Jewish Book Week

In a history book that reads like a thriller, The Book Smugglers charts the incredible story of the ghetto inmates who rescued thousands of rare books and manuscripts — first from the Nazis and then from the Soviets — by hiding them on their bodies, burying them in bunkers, and smuggling them across borders. In doing so, this daring group of poets turned partisans, and scholars turned smugglers, saved the treasures of Vilna, ‘the Jerusalem of Lithuania’.

Sponsored by the National Library of Israel

In January 2018, cellist Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, a survivor of Auschwitz, and then of Bergen-Belsen, addressed the Bundestag to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day. In an extraordinary speech, she said, “Antisemitism is a virus which is two thousand years old and apparently incurable… No other genocide is as comprehensively documented as the Holocaust. And yet there are still the deniers … There are no excuses and no explanations for what happened all those years ago. All that remains is hope: the hope that ultimately, one day, reason will prevail.” Anita read extracts from that speech. Her grandson Simon, an acclaimed cellist and singer, played, accompanied by pianist Iain Farrington.

Sponsored by Eduard Shyfrin and Family

Join prize-winning tour guide, award-winning librarian and author Rachel Kolsky as she profiles her latest book, Women’s London. Inspired by walking tours she devised for The Women’s Library and responding to those who encouraged her to put her words on paper, she published a guide book to London featuring the impact women have had on its society, heritage and streetscape. From scientists to suffragettes, reformers and royals, authors and artists, sit back and discover some of Rachel’s favourite London ladies.

The Holocaust never happened. The planet isn’t warming. Vaccines cause autism. All of us deny inconvenient truths sometimes, but what happens when denial becomes ‘denialism’, a systematic attempt to overturn established scholarly findings?  And how do we relate to this phenomenon in a ‘post-truth’ age? Our panellists, whose expertise covers history, contemporary culture, the law and psychotherapy, discuss the significance of phenomena such as Holocaust denial and climate change denial, and how they relate to ‘everyday’ denial.

Jewish Book Week hosts an edition of Literary Friction the monthly podcast about books and ideas, hosted by friends Carrie and Octavia. Listen-in for lively discussion, book recommendations and a little music too.

Carrie and Octavia will be interviewing Ukranian-born, American and French artist and author Yelena Moskovich, speaking about her incredible new book Virtuoso.

For a generation, public debate has been corroded by a narrow derision of religion in the name of an often vaguely understood ‘science’. Bestselling author and eminent philosopher John Gray describes the rich, complex world of the atheist tradition. His book sheds an extraordinary and varied light on what it is to be human and on the thinkers who have battled to understand this issue. “There is no need to panic or despair”, says Gray. “A godless world is as mysterious as one suffused with divinity, and the difference between the two may be less than you think.”

Ferdinand Mount has long been fascinated by the great thinkers and politicians of the past two millennia. In his riveting and provocative book, Prime Movers, Mount takes us on a colourful journey, examining the ideas of twelve key savants — from Pericles to Jesus Christ, and from Adam Smith to Karl Marx. These are the people who have shaped our world — and who have inspired and provoked the author, often in equal measure.

In Association with the TLS

This event took place on 6 March as part of Jewish Book Week 2019

We believe we are exceptional, but is there really anything special about humans that makes us different from other animals? In this entertaining tour of life on Earth, scientist and broadcaster Dr Adam Rutherford’s The Book of Humans: The Story of How We Became Us examines what, if anything, sets us apart in the animal kingdom.

Sponsored by Robin and Hanna Klein

This event took place on 6 March as part of Jewish Book Week 2019

Insiders / Outsiders examines the extraordinarily rich contribution of refugees from Nazi-dominated Europe to the visual culture, art education and art-world structures of the United Kingdom.

In every field, emigres arriving from Europe in the 1930s introduced a professionalism, internationalism and bold avant-gardism to a British art world not known for these attributes. At a time when the issue of immigration is much debated, Insiders / Outsiders serves as a reminder of the importance of cultural cross-fertilization and of the deep, long-lasting and wide-ranging contribution that refugees make to British life.

Insiders/Outsiders is published to accompany a UK-wide arts festival of the same name running from March 2019 until March 2020.

“Strongman politics are ascendant”, Barack Obama wrote recently: “The politics of fear and resentment… is now on the move”.  From America to China, from Europe to Brazil, in India and across the Middle East, ‘macho’ leaders are very much in fashion. So why is the strongman proving so attractive to so many, and will the fashion be a passing one? Our panellists debated the character traits, neurology and behaviours of the political strongman – as well as examining what helps them into power and keeps them there.

In Association with the New Israel Fund

This event took place on 6 March as part of Jewish Book Week 2019