Welcome to the 2023 JCC Lane Dworkin Authors + Innovators Festival!

The new name for our former JCC Book Festival reflects the evolution of a festival that has been increasingly centered on programs that are interactive, community focused, and inclusive. The name also reflects a shift from “books” to the people that create those books and lead audiences and readers to insight, empathy, and inspiration. Adding the term “innovators” allows us to expand the pool of speakers and events with community and business leaders like Rochester native and former Las Vegas Raiders President Marc Badain and filmmaker Joe Nussbaum, and include visual arts like the area premiere of the Humans of Israel portrait exhibit.

Schedule:

Sunday, November 5, 2023

10am - 1pm: Community Book Swap
For Kids and Adults!
Free and open to the public
Trade your gently used books for something new! Meet other readers and get recommendations.
Three genres: Kids’ books, mystery fiction and science fiction.
Don’t have books to swap? Come shop! Paperbacks are $1 and hardbacks are $2. No general fiction books please.
Location: JCC Auditorium C

1 - 3pm: Thanksgiving Creation Stations
Edible Treats, Crafts, and More!
Free and open to the public
Hands-on cooking prep for Thanksgiving. Make-and-take a variety of special snacks and fun holiday arts/crafts activities that can be used to decorate your Thanksgiving table.
Location: JCC Auditorium C

Monday, November 6, 2023

Allegra Goodman

5:30–6:30pm: Pre-Event Discussion
Free, advance registration required. Capacity: 25

Athene Goldstein will lead a book discussion of Allegra Goodman’s work (with a focus on her latest title, Sam).
Athene is a Bar/Bat/B’Nai Mitzvah tutor in the Rochester area. She has been leading adult classes in literature and Torah chant for many years.

Location: Lipson Lounge

Click here to register for the pre-event discussion.

7pm: Author Talk
JCC Member: $12, Non-Member $15

Enjoy a special presentation with New York Times bestselling author Allegra Goodman. Goodman is the author of six novels: Sam, The Chalk Artist, The Cookbook Collector, Paradise Park, Intuition, and Kaaterskill Falls; two collections of short stories: The Family Markowitz and Total Immersion; the Young Adult novel: The Other Side of the Island, and the non-fiction title, Speaking of Writing.

Location: Hart Theater

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Tuesday, November 7, 2023

Location: JCC Hart Theater

10am: Faris Cassell
JCC Member: $12, Non-Member $15

Don’t miss this unique, riveting discussion with Faris Cassell, author of the remarkable real-life story, Inseparable: A Holocaust Survival Story. Cassell will be joined by Steven Hess (one of the twins who is the subject of the book, and who is known locally for his presentations as a Holocaust Survivor). Cassell’s previous title, The Unanswered Letter, won the 2020 National Jewish Book Award in the Holocaust category.

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7pm: Marc Badain
JCC Member: $12, Non-Member $15

Entrepreneur and Brand at Work CEO Gregg Lederman will lead a discussion with Marc Badain, President of Oak View Group’s Las Vegas sports & entertainment venue and former President of the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders. Badain oversaw the entirety of the club’s business operations including the relocation from Oakland to Las Vegas and the successful completion of Allegiant Stadium.

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Wednesday, November 8, 2023

12–1:30pm: Jennifer Lang
JCC Member: $20, Non-Member $25
(Includes boxed lunch*) Capacity: 25
Jennifer Lang will teach a VIRTUAL class on
“Flash Memoir: Telling A Big Story in A Small Space” (via Zoom)

Born in the San Francisco Bay Area, Jennifer Lang lives in Tel Aviv, where she runs israelwriterstudio.com. Her prize-winning essays appear in Baltimore Review, Under the Sun, Midway Journal, and elsewhere. She holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts, is an assistant editor at Brevity Journal, and is a longtime yoga practitioner and instructor. Her unconventional book, Places We Left Behind: a memoir-in-miniature was just published this fall with Vine Leaves Press.

Location: Lipson Lounge

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Thusday, November 9, 2023

Film Festival Favorites

2pm: Four Winters
Best Documentary
JCC Member: $8, Non-Member $10
Director: Julia Mintz

This important documentary features surviving partisans who tell their stories through interviews, family photographs, and rare archival footage.?In Tablet, Marjorie Ingall calls it, “Surprising, moving…and sometimes shockingly funny.”
Four Winters? is a stunning, heartfelt narrative of heroism, resilience, and resistance, celebrating the courage, cleverness, and leadership of the partisans.

Location: JCC Hart Theater

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Friday, November 10, 2023

12pm: Fiction Panel Lunch

JCC Member: $20, Non-Member $25
(Includes boxed lunch*)

Moderated by Authors + Innovators Festival committee member and journalist Stacey Freed.

Weina Dai Randel is the first Asian American novelist who intertwined Chinese history with the Jewish diaspora in Shanghai during WWII. Night Angels is a profoundly moving novel about a diplomatic couple who risked their lives to help Viennese Jews escape the Nazis by issuing them Visas. It is based on the true story of Dr. Ho Fengshan, Righteous Among the Nations.

Jai Chakrabarti’s novel A Play for the End of the World won the National Jewish Book Award for debut fiction. In his short story collection A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness, he explores what it means to cultivate a family today – across borders, cultures, religions and race. Born in Kolkata, India, he now lives in New York.

Lauren Grodstein’s novel We Must Not Think of Ourselves is a heart-wrenching story of love and defiance in the Warsaw Ghetto, which is based on actual archives kept by those determined to have their stories survive World War II. Grodstein’s other titles include the New York Times bestseller A Friend of the Family and the Washington Post Book of the Year The Explanation for Everything.

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Sunday, November 12, 2023

12–4pm: Little Free Library

Location: Auditorium C

Free and open to the public (10+ years old please)

Drop in anytime from 12–4pm as we join together as a community to build/decorate and stock two Little Free Libraries for installation at the JCC! We’ll provide all the necessary materials, as well as light snacks/beverages. Come to help. Come to socialize. Come just to watch!

Monday, November 13, 2023

7pm: Rochester Connection

JCC Member: $12, Non-Member $15
Talk by local authors Oren Kessler (Palestine 1936) and Dr. Ayala Emmett (After the Disappearance)

Palestine 1936 is the story of two national movements and the first sustained confrontation between them. “Kessler is the first to tell this story from all three sides (British, Arab, Jewish) and use sources in all three languages (English, Arabic, Hebrew). He has done an exceptional job and opened new vistas on troubles past and present.” – The Wall Street Journal

Oren Kessler is a journalist and political analyst based in Tel Aviv. He was raised in Rochester and Tel Aviv.

After the Disappearance is a mystery that begins in 1955, when beloved journalist Benny Sasson travels to Jerusalem, gets off at the central bus station, and disappears. The search for Benny is marked by the sorrow of the Holocaust, the impact of the 1948 war, Israeli women’s fight for inclusion, struggles over the rights of Arab workers, and a divided Jerusalem.

Dr. Ayala Emmett is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Rochester. She was born in Tel Aviv.

Location: JCC Hart Theater

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Tuesday, November 14, 2023

7pm: Erez Kaganovitz

JCC Member: $12, Non-Member $15

Hear the stories behind the images! Photojournalist Erez Kaganovitz is coming from Israel to talk about about his evocative Humans of Israel exhibition, on display throughout November and December at the JCC in Auditorium A.

Photographer, a native of Tel Aviv, and TEDx speaker, Erez Kaganovitz is the human behind the Humans of Tel Aviv, Humans of Israel, and Humans of the Holocaust projects. Through his work, Erez has helped bridge a cultural gap in society both within and outside of Israel. His compelling work brings understanding, emotional connection, and unity to many around the world.

Location: JCC Hart Theater

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Wednesday, November 15, 2023

7pm: Joe Nussbaum

JCC Member: $12, Non-Member $15

Film director and screenwriter Joe Nussbaum presents
“Sweating the Details: The Anatomy of Directing a Scene”

Experience a unique perspective from behind the scenes of the creative process. Nussbaum will take a ‘deep dive’ into a single sequence from one of his productions: he’ll show the sequence, then break down each component, from notes given to the writer during development, to casting, choosing the location or building the set, shot-listing, shooting, editing, scoring, and more. He’ll show photos of each part of the process, including potential props and costumes, designs and plans for anything that needed to be built, storyboards, early cuts, and rough versions of visual effects.

Location: JCC Hart Theater

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Thursday, November 16, 2023

Film Festival Favorites

2pm: Simone Veil: A Woman of the Century
BEST NARRATIVE

JCC Member: $8, Non-Member $10
2022 | 140 min. | French (w/ subtitles) | France
Director: Olivier Dahan

Both intimate and monumental, Simone Veil, A Woman of the Century celebrates the extraordinary life of one of the century’s greatest heroines. Her history as a Holocaust Survivor fueled her lifelong campaign for human rights and against any form of injustice.

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Friday, November 17, 2023

12pm: Ben Nadler

JCC Member: $20, Non-Member $25
(Includes boxed lunch provided by Fox’s Deli*)

Enjoy a special lunch of classic Jewish deli foods and watch a VIRTUAL presentation (via Zoom) by Ben Nadler, author of The Jewish Deli: An Illustrated Guide to the Chosen Food. Nadler takes an illustrated comic-style approach to the subject of the neighborhood Jewish deli; he explores the history, spotlights foundational foods and favorite sides, and interviews proprietors of some of the best-known delis around today.

Location: JCC

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Sunday, November 19, 2023

7pm: Jessica Nordell

JCC Member: $12, Non-Member $15

Join us for a riveting moderated “fireside chat” with Jessica Nordell, author of The End of Bias: A Beginning, How We Eliminate Unconscious Bias and Create a More Just World (named Best Book of the year by the World Economic Forum, Greater Good, AARP and Inc.). Nordell applies her 15 years of reporting on discrimination and its solutions, weaving gripping stories with scientific research and exquisite writing, to paint riveting portraits of those leading change while also looking critically at her own biases.

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Monday, November 20, 2023

7pm: Mitch Albom
Students: $12 (Contact us for discount for groups of 10 or more students)

General Public:
$18 (Ticket only)
$30 (includes a pre-signed hardcover copy of Albom’s newest title, The Little Liar)

The JCC presents internationally best-selling author Mitch Albom! Albom is a journalist, screenwriter, playwright, radio and television broadcaster, philanthropist, and musician. His signature title, Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life’s Greatest Lesson, has sold 17 million copies in more than 50 editions worldwide.

In November 2023, his new title, The Little Liar, will be released. The Little Liar is a powerful novel that moves from a small village in Greece during the Holocaust to America, where readers follow the intertwined lives of three Holocaust Survivors. Narrated by the voice of ‘Truth’ itself, the novel is a timeless parable about the harm of deceit, and the power of love.

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Festival Bookstore
Open November 5–20
Location: JCC Auditorium A
Open 1 hour before and after all scheduled festival events at the JCC.
Additional hours will be posted here!
Generously underwritten by Sharon Kovalsky

Tuesdays With Morrie
November 5–19, 2023

By Jeffrey Hatcher & Mitch Albom
Based on the book by Mitch Albom

After seeing his old college professor and mentor on Nightline, Mitch begins a series of visits to Morrie, who has captivated the world with his life lessons through the eyes of a man with ALS. Based on the New York Times Bestseller, Tuesdays with Morrie is a charming and uplifting story about making the most of the time we have and following our dreams.

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Date: November 5 - 20, 2023

Location: Various Venue in Rochester, NY

Click here for More Information