Encourage people to read one book over a particular period of time. We encourage people to read a jewish book and discussion. Our collection this year is actually the periodic table. He was an italian writer born in 1919 and he grew up in the fascist area and was sent to auschwitz. He wrote a number of books on this experience, but this is unlike any that any of the others that he wrote. Moderator what is one day, one book . We want people to not only be reading books, but to discuss them. We are encouraging people to pick up this book and either get together with friends, or if they are part of an institution like a synagogue or community center, to get together and talk about the book. I am convinced that after all of these years as a librarian that we get a different experience out of discussing a book then we do with just reading it alone. Moderator we have seen over time that independent stores are growing. The use of technology for reading in terms of the pleasure of reading is plateauing, it seems. It is hard to say. We are in a period of radical change. It changes yeartoyear and i think it is difficult to be overly general. Four people who are saying that a book is on its way out, there are statistics showing that is not the case. I think there is sort of a stepping back a bit. What happened is that we embraced the Technology Rapidly and enthusiastically without considering the longterm impact and assessing the research. For example, i have a daughter in middle school who has science books to read on her computer. I have seen her experience is not as pleasurable as it would be reading a typical book. Her learning is also different. I think what we have to do is make two decisions decisions about how we encourage judicious decisions about how we encourage reading. It is not one size fits all. I love physical books and i think there are advantages to the readers as well. Motter mack e readers as well. Moderator what is unique about the center . It is unique for that entire jewish range of experience. We have literature, art, culture. Every perspective from left to right including atheist to orthodox. We want to be a Church Community library that reflects the community we live in. Moderator every culture defines struggles with how to define itself and its own culture. Its a big question, but how do you define a jewish book . For me, it is very broad. It has a jewish dimension to it. Meaning that it somehow reflects on or in forms or tells us something about the jewish experience. That does not necessarily have to be religiously oriented. For some people, its an accidental fact of life that they were born jewish. Yet, in his case, it influenced his life because he was imprisoned in auschwitz. He was a secular jews. We have learned that the breath of the experience and the depth of the experience, when we see it in the big picture, is what we come to appreciate as the jewish experience. Even more so because of how brought it is. Moderator for you, the one day, one book is essentially a book club at the Jewish Community library. How to somebody access that . They could access they could contact us jewishcommunitylibrary. Org. We have books we can distribute free of charge. Because the book deals with the interface of chemistry and the rest of life, we have other events coming up with science and judaism or italian imagery. Those also enhance the experience of reading the book. Moderator fantastic. We will take a quick break and then rejoin us in just a moment when we returned to mosaic. Return to mosaic. Welcome back to mosaic. I am rabbi eric webb. We are here with Howard Friedman who is the executive director of the Jewish Community center. Welcome back. Thank you. Moderator what you see with jewish books . One thing that has been gratifying in the last few years. Irving howe said that American Jewish literature has become a has become less interesting as we have removed from the immigrant generation. What we have seen in the last few years is that the most exciting literature is from writers who were born in the former soviet union. They are writing in english and reflecting on their experience between russia and the United States in terms of negotiating their own identity. Some of the books are set in russia and some are in america and some are both. It is great literature. Moderator what are some of the themes . For instance, fisher wrote a book about the replacement life which is about a young man who was born in russia and then grew up in Brighton Beach and then in the Russian Community in brooklyn. He is trying to divorce himself from the ferry russian world in manhattan. He is sucked back into the world through a complicated plot around holocaust and restitution benefits. It is an example of this inner being torn in which america has its rules and then ultimately be formed being formed by the russian experience. Moderator what you make of the theme in the Jewish Community when we talk about writing and reflecting on our experience for the reader . The push and pull between assimilation and becoming an american and retaining ones own culture and identity, yet living in the American World . I think that is the essential American Dance for jews. When we have the opportunity to assimilate, it is a different challenge than in other places where jews have lived and the opportunity was largely closed off and there wasnt the same kind of being torn apart. One of the interesting things that we are seeing, and another trend in jewish literature is the memoir. We have a lot of books coming out where people who have left the ultraorthodox and has citic community has citic community. What we see is a very Insular Community and a community that has done its best to stave off that a simulation. Still, you cant completely close yourself off from the greater society. Moderator is that mostly memoirs . It is men and women, but mostly women. Moderator mostly women . Are there other trends that you are seeing . Another thing is culinary history. We have seen a lot of cookbooks, but in recent years we have seen more history on the history of jewish food. There was a book that was called astronomy on ride on ride rye about the history of the delicate to some. It was a whole narrative on American Samoa listing and how jews see themselves in relation to society and in terms of relationship to society. How you can related all to what we are eating. Moderator wonderful. We will come back after this break and talk about assimilation as we honor jewish month. , welcome back to mosaic. I am rabbi eric webb. We are having a wonderful conversation related to jewish book month. You have an anthology called jewish so far noire. What is meant by that . You will get a lot of different answers about what it is, but i would like to offer my definition. It is a sub john of crime writing. Genre of crime writing. I judge it as harsh, violent and often a deep social critique. I feel like the best books that i have read have really kind of punched me. I have had visceral feelings from reading them. It is a genre in the films which people are familiar with. There were many in fact great jewish directors and all different phases of movie making before the Second World War came to hollywood. They are credited with what we call those kind of films. They came from sensibility. They came from a place of persecution. There is a hip term. A lot of publicizing books. They want to define a book that way and people want to be identified that way, but when it comes to publishing it, it is harder. Moderator so you have a piece in this anthology. Tell us about your piece. My story is called devil for a which which comes for comes from an old southern expression where you traded devil for a which which met witch. He has committed crimes and he gets an offer from the fbi where he can die and go underground and to a clandestine operation in mississippi undercover. To identify some of the patrician class in the clan klan. Not only is it a viral and verily campaign [ no audio ]. And virulent campaign. [ no audio ]. It is fueled by the fact that i attended the temple in atlanta, georgia, where i grew up and it was bombed. It was bombed particularly because of the rabbi, jacob rothschild. He was a very vocal and public affiliation with dr. King. That i think would have been the primary motivation. It spawned a book called the temple bonding bombing which Melissa Greene wrote about that time. It was an experience, not my only experience, but my most extreme experience of domestic terror. Moderator howard, you talked about trends in jewish books. Is this kind of literature new within the Jewish Community . No, it is not. We are seeing more jewish detective literature and there is a large genre in israel of detective fiction. There is actually also the book the novel, called compulsion. One of the thing that is interesting is that there has always been described for discomfort among jews regarding violence. But, when it happens in the community, and some of the novel show the underbelly and the part we dont like to acknowledge that happens among jews. I think it was explored in compulsion and in novels coming out today. Moderator were going to take a moment and then return here to mosaic. And i cant change, even if i tried even if i wanted to. My love my love my love she keeps me warm, she keeps me warm, she keeps me warm, she keeps me warm, she keeps me warm, she keeps me warm, we are neighbors and best friends. I love my sister. My heart doesnt see race. Love is love. Our family is no less than any other family. Welcome back to mosaic. I am rabbi eric webb. We are speaking to author brenner and the director of the Jewish Community center here in san francisco, Howard Friedman. Every anthology has a rationale behind it. Can you talk a little bit about what you understand to be the rationale and the framing of jewish noir . I talked about the definition of noir it self , but why jewish noir . Howard and i talked about how more jewish writers are writing about the underbelly. But the editor, kim wish near, has done an extremely erudite explanation which goes back to many references in the bible. The crimes that are committed where the heroes and biblical literature are actually flawed and imperfect beings struggling with their own demons. It is very important in terms of setting the tones of the book. Actually, there are 30 authors writing and very different authors about very different subjects. You get a wide range of jewish perspective on what a crime story is. Moderator is the genre of jewish noir intended to enlist a visceral reaction from the reader . Is that part of the requirement . No, i think that is something that i would personally defined, in my own response, two things i have read and to some of the stories in this anthology. But, not all of them. As i said, there are many definitions of noir. People will tell you things that would either complement or even maybe contradict some of the things i have said. Moderator i have a question for both of you. Jewish life is filled with a relationship to text. Kind of a love affair with the world. The word. In that context, there is a relationship to the broader word itself, what a the underbelly might be. What is going on for us in the Jewish Community in america where we are seeing the literature take that risk to both reveal to art to the world and to ourselves a bit of the underbelly . For me, i think there is an expression in yiddish about being a shame in front of nonjews. There is a sense of insecurity among jews who have felt they have not really belonged. There is a sense that we have to look good in front of others and we dont want to air the dirty laundry and the fact that there is more dirty laundry is an and or is an indication of a greater feeling of security. Moderator is a feeling of security or maturity in the community itself. We are like everybody else and this is a part of what makes us human . Yes, exposing ourselves. Moderator exposing ourselves and our human capacity. We have a little bit of time left. Lets talk about a genre that we havent talked about witches childrens literature. From your perspective, what about childrens literature in the jewish world and at the Jewish Community center . After a decade of writing young young adult books and early teen books for middle school, they are all play space. The first one is about a girl, a 12yearold girl and her father who are homeless. It addresses the city and the characters as they move around and camp out. She is prevented most days from going to school. It addresses homelessness and it is used in classrooms to introduce an open the conversation about homelessness in classrooms where again, kids are embarrassed to talk about it. They are ashamed or they are afraid. It is open for discussion. There are two other books more specifically about a place. They travel back in history to a place and they talk about very diverse cultures. As the talk about the russian immigrant authors, there are a couple. I would like to recommend jewish noir. Its a wonderful christmas or hanukkah present. Moderator please enjoy the rest of your day. Of course, get a great book and talk about it. You see this look on my face . Sfx growling thats not anger, thats hunger. So im gonna have a snack to make me feel better and once i do you will see a look of satisfaction and contentment blossom across my face. See, now i feel better. Make your tummy happy mmm never boring fun. The why cant it smell like this all the time fun. The learning the virtue of sharing this all fun. Time fun. Why let someone else have all the fun . Thats no fun. Unleash the power of dough. Give it a pop. Mallicoat. Weve are hitting the books today. 3 welcome to base sunday everyone. I am your host. We will meet a politician making his weight in sacramento. We begin with a woman who may bring a ray of sunshine into your life. Her book, energy of abundance will teach you how to harness your energy and turn your inner turmoil into happiness. We are delighted to invite back once again phyllis king. Welcome back. Thank you for having me. Moderator lets talk about your book, the gy