The Alpert Jewish Community Center, in cooperation with Barnes & Noble of Long Beach, Hadassah Southern California, Gesher City Long Beach and Beach Hillel will host a Jewish Book Festival featuring a vast selection of Jewish fiction, nonfiction, children’s books, biographies, cookbooks, Judaic and Holocaust Studies. The Festival is open to the entire community and will run from Monday, November 17 through Friday, November 21. Books will be on sale from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily and until 9 p.m. on Monday and Wednesday nights.
On Monday, November 17 at 7 p.m. the Festival will host Lisa Alcalay Klug, author of Cool Jew, a field manual for the 21st century Jew and the people who love them. This book decodes contemporary Judaism and its hippest forms of cultural and creative expression. Spanning 250 pages and nearly 400 images, it covers everything from identity, rituals, clothing and cuisine, to holidays, spirituality, diversity, and language. Cool Jew combines original illustrations by artist Amos Goldbaum with historical pieces, album covers, Kabbalistic paintings, pop Judaica and more. Klug will discuss her book, lead some lively “cool Jew” games and be on hand for book signing.
On Wednesday, November 19 at 7 p.m., Robyn Hendricks, AJCC Jewish Life and Culture Coordinator, will lead the Paperclip Project. This award-winning, internationally acclaimed documentary follows a group
of middle-school teachers and students from a tiny town in the deep South as they decide to learn the importance of tolerance through the lessons of the Holocaust. What happens next is truly a miracle. There will be a short discussion/debriefing following the movie. Both events are free and open to the community.
For more information, call Susan Paletz at (562) 426-7601 ext. 1012.
