Arts Entertainment

Jewish Book Fair

Woman Of The Book

Noble Web sites, the only way to
identify Jewish books is by typing in
Judaica, which yields few of the books
under Hessel's umbrella.
"My latest baby is Tradition, the Jewish
Book-of-the-Month Club. Ever since
Oprah, book clubs are all the rage."
In addition, the Book Council pub-
lishes Jewish Book World Magazine, the
Jewish Book Annual, and distributes
Jewish Book Month posters to Jewish
book fairs in North America. The
council staff consists of Hessel and her
assistant, Shawna Eisenberg.

Jewish Book Council Director Carolyn Hessel has
the power to make a book a winner.

KATY MCLAUGHLIN
Jewish. Renaissance Media

C

arolyn Hessel maneuvers her
tiny frame behind the desk
of her Lilliputian office and
ponders a piece of news.
Apparently, there's a rumor going
around that she's the most powerful
-
woman in Jewish book publishing.
"Powerful? Me?" she asks, pressing her
leopard print pinafore to her chest in a
gesture of abashed surprise. "I have never
in my life thought of myself that way."
Industry insiders, however, have
Hessel, the head of the New York-
based Jewish Book Council, pegged as
"one of the most powerful undiscov-
ered figures in the business," according
to author Ari Goldman.
His book Being Jewish: The Cultural
and Spiritual Practice ofBeingJewish
Today was promoted by the Jewish Book
Council last year to such an extent that
Goldman says even his Goliath of a
publisher, Simon & Schuster, "was awed
by what this lady can do for a book."
Victoria Meyer, Simon & Schuster
publicity director, says Hessel's "ability
to coordinate a campaign and rally her
constituents around a book is unparal-
leled." That's important, she says,
because "Jewish readership is enor-
mous" for both general interest and
Jewish-themed books.
Sam Freedman, the author of Jew vs.
Jew, who made appearances in 28
cities with Goldman on a tour of
Jewish book fairs orchestrated by
Hessel, says he has learned "there's a
growing disconnect between good
reviews and book sales. Advertising is
becoming prohibitively expensive.
"Books sales are now about word of
mouth," he says, and when that word is
coming from Hessel, the impact can be
striking. The fact that Jew vs. Jew is in it
fourth printing "is something I credit
directly to her."

Europe To America

The Jewish Book Council began in
Europe in 1925 as a grassroots organiza-
tion dedicated to promoting Jewish liter-
ature. But World War II and the
Holocaust virtually wiped out Jewish
publishing there, and its epicenter moved
to America, where English replaced
Yiddish as the general text language.

Picking The Winners

Carolyn Hessel: "One of the most pozvellisl undiscovered figures in the business.

The not-for-profit council helped estab-
lish Jewish book fairs around the country,
held during a nationally recognized Jewish
Book Month, which falls annually in the
thirty days before Chanukah. But its
sponsor, the Jewish Community Center in
Manhattan, pulled its sponsorship from
the council in 1990.
That's when Carolyn Starman
Hessel got the call.
Hessel, who was raised in an Orthodox
family in Brooklyn, was a wife and
mother and an active volunteer for many
years in various Jewish educational
organizations. She was on the brink of
entering a Ph.D. program in Judaic stud-
ies at Yeshiva University when former
council head Marcia Posner called.
"I wanted to give of myself to the
Jewish community," Hessel says of her
motivation to set her academic goals
aside in favor of the council. "Here we
live in 'Planet New York,' where

13

there's lots of Jewish community life.
But out there in the rest of the coun-
try, how do people connect to their
heritage? Through books."
According to Posner, her volunteer
soon showed herself to be "a dynamo."
While Hessel's Judaic education and
networking skills are superb, says
Posner, the real key to her success is her
innate business sense. She created an
income source through donations and
book fair fees that allowed her to draw a
salary, and took on the title of executive
director of the organization.
Hessel began to broaden the scope
of the book council, adding authors'
book tours, coordinating the National
Jewish Book Award and running a
home library advisory service.
These targeted programs are espe-
cially important at a time when so
many books are bought over the
Internet. On Amazon and Barnes &

Of all her abilities, it is Hessel's skill in
identifying important authors and books
that makes her so influential, according
to her colleagues in the industry.
She reads about three books a month
cover-to-cover, but she skims many
others, recognizing below-par books by
her unwillingness to continue reading.
"She's the real thing," says
Freedman, "because she's not picking
authors after the reviews come out.
She's reading manuscripts and decid-
ing, 'This is the next big book.'"
Hessel's criteria for selecting a book
to promote is based on a combination
of factors. "I ask, 'Does this book have
Jewish values? Does it somehow reflect
the Ten Commandments? Does it
address distinctly Jewish themes?'"
Before cracking into her Rolodex to
set up speaking engagements at book
fairs and synagogues around the coun-
try, Hessel also requests a sit-down
with the author.
In a coffee meeting, author Bruce
Feiler, whose book Walking the Bible is
being promoted by the council this
year, impressed Hessel as a lock on the
book fair circuit. (He'll be at Detroit's
Book Fair 8 p.m. Monday, Nov. 12, at
the West Bloomfield JCC.)
"He's so charming, he'll knock their
socks off. And we'll find plenty of
WO MAN on page 92

Carolyn, Hessel's Five Hottest Jewish Books

• The Price of Terror: One Bomb.
One Plane. 270 Lives. The History-
Making Struggle for Justice After Pan
Am 103; Allan Gerson and Jerry
Alder; (Harper Collins; 525.95).
Hessel: "It's a new hit, rushed to print."
(Gerson, Book Fair's opening-night
speaker, appears 8:45 p.m. Saturday,
Nov. 10, at the West Bloomfield JCC.)

• Chains Around the Grass; Naomi
Ragen; (Toby Press; $26.95).

Hessel: "She has a large following, and
this should be a big seller."

• Displaced Persons: Growing Up
American After the HolocausAloseph
Berger; (Simon & Schuster; $25).
Hessel: "It connects to the readers out
there. Its about something people
relate to." (Berger speaks 2 p.m.
Tuesday, Nov 13, at the Oak Park JCC
and 6:30 p.m. the same day at the
West Bloomfield JCC.)

• When I Lived in Modern Times;
Linda Grant; (Dutton; $22).
Hessel: "It's about Israel, and that's
my thing."

• Jew vs. Jew: The Struggle for the
Soul of American Jewry; Sam G.
Freedman; just out in paperback;
(Simon & Schuster; $14).
Hessel: "It's fantastic. Of course, I'm
so fond of Sam Freedman, it's not
easy to be objective."

11/9
2001

91