by dan pine
staff writer
For Bay Area book lovers, this time of year is Woodstock, Mardi Gras and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass rolled into one.
Two major Jewish book festivals –– BookFest at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco and the Contra Costa Jewish Book & Arts Festival –– coincide in the weeks ahead, leaving the bookish feeling bullish about the written word.
Between them the two fairs will bring several renowned authors to the Bay Area, though some won’t have to travel far: Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Chabon will shlep in from Berkeley to deliver the keynote address at the JCC BookFest on Nov. 4.
And KQED personality Michael Krasny and Bay Area-based writer Peggy Orenstein (“Waiting for Daisy”) both make the lineup of the two-week-long Contra Costa event, which runs Oct. 30 through Nov. 15.
Astute readers will notice the Contra Costa festival has a new name, adding “Arts” to its moniker. “There’s been increasing interest in different cultural mediums,” said Riva Gambert, director of community programs for the Jewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay, “such as music, cooking and other cultural aspects of the Jewish people. We decided to honor that by changing the name.”
That means, in addition to whetting appetites for intellectual stimulation, attendees should whet other appetites. “There will be cooking demos,” Gambert added. “That’s an exploration of Jewish culture not tied in with a book.”
Those with a taste for carbohydrates will want to check out rebbetzin Shtemie Kagan’s “Challah Twist,” a baking lesson in making Shabbat bread. For the full-course meal, Faz Poursohi will offer a wood-fried demonstration of favorite Persian Jewish recipes at his Danville eatery, Faz.
And for those in search of sweet strains, Cantor Linda Hirschhorn will lead her perennially popular women’s vocal ensemble, Vocolot, in a Nov. 10 concert as part of the Contra Costa festival.
Still, first and foremost for both book fairs is the written word.
“There’s nothing else like this in the country,” said Stephanie Singer, the JCCSF’s manager of lectures and Jewish events, of BookFest. “A one-day, all-day festival with this kind of line-up and talent. It’s a gift to the community.”
Literally a gift. Admission to the JCCSF’s Bookfest is 100 percent free, starting with Chabon’s keynote address at 11 a.m., until the last autograph sometime around 6:30 p.m.
In between, Singer promises a diverse line-up of authors and panel discussions.
“It’s a fantastic facility,” she added, referring to the JCC. “With the atrium and the [first floor] bookstore you can always see what’s going on. You get that sense of energy from many vantage points.”
Authors coming to the BookFest include novelists like Sophie Judah, who writes of the Jews of India in “Dropped From Heaven,” and Dalia Sofer, novelizing her experience in revolutionary Iran in “The Septembers of Shiraz.”
Singer expects the laughs to flow at presentations by Yiddish scholar Michael Wex (“Born to Kvetch”), who has a new book about the Mamaloshen, “Just Say Nu.” Essayist Shalom Auslander will discuss his newly published comic dialogue with God, titled “Foreskin’s Lament.”
The Contra Costa festival snagged a couple of internationally renowned figures, both with books out: former U.S. Middle East envoy Dennis Ross, whose newest work, “Statecraft,” critiques American foreign policy and outlines his approach to diplomacy. Historian Deborah Lipstadt will be on hand to talk about Holocaust denial in the 21st century.
While the S.F. event is housed within the gilded confines of the JCC, the Contra Costa festival spreads out. Most events takes place in the Contra Costa Jewish Community Center in Walnut creek, but others will be at synagogues like Congregation Beth Emek, Beth Chaim and Temple Isaiah in Lafayette.
“We’re doing more off site programming in the Tri-Valley community,” Gambert said. “With traffic and more people moving there, it’s important to do outreach throughout the community.”
Some pundits have feared the rise of iPod/Xbox Nation, worrying a whole generation may be missing the joys of curling up with a good book. Singer is not one of those handwringers.
“It’s a wonderful time to be a reader,” Singer said. “There are new talents on the scene, as well as people who have been around who continue to publish. We ahave more writers than we can accommodate.”
Gambert has the same “problem.”
“Every year we say we’ll only do one week,” Gambert said. “It’s very strenuous putting this on. But there’s such an abundance of talent, locally and nationally, we always end up saying we’ll do two weeks again.”
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California