Sunday, December 6th, 2009
Miromar Outlets at 3:00 P.M.

"A Seat at the Table” is Halberstam’s first novel, a deeply felt portrayal of the Chasidic community of Borough Park in the early 1970s. It is reflected through the relationship of a young man coming of age and his father, a leading rebbe. Questioning his faith and identity, he struggles, torn between his love and respect for his father and their conversations over a page of Talmud, and the allure of ideas, people and places beyond Brooklyn. “I see this as a love story between a father and son,” Halberstam says. As far as Elisha strays, his father assures him “a seat at the table.”

Joshua Halberstam, earned his doctorate in philosophy at New York University. He has taught at NYU, Teachers College and Columbia, and now teaches at Bronx  Community College/CUNY.

Sunday, December 6th, 2009
Miromar Outlets at 3:00 P.M.

The death of Judd Foxman's father marks the first time that the entire Foxman family-including Judd's mother, brothers, and sister-have been together in years. Conspicuously absent: Judd's wife, Jen, whose affair with Judd's radio-shock-jock boss has recently become painfully public. Simultaneously mourning the death of his father and the demise of his marriage, Judd joins the rest of the Foxmans as they reluctantly submit to their patriarch's dying request: to spend the seven days, sitting shiva following the funeral, together, in the same house, like a family.

Jonathan Tropper is the author of How to Talk to a Widower, Everything Changes, The Book of Joe, and Plan B. He lives with his family in Westchester, New York, where he teaches writing at Manhattanville College. He is currently adapting This Is Where I Leave You as a feature film for Warner Brothers Studios.

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
Jewish Federation at 7:30 P.M.
9701 Commerce Center Court

Ten years ago, American Jordan Weiss's idyllic experience as a graduate student and coxswain at Cambridge was shattered when her boyfriend and fellow crewmember, Jared Short, drowned in the River Cam the night before the biggest race of the year. Since that time, Jordan, a State Department intelligence officer, has traveled the world on dangerous assignments but has managed to avoid returning to face her painful memories in England. When her terminally ill friend Sarah asks her to come to London,  Jordan finds herself requesting a transfer to the one place she swore she'd never go again.

Shortly after her arrival, just when she thinks there's hope for a fresh start in England, she is approached by a former college classmate who makes a startling assertion. Jordan quickly learns that Jared's death was indeed not an accident, and that his research on World War II had uncovered a shameful secret.

Pam Jenoff is the author of The Kommandant's Girl, which was an international bestseller and nominated for a Quill award, as well as The Diplomat's Wife and Almost Home.

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
Jewish Federation at 7:30 P.M.
9701 Commerce Center Court

As the New York-born son of eastern European Jews who barely survived the Holocaust, Lev Raphael grew up in a world haunted by secrets and ghosts. Having spent years fleeing from his parents’ past, he decided to confront that past and, in the process, to come to grips with Germany, the country he blamed for the horrors visited on his parents and, indirectly, on himself. My Germany is part travelogue and part detective story, as Raphael sets out to trace what happened to his parents and their families during the war. Above all, it is a wholly enthralling, beautifully written story of healing and forgiveness, in which Raphael not only sheds his hatred and fear of Germany but comes to a deeper, richer understanding of his parents his Jewish heritage—and, above all, of himself." Lynne Olson

Lev Raphael has spoken about his work on three continents and has been publishing fiction and prose about the Second Generation for over thirty years—longer than any other American author. His nineteen books include The German Money, and Writing a Jewish Life.

Author Luncheon
Tuesday, Dec. 15th, 2009
Crowne Plaza at 11:30 A.M.
Two Authors will speak!
Reservation Required!

Nancy Bachrach is living in Paris, advertising deodorant to the French, when her parents are found aboard their boat, the aptly dubbed Mr. Fix It, which leaked carbon monoxide overnight. Her father is dead, and her mother, the self-proclaimed "center of the universe," is in a coma. (Worse, her chart at the tiny seaside hospital says she's in a "comma".)

Thus begins a dark, hilarious family reunion with her brother, Ben (a piano prodigy and eventual surgeon who was born with three thumbs), and sister, Helen (the wild child, now an “abnormal psychologist”). The siblings gather around their mother's hospital bed, with Nancy eyeing the plug. This is a tale of genius, madness, ineptitude, collateral damage, and hope — with an ending that’s improbable, as only the truth can be.

Nancy Bachrach worked in advertising in New York and Paris, spinning hot air like cotton candy, glorifying her clients’ beloved denture adhesives and powdered orange juice substitutes. Before that, she was, sequentially, a clumsy waitress at Howard Johnson’s, an overzealous customer service rep fired for making genuine apologies, a stenographer for an insomniac poet, and a teaching assistant in the philosophy department at Brandeis University, where she was one chapter ahead of her class.

Author Luncheon on Dec. 15th, 2009 continued...

Rozan returns to her award-winning,  critically acclaimed, and much-loved  characters Lydia Chin and Bill Smith in the first new novel in the series in seven years. Estranged for months from fellow P.I. Bill Smith, Chinese-American private investigator Lydia Chin is brought in by colleague and former mentor Joel Pilarsky to help with a case that crosses continents, cultures, and decades. In Shanghai, excavation has unearthed a cache of European jewelry dating back to World War II, when Shanghai was an open city providing safe haven for thousands of Jewish refugees.

The jewelry identified as having belonged to one such refugee, Rosalie Gilder, was immediately stolen by a Chinese official who fled to New York City. Hired by a lawyer specializing in the recovery of Holocaust assets, Chin and Pilarsky are here to find any and all leads to the missing jewels. However, Lydia soon learns that there is much more to the story than they've been told; The Shanghai Moon, one of the world's most sought after missing jewels, reputed to be worth millions, is believed to have been part of the same stash. Before Lydia can act on this new information, two men are murdered, Lydia is fired from the case, and Bill Smith finally reappears on the scene. If they are to stop more killings and uncover the truth of what is going on today, Lydia and Bill must unravel the truth about the Shanghai Moon and the events that surrounded it’s disappearance sixty years ago during the chaos of war and revolution,

S. J. Rozan, a native New Yorker, is the author of eleven novels. Her work has won the Edgar, Shamus, Anthony, Nero, and Macavity awards for Best Novel and the Edgar for Best Short Story. BRONX NOIR, a short story collection S.J. edited, was given the NAIBA "Notable Book of the Year" award. She's served on the National Boards of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime, and is ex-President of the Private Eye Writers of America.

Thursday, Dec. 17th, 2009
Crowne Plaza Hotel at 7:00 P.M.
Three Authors

In Israel Is Real, Rich Cohen’s superb new history of the Zionist idea and the Jewish state—the history of a nation chronicled as if it were the biography of a person. He brings to life dozens of fascinating figures, each driven by the same impulse: to reach Jerusalem. From false messiahs such as David Alroy (Cohen calls him the first superhero, with his tallis as a cape) and Sabbatai Zevi, who led thousands on a mad spiritual journey, to the early Zionists (many of them failed journalists), to the iconic figures of modern Jewish Sparta, David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, Yitzhak Rabin, and Ariel Sharon, Cohen shows how all these lives together form a single story, a single life. In this unique book, Cohen examines the myth of the wandering Jew, the paradox of Jewish power (how can you be both holy and nuclear?), and the triumph and tragedy of the Jewish state—how the creation of modern Israel has changed what it means to be a Jew anywhere.

Rich Cohen is the author of Sweet and Low (FSG, 2006), Tough Jews, The Avengers, The Record Men, and the memoir Lake Effect. His work has appeared in many major publications, and he is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone.

Thursday, Dec. 17th, 2009
Crowne Plaza Hotel at 7:00 P.M.
Three Authors

Pete Dizinoff has spent years working toward a life that would be, by all measures, deemed successful. A skilled internist, he’s built a thriving practice in suburban New Jersey. He has a devoted wife, a network of close friends, and an impressive house, and most important, he has a son, Alec, on whom he’s pinned all his hopes. Pete has afforded Alec every opportunity, bailed him out of close calls with the law, and even ensured his acceptance into a good college.

But Pete never counted on the wild card: Laura, his best friend's daughter who is  ten years older than Alec, irresistibly beautiful, with an unspeakable past. When Laura sets her sights on Alec, Pete sees his plans for his son not just unraveling but being destroyed completely.

Believing he has only the best of intentions, he sets out to derail this romance and rescue his son. He could never have foreseen how his whole world would shatter in the process.

Lauren Grodstein is the author of the collection The Best of Animals and a novel, Reproduction is the Flaw of Love. Her work has been translated into German, Italian, and French. She teaches creative writing at Rutgers University.

Thursday, Dec. 17th, 2009
Crowne Plaza Hotel at 7:00 P.M.
Three Authors

Dick Rosenbaum born to a Jewish immigrant family in 1930s upstate New York, first met with discrimination as a young boy. Intensifying his personal struggle was the onset of alopecia hair loss at age 8.  Through his new autobiography we learn that Dick Rosenbaum not only beat the odds but actually turned his hair condition into a major asset which he used to enhance his career throughout his remarkable life.

In his book “No Room for Democracy” Rosenbaum traces his career as a Cornell Law student, a practicing attorney in Rochester, New York, and then head of his county’s
Republican Committee, which segued into a nomination as the youngest New York Supreme Court Judge in history. Quickly advancing to the pinnacle of state politics in the 1970s, Rosenbaum was appointed chairman of the New York Republican Party by millionaire Governor Nelson Rockefeller. This valuable connection would give Rosenbaum entrance into national politics when Rockefeller assumed the vice presidency under Gerald Ford. Rosenbaum's achievements are punctuated by his frank reflections on lessons learned from failed runs for the New York governorship, his return to practicing law in the private sector, and the challenges of balancing family life with public service.

Ms. Judith Yevick

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