The JBC: Author Series 2024/25

For the coming year, the Jewish Federation of Greater Orange County has created exciting ways to connect, learn, or be entertained.

In partnership with the Jewish Book Council we are bringing in world-renowned authors from around the country for author events for the Orange County community.  There are a variety of topics and subjects that appeal to everyone. 

The Federation has books available in the office, please contact Pam by calling (845) 562-7860 or emailing office@jewishorangeny.org, to purchase one today, or purchase them the day of the event for author signing. See the pricing is below for each book.

If you are registering for a Zoom author event, you will receive the Zoom link upon completion of your registration. 

Consider becoming a Sponsor for our JBC events to offset our costs. Various degrees of Sponsorship available, see below.

Author Nancy Ludmerer
Sunday, Feb 23 | 2pm
Via Zoom
 

 


 


Author Adelle Waldman
Thursday, Feb 27 | 6:30pm
Boardman Rd, Poughkeepsie Public Library
In-person ONLY

"Sar­ra Copia: A Locked-in Life"
Nan­cy Ludmerer

From the Publisher

The first offi­cial ghet­to was estab­lished in Venice in 1516. Jews were locked in from sun­set to sun­rise in Canareg­gio, in the north­ern­most area of Venice. Sar­ra Copia: A Locked-in Life is his­tor­i­cal fic­tion based on the title char­ac­ter, who lived there from her birth in 1592 until her death 49 years lat­er. Sarra’s father, a suc­cess­ful mer­chant, encour­aged and sup­port­ed her sec­u­lar as well as Hebrew edu­ca­tion. She stud­ied clas­si­cal lit­er­a­ture, music, and sci­ence, wrote poet­ry, and, years after her father’s death, estab­lished a lit­er­ary salon in the ghet­to. For three years, Sarra’s salon flour­ished, attend­ed reg­u­lar­ly by Catholic poets, intel­lec­tu­als, and priests — until one priest, whom she con­sid­ered a friend, pub­licly accused her of heresy, putting Sar­ra and the entire Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty in jeop­ardy from the Inqui­si­tion. The novel­la begins when Sara is eight. It por­trays Sarra’s fam­i­ly rela­tion­ships, takes us inside her salon, and explores her strong but trou­bled con­nec­tions with the Chris­t­ian world, a world that nev­er for­gave her for being a Jew.

"Help Want­ed"
Adelle Wald­man

From the Publisher
Every day at 3:55 a.m., mem­bers of Team Move­ment clock in for their shift at big-box store Town Square in a small upstate New York town. Under the eyes of a self-absorbed and bare­ly com­pe­tent boss, they emp­ty the day’s truck of mer­chan­dise, stock the shelves, and scat­ter before the store opens and cus­tomers arrive. Their lives fol­low a famil­iar if gru­el­ing rou­tine, but their real prob­lem is that Town Square doesn’t sched­ule them for enough hours — most of them are bare­ly get­ting by, even while work­ing sec­ond or third jobs. When store man­ag­er Big Will announces he is leav­ing, the mem­bers of Team Move­ment spot an oppor­tu­ni­ty. If they play their cards right, one of them just might land a man­age­ment job, with all the sta­bil­i­ty and pos­si­bil­i­ty for advance­ment that that implies. The mem­bers of Team Move­ment— includ­ing a com­e­dy-obsessed odd­ball who acts half his age, a young woman cling­ing on to her ​“cool kid” sta­tus from high school, and a col­lege foot­ball hope­ful try­ing to find a new path — band togeth­er to set a just-so-crazy-it-might-work plot in motion.

 

Autor Shira Dicker
Sunday, March 2 | 2pm
Temple Beth Shalom, Florida
Via Zoom

"Loli­ta at Leonard’s of Great Neck: and Oth­er Sto­ries from the Before Times"
Shi­ra Dicker

From the Publisher
The five com­pelling tales com­pris­ing Loli­ta at Leonard’s of Great Neck and Oth­er Sto­ries from the Before Times take you on an immer­sive jour­ney from 1974 to the 2000s. Eigh­teen-year-old Anna, a Jew­ish col­lege stu­dent, meets a Ger­man busi­ness­man at a Greek din­er on Queens Boule­vard. Claire Seltzer of Great Neck has the hon­ey­moon from hell in Paris. Rebec­ca, a spunky eighth grad­er, is in love with Mr. Miller, her math teacher. Sarah Rein­hardt, the wife of a celebri­ty doc­tor liv­ing in Cen­tral Park West, finds her­self in a com­pli­cat­ed love tri­an­gle. Rachel Rosensweig awak­ens one morn­ing to find that her hus­band of thir­ty years, a Colum­bia pro­fes­sor, has become a dan­ger­ous rad­i­cal.

The char­ac­ters of this unfor­get­table col­lec­tion inhab­it the gold­en era of the post­war, pre-pan­dem­ic world. Age-old pow­er strug­gles — between lovers, between friends, between par­ents and chil­dren— are illu­mi­nat­ed and ana­lyzed. Heart­break­ing and some­times hilar­i­ous, their sto­ries dis­close and doc­u­ment what it meant to be Amer­i­can, Jew­ish, and female. Rich with cul­tur­al touch­stones and ref­er­ence points, they are suf­fused with self-aware­ness, long­ing, and sen­su­al awareness.

Author Stuart E. Eizenstat
NEW DATE: Thursday, April, 3 | 6:30pm Dinner at Rhinebeck Reformed Church |7pm Via Zoom

The Art of Diplo­ma­cy: How Amer­i­can Nego­tia­tors Reached His­toric Agree­ments That Changed the World
"Stu­art E. Eizenstat"

 

From the Publisher
In one read­able vol­ume, diplo­mat and nego­tia­tor Stu­art E. Eizen­stat cov­ers every major con­tem­po­rary inter­na­tion­al agree­ment, from the treaty to end the Viet­nam War to the Kyoto Pro­to­cols and the Iran­ian Nuclear Accord. Writ­ten from the per­spec­tive that only a par­tic­i­pant in top-lev­el nego­ti­a­tions can bring, Eizen­stat recounts the events that led up to the nego­ti­a­tion, the dra­ma that took place around the table, and draws lessons from suc­cess­ful and unsuc­cess­ful strate­gies and tac­tics. Based on inter­views with over 60 key fig­ures in Amer­i­can diplo­ma­cy, includ­ing for­mer pres­i­dents and sec­re­taries of state, and major polit­i­cal fig­ures abroad.

2023/2024 JBC Recordings

Woke Antisemitism: Monday

Woke Antisemitism Monday Night Discussion with Author David L. Bernstein, Wendy Cedar & Donald Green

https://vimeo.com/877662995?share=copy

Woke Antisemitism: Tuesday

Tuesday Afternoon Discussion with Author David L. Bernstein, Wendy Cedar & Donald Green

https://vimeo.com/877669404?share=copy

Andrew Meier

Morgenthau Sunday Discussion with Author Andrew Meier

https://vimeo.com/882277196?share=copy

Jennifer Rosner

Author of Once We Were Home

https://vimeo.com/893901170?share=copy

Elizabeth Graver