Mandel JCC Announces Annual Book Festival 2016-2017
Public is Invited to 17 Book Events with Authors Running from November through April
(West Palm Beach, FL – September 28, 2016) Lois Steinberg, Chair of the Mandel JCC Book Festival today announced the authors and dates of the 2017-2017 Festival. From November through April, the public is invited to attend 17 different book events in Boynton Beach, Palm Beach Gardens and West Palm Beach. At each event, the author of the featured book will be on hand to discuss his/her work and respond to comments and questions from the audience.
The Mandel JCC is located at 8500 Jog Road, in Boynton Beach and at 5221 Hood Road in Palm Beach Gardens. For more information or to register for any of the following book events, please go to: .
Monday, November 7
Anniversary of Kristallnacht
+ 10 am at the Mandel JCC in Boynton Beach
+ 7 pm at the Mandel JCC in Palm Beach Gardens
Book: THE GERMAN GIRL
Author: Armando Lucas Correa
Synopsis: Before everything changed, Hannah Rosenthal lived a charmed life. But now, in 1939, the streets of Berlin are draped with red, white and black flags; her family’s fine possessions are hauled away; and they are no longer welcome in the places that once felt like home. Hannah and her best friend, Leo Martin, make a pact: come what may, they promise to have a future together. A glimmer of hope appears in the form of the St. Louis, a transatlantic line that can provide Jews safe passage to Cuba. After a frantic search to obtain visas, the young couple depart on the luxurious ship where, at first, life is like a surreal holiday for the refugees, but soon ominous rumors overshadow the celebratory atmosphere, and the ship that was once their salvation seems likely to become their death sentence. This forces the couple to make an impossible choice or risk losing everything that matters.
Tickets: $10 Literary Society Reader & Author Levels; $12 Member; $14 Guest
Wednesday, November 16
Book Luncheon at the Kravis Center, Cohen Pavilion
+ 11 am in West Palm Beach
Book: NINE WOMEN, ONE DRESS
Author: Jane L. Rosen
Synopsis: Natalie is a Bloomingdale’s salesgirl mooning over her lawyer ex-boyfriend who’s engaged to someone else after just two months. Felicia has been quietly in love with her boss for 17 years and has one night to finally make the feeling mutual. Andie is a private detective who specializes in gathering evidence on cheating husbands—a skill she unfortunately learned from her own life—and lands a case that may restore her faith in true love. For these three women, as well as half a dozen others in sparkling supporting roles—a young model fresh from rural Alabama, a diva Hollywood star making her Broadway debut, an overachieving, unemployed Brown grad who starts faking a fabulous life on social media, to name just a few—everything is about to change, thanks to the dress of the season, the perfect little black number that everyone wants.
Tickets: $95 Literary Society Reader Level; $118 Guest
Saturday, December 10
+ 7 pm at the Mandel JCC in Boynton Beach
Book: THE BORSCHT BELT
Author: Marisa Scheinfeld
Synopsis: Today the Borscht Belt is recalled through the nostalgic lens of summer swims, Saturday night dances and comedy performances. But its current state, like that of many other formerly glorious regions, is nothing like its earlier status. Forgotten about and exhausted, much of its structural environment has been left to decay. The Borscht Belt features essays by Stefan Kanfer and Jenna Weissman Joselit, plus Marisa Scheinfeld’s photographs of abandoned sites where resorts, hotels and bungalow colonies once boomed in the Catskill Mountain region of upstate New York. The evening includes a dessert reception with author Marisa Scheinfeld.
Tickets: $16 Literary Society Author & Reader Levels; $20 Guest
Thursday, December 15
+ 7 pm at the Mandel JCC in Palm Beach Gardens
Book: THE ORCHESTRA OF EXILES
Author: Josh Aronson
Synopsis: The compelling biography of the violinist who founded the Palestine Symphony Orchestra and saved hundreds of people from Hitler – as seen in Josh Aronson’s documentary Orchestra of Exiles.
In creating this world-level orchestra, celebrated Polish violinist Bronislaw Huberman miraculously arranged for the very best Jewish musicians and their families to emigrate from Nazi-threatened territories. His tireless campaigning for the project – including a marathon fundraising concert tour across America – ultimately saved nearly a thousand Jews from the approaching Holocaust. Inviting the great Arturo Toscanini to conduct the orchestra’s first concert, Huberman’s clarion call of art over cruelty was heard around the world. His story contains extraordinary adventures, riches and royalty, politicians and broken promises, losses and triumphs. Against near impossible obstacles, Huberman refused to give up on his dream to create a unique and life-saving orchestra of exiles that was one of the great cultural achievements of the 20th century. Evening includes a dessert reception with author Josh Aronson.
Tickets: $16 Literary Society Author & Reader Levels; $20 Guest
Wednesday, January 11
Jewish Arts Week
+ 10 am at the Mandel JCC in Boynton Beach
+ 7 pm at the Mandel JCC in Palm Beach Gardens
Book: JEWISH LUNACY: 6,000 Years of Tradition, Pride and Stories as told to someone who missed the first 5,960 years
Author: Eric Golub
Synopsis: This book looks back on six millennia of Jewish history, presenting it as the history of a family by telling it through the reminiscences of Eric, who calls himself the Tygrrrr Express. He grew up hearing stories of heartbreaking pain, insightful wisdom, and sidesplitting humor from Jewish relatives and the elders in Long Island, where he grew up. Drawing upon his family’s rich oral traditions, the author explores the deeply serious and humorously welcoming history of the Jewish people. Organized by topics, the book explores the lunacy of the author’s growing up and uncovers the strange elements in topics as varied as sex, sports, philosophy, politics, pacifism, conspiracy theories, and religion.
Tickets: $10 Literary Society Reader Level; $12 Guest
Tuesday, January 24
Bagels & Books Series
+ 10 am at the Mandel JCC in Palm Beach Gardens
Book: THE BRIDGE LADIES
Author: Betsy Lerner
Synopsis: After a lifetime defining herself in contrast to her mother’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” generation, Lerner finds herself back in her childhood home, not five miles from the mother she spent decades avoiding. When Roz needs help after surgery, it falls to Betsy to take care of her. She expected a week of tense civility; what she got instead were the Bridge Ladies. Impressed by their loyalty, she saw something her generation lacked. Facebook was great, but it wouldn’t deliver a pot roast. Tentatively at first, Betsy becomes a regular at her mother’s Monday Bridge club. Through her friendships with the ladies, she is finally able to face years of misunderstandings and family tragedy, the Bridge table becoming the common ground she and Roz never had.
Series Tickets for 4 Bagels & Books: $45 Literary Society Reader Level; $55 Guest
Individual Tickets: $12 Literary Society Reader Level; $15 Guest
Tuesday, January 31
Bagels & Books Series
+ 10 am at the Mandel JCC in Palm Beach Gardens
Book: LOVE FINER THAN WINE
Author: Edward C. Bernstein
Synopsis: Matthew Eisenfeld and Sara Duker were the best of their generation. They were brilliant, spiritual and kind. They were leaders and idealists who dreamed of fixing a broken world. Then their dreams were shattered. On February 25, 1996, Matt and Sara were murdered on the Number 18 Bus in Jerusalem. Their deaths left a void that can never be filled. A generation has passed, yet Matt and Sara still call to us. They left behind windows into their souls. Love Finer Than Wine, edited by Edward C. Bernstein, presents writings of Matt and Sara in which they contemplate life’s most fundamental questions. Matt and Sara died too young, but their spirits live through their own words.
Series Tickets for 4 Bagels & Books: $45 Literary Society Reader Level; $55 Guest
Individual Tickets: $12 Literary Society Reader Level; $15 Guest
Friday, February 3
+ 10 am at the Mandel JCC in Boynton Beach
Book: LOVE FINER THAN WINE
Author: Edward C. Bernstein
Tickets: $12 Literary Society Reader Level; $15 Guest
Friday, February 17
Bagels & Books Series
+ 10 am at the Mandel JCC in Palm Beach Gardens
Book: IRENE’S CHILDREN
Author: Tilar J. Mazzeo
Synopsis: From the New York Times bestselling author of The Widow Clicquot comes an extraordinary and gripping account of Irena Sendler – the “female Oskar Schindler” – who took staggering risks to save 2,500 children from death and deportation in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II. In this book, Tilar Mazzeo tells the incredible story of this courageous and brave woman who risked her life to save innocent children from the Holocaust – a truly heroic tale of survival, resilience and redemption.
Series Tickets for 4 Bagels & Books: $45 Literary Society Reader Level; $55 Guest
Individual Tickets: $12 Literary Society Reader Level; $15 Guest
Tuesday, February 28
Book Luncheon at the Indian Spring Country Club
+ 11 am in Boynton Beach
Book: THE LILAC GIRLS
Author: Martha Hall Kelly
Synopsis: In this New York Times bestseller, socialite Caroline Ferriday has her hands full with her post at the French consulate and a new love on the horizon. But her world is forever changed when Hitler’s army invades Poland in September 1939—and then sets its sights on France. An ocean away from Caroline, Kasia Kuzmerick, a Polish teenager, senses her carefree youth disappearing as she is drawn deeper into her role as courier for the underground resistance movement. In a tense atmosphere of watchful eyes and suspecting neighbors, one false move can have dire consequences. For the ambitious young German doctor, Herta Oberheuser, an ad for a government medical position seems her ticket out of a desolate life. Once hired, though, she finds herself trapped in a male-dominated realm of Nazi secrets and power. The lives of these three women are set on a collision course when the unthinkable happens and Kasia is sent to Ravensbrück, the notorious Nazi concentration camp for women. Their stories cross continents – from New York to Paris, Germany, and Poland – as Caroline and Kasia strive to bring justice to those whom history has forgotten.
Tickets: $50 Literary Society Reader Level; $60 Guest
Tuesday, March 7
Documentary & Book Event
+ 3:30 pm at the Mandel JCC in Palm Beach Gardens
Book: INA’S KITCHEN: Memories and Recipes from the Breakfast Queen
Author: Ina Pinkney
Synopsis: Ina’s Kitchen is part cookbook part memoir, collecting 39 of Ina’s favorite recipes with stories from her life. From milestone moments and warm memories to the “truth” about owning a restaurant, readers will gain a deeper understanding of one of Chicago’s best-known culinary icons. This book is a love letter to the diners Ina has fed over the years. In it, she shares her wisdom with the same generosity – both of food and of spirit – that kept people coming back to her restaurant
Tickets: $54 Literary Society Author & Reader Levels; $60 Guest
Monday, March 13
Bagels & Books Series
+ 10 am at the Mandel JCC in Palm Beach Gardens
Book: AMONG THE LIVING
Author: Jonathan Richard Rabb
Synopsis: A moving novel about a Holocaust survivor’s unconventional journey back to a new normal in 1940s Savannah, Georgia. In late summer 1947, 31-year-old Yitzhak Goldah, a camp survivor, arrives in Savannah to live with his only remaining relatives. They are Abe and Pearl Jesler, older, childless, and an integral part of the thriving Jewish community that has been in Georgia since the founding of the colony. There, Yitzhak discovers a fractured world, where Reform and Conservative Jews live separate lives – distinctions, to him, that are meaningless given what he has been through. He further complicates things when, much to the Jeslers’ dismay, he falls in love with Eva, a young widow within the Reform community. When a woman from Yitzhak’s past suddenly appears – one who is even more shattered than he is – Yitzhak must choose between a dark and tortured familiarity and the promise of a bright new life.
Series Tickets for 4 Bagels & Books: $45 Literary Society Reader Level; $55 Guest
Individual Tickets: $12 Literary Society Reader Level; $15 Guest
Thursday, March 30
Ladies Night Out
+ 7 pm at the Blue Martini, CityPlace in West Palm Beach
Book: MOTHER CAN YOU NOT?
Authors: Kim Friedman & Kate Siegel
Synopsis: Based on the wildly popular Instagram account @CrazyJewishMom, Kate Siegel’s essay collection about life with the woman who redefined the term “helicopter mom.” There is nothing more wonderful than a mother’s love. There is also nothing more annoying. Who else can proudly insist that you’re perfect while simultaneously making you question every career, fashion, and relationship decision you have ever made? No one understands the delicate mother-daughter dynamic better than Kate Siegel—her own mother drove her so crazy that she decided to broadcast their hilarious conversations on Instagram. Soon, hundreds of thousands of people were following their daily text exchanges, eager to see what outrageous thing Kate’s mom would do next. Now, in this book, Kate pays tribute to the woman who invented the concept of drone parenting. From embarrassing moments (like crashing Kate’s gynecological exams) to outrageous stories (like the time she made Kate steal a cat from the pound) to hilarious celebrations (including but not limited to parties for Kate’s menstrual cycles), this delightful book lovingly lampoons the lengths to which mothers will go to better their daughter’s lives (even if it feels like they’re ruining them in the process).
Tickets: $36 Literary Society Author & Reader Level; $42 Guest
Tuesday, April 4
+ 10 am at the Mandel JCC in Boynton Beach
+ 7 pm at the Mandel JCC in Palm Beach Gardens
Book: DIE LAUGHING: Killer Jokes for Newly Old Folks
Author: William Novak
Synopsis: From the co-creator of the celebrated Big Book of Jewish Humor comes a laugh-out-loud collection of jokes about growing older that makes fun of memory loss, marriages, medicine, sex, the afterlife, and much more, making this the perfect gift for almost anyone who was born before you were. Whether it’s dealing with doctors, dating in one’s seventies, or unexpected bodily changes (not to mention funny noises), some things are easier to face with a smile of recognition. That’s why Die Laughing is the perfect gift for your parents, anyone celebrating a significant birthday, or any boomer with a sense of humor whose age begins with a six or higher. Evening includes a dessert reception with author William Novak.
Tickets in Boynton Beach: $12 Literary Society Reader Level; $15 Guest
Tickets in Palm Beach Gardens: $16 Literary Society Reader Level; $20 Guest
About the Mandel Jewish Community Center of the Palm Beaches:
The Mandel JCC has two locations in Palm Beach County. The Boynton Beach building is at 8500 Jog Road and the Palm Beach Gardens building is at 5221 Hood Road. For more information about the Mandel JCC of the Palm Beaches, visit .
The mission of the Mandel JCC of the Palm Beaches is to build community and enhance connection to Jewish life. The Mandel JCC is a partner agency of the Jewish Federation of Palm Beach County.