Federation Star - January 2017

Wednesday, February 8, 1:00 - 3:30 pm at Beth Tikvah • Topic: Memoir
Judy Batalion– White Walls
Judy Batalion grew up in a house filled with piles of junk obsessively
gathered by her hoarder mother. At the first chance, she escaped the
clutter to create a new identity – made of order, regimen and clean
white walls – until she found herself enmeshed in life’s biggest
chaos: motherhood. Confronted with the daunting task of raising a
daughter after her own dysfunctional childhood, Judy reflected on her
upbringing and the lives of her mother and grandmother, both Holocaust
survivors. What she discovered astonished her. The women in
her family were more closely connected than she knew, and it was
Judy’s bond with her mother that healed her old wounds. Judy explores
navigating the messiness of motherhood and the indelible marks that
mothers and daughters make on each other’s lives.
Judy Batalion was born in Montreal, studied at Harvard, and worked
as a curator and comedian in London before settling in New York
City. Her essays about parenting, relationships, religion and health
have appeared in Vogue, The Washington Post, The Jerusalem Post,
The Forward, Tablet, Cosmopolitan, Salon and other publications.
Monday, March 13, 1:00 - 3:30 pm at UUCGN • Topic: Humor
Eric Golub – Jewish Lunacy
Jewish Lunacy is a lighthearted slice of Jewish life meant to bring
all Jews together. It is a humorous spiritual journey that weaves love
of Judaism with love of family in a story of trying to obey religious
laws amid the secular temptations of the world around us. Whether
liberal or conservative, secular or religious, Jewish Lunacy can unite
all readers in laughter and purpose.
Eric Golub is a national author, speaker and comedian who has spoken
in all 50 states. He speaks about politics, religion and everything else
that should not be discussed. He is a former stockbrokerage and oil
professional living in Los Angeles. He is single, to the chagrin of his
loving parents, and proud of his Jewish heritage.
Noa Baum – A Land Twice Promised
Israeli storyteller Noa Baum grew up in Jerusalem in the shadow of
ancestral traumas of the Holocaust and ongoing wars. Stories of the
past and fear of annihilation in the wars of the 1960s through the ’80s
shaped her perceptions and identity. In America, she met a Palestinian
woman who had grown up under Israeli Occupation, and as they
shared memories of war years in Jerusalem an unlikely friendship
blossomed. A Land Twice Promised delves into the heart of one of
the world’s most enduring and complex conflicts. Baum’s deeply
personal memoir recounts her journey from girlhood in Israel to
her adult encounter with “the other” with honesty, compassion and
humor, capturing the drama of a nation at war and her discovery of
humanity in the enemy.
Noa Baum is an award-winning storyteller who performs internationally.
She acted with Jerusalem Khan Theater and studied theater
at NYU and with Uta Hagen. Voted by the Washington Jewish Week
as one of ten most interesting local Jews, she has lived in America
since 1990.
Monday, February 20, 7:00 - 9:15 pm at Federation • Topic: Memoir - LGBTQ
Julie Tarney – My Son Wears Heels
When Julie Tarney’s only child Harry was two years old, he told her,
“Inside my head I’m a girl.” It was 1992. The Internet was no help
because there was no Internet, and bookstores had no literature for a
mom scrambling to raise such an unconventional child. There were,
however, mainstream experts whose theories mirrored a negative
stereotype of Jewish mothers: a “sissy” boy would be gay because his
mother was domineering. Lacking a positive role model of her own
and fearful of being judged as a Jewish mother potentially messing
up her kid, Julie embarked on an unexpected parenting journey that
spanned 20 years before eventually drawing Julie to the realization
that her son had known who he was all along. Her job was simply to
get out of the way and let him be.
Julie Tarney is a former PR agency president from the Midwest
who worked extensively with leading brands like McDonald’s and
Coca-Cola. She is now a writer, resource for parents raising gendercreative
kids, and an advocate for LGBTQ youth. She is a blogger for
The Huffington Post and board member for the It Gets Better Project.
Thursday, March 2, 1:00 - 3:30 pm at Beth Tikvah • Debut Fiction Panel
Victoria Kelly – Mrs. Houdini
Before escape artist Harry Houdini died, he vowed he would find a way to
speak to his beloved wife, Bess, from beyond the grave, using a coded message
known only to the two of them. When his widow begins seeing this code in
seemingly impossible places, it becomes clear that Harry has an urgent message
to convey. Unlocking the puzzle will set Bess on a course back through
the pair’s extraordinary interfaith romance, which swept the illusionist and
his bride from the beaches of Coney Island to the palaces of Budapest to the
back lots of Hollywood. In surprising turns that weave through the dawn of
the 20 th century and into the dazzling 1920s, Mrs. Houdini is a thrilling tale
that goes to the heart of one of history’s greatest love stories.
Jennifer Brown – Modern Girls
In 1935, Dottie Krasinsky is the epitome of the modern girl. A bookkeeper
in Midtown Manhattan, Dottie has a steady beau, close girlfriends and an
eye for fashion. Yet at heart, she is a dutiful Jewish daughter, living with her
Yiddish-speaking parents on the Lower East Side. So when after a single
careless night she is “in a family way” by a charismatic but unsuitable man,
she is desperate – unwed, unsure and running out of options. After 20 years
as a housewife and mother of five children, Dottie’s immigrant mother,
Steven Gaines – One of These Things First
One of These Things First is a wry and poignant reminiscence of a
15-year-old gay Jewish boy in Brooklyn in the early ’60s and his
unexpected trajectory from a life behind a rack of dresses in his grandmother’s
bra and girdle store to the halls of Payne Whitney among
a captivating group of wealthy neurotics and Ivy League alcoholics
who subtly begin to change him in unexpected ways. This rich cast
of characters includes a famous Broadway producer who becomes his
unlikely mentor, an elegant woman who claimed to be the ex-mistress
of newly-elected president John F. Kennedy, a snooty, suicidal Harvard
architect, and a seductive young Contessa. At the center of the story
is a brilliant young psychiatrist who promises to cure a young boy of
his homosexuality and give him the normalcy he so longs for.
Steven Gaines is the author of Philistines at the Hedgerow: Passion
and Property in the Hamptons, The Sky’s the Limit: Passion
and Property in Manhattan, and Simply Halston, a biography of the
fashion designer, among other books. He is a former NPR radio host.
Rose, is itching to return to the social activism of her youth. With strikes
and breadlines at home, National Socialism rising in Europe, and a brother
unable to escape Poland, she knows there is more important work to be done
than cooking and cleaning. Yet when she realizes that she, too, is pregnant,
she struggles to reconcile her longings with her faith. Mother and daughter
must confront their beliefs, the changing world, and the fact that their lives
will never again be the same.
Martha Hall Kelly – Lilac Girls
New York socialite Caroline Ferriday has her hands full with her post at
the French consulate, but her world is forever changed when Hitler’s army
invades Poland in September 1939 with its sights set on France. An ocean
away from Caroline, Kasia Kuzmerick, a Polish teenager, senses her carefree
youth disappearing as she is drawn deeper into her role as courier for the
underground resistance movement. For the ambitious young German doctor
Herta Oberheuser, an advertisement for a government medical position seems
her ticket out of a desolate life. Once hired, though, she finds herself trapped in
a male-dominated realm of Nazi secrets and power. The lives of these women
are set on a collision course when Kasia is sent to Ravensbrück, the notorious
Nazi concentration camp for women. Their stories cross continents as
Caroline and Kasia strive to bring justice to those whom history has forgotten.
William Novak – Die Laughing
From the co-creator of The Big Book of Jewish Humor comes a
laugh-out-loud collection of jokes and cartoons about growing older
that deals with memory loss, long marriages, medicine, changes in
sexuality, the afterlife and much more. Growing older can be unsettling
and surprising, so what better way to deal with this new stage
of life than to laugh about it? Die Laughing includes more than
enough jokes (and a nice sprinkling of New Yorker cartoons) to let
that laughter burst out.
William Novak is best known to Jewish audiences as the co-editor
of The Big Book of Jewish Humor, a beloved collection of jokes,
cartoons and stories that is still in print 35 years after its 1981 release.
Novak is also a successful ghostwriter who has served as the coauthor
of the best-selling memoirs of Lee Iacocca, Tip O’Neill,
Nancy Reagan, Oliver North, Magic Johnson, Tim Russert and Natan
Sharansky.
Thursday, January 19, 7:00 - 8:30 pm at Federation • Topic: Holocaust
Amy Kurzweil – Flying Couch: A Graphic Memoir
Flying Couch tells the stories of three unforgettable women. Amy’s
coming of age as a young Jewish artist weaves into the narrative of
her mother, a therapist, and her Bubbe, a World War II survivor who
escaped from the Warsaw Ghetto by disguising herself as a gentile.
Captivated by Bubbe’s story, Amy turns to her sketchbooks to preserve
and record the past, teaching herself to draw as a way to cope with
what she discovers. Entwining the voices and histories of these three
women, Amy creates a portrait not only of what it means to be part of a
Free event with any ticket purchase (limited to the first 50 reservations).
family, but also of how each generation bears the imprint of the past.
Flying Couch uses Bubbe’s real testimony to investigate the legacy
of trauma, the magic of family stories, and the meaning of home.
Amy Kurzweil’s comics have appeared in The Huffington Post and
The New Yorker. In 2013, she was the recipient of a Norman Mailer
Fellowship. She teaches writing and comics at Parsons, The New
School for Design and at the Fashion Institute of Technology. She
lives in Brooklyn, New York.
For the events with more than one author, the order in which they present
will be decided a few days prior to their event. If you’d like to know the order,
please email fedstar18@gmail.com or call the Federation office at 239.263.4205.