Alicia & Jeff Spero
33rd Annual Book & Author Luncheon
Four best-selling authors present their latest works; includes coffee and pastries, author presentations, lunch and valet parking.
Tuesday, November 12, 9:00 am
Boca West Country Club
20583 Boca West Drive, Boca Raton, FL 33434
- Lauren Aliza Green, The World After Alice
- Adelle Waldman, Help Wanted
- Samantha Greene Woodruff, The Trade Off
- Elizabeth L. Silver, The Majority
$140, Gold & Gold Plus Members: $125, Platinum Members: $110
A Literary Afternoon Series
Personal appearances by 7 noted authors. Learn about their works and the creative process. At the Levis JCC Sandler Center unless noted.
Tuesday, December 3, 2:00 pm
Eric Z. Weintraub, South of Sepharad
When King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella sign the Alhambra Declaration in 1492, Spanish Jews have three months to either flee their homeland, convert to Catholicism or face death. Vidal ha-Rofeh is a Jewish physician devoted to his faith, family and patients. He must decide whether to help their rabbi lead a caravan of families fleeing to North Africa, or to convert so he can stay in his homeland, where he has ties both living and long gone. Every choice presents ethical and/or religious dilemmas, making his story a journey of survival, as well as a journey of conscience.
Tuesday, December 17, 2:00 pm
Alyson Richman, The Time Keepers
From 1979 suburban New York to war-torn Vietnam, the devastating impact of the Vietnam war is felt by those living on both sides of the ocean. Two women from different worlds, Grace and Anh, are indelibly changed when a runaway boy is found on a street in their small Long Island town. Brought together by the love of this child displaced by war, the women find friendship and healing from their own painful pasts when their lives intersect with a mysterious wounded Vietnam vet. The vet works at a watch store that mends timepieces—and might even mend damaged souls.
Tuesday, January 7, 2:00 pm
Betsy Lerner, Shred Sisters
The Shreds are an assimilated Jewish family living in New Haven in the 1970s. Olivia (Ollie) and Amy are two sisters who couldn’t be more opposite. Where Ollie is wild and unpredictable – stealing, running away, disappearing for days – younger sister Amy is calm, cautious, and follows the rules. Ollie’s physical beauty and charisma masks the bipolar disorder that will shatter the family. As Amy comes of age, settles on a school, a career and wades through a series of troubled relationships, the bond she shares with her sister is tested, over and over.
Tuesday, February 4, 2:00 pm
Rossi, The Punk Rock Queen of the Jews
This is the wild coming-of-age memoir of New York restaurant owner and Executive Chef Rossi. Born into an Orthodox Jewish family who live in a wealthy New Jersey town, Rossi grows up feeling out of place both in her family and in her town. Expected to be a nice Jewish girl who will marry a Jewish boy, at sixteen she rebels, becoming a punk-rock queer leaning teenager who runs away. When found, she is brought against her will to Crown Heights in Brooklyn to be “reformed” by an ultra-Orthodox Chasidic rabbi. For the next two years, Rossi deals with repression, misogynism, sexual violence/trauma, and homophobia but helping her through it all are the connections Rossi makes with her Jewish “sisters” in the community.
Tuesday, March 4, 2:00 pm
Maya Arad, The Hebrew Teacher
Translated from Hebrew, the novellas focus on three Israeli women. Although their situations are vastly different, each is struggling with the changes in the world around them while also dealing with the differences between life in Israel and life in America. With an ambitious blend of irony and sensitivity, celebrated Israeli author Maya Arad probes the demise of idealism and the generational and cultural clashes that our heroines must confront.
Tuesday, March 25, 2:00 pm
On Being Jewish Now; Essays and Reflections from Authors and Advocates,
edited by Zibby Owens
On Being Jewish Now is an intimate collection of meaningful, smart, funny and inspiring essays from today’s authors and advocates about what it means to be Jewish today and how things have changed since October 7, 2023. Join us for a panel discussion with contributing authors. The Panel (still in formation) includes: Jill Zarin, Talia Carner, Sam G Woodruff, Jacqueline Berkell Friedland, Rachel Levy Lesser, and Amy Blumenfeld. Panel will be moderated by Debbie Reed Fischer.
Free
Tuesday, April 1, 2:00 pm
at B’nai Torah Congregation, 6261 SW 18th St, Boca Raton, FL 33433
Reuven Fenton, Goyhood
Mayer fled small-town Georgia for Brooklyn to become a Talmud scholar who marries into one of the greatest rabbinical families. His mother’s death brings a shocking revelation: Mayer and his twin brother are not, in fact, Jewish. Traumatized and spiritually bereft, Mayer’s only recourse is to convert to Judaism but the earliest date available is in a week. In the interim, the brothers embark on a remarkable road trip that is life-changing for Mayer who is forced to come to grips with some startling self-revelations.
Individual Programs: $25, Gold and Gold Plus Members: $20, Platinum Members: Free; Programs at B’nai Torah Congregation are $18 for all tickets (no member discount, except with subscription to Literary Afternoon Series.)
Literary Afternoon Series Subscription: All 7 Programs $110, Gold and Gold Plus Members: $90, Platinum Members: Free
