity to both celebrate and educate about the Jewish experience."

"We are honored to help support the inaugural New York Jewish Book Festival as the Museum carries out its vital mission of educating diverse visitors about Jewish life from its home in Battery Park City," said B.J. Jones, President & CEO, Battery Park City Authority.

Keynotes feature illustrator and author Maira Kalman on her new book, Women Holding Things; Gary Shteyngart, author of Our Country Friends; and a conversation with the famed culinary historian and author Michael Twitty, the Southern Jewish television personality, blogger, and author of Koshersoul. Highlights also include panels of well-known photographers - Martin Schoeller, B.A. Van Sise, and Jonathan Alpeyrie - discussing their work photographing Holocaust survivors, and a new biography of businessman and philanthropist Edmond J. Safra, after whom the Museum's theater is named.

Throughout the Museum's theatre, classrooms, and events hall, panels and programs will be presented in partnership with Lilith Magazine, Association of Jewish Libraries, the Yiddish Book Center, New York Jewish Week, Jewish Currents, Moment Magazine, the Forward, and Tablet. Among the highlights are:

• Writing A Life in Film with A.O. Scott, Mark Harris, and Annette Insdorf

• Happy Hour with Sloane Crosley, Isabel Kaplan, and Stephanie Butnick

• Two Jewish Cartoonists Walk Into... A Conversation with Bob Mankoff and Liana Finck

• The Modern Loss Handbook with Rebecca Soffer and Stacy London

• Shekhinah Speaks and More: Joy Ladin on the Human-Divine Relationship with Gregg Bordowitz

• Zabar's: A Family Story with David and Willie Zabar

• Squirrel Hill: The Tree of Life Synagogue Shooting and the Soul of a Neighborhood with Mark Oppenheimer

• Rejecting the Idea of Bad Jews: American Jewish Identities in History and Non-Fiction with Emily Tamkin and Mark Oppenheimer

• Robots Get Religion! Creative Golems, Jewish Robots and the Spirituality of Artificial Intelligence with Helene Wecker, Judith Shulevitz, and Amy Schwartz

• Contemporary Humorous Fiction: Sally Koslow and Adam Langer with Jodi Rudoren

• RBG's Brave & Brilliant Women: 33 Jewish Women to Inspire Everyone with Nadine Epstein and Zibby Owens.

For children and families, we will be joined by PJ Library, Kalaniot Books, and authors of books for children in our Kid's Corner, including The Very Best Sukkah: A Story from Uganda with Soshana Nambi and an interactive reading of Mendel's Hanukkah Mess Up with Chana Stiefel and Larry Stiefel.

For the full schedule and to reserve your spot at the Book Festival and for the seven keynote events, visit http://nyjewishbookfestival.org/

The New York Jewish Book Festival is made possible in part through a community partnership with the Battery Park City Authority.

Throughout the day, Festival attendees can nosh at the acclaimed LOX Café, and visit the Museum's inspiring and moving exhibitions: Andy Goldsworthy's Garden of Stones, The Holocaust: What Hate Can Do, and Survivors: Faces of Life After the Holocaust. Photographs by Martin Schoeller.

The Museum's main exhibition, The Holocaust: What Hate Can Do is an expansive and timely presentation of Holocaust history told through personal stories, objects, photos, and film - many on view for the first time. The 12,000-square-foot exhibition features over 750 original objects and survivor testimonies from the Museum's collection. The Holocaust: What Hate Can Do is a representation of this global story through a local lens, rooted in the objects donated by survivors and their families, many of whom settled in New York and nearby places.

Also now on view is Survivors: Faces of Life After the Holocaust. Photographs by Martin Schoeller, the inaugural exhibition in the Rita Lowenstein Gallery. This exhibition, originated by Martin Schoeller and Yad Vashem, features 75 photographs created to mark the 75th anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz. Schoeller photographed these Holocaust survivors and created a short film documenting the process. The exhibition includes the entire body of work including the film, bios, and quotes from the sitters

For more detailed information on the Museum's safety protocols and requirements, visit: https://mjhnyc.org/visitor-information/health-and-safety/.