“Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the journey. They are home.”
Anna Quindlen in How Reading Changed My Life
Upcoming Events
Sunday of Strong Women 2023
Hear the voices of three strong women with unique ideas to share. Audacious and tenacious, these women will engage, enlighten, and entertain.
Letty Cottin Pogrebin: Shanda: A Memoir of Shame and Secrecy
The word Shanda in Yiddish is defined as shame or disgrace. Co-founder of Ms Magazine, co-creator of Free To Be You and foundational figure in contemporary feminism, Letty Cottin Pogrebin exposes the fiercely guarded lies and intricate coverups woven by her extended family to avoid a shanda. Her story spirals through the hidden lives of her parents and relatives — revealing the truth about their origins, personal traumas, marital misery, abandoned children, religious transgressions, sexual identity, radical politics, and supposedly embarrassing illnesses.
Debby Applegate: Madam: The Biography of Polly Adler, Icon of the Jazz Age
Polly Adler immigrated to the US from Eastern Europe and became the notorious madam who played hostess to every well-known gangster, politician, writer, sports star and who as much as any single figure, helped make the twenties roar. Historian and Pulitzer Prize winning author Debby Applegate tells the story of this diminutive Jewish dynamo and how she forged a unique path to the American dream with her Manhattan brothels.
Jean Hanff Korelitz: The Latecomer
Author of the 2021 bestseller The Plot and You Should Have Known (which aired on HBO in October 2020 as The Undoing, starring Nicole Kidman, Hugh Grant, and Donald Sutherland), Jean Hanff Korelitz has a new bestselling novel, The Latecomer. It touches on the topics of grief and guilt, generational trauma, privilege and race, traditions and religion, and family dynamics. Korelitz is an accomplished author known for the depth of her characters, expertly woven storylines, and unexpected plot twists.
Event Sponsors: Kim & Marc Harrison, Lisa Beth & Greg Meisel and Judith & Arnold Herrmann
Sunday, 3/19, 10:30 am-1:30 pm, $40/$48 (includes lunch)
JCC U – Keep Learning
Top professors and experts present on a diverse array of topics. Rekindle previous passions, ignite new interests, meet new people, and stay involved in the developments that shape today’s world.
Winter Term 2023 Online (virtual)
3 Thursdays, 11 am, 1/19, 2/9, 2/16
$12/$15 each session
February 9
Rita Rudner: My Life in Dog Years
Acclaimed comedienne with a career spanning from Broadway to Late Night with Johnny Carson, Rita Rudner will discuss her new book My Life in Dog Years. She’ll share wild behind-the scenes stories from her over three-decade career and explain how she has depended on the steady, non-judgmental, immensely satisfying love that only dogs can bring.
February 16
The Unseen Body
Internist Dr. Jonathan Reisman will take us on a journey through the human body and across the globe, weaving together medical stories about our insides with a unique perspective on life, culture, and the natural world. Reisman has practiced medicine in such far-flung places as the Arctic, Nepal, India and rural Appalachia. This talk will be quite the expedition.
Lectures & Learning
Creative Arts
