The 40th Annual JCC JEWISH BOOK FESTIVAL Returns In February

The JCC Jewish Book Festival (Feb. 22-27, 2025) will bring community together in a warm embrace with fascinating writers from across Canada, USA and Israel, in celebration of our landmark year.

This has been a tumultuous year for the Jewish people and the world. From the rise in antisemitic attacks in Canada and around the globe, to the heartbreaking events in Israel and the complexities of Jewish identity in an ever-changing society, writers absorb reality and return it to us in different, magical and stirring ways. For four decades, we have strived to create community dialogue around recent publications that showcase pivotal ideas stemming from the modern world. From controversial political statements, to entertaining quirky comedy writing and food; from history in the shadow of the Holocaust, to thrilling local stories brought by our own BC writers, the wide range of offers attuned to timely and universal themes speaks to every age and artistic interest.  

Featured 2025 Festival authors will include: Opening Night with our own SELINA ROBINSON in conversation about her searing, powerful memoir Truth Be Told, revealing the antisemitism she experienced in government. At the other end of the spectrum, our Closing Night will feature actor and comedian Brett Gelman (of Stranger Things and Fleabag fame) with his hilariously neurotic literary debut The Terrifying Realm of the Possible: Nearly True Stories. Our annual Book Clubs event will feature bestselling American author LAURIE FRANKEL with her novel Family Family, an original and engrossing exploration of how complicated families can be, from a master storyteller.

Award-winning journalist YARDENA SCHWARTZ will expose the ground-zero event of the current century-old war in her compelling Ghosts of a Holy War: The 1929 Massacre in Palestine That Ignited the Arab-Israeli Conflict;   historian JASON BELL will uncover the true story of  the Canadian spy, a real-life 007 who was the first to break open the emerging Nazi conspiracy, in his book Cracking the Nazi Code: The Untold Story of Agent A12 and the Solving of the Holocaust Code; and art history will get its fascinating turn with local historian MARK BRAUDE with Kiki Man Ray: Arts, Love and Rivalry in 1920s Paris ,  charting the fraught and volatile relationship between performer, model,  painter and memoirist Kiki de Montparnasse and Surrealist Jewish   photographer Man Ray.

Toronto prize-winning author NORA GOLD will talk about her two novellas In Sickness and In Health /Yom Kippur in a Gym marked by the deep understanding and compassion for her characters, while Dr. STAN LUBIN will bring vignettes from his actual life with his unusual memoir 123 Very Short Stories from a Very Long Life in Medicine.

The long shadow of the Soviet empire and persecution will be explored in a joint event with Dr . KARINE RASHKOVSKY with An Improbable Life: My Father's Escape from Soviet Russia, an account of her father's tumultuous life, together with SASHA VASILYUK whose riveting debut novel, based on real events, spans seven decades between WWII and the current Russia-Ukraine conflict. BC and Vancouver “literary landmark” author TOM WAYMAN will describe milestone life events in his memoir The Road to Appledore or How I Got Back to the Land Without Ever Having Lived There in the First Place and will join forces with ELI GREENBAUM presenting his generation's history in Hell, No, We Didn't Go! Firsthand Accounts of Vietnam War Protest and Resistance.

 Local professor and psychiatrist ROGER FRIE will launch his insightful: Edge of Catastrophe: Erich Fromm, Fascism, and the Holocaust in honour of International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Dr. SARA GLASS, a therapist, writer and speaker who was rejected by her controlling Orthodox Brooklyn community for being queer, will present her compelling memoir Kissing Girls on Shabbat. We'll enjoy a fascinating and hilarious look at Einstein's enduring influence on the modern world in BENYAMIN COHEN's The Einstein Effect: How the World's Favourite Genius Got into Our Cars, Our Bathrooms and Our Minds – the author has a bizarre side-job as Albert Einstein on social media, with 20 million followers!

Since food is a central part of Jewish culture, chef and recipe writer MICAH SIVA will present her latest cookbook Nosh: Plant-Forward Recipes Celebrating Modern Jewish Cuisine.

Engaging authors will delight young audiences in their school settings as well as at the JCC : SIDURA LUDWIG with her heartwarming picture book Rising, where the entire community will come together in a Challah bake event. SELINA ALKO, beloved illustrator originally from Vancouver, will present her touching Sharing Shalom book, where a girl's community joins hands to fight intolerance. Local children's author ELLEN SCHWARTZ will talk about her middle-grades story Friends to the Rescue .

“As we approach this milestone 40th festival we are filled with excitement and anticipation for what it represents—a culmination of hard work, creativity, and growth. It's a powerful reminder of the progress we've made and of our mission to continue creating relevant, engaging and safe space for Jewish literature and conversation, for community, ideas and dialogue. The nucleus of our festival is Jewish-themed, but our speakers, events and audience happily represent a diversity of cultures and lived experiences that defy narrow categorization. Everyone is welcome, we build community and bridge identities across divides!” says Festival Director, Dana Camil Hewitt.

Mark your calendars now! Regular updates can be found on the website at www.jccgv.com/jewish-book-festival where our digital program guide will be available after January 2, 2025.

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