arts & life
book fair
A ut o rs
Authors! Authors! Authors! Authors! Authors!
The JCC's Annual
Jewish Book Fair
sizzles with books
about Detroit, mystery,
religion, romance,
ghosts, heroes and
rock-and-roll.
details
Book Club Night will be
7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 10, at the
JCC and includes a dessert
reception. The cost is $18
for the author presentation
and reception, or $28 for the
presentation, reception and a
copy of the book. To RSVP, call
the Berman Center
for the Performing Arts
(248-661-1900) or visit
theberman.org/bookfair.
All events at the 64th
Annual Jewish Book Fair are
free and open to the public,
unless otherwise noted, and
will be held throughout the
West Bloomfield JCC. For more
information, including the
official brochure, visit
jccdet.org/book-fair.
Advance registration is
recommended for all ticketed
events. To purchase tickets, go
to theberman.org or
call (248) 661-1900.
Elizabeth Applebaum I Special to the Jewish News
B
efore her extraordinary
adventures — The secrets!
The romance! — Addie
Montforte lived in a drawer.
She was there for more than 15
years in the form of a few notes, a
character waiting for Pam Jenoff to
take her from idea to heroine.
Jenoff is a clinical professor of
law at Rutgers University in New
Jersey and the author of eight
books, including her latest, The
Last Summer at Chelsea Beach, the
story of Italian-born Addie who
comes, as WWII approaches, to the
United States, where she will begin
a life full of surprises.
Jenoff will be the guest for Book
Club Night on Tuesday, Nov. 10, at
the Jewish Community Center of
Metropolitan Detroit's 64th Annual
Jewish Book Fair.
The book fair, which kicks off
Nov. 4, features more than 30
authors covering topics including
the death-defying missions of the
Israeli Special Forces, a Holocaust
survivor who won the American
Medal of Honor, Albert Einstein,
the complicated political history of
Detroit, how to turn favorite child-
hood meals into great contempo-
rary dishes — and the adventures
of Addie Montforte.
"We knew Pam Jenoff was
exceptional when we met her
several years ago at the Jewish
Book Council," said Susan Lutz,
who co-chairs the event with Terry
Hollander. "She will honor us with
her exuberance and intelligence for
Book Club Night"
Lutz also recommends An
Improbable Friendship by Anthony
David, which "reveals the per-
sonal sacrifices Ruth Dayan and
Raymonda Tawil endured in the
effort to strive for peace and under-
standing for Israel and the Middle
East. Anthony David will speak
on his historic book of these two
independent women on Thursday
evening, Nov. 12.
"The next day, the film Life as
a Rumor will be shown, which
furthers the acknowledgement that
the leaders of Israel often suffered
personally, into the next genera-
tion:' Lutz says.
And, she adds, be sure to check
out Paper Love.
"The individual experiences
during the Holocaust continue
to be revealed in a book I could
not put down," she says. "It is well
researched and delicately told by
author Sarah Wildman, who I can-
not wait to hear speak:'
A graduate of George Wash-
ington University in Washington,
D.C., and Cambridge University in
England, Jenoff began her profes-
sional career as special assistant
to the Secretary of the Army, then
moved to the U.S. Consulate in
Krakow, where she worked on
projects including the restitution of
Jewish property in Poland.
Her time in Poland, Jenoff says,
"had a profound impact on my
life" after she met with survivors
and saw firsthand the effects of
BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE KOMMANDANT'S GIRL
PAM JENOFF
LAST SUMMER"
at
CHELSEA BEACH
16.
imp
the Holocaust. As a child, she
had dreamed of writing books; in
Poland she would begin that path,
creating fictionalized accounts of
Jews who lived through the hur-
ricane of WWII.
"My books:' she says, "are love
songs to Jewish Europe:'
Among the stories Jenoff
imagined was the life of Addie
Montforte, which she began while
living in Poland in 1996. "But back
then there was no Internet, no
English-speaking peer group:' she
says. So Jenoff put the outlines of
Addie's life in a drawer and forgot
continued on page 54
October 29 2015
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