Jewish Book Week

In a history book that reads like a thriller, The Book Smugglers charts the incredible story of the ghetto inmates who rescued thousands of rare books and manuscripts — first from the Nazis and then from the Soviets — by hiding them on their bodies, burying them in bunkers, and smuggling them across borders. In doing so, this daring group of poets turned partisans, and scholars turned smugglers, saved the treasures of Vilna, ‘the Jerusalem of Lithuania’. Sponsored by the National Library of Israel

Judeophobia, the great hatred. Is it a psychic aberration, a 2,000 year-old disease? Loathing of Jews has been a feature of Christendom since the first accusation of deicide and this, combined with enforced employment patterns – usury and trade – made the Jews the pariahs of Europe, a situation the Enlightenment did nothing to change. Chameleon-like, the hatred became racial rather than religious. Today there is an addition to the old prejudices – aversion to Israel. As the world falls to extremism, Jew hatred is, again, a unifying force. Our panel, drawn from the worlds of history, politics, journalism and the law, scrutinised this longest hatred. Sponsored by Jacqueline and Michael Gee

In January 2018, cellist Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, a survivor of Auschwitz, and then of Bergen-Belsen, addressed the Bundestag to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day. In an extraordinary speech, she said, “Antisemitism is a virus which is two thousand years old and apparently incurable… No other genocide is as comprehensively documented as the Holocaust. And yet there are still the deniers … There are no excuses and no explanations for what happened all those years ago. All that remains is hope: the hope that ultimately, one day, reason will prevail.” Anita read extracts from that speech. Her grandson Simon, an acclaimed cellist and singer, played, accompanied by pianist Iain Farrington. Sponsored by Eduard Shyfrin and Family

Join prize-winning tour guide, award-winning librarian and author Rachel Kolsky as she profiles her latest book, Women’s London. Inspired by walking tours she devised for The Women’s Library and responding to those who encouraged her to put her words on paper, she published a guide book to London featuring the impact women have had on its society, heritage and streetscape. From scientists to suffragettes, reformers and royals, authors and artists, sit back and discover some of Rachel’s favourite London ladies.

In Insomnia, Marina Benjamin has produced an unsettling account of an unsettling condition, treating our inability to sleep not as a disorder, but as an existential experience that can electrify our understanding of ourselves, and of creativity and love. Lisa Appignanesi, in Everyday Madness, writes of the rage she experienced when her partner of 32 years died. In this brave examination of an ‘ordinary enough’ death and its aftermath, she scrutinises her own and our society’s experience of grieving, the effects of loss and the potent, mythical space it occupies in our lives. In Association with the TLS

The Holocaust never happened. The planet isn’t warming. Vaccines cause autism. All of us deny inconvenient truths sometimes, but what happens when denial becomes ‘denialism’, a systematic attempt to overturn established scholarly findings?  And how do we relate to this phenomenon in a ‘post-truth’ age? Our panellists, whose expertise covers history, contemporary culture, the law and psychotherapy, discuss the significance of phenomena such as Holocaust denial and climate change denial, and how they relate to ‘everyday’ denial.

Jewish Book Week hosts an edition of Literary Friction the monthly podcast about books and ideas, hosted by friends Carrie and Octavia. Listen-in for lively discussion, book recommendations and a little music too. Carrie and Octavia will be interviewing Ukranian-born, American and French artist and author Yelena Moskovich, speaking about her incredible new book Virtuoso.

For a generation, public debate has been corroded by a narrow derision of religion in the name of an often vaguely understood ‘science’. Bestselling author and eminent philosopher John Gray describes the rich, complex world of the atheist tradition. His book sheds an extraordinary and varied light on what it is to be human and on the thinkers who have battled to understand this issue. “There is no need to panic or despair”, says Gray. “A godless world is as mysterious as one suffused with divinity, and the difference between the two may be less than you think.”

Ferdinand Mount has long been fascinated by the great thinkers and politicians of the past two millennia. In his riveting and provocative book, Prime Movers, Mount takes us on a colourful journey, examining the ideas of twelve key savants — from Pericles to Jesus Christ, and from Adam Smith to Karl Marx. These are the people who have shaped our world — and who have inspired and provoked the author, often in equal measure. In Association with the TLS This event took place on 6 March as part of Jewish Book Week 2019

We believe we are exceptional, but is there really anything special about humans that makes us different from other animals? In this entertaining tour of life on Earth, scientist and broadcaster Dr Adam Rutherford’s The Book of Humans: The Story of How We Became Us examines what, if anything, sets us apart in the animal kingdom. Sponsored by Robin and Hanna Klein This event took place on 6 March as part of Jewish Book Week 2019

Insiders / Outsiders examines the extraordinarily rich contribution of refugees from Nazi-dominated Europe to the visual culture, art education and art-world structures of the United Kingdom. In every field, emigres arriving from Europe in the 1930s introduced a professionalism, internationalism and bold avant-gardism to a British art world not known for these attributes. At a time when the issue of immigration is much debated, Insiders / Outsiders serves as a reminder of the importance of cultural cross-fertilization and of the deep, long-lasting and wide-ranging contribution that refugees make to British life. Insiders/Outsiders is published to accompany a UK-wide arts festival of the same name running from March 2019 until March 2020.

“Strongman politics are ascendant”, Barack Obama wrote recently: “The politics of fear and resentment… is now on the move”.  From America to China, from Europe to Brazil, in India and across the Middle East, ‘macho’ leaders are very much in fashion. So why is the strongman proving so attractive to so many, and will the fashion be a passing one? Our panellists debated the character traits, neurology and behaviours of the political strongman – as well as examining what helps them into power and keeps them there. In Association with the New Israel Fund This event took place on 6 March as part of Jewish Book Week 2019

Lipika Pelham tells the extraordinary story of the Sephardi Jews of 17th century Amsterdam. The community, part of a ‘carnival of nations’ formed of French Huguenots, North African merchants, Spanish Moriscos and Iberian New Christians, was integral to the success of the Dutch Golden Age. They traded, wrote, staged plays and were painted by Rembrandt. They achieved unparalleled freedoms. While Jews elsewhere were confined to the ghetto, this community dared to nurture the ‘Hope of Israel’, sowing the seeds of Zionism. Lipika also searches for what remains today of Jerusalem on the Amstel. In association with Jewish Renaissance This event took place on 5 March as part of Jewish Book Week 2019

Evolutions, ‘a breath-taking race through the immense scope of time and space that is our universe’, brings to life the latest scientific thinking on the birth of the universe and the solar system, our journey from a single cell to the intricate complexities of the human mind. Reawakening our sense of wonder and terror at the world around us and within us, Oren Harman uses modern science to create new and original mythologies. This event took place on 5 March as part of Jewish Book Week 2019

Tolerance, equality, democracy, free speech, a free press, separation of church and state, progress: these and other values of the Enlightenment have guided the West for over 300 years. But with trends such as the rise of populism and nationalism in the West, the ascent of China in the East, and the failure of the Arab Spring, many are asking: what if the Enlightenment was just a blip? What if we are simply reverting to ‘norm’ of human history and, if so, what can we do about it? Our expert panel discusses. This event took place on 5 March as part of Jewish Book Week 2019

Painting in London in the post-WWII years is a story of friendships and shared experiences. Drawing on first-hand interviews, acclaimed art historian Martin Gayford, in conversation with Hannah Rothschild, examined the interwoven lives of artists such as Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Frank Auerbach and David Hockney, and the teachers and contemporaries, including David Bomberg and Jackson Pollock, who influenced them in their quest to explore the boundaries of art, always posing the question, ‘what can painting do?’. In Association with STATE-F22 This event took place on 5 March as part of Jewish Book Week 2019

Winston Churchill towers over every other figure in 20th century British history. Award-winning historian Andrew Roberts draws on new sources to depict him intimately, laying bare Churchill’ s faults and virtues. Above all, this vivid new biography reveals the wellsprings of his personality: his aristocratic disdain for the opinions of almost everyone else, his love of the British Empire, his sense of history and its connection to the present. Sponsored by David and Judy Dangoor In association with the Jewish Historical Society of England   This event took place on 5 March as part of Jewish Book Week 2019

When she was 27, Ilana Kurshan found herself alone in Jerusalem in the wake of a painful divorce. She joined the world’s largest book club, learning daf yomi, Hebrew for ‘daily page’ of the Talmud, taking her copy wherever she went. In If All the Seas Were Ink, Ilana took us on a guided tour of the Talmud, shedding new light on its stories and offering insights into its arguments, for those already familiar with the text and those who have never encountered it. Together with Yoel Finkelman, Judaica Curator of the National Library of Israel, she explored her memoir of love and learning as a celebration. Sponsored by the National Library of Israel This event took place on Monday 4 March as part of Jewish Book Week 2019

A masterpiece of deep learning and fine sensibility, Robert Alter’s translation of the Hebrew Bible reanimates one of the formative works of our culture. Capturing its brilliantly compact poetry and finely-wrought prose, Alter renews the Old Testament as a source of literary power and spiritual inspiration. From the family frictions of Genesis and King David’s flawed humanity, to the serene wisdom of Psalms and Job’s incendiary questioning of God’s ways, this work resonates with a startling immediacy. The George Webber Memorial Event This event took place on Monday 4 March as part of Jewish Book Week 2019

Turkish-British writer Elif Shafak is an awarded novelist, a public intellectual and an outspoken activist for women’s rights and LGBT rights. Alice Shalvi, scholar, educator, women’s rights activist, seeker of justice and proponent of peace, is one of Israel’s most admired figures. These two iconic women have much in common. Together, Elif and Alice discussed their lives, their work and their hopes with Rabbi Shoshana Boyd Gelfand. Sponsored by Abraham Initiatives This event took place on Monday 4 March as part of Jewish Book Week 2019