Saturday,
October 17 7:30 pm
Venue: JCC, Benderson

A superb new history of the Zionist idea and the Jewish state.
Cohen brings to life dozens of fascinating figures from false messiahs, to early Zionists, to founders of the modern Jewish state and shows how all these lives together form a single story, a single life. Cohen examines the myth, paradox, triumph and tragedy of the Jewish state and how the creation of modern Israel has changed what it means to be a Jew.

Website: http://www.rich-cohen.com

$12, students $5 - Reception to follow

- Sponsored by the Samuel and Sophie Weinstein Memorial Lecture Fund

Tuesday,
October 20 7:30 pm
Venue: JCC Benderson

Readable, engaging, friendly.
A highly practical set of teachings for cultivating personal growth and spiritual realization. The core teaching is that our inner radiance is obscured by extremes of emotion and desire. Mussar masters developed transformative teachings and practices to help us to heal and refine ourselves.

Website: http://www.mussarinstitute.org

$12, students $5 - Reception to follow

- Sponsored by the Legacies Book of Life Program of the Foundation for Jewish Philanthropies

Sunday,
October 25 2:30 pm
Venue: Temple Beth Zion - Amherst

A gripping epic about the great moral struggles of the Civil War.
How is tonight different from all other nights? For Jacob Rappaport, a Jewish soldier in the Union army, it is a question his commanders have answered for him: on Passover in 1862 he is ordered to murder his own uncle, who is plotting to assassinate President Lincoln. The answer comes when his commanders send him on another mission - this time not to murder a spy but to marry one. This novel, full of insight and surprise, is rich in human emotion and ambiguity.

Website: http://www.darahorn.com

$12, students $5 - "High Tea" reception to follow

- Co-sponsored by area temple sisterhoods

Tuesday,
October 27 7:30 pm
Venue: Temple Sinai

A masterful account by a genuinely learned and gifted academic on a subject that is critical to democracy.
Gardner makes a compelling case that our expectations regarding political campaigns are unrealistic, distracting us from the most formidable challenges that our democracy faces. Adeptly combining history, political science, and law, Gardner argues that we should pay much greater attention to engaging citizens between campaigns rather than just during them.

Website: http://www.law.buffalo.edu/Faculty_And_Staff/dynamic_general_profile.asp?faculty=gardner_james

$6, students FREE - Reception sponsored by Temple Sinai

- Sponsored by the University at Buffalo Law School

Thursday,
October 29 7:30 pm
Venue: JCC, Benderson

Tales of love and dreams closely observed with warmth and candor.
Fourteen linked tales spanning the decades 1950 to 1970 invite us into the private lives of the colorful denizens of communities like Coney Island, Long Beach, the Jersey shore, and the California beach towns. In each story of joy and sorrow, the boardwalk characters are paired with a vintage black-and-white photograph capturing the mood after World War II.

Website: http://www.blueeftpress.com

$10, students $5 - Reception to follow

- Supported by Baruch College, CUNY

Sunday,
November 1 7:00 pm
Venue: UB Student Union Theater (North Campus, Amherst)

The sextet mixes Klezmer, Balkan, and Romanian styles with an eclectic range of North American influences, their diverse musical and cultural backgrounds intersecting in a shared impulse to push the boundaries of contemporary acoustic roots music into new realms. Their exuberant live performances range seamlessly from raucous dance rhythms to intricate chamber-folk dynamics, taking audiences on an invigorating musical ride with stunning virtuosity and thrilling arrangements. The band’s founder, Eric Stein (mandolin, mandocello, cimbalom), is the current artistic Director of Toronto’s biennial Ashkenaz Festival, the world’s largest celebration of Klezmer music and Jewish culture.

Website: http://www.beyondthepale.net

FREE, no tickets necessary

- Concert sponsored by the Shuman Family Foundation
- Reception sponsored by Hillel of Buffalo

Sunday,
November 8 2:30 pm
Venue: JCC, Holland

Finding the path to remember and return to who we truly are (Teshuvah).
Minkoff takes the reader on a journey from the tumultuous world of college and San Francisco in the 1960s, through life crises and spiritual encounters with Sufism, Jung, and Kabbalah. She describes her struggle to overcome loss and depression and her journey to find the wisdom to identify her own true path.

Website: http://www.returntowhoyouare.com

Donations at the door will benefit the Food Bank of Western New York

- Reception to follow

Tuesday,
November 17 7:30 pm
Venue: JCC, Holland

Levi is a survivor and master chronicler of the Holocaust.
Primo Levi’s Universe offers a multifaceted portrait of the heroic man who turned the concentration camp experience into beautiful yet terrifying literature. Through careful readings of Levi’s works, Sam Magavern finally does justice to his calm rationality, dark poetry, essential beliefs and wit. Levi’s art and life are inextricably intertwined, and this book presents them together, allowing each to shed light on the other

Website: http://www.sammagavern.com

$6, students FREE - Reception to follow

- Sponsored by the Tanya Ganson Memorial Lecture

Thursday,
November 19 8:00 pm
Venue: Nosh Café

A delightful tour of Jewish delicatessens around the world.
David Sax was understandably alarmed by the state of Jewish delicatessen - a cuisine that once sat at the very center of Jewish life had become endangered by assimilation, homogenization, and health food trends. And so David set out on a journey in search of authentic delicatessen. Was it still possible to Save the Deli?

Website: http://www.davidsax.ca

$10, students $5 - Reception by Nosh Café

- Co-Sponsored by Nosh Café and Benjamin D. and Julia K. Oppenheimer, DDS

Tuesday,
December 1 7:30 pm
Venue: JCC, Holland

Seductive and playful, a serious meditation on loyalty language, love and memory.
A novel of faith lost and hope found. Manseau’s story is at once an immigrant’s epic saga, a love story for the ages, a Yiddish-inflected laughing-through-tears tour of world history for Jews and Gentiles alike, and a testament to Manseau’s ambitious genius. Manseau’s thrilling tale of secrets and revelations captures the diversity among Jews, then and now, in shtetl, city, and kibbutz, and the elemental meaning of bashert, or destiny.

Website: http://www.petermanseau.com

$10, students $5 - Reception to follow

Thursday,
December 3 10:30 am
Venue: JCC, Benderson

Profound and insightful.
Recent French film and literature has explored France’s role in the Holocaust from a variety of viewpoints. Dr. Angelini will use cinematic clips and literary excerpts to highlight different interpretations of the Holocaust and WWII from the French perspective.

FREE, no tickets necessary for this film and literary presentation

- Co-sponsored by The Holocaust Resource Center of Buffalo and the JCC Adult Services Department

Monday,
December 7 7:30 pm
Venue: JCC, Benderson

A fascinating journey across time by a leading scholar of Jewish literature and culture.
Roskies leads readers through Yiddishlands old and new by revisiting his personal and professional experiences and retelling his remarkable family saga in a series of lively, irreverent, and interwoven stories. Beginning with a flashback to his grandmother’s storybook wedding in 1878, Yiddishlands brings to life the major debates, struggles, and triumphs of the modern Yiddish experience, and provides memorable portraits of its great writers, cultural leaders, and educators.

Website: http://wsupress.wayne.edu/yiddishlands

$10, students $5

- Reception sponsored by the Buffalo Yiddish Study Group

Wednesday,
December 9 7:30 pm
Venue: JCC, Benderson

This new volume in the acclaimed Jewish Publication Society Guide series is a fiction reader’s dream.
A comprehensive guide to 125 classic American Jewish novels and short story collections by such celebrated writers as Roth, Mailer, Kellerman, Chabon, Ozick, Heller, and many others. It covers the time period from 1867 to the present. Each entry includes a cogent review of the book, with historical context and background on the author. Suggestions for further reading point to other books that match readers’ interests and favorite writers.

Website: http://www.jewishpub.org/author.php?id=269

$10, students $5 - Reception to follow

- Co-sponsored by Buffalo Hadassah and Jewish Liberal Arts Club