The 2007 Leah Cohen Festival
Of Jewish Books & Authors

Authors lead busy lives and this schedule is subject to change. Join the Book Festival e-mail list for updates. All appearances are in Phillips Hall.

Where good books happen to good people!

• Festival Chair : Ellen Beller
• Festival Director : Simon Zalikind
• Assistant Festival Director : Selma Sladek
• Comittee : Dana Melmed Friedman, Andrea Hyatt, Debbie Foster Leebove

Table Sponsors

Steve and Susan Berson, Custom Electric INC. Deena and Lenny Jonas, MorEvents (Betsy and Gareth Heyman), Michelle and Yitzhak Teitelbaum, The Zall Company (Matthew and Debbie Foster Leebove)

• Authors will be available for book signings after their appearances. Book sales will be extended to 9:30 p.m after weeknight appearances and 5:30 p.m after sunday appearances.
• Book Bucks coupons are only valid at the festival.
• This event has passed, but look forward to next years!

	The Ministry of Special Cases Monday, Dec. 3, 7 p.m. Nathan Englander This event has passed The second book (and first novel) from the acclaimed short-story writer “is full of subtleties, which should be relished alongside Englander’s tight prose, unique sense of humor and, overall, his sense of care and grace,” the Richmond Times-Dispatch wrote. It’s set in Argentina’s Dirty War, a time of justified paranoia, especially for Jews. One couple’s hunt for their “disappeared” son turns into a meditation on identity. “Englander gets it right, the sights and sounds of a country enveloped in fear and a family overwhelmed by tragedy” — Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
	Golden Country Monday, Dec. 3, 7 p.m. Jenifer Gilmore This event has passed Three immigrant families seek their fortunes, encountering new industries, historical events, and, finally, each other. The story is as full of characters as the writing is full of character: family trees are provided to help us keep everyone straight. “One thing can be said for sure about this crowded, good-humored, somewhat wacky first novel,” the Washington Post wrote. “Don’t give it to Mel Gibson as a Christmas present.”
	Sala’s Gift: My Mother’s Holocaust Story Wednesday, Dec. 5, 7 p.m. Ann Kirschner This event has passed Organization Schmelt may be “a minor footnote in history,” as Kirschner writes, but what a shocking one: a collaboration between Nazi and Jewish leaders to supply slave laborers — including the author’s mother — to German factories. Jewish Book World called Sala’s Gift “a touching, interesting, and valuable history, one in which the personalities of the principals shine through the wretchedness.”
	A Special Mission: Hitler’s Secret Plot to Seize the Vatican and Kidnap Pope Pius XII Wednesday, Dec. 5, 7 p.m. Dan Kurzman This event has passed A Special Mission is the full story behind Wolff’s bizarre orders from Hitler: to apprehend, and possibly murder, the pontiff. Instead, he did a deal: Pius retained his throne and his life, in exchange for his silence as Italy’s Jews were deported. “Highly recommended” — The Oklahoman. Sponsored by Ellen Beller. Supported by the Holocaust Awareness Institute of the University of Denver’s Center for Judaic Studies.
	You Never Call! You Never Write! The History of the Jewish Mother Thursday, Dec. 6, 7:30 p.m.* Joyce Antler This event has passed The Brandeis historian, who is herself a Jewish mother, explores an 80- year-old stereotype that originates with Jews’ very real need to protect their young. “Read it and laugh — through some tears,” urges the Seattle Times. You have something better to do than come to this event? You might meet someone! Just drive carefully, you never know in Colorado in December.
	Waiting for Daisy: A Tale of Two Continents, Three Religions, Five Infertility Doctors, An Oscar, An Atomic Bomb, A Romantic Night and One Woman’s Quest to Become a Mother Thursday, Dec. 6, 7:30 p.m.* Peggy Orenstein This event has passed We know how the story ends — the little one’s name is in the title — but the author’s journey “proved a suspenseful one over roiling seas,” wrote the New York Times. Orenstein tells all about her health, her sex life, and her obsession with accomplishing something that’s supposed to come naturally. “Narcissistic, neurotic, and caustically funny” — Boston Globe. “Dazzling” — Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Sponsored by Andrea and Jack Hyatt.
	The Faith Club: A Muslim, a Christian, a Jew: Three Women Search for Understanding Sunday, Dec. 9, 3 p.m. Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver and Priscilla Warner This event has passed They thought they were writing a children’s book, but wound up creating a new social phenomenon: The faith club, a safe place to debate our differences and celebrate our similarities. “Engaging, offensive and provocative… an educational tool and blueprint for others” — Chicago Sun-Times. Sponsored by Gay Curtiss-Lusher.
	Will Israel Survive? Tuesday, Dec. 11, 7 p.m. Mitchell G Bard This event has passed The short answer: Yes. The longer answer: terrorism, religious extremism and water shortages notwithstanding, the Jewish state will not only survive but thrive. Bard is a former policy analyst for George H.W. Bush’s election campaign, the executive director of the nonprofit American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise, and the author of 17 other books including Forgotten Victims: The Abandonment of Americans in Hitler’s Camps and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Middle East Conflict. Sponsored by Bob and Robyn Loup. Supported by the Institute for the Study of Israel in the Middle East.
	Abraham’s Children: Race, Identity and the DNA of the Chosen People Sunday, Dec. 16, 3 p.m. Jon Entine “History offers little clarity,” journalist Entine warns. He’s talking about that age-old question: Who is a Jew? If, as Entine asserts, the Bible’s portrayal of Jewish lineage is “shaky” and “unverifiable,” can science do the trick? His quest wends through university laboratories, Canaanite propaganda, bogus tales of the Lost Tribes, even the unspoken history of the San Luis Valley. As one source concludes: “Peoplehood is a complex thing.” Sponsored by Custom Electric, Inc.

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