CLOSING NIGHT
5:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 12
Adam Greenberg: Get Up:
The Art of Perseverance
July 9, 2005.
Adam Greenberg stepped up to the
plate.
Formerly with the Lansing
Lugnuts, Greenberg was at bat for
the first time as a member of the
Chicago Cubs.
In an instant he was down,
smacked in the head by a 92-mile-
an-hour fast pitch that left him with
a compound skull fracture.
What does it mean to endure a
terrible trauma and refuse to give
up? This is Adam Greenberg’s story
— and a story for everyone. •

BOOK CLUB NIGHT
6:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 6
Light dinner followed by author
presentation
Rachel Kadish: The Weight of Ink
$38 ($36 for JCC members) —
speaker, dinner and book
$20 ($18 for JCC members) —
speaker and light dinner only
Ester Velasquez is a scribe for a
blind rabbi.
Helen Watt is an ailing historian.
But who is the mysterious “Aleph?”
The lives of a fascinating group of
characters intertwine through the
past and the present when Helen is
invited to view a cache of newly dis-
covered 17th-century documents.
Electrifying and ambitious, The
Weight of Ink is a sophisticated work
of historical fiction about women and
the choices and sacrifices they must
make to reconcile the life of the heart
and mind. •

IRWIN SHAW NIGHT
7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 8
Francine Klagsbrun: Lioness:
Golda Meir and the Nation of
Israel
She was dedicated, she was
shrewd, she was bold and surpris-
ing, and she was never without a
cigarette.
Golda Meir settled in pre-state
Israel in 1921. She became a fund-
raiser and then a politician, serving
as Israel’s first representative to the
former Soviet Union and minister of
labor and foreign affairs before she
was elected prime minister.
This is the definitive biography
of a woman who negotiated with
the likes of Richard Nixon, Anwar
Sadat and King Hussein. Only once
was she taken off guard — a mis-
step that would force her resigna-
tion and forever change her role in
Israeli life. •

KRISTALLNACHT
REMEMBRANCE DAY
Thursday, Nov. 9
11 a.m. Bruce Henderson: Sons and
Soldiers
Includes Book Fair appearance by
Prof. Guy Stern
Who could have imagined that one
of the Allies’ greatest weapons in the
battle against the Nazis would be a
group of refugees?
The Ritchie Boys were Jews who
had fled Germany and came to the
United States in the 1930s. With their
knowledge of everything German, they
were able to sneak back into the coun-
try and gather critical information
throughout the war. In fact, a postwar
Army report found that more than
60 percent of all credible intelligence
coming from Europe was unearthed
by the Ritchie Boys.
In addition to Bruce Henderson,
Prof. Guy Stern, a former Ritchie Boy,
will speak about his experiences with
the group.

1 p.m.
Patricia Posner: The Pharmacist of
Auschwitz
It should have come as no surprise
when Victor Capesius chose a career
in the field known for its motto, “First,
do no harm.” Medicine was, after all, a
family tradition; one parent was a phy-
sician, another was a pharmacist.
But it was where he chose to “prac-
tice” his trade that is important:
Victor Capesius was the chief pharma-
cist of Auschwitz.
So how is it that this pudgy-faced
young man born in Romania became
the kind of person who joined the SS,
worked at Auschwitz and made him-
self wealthy by pulling gold from the

mouths of Jews and then — incredibly
enough — vanished?

3 p.m.
Yvette Manessis Corporon:
Something Beautiful Happened
Yvette Manessis Corporon always
loved her grandmother’s stories about
the Jewish family named Savvas hid-
den on a Greek island, Erikousa, dur-
ing WWII. Miraculously, the father
and daughters managed to survive
the Nazis, thanks to the citizens of
Erikousa.
Many years later, Corporon went in
search of the Savvas family and found
them in Israel. The meeting renewed
her faith in mankind — until days
later when a neo-Nazi murdered a
member of her family.
As Corporon struggled with the loss,
she returned to lessons she learned
from survivors of the Holocaust.

5 p.m.
Film: Casablanca, the classic love
story set in WWII, starring Ingrid
Berman and Humphrey Bogart

Followed by
7 p.m.
Noah Isenberg: We’ll Always Have
Casablanca
Celebrating its 75th anniversary,
Casablanca is one of the most beloved
films of all times, a movie that sparked
dozens of iconic lines (“Here’s looking
at you, kid”) and is on many critics’
lists of greatest films ever made.
But how well do you really know the
movie?
Author Noah Isenberg reveals
secrets and surprises of Casablanca
and considers why it remains so
important to this day. •

jn

October 26 • 2017

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