Readers' Resources Online
This page, a service of the Temple Beth El, Aptos library, highlights upcoming Jewish book events and provides links for further exploration. Please send suggestions and questions to librarytbe@gmail.com
Upcoming Events
Please note: The following events are, as best we can determine, free of charge unless otherwise noted.
We recommend that you check times for your region and register in advance when possible.
Thursday, September 21
4 pm PDT (7 pm ET) – Miriam Karpilove and the Yiddish Newspaper with Jessica Kirzane
When the young narrator of Miriam Karpilove’s A Provincial Newspaper leaves New York to work for a new Yiddish newspaper in Massachusetts, she expects to be treated with respect as a professional writer. Instead, she finds herself underpaid and overworked. In this slapstick novella, Karpilove’s narrator lampoons the gaggle of blundering publishers and editors who put her through the wringer and spit her back out again. In this talk, Kirzane will discuss Karpilove’s satire of the Yiddish newspaper workplace together with a selection of short stories Karpilove published in the Forverts in the 1930s, during her time as a staff writer at that newspaper.
https://support.yiddishbookcenter.org/site/Ticketing?view=Tickets&id=9306&s_src=Event&s_subsrc=YiddishNewspaper
5 pm PDT (8pm ET) – Elizabeth Graver, Kantika – A dazzling Sephardic multigenerational saga, Elizabeth Graver's Kantika explores displacement, endurance, and family as home. A haunting, inspiring meditation on the tenacity of women, this lush, lyrical novel celebrates the insistence on seizing beauty and grabbing hold of one’s one and only life.
https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/RrZJaf6/JWABookTalksFall2023
Wednesday, Septermber 27
3:30 pm PDT (6:30 ET) – Summons to Berlin: Nazi Theft and a Daughter's Quest for Justice byJoanne Intrator – On his deathbed, a New York psychiatrist’s father poses two unsettling questions: “Are you tough enough? Do they know who you are?” Author Joanne Intrator soon realizes that these haunting questions relate to a center-city Berlin building at 16 Wallstrasse that the Nazis ripped away from her family in 1938. But a decade will pass before she fully grasps why her father threw down the gauntlet as he did. Repeatedly, Intrator’s restitution quest forces her to confront her profound fears surrounding Germany and the Holocaust. LBI Executive Director Emeritus William H. Weitzer will speak with Intrator about restitution, intergenerational trauma, and the power of memoir.
https://programs.cjh.org/event/summons-to-berlin-2023-09-27
Thursday, September 28
3 pm PDT (6pm ET) – I Could Nosh by Jake Cohen – book launch with Michael Solomonov - $10 livestream / $35 book & livestream
https://theweitzman.org/events/i-could-nosh
Thursday, October 5
4 pm PDT (7 pm ET) – Yiddish: A Global Culture – The Yiddish Book Center’s new core exhibit, Yiddish: A Global Culture, opens on October 15. Offering a rich, immersive journey into 150 years of modern Yiddish creativity, it will present treasures from the Center’s collection alongside newly donated artifacts and photographs. David Mazower, chief curator, and Lisa Newman will preview this ambitious new project and show selected highlights.
https://support.yiddishbookcenter.org/site/Ticketing?view=Tickets&id=9308&s_src=Event&s_subsrc=GlobalCulture
5 pm PDT (8pm ET) – Mattie Kahn, Young and Restless: the girls who sparked America's revolutions – recounts one of the most under-appreciated forces in moments of American revolution: teenage girls. From the American Revolution through Black Lives Matter, Kahn uncovers how girls organized and lay political groundwork for movements that often sidelined them.
https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/RrZJaf6/JWABookTalksFall2023
Tuesday, October 10
The Jewish Deli: an illustrated guide to the chosen food by Ben Nadler with Ted Merwin – If you’re hungry to explore the history of Ashkenazi comfort food, this must-attend event will surely satisfy your appetite for knowledge. $12 suggested donation.
https://www.classy.org/event/weitzman-book-club-journey-into-the-jewish-deli-with-bed-nadler-and-ted-merwin/e508121
Sunday, October 22
2 pm PDT – The Bund: A Graphic History of Jewish Labour Resistance by Sharon Rudahl, Michael Klucker and Paul Buhle – Told in an engaging graphic novel format ... explains the oppressive origins of Jewish resistance in Ukraine, Poland, and the Pale of Settlement in Tsarist Russia. Jews adapted to industrialization and organized against exploitation. As they became more divided along the linguistic borders of Yiddish and Hebrew, splits emerged between those who sought a distant ancestral homeland, others who emigrated and adapted to the “new world,” and those who fought against murderous Soviet and Nazi regimes. Charismatic resistance figures including Pati Kremer and Bernard Goldstein kept secular and progressive ideas alive against impossible odds in this graphic account of a little-known story. The first of its kind, this graphic history of Jewish labor resistance offers an account of a radical past that can have strong implications for many today. https://jewishcommunitylibrary.org/events-listing/the-bund/
Recordings of Recent Events
Elizabeth Graver, Kantika – A dazzling Sephardic multigenerational saga, Elizabeth Graver's Kantika explores displacement, endurance, and family as home. A haunting, inspiring meditation on the tenacity of women, this lush, lyrical novel celebrates the insistence on seizing beauty and grabbing hold of one’s one and only life. https://jwa.org/programs/bookclub/elizabeth-graver
What, and Who, is a Jewish Writer – For many decades, American Jewish authors have tried to untangle their two identities, reckoning with both Jewishness and Americanness in their writing. Joshua Cohen and Nicole Krauss, two prominent younger novelists who have emphasized Jewish themes in their books, will discuss how these identities influence who they are as authors and how they approach their portrayals of Jewish life through these lenses. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2_w04-pYbI
The Paper Brigade – "60 Mintues" feature about the Paper Brigade made up mostly of writers and intellectuals living in Vilna, whose members risked death, smuggling artwork, books and rare manuscripts, hiding them in underground bunkers during the Nazi occupation. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/paper-brigade-jewish-artifacts-holocaust-60-minutes-2022-11-13/
The Missing Jew: poems 1976-2022 with poet Roger Kamenetz – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XOH9A76eH5I
Author Helene Wecker and the immigrant experience told through the lives of mythical monsters. –– https://collegecommons.huc.edu/bully_pulpit/wecker/
Sam Cohen, author of Sarahland, which brilliantly and often hilariously explores the ways in which traditional stories have failed us, both demanding and providing new origin stories for its cast of Sarahs, new ways to love the planet and those inhabiting it, and new possibilities for life itself. JWA Quarantine(ish) Book Talks. ) https://jwa.org/programs/bookclub/sam-cohen
Courtney Zoffness, author of Spilt Milk: Memoirs, which considers what we inherit from generations past―biologically, culturally, spiritually―and what we pass on to our children. JWA Quarantine(ish) Book Talks, 5 pm PDT (8 pm EDT)
https://jwa.org/programs/bookclub/courtney-zoffness
Rachel Barenbaum, Atomic Anna, an epic adventure as three generations of women work together and travel through time to prevent the Chernobyl disaster and right the wrongs of their past. JWA Quarantine(ish) Book Talks, 5 pm PDT (8 pm EDT)
https://jwa.org/programs/bookclub/barenbaum-rachel
Growing Up Jewish in India with contributor Siona Benjamin, illustrator of the children’s book I Am Hava, a story about the world’s most famous Jewish song—as told by the song herself. JWA Quarantine(ish) Book Talks, 5 pm PDT (8 pm EDT)
https://jwa.org/media/quarantineish-book-talk-siona-benjamin-july-28-2022
Tears Over Russia: a search for family and the legacy of Ukraine's pogroms by Lisa Brahim
https://youtu.be/gH_KEU4s3wQ
Institutions & Organizations with Ongoing Online Book Programs
Jewish Journal Streaming Guide – https://jewishjournal.com/streaming-guide-2-2-2/
The Hub : Jewish online classes and events @ My Jewish Learning – https://www.myjewishlearning.com/the-hub/
Jewish Community Library (SF)
https://jewishlearning.works/jewish-community-library/jewish-community-library-events/
American Jewish University - Events & Classes / Literature – https://maven.aju.edu/tags/literature
Hadassah Magazine Event Videos – https://www.hadassahmagazine.org/videos/
Jewish Women's Archive - upcoming events – https://jwa.org/events
Jewish Women's Archive & Jewish Live - Quarantine(ish) Book Talks
https://jwa.org/programs/bookclub/quarantine-book-club
Jewish Book Council - upcoming events – https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/events
– past events – https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/events/past
– Authors at the Table series – https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/events/jbc-authors-at-the-table
Judaism Unbound Podcast – https://www.judaismunbound.com/podcast
Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature / Israeli Institute for Hebrew Literature
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCa6M6_5-zSt6mAel489qmZw/videos
YIVO Institute – events – https://yivo.org/Calendar
Yiddish Book Center –Virtual & Live Events – https://www.yiddishbookcenter.org/visit/calendar-events
The Forward – events – https://forward.com/events/
Judaism Unbound Podcasts – https://www.judaismunbound.com/podcast
Keeping It Sacred – https://www.keepingitsacred.com/upcoming
Weitzman National Museum of Jewish American History https://theweitzman.org/virtual-museum/
Center for Jewish History – https://programs.cjh.org/
Jewish Theological Seminary – https://www.jtsa.edu/events-calendar/
Israel Network for the Humanities and Social Sciences [Hebrew] – https://www.hum-il.com/calendars/
What to Read - Reading Lists & Reviews
The Jewish Book Council
Editor's Picks – https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/books/search?is_editors_pick=1
Civil Rights and Race – https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/books/reading-lists/civil-rights-and-race
Jewish Feminist Fiction – https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/pb-daily/jewish-feminist-fiction
Association of Jewish Libraries
Nice Jewish Books podcast – https://nicejewishbooks.libsyn.com/
The Book of Life (Jewish kidlit) – https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/
Love Your Neighbor - series of book lists for young readers – https://jewishlibraries.org/love-your-neighbor/
Sidney Taylor Schmooze: a mock book award blog – https://www.sydneytaylorshmooze.com/
Passover Books for Children – https://jewishlibraries.org/ajl-recommends-passover-books-for-children/
Holocaust Literature for Youth – https://jewishlibraries.org/selected-holocaust-literature-for-youth/
Jewish Book Carnival – https://jewishlibraries.org/Jewish_Book_Carnival_HQ/
Jewish High School Library Online – https://www.jewishhslibrary.com/
My Jewish Learning - Jewish Literature – https://www.myjewishlearning.com/category/study/jewish-culture/jewish-literature/
Top 100 Jewish Books – https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/top-100-jewish-books/
Jewish-American Writing in the 21st Century – https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/jewish-american-fiction-in-the-21st-century/
Yiddish Literature in the 20th Century – https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/yiddish-literature-in-the-20th-century/
Hebrew Literature in Translation – https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/israeli-literature-a-readers-guide/
Mainstream American Jewish Literature – https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/mainstream-american-jewish-literature/
The Tel Aviv Review of Books – https://www.tarb.co.il/
Jewish Book Bloggers – https://www.dropbox.com/s/ksk9gr2nqcm5cf2/JewishBookBloggers_table.docx?dl=0
Jewish Community Library 2022 Summer Reading List – https://jewishlearning.works/2022/05/2022-summer-reading-list/
Jewish Kidlit Mavens – Facebook Group – https://www.facebook.com/groups/JewishKidlitMavens/
Jewish Women's Archive - Book Club – https://jwa.org/programs/bookclub/bookshelf
My Jewish Learning
120 Jewish Books for Any Age –https://www.myjewishlearning.com/120-jewish-books-for-every-age/
Great Jewish Books email series – https://www.myjewishlearning.com/sign-up-for-the-great-jewish-books-email-series/
Goodreads Jewish Book Club – https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/153704-jewish-book-club
A Jewish Anti-racist Reading List for Children of All Ages – Kveller
https://www.kveller.com/a-jewish-anti-racist-reading-list-for-children-of-all-ages/
Get your books here ...
Santa Cruz Public Library – https://www.santacruzpl.org/
Download/Stream (ebooks/audiobooks) – https://www.santacruzpl.org/ematerials/
Wide selection of mostly popular ebook and audiobook titles, same as or similar to Kindle or Audible
Free to registered SC Public Library card holders – SCPL barcode # required
Bookshop Santa Cruz – https://www.bookshopsantacruz.com/
PJ Library - "free books for Jewish children" https://pjlibrary.org/home
"The Most Important Jewish Philanthropist You’ve Never Heard Of" - portrait of PJ Library's Harold Grinspoon
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/community/articles/harold-grinspoon
Sefaria: a living library of Torah – https://www.sefaria.org/texts
Judaism / Project Gutenberg – https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/bookshelf/128
Selection of free, public-domain texts
Bookshop.com – https://bookshop.papertrell.com/
"Bookshop is an online bookstore with a mission to financially support independent
bookstores and give back to the book community."
Libro.fm Audiobooks– https://libro.fm/
"Same audiobooks. Same price. Different story."
ABE Books – https://www.abebooks.com/
Used, rare, and collectable book portal for independent book sellers.
Better World Books – https://www.betterworldbooks.com/
Online used and discount book seller with a social justice mission.