32 | NOVEMBER 26 • 2020 

I

f Michael Ian Black had not fin-
ished his latest book before the 
pandemic, he would have added 
a section on facemasks. 
“I might use [not wearing them] 
as an example of what I think is 
destructive behavior among men,
” 
said the actor-comedi-
an-writer, 49, who will 
be among the guest 
speakers at this year’
s 
digital Detroit Jewish 
Book Fair. “Thinking 
that masks are a pro-
jection of weakness is 
as if caring about your health or the 
health of your loved ones is some-
how weak.
”
Black’
s latest book, A Better Man: 
A (Mostly Serious) Letter to My Son, 
enters into the program “Raising 
Better Men,
” which can be seen 
live at 7 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 3, and 
videotaped for independent view-
ing. He will be joined by Meredith 
Jacobs, CEO of Jewish Women 
International (JWI), a nonprofit 
devoted to empowering women. 
She is co-author of the book Just 
Between Us: Mother & Son: A 
No-Stress, No-Rules Journal.
Black’
s latest book, among about 
a dozen, was intended to hold a 
fare-thee-well message as his son, 
Elijah, left the family’
s Connecticut 
home for the Savannah College of 
Art and Design in Georgia. 
Any initiative toward carrying 
out the presented idea of self-deter-

mination was interrupted in Elijah’
s 
freshman year on his way to a 
career in video game design. Elijah 
had to return home, isolating with 
mom and dad, during mandatory 
remote learning. 
Black’
s overriding message is that 
young men don’
t have to be com-
petitive and always strive for more. 
They should focus on realizing the 
fulfillment of their own gifts.

“I talk to him about a sense 
of obligation I feel he has built 
because he is a white kid com-
ing out of a fairly privileged 
upbringing and also because of 
his Judaism,” said Black, whose 
wife is Catholic. “I think Jews 
have a special obligation to look 
out for those in need and to be 
considerate and helpful toward the 

ARTS&LIFE
BOOKS

SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Raising Better
Children

ANN ARBOR 
JEWISH BOOK FESTIVAL

JN STAFF

The 2020 Ann Arbor Jewish Book Festival will be held 
online as well, with most events free and open to the public. 
The annual festival celebrating Jewish authors is organized 
by the Jewish Community Center of Ann Arbor and is sup-
ported by the Jewish Federation of Ann Arbor. Go to book.
jccannarbor.org to see the full list of events.
Three of this year’s events will be moderated by faculty 
of the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies at the University of 
Michigan. Samuel Shetzer Associate Professor of American 
Jewish Studies Julian Levinson will host an event with 
Miriam Udel at 11 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 13. Udel will be discuss-
ing Honey on the Page: A Treasury of Yiddish Children’s 
Literature, an unprecedented treasure of Yiddish children’s 
stories and poems enhanced with original illustrations. 
Honey on the Page holds nearly 50 stories and poems for 
children, translated from the original Yiddish. 
At 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 15, Assistant Professor of Judaic 
Studies Devi Mays will join author Sarah Stein as she pres-
ents her book, Family Papers: A Sephardic Journey Through 
the Twentieth Century. The 2019 release was named one of 
the best books of the year by The Economist, a New York 
Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and a National Jewish 
Book Award finalist.
In Family Papers, Stein uses the Levy family’s correspon-
dence to tell their history. For centuries, the bustling port 
city of Salonica, Macedonia, was home to the sprawling Levy 
family. As leading publishers and 
editors, they helped 
chronicle modernity 
as it was experienced 
by Sephardic Jews 
across the Ottoman 
Empire. The wars 
of the 20th century, 
however, redrew the 
borders around them, 
in the process trans-
forming the Levys 
from Ottomans to 
Greeks. Family mem-
bers soon moved 
across boundaries 
and hemispheres, 
stretching the famil-
ial diaspora from 
Greece to Western 
Europe, Israel, 
Brazil and India. In 
time, the Holocaust nearly eviscerated the 
clan, eradicating whole branches of the family tree.
Karla Goldman, the Sol Drachler Professor of Social Work 
and director of the Jewish Communal Leadership Program, 
will moderate an event with author Esther Safran Foer at 
1 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 17, as she presents her book, I Want 
You to Know We’re Still Here: A Post-Holocaust Memoir. 
Foer is a writer and the former executive director of Sixth & I 
Synagogue in Washington, D.C. After learning that her father 
had a previous wife and daughter, both killed during the 
Holocaust, Foer travels to Ukraine to learn about them and 
how her father survived during the war.

See the full lineup at https://book.jccannarbor.org/schedule.

Michael Ian 

Black

HONEY ON THE PAGE

Virtual Jewish Book Fair features 
advice from parenting authors. 

