Literary awakening: Book Fest at JCC promotes awareness of Jewish culture through literature

Jewish authors and writers whose books highlight themes of universal appeal will take part in the 2024-2025 Book Fest & Author Series at the Jewish Community Center of Greater Albuquerque.

The event, which takes place from Sunday, Sept. 8, through June 1, 2025, will feature 10 authors whose works range from fiction, memoir, religion, cuisine and history, at the JCC, 5520 Wyoming Blvd. NE.

Literary awakening: Book Fest at JCC promotes awareness of Jewish culture through literature

“We really do try to appeal to a wide audience and our goal is to present authors and books that encourage learning and community conversation,” said Phyllis Wolf, chief programs officer at the JCC. “We hope to promote reading, writing and awareness of Jewish culture through books of all genres and offer a variety of rich and stimulating in-person programs with wide appeal.”

Wolf said there are two factors for authors to make the JCC’s cut for its book festival.

“They’ve got to have a really good, well written, engaging book, and they also have to be exciting speakers,” she explained. “… We’re looking for both of those (things) and that’s how we pick who we invite to Albuquerque, who we feel will resonate and entertain, inform and engage audiences.”

She added, though the authors tend to be Jewish, they’re not always Jewish, but their works provide insights about an aspect of being Jewish, which is part of the JCC’s mission to educate and invite the community to learn about the Jewish experience.

Wolf said the decision was made to expand the book festival and not squeeze it into a three-week period as other festivals tend to do.

“We’ve heard feedback and we know for ourselves that it’s hard for people to come to six events in three weeks,” Wolf said. “If it’s the kind of a thing where there is one event a month, ‘Yeah, I can do that.’ ”

Season passes will be available for access to the 10 author events for $125 and will include the Oct. 23 luncheon.

“If folks do get a season pass, we are recording all of the events,” Wolf explained. “We’re videoing them and anybody who has a ticket will have access to that, whether they’ve attended the event or not. That’s kind of a plus, I think.”

The festival kicks off with Benyamin Cohen and his presentation “The Einstein Effect: How the World’s Favorite Genius Got Into Our Cars, Our Bathrooms, and Our Minds” at 3 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 8.

“Benyamin Cohen, he’s an engaging and humorous and extremely knowledgeable journalist,” Wolf said. “He’s also written for the HuffPost, the Daily Beast, the Washington Post, Slate, and so he’s a very established journalist and writer.

Cohen is the news director of a publication called “The Forward,” which features news that matters to American Jews. The publication has been around since 1897.

Cohen also manages the official social media accounts of Albert Einstein.

“I’m assuming that’s kind of a labor of love,” Wolf said. “He (has) 20 million followers. (That is) more than most living celebrities ... So this one person who’s kind of still a celebrity decades after his death, has one of the world’s most recognizable faces, and what he seeks to do, and I think does very well in this book, is examine the influence that Einstein’s research and theories still have on our everyday lives today, for example, GPS, remote controls, weather forecasts, scientific discoveries that continue to shape so much of what we have in our world now.”

Wolf said Cohen went on a global quest to unearth Einstein’s ongoing relevance today. Cohen met and describes in his book scientists and celebrities, including Mandy Patinkin, who is quoted as saying, “I’ve tried to read other books about Einstein, but I never finished them. Benyamin has a tremendous sense of humor and he displays it in the telling of our universal connection to one of the greatest gifts to humanity, Albert Einstein, I promise, if you pick this book up, you’ll never want to put it down.”

Next month, Moshe Basson will discuss his work, “The Eucalyptus Cookbook,” during a luncheon at 11 a.m., on Wednesday, Oct. 23.

“(He) is a renowned Israeli chef who’ll present his unique story about the Eucalyptus Restaurant in Jerusalem,” Wolf said. “It is a gorgeous cookbook. The luncheon will include recipes from the cookbook.”

In 2025, author R. Derek Black, opens the year with their presentation, “The Klansman’s Son: My Journey from White Nationalism to Antiracism” at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 12.

“(Black) is somebody that went from the Deep South, from a completely white nationalist, racist background to basically transforming (themself) and becoming a humanist, and (they’re) also (transgender),” Wolf said of Black.

She added, Black’s book is an astonishing memoir of a childhood built on fear, of breaking from a community of hate.

“Few understand the ideology, motivations, or tactics of the white nationalist movement like Derek, and even fewer have ever made so profound a change to becoming antiracist,” Wolf said.

Another notable author, Lauren Grodstein, will discuss her World War II novel, “We Must Not Think is Ourselves,” at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 9. The novel was one of Jenna Bush Hager’s “Read with Jenna” picks on NBC’s “Today with Hoda & Jenna.”

“The goals of the Book Fest are to present authors and books that encourage learning and community conversation,” Wolf said. “To promote reading, writing and awareness of Jewish culture through books of all genres and to offer a variety of rich and stimulating in-person author programs with wide appeal.”