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with Karen Gordon, who 
leads the Detroit JCC Maccabi 
Delegation.
Book Club Night, starting 
at 6 p.m. Monday, Nov. 
7, offers dinner and an 
in-person presentation of The 
Matchmaker’s Gift by Lynda 
Cohen Loigman. Lunch with 
two speakers happens at noon 
Thursday, Nov. 10, as Amanda 
Elliot discusses Sadie on a Plate 
and Jen Maxfield summarizes 
reporting experiences in More 
After the Break: A Reporter 
Returns to Ten Unforgettable 
News Stories.
Book events, filled with 
a diversity of many subjects 
— serious and comical, fact 
and fiction — feature many 
in-person speakers that include 
Marjorie Margolies discussing 
And How Are the Children? 
Timeless Lessons From the 
Frontlines of Motherhood at 
7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 1, and 
Michael Oren presenting literary 
fiction with Swann’s War at 7 
p.m. Thursday, Nov. 3. 
Family matters take over 
on Sunday, Nov. 6, with Ellen 
Yashinsky Chute in conversation 
about What Drives You: How 
Our Family Dynamics Shape the 
People We Become at 11 a.m., Dr. 
Terri Orbuch going over Secrets 
to Surviving Your Children’s 
Love Relationships: A Guide for 
Parents at 12:30 p.m., and Tamar 
Haspel exploring To Boldly 
Grow: Finding Joy, Adventure and 
Dinner in Your Own Backyard at 
2:30 p.m. 
The book fair, which offers 
many more speakers about new 
books, has a special program 
for children on Nov. 6 and an 
event with local authors on Nov. 
13. Programs will be offered on 
YouTube after being showcased 
at the Jewish Community 
Center. 

For an online fair booklet, which lists 

details on each presentation and authors, 

go to jccdet.org/bookfair. 

A 

ntisemitism becomes 
the central topic 
when Liza Wiemer 
discusses her young adult 
book, The Assignment, at 2 p.m. 
Wednesday, Nov. 9, in person at 
the Jewish Community Center 
in West Bloomfield.
Besides discussing the way 
injustice is central to her work 
of fiction about high school stu-
dents, she will call attention to 
how it affects current respons-
es to the Holocaust 
and discrimination as 
expressed today. 
“I’m going to be 
talking about how 
critical it is to be allies 
and speak out against 
all forms of injustice,
” 
said Wiemer, a long-
time Milwaukee-based 
teacher who has been traveling 
the world to address groups 
about the topic of her book 
completed in 2020. 
“I’ll be talking about the 
assignment that inspired this 
novel and how there are more 
effective ways of teaching 
Holocaust education than ask-
ing students to pretend that 
they’re Nazis and debate the 
merits of [what became] the 
final solution of the Jewish 
question.
“I’m going to share other 
assignments that I’ve seen 
across the globe and how this 
book is having an impact on 
not only stopping antisemitic 
and hateful assignments but 
also how it’s having a positive 
impact on changing behavior.
”
Wiemer, married and the 
mother of two sons and grand-
mother of three, has been 
working with younger people 

since she was a high school 
student. She wants to show the 
important connection between 
the Holocaust and what is hap-
pening today.
Two nonfiction books and 
another novel for young peo-
ple, Hello, enter into Wiemer’s 
writing career, which includes 
a column for the Wisconsin 
Jewish Chronicle. Recent visits 
to Australia and New Zealand 
featured her in some 25 speak-
ing engagements. 
“My visits in those 
two countries brought 
about awareness and 
helped to empower 
people to provide sup-
port for members of the 
community when inci-
dents happen,
” she said. 
Wiemer, who 
respects differences in the ways 
people observe Judaism, will 
be questioned by Emily Broder, 
associate director of the Anti-
Defamation League Michigan.
“My grandmother taught me 
that no matter what age you are, 
there’s so much to learn about 
Judaism and how fortunate we 
are to have the opportunity to 
learn from different people,
” 
Wiemer said. “I love being 
Jewish, and I’m so proud to 
be Jewish. I love our holidays, 
communities and being able to 
travel across the globe.
”
When Wiemer arrives 
in Michigan, she plans on 
conducting workshops with 
students about the approach 
to justice that her book takes. 
Because she believes it is hard to 
speak up when people observe 
an act that is antisemitic, racist 
or inappropriate, she hopes 
her book will help provide 

approaches for doing that.
“I have a picture book com-
ing out in the fall of 2023,
” 
said Wiemer, a graduate of 
the University of Wisconsin in 
Madison. “It is about tzedakah 
(charity). A boy watches his 
father and mother carrying 
boxes away from his home. The 
boy wants to know what’s inside 
the boxes and where they’re 
going. 
“He learns the valuable lesson 
that one of the highest levels of 
giving is to give without others 
knowing the people who gave. 
It’s about how special it is to 
give to others in need and do 
it anonymously and from our 
hearts.
”
In talking to groups, espe-
cially those interested in writing 
careers, she talks about the 
value of perseverance.
“Perseverance is the act of 
true role models and heroes,
” 
Wiemer said. “I knew that I 
had to persevere. As a mother, 
I wanted to be a role model for 
my children because when it 
comes down to writing, there’s a 
lot of rejection. 
“It doesn’t happen overnight 
for the vast majority of us. 
You have to work hard at it 
and persevere, and that means 
doing the work and editing 
and editing and editing. Some 
of that feedback means being 
rejected.
” 

A Lesson in Speaking Out 
Against Injustice

Young adult novel The Assignment shares 
a lesson about antisemitism.

SUZANNE CHESSLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Liza Wiemer

