Book Fair Co-Chairpersons Amy Hammer and Gail Fisher: "We are like a well-oiled machine," says Hammer.

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Welcome to the JCC's annual Book Fair, where you can jump into a magical kingdom
of learning, taste gefilte fish like your grandmother made, hear about an ancient
kingdom of red-haired Jews or peek into the crazy world of women's magazines.

Elizabeth Applebaum
Special to the Jewish News

T

he opening-night speaker could not have been
nicer, and he was funny and fascinating. Just one
thing. He didn't have a speech. "I don't talk," he

said.
Amy Hammer turned to him. "Nothing? Not even a
DVD with out-takes?"
"No:' he told her. "People can just ask me questions!'
There's an emotion that can consume you as quickly as
a military jet cutting through the air and with the feroc-
ity of a stampede of wildebeest. It's called terror; and
Amy Hammer, co-chairperson of the Jewish Community
Center of Metropolitan Detroit's Annual Jewish Book Fair,
was experiencing it that very moment. Here she was with

the opening-night speaker, the one scheduled to appear
before more than 1,000 people the next day; and he had
"nothing to say."
She called his publicist. "He has got to present some-
thing," she said.
That was the trick."0K," the man said the next day. "I'll
talk." (The event turned out quite well.)
Now in its 56th year, and running this year Nov. 7-18
at the West Bloomfield and Oak Park Jewish Community
Centers, the JCC's Jewish Book Fair began as the dream of
then-JCC Director Irwin Shaw, who wanted to "get Jewish
books into Jewish homes:' which remains the unofficial
mission statement of Book Fair to this day.
It started small. Now it's the largest in the country.
What keeps it going are dozens of volunteers, JCC staff
and two women, the Book Fair chairpersons, Gail Fisher

and Amy Hammer.
"We are like a well-oiled machine and enjoy each other
immensely, even after four intense years together [chair-
ing the event]," Hammer says. "We complement each
other perfectly, both in our interests and responsibilities."
Three weeks before Book Fair is set to open the two
are in a windowless room ("the dungeon:' they call it) in
the West Bloomfield JCC, surrounded by box after box
of books, papers, tables, a computer and phones as they
prepare the more than 10,000 books that will be for sale,
with all profits going to JCC programs.
A little problem today: One publisher has no record of
receiving a request for books.
Of course, when you've dealt with an opening-night
speaker who has no speech and another guest who decid-

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October 25 0 2007

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