The People of the Book & How Books Connect People: Authors’ Showcase 2023
The Temple Sinai Library strives to be a welcoming space for Jewish learning, study, culture, and respite for the congregation, clergy, staff and members. As the Temple Sinai librarian, I have been challenged by how best to support and lift up the many authors in our congregation. It is relatively easy if a member writes a book with Jewish content, they will often donate a copy for inclusion in the library, but it has been harder to figure out what to do with books that have nothing to do with Judaism. For a while, we had a special section for these books, but it was a mishmash of different topics and the books went largely unnoticed.
In 2023, we decided to address this need by hosting a forum for temple authors to give a book talk, sign, and sell their books, and to connect with other authors in the congregation. The Authors’ Showcase ran concurrently with the Women of Reform Judaism’s long-standing Chanukah Mart. Nine Temple Sinai Authors signed on: Michael Dine, Leon Fink, Deborah Kalb, Sue Levine, Gail Rebhan, Ellen Sazzman, Susan Rubin Suleiman, Julie Segal Walters, and Kuri Yasuno. We were thrilled with how it turned out and will be continuing to host this opportunity to spotlight the literary talent in our own congregation.
Below, three of the authors from our first Authors’ Showcase share a few thoughts about their experience.
– Ruth Polk, Temple Sinai Librarian
It was very gratifying to speak alongside such a distinguished group of authors and to an audience which was so appreciative of writing on a broad range of topics. It is wonderful to be part of this community.
– Michael Dine, author of This Way to the Universe: A Journey into Physics (February 2022) and other books
As someone who’s spent her entire life going to Temple Sinai, it’s wonderful to find a whole new way to connect with the community–and I found it at the Authors’ Showcase last November! I knew some of my fellow participants already, but was glad to meet the other authors and talk about writing and the often bewildering world of book publicity. And it was a real treat to talk about my books with congregants attending the Chanukah Mart–including a reunion with someone I had worked with two decades ago! Thanks so much to librarian Ruth Polk for organizing such a lovely event.
– Deborah Kalb, author of Off to Join the Circus (July 2023) and other books
I’m a relatively new member of Temple Sinai, having moved to the DC area a few years ago to be near my son Daniel and his family, who are longstanding members. (All four of my grandkids are proud graduates of Temple Sinai Nursery School and the oldest just started her first year of college!).
I confess I don’t often attend services, even though my father was trained as an Orthodox rabbi. But I do love books and you might even say I have a professional love of books, since I spent more than 40 years as a professor of literature. I’ve even written some books myself.
That’s why the group I feel most at home with at the temple is the Library Committee, and why I so much enjoyed sitting at the entrance to the Chanukah Mart last year with other TS authors, all of us behind a stack of books we were eager to sign for anyone who asked! It was lovely when people stopped to chat, even if they didn’t buy our books. I was signing my memoir, Daughter of History, which starts with my childhood in Hungary. Lo and behold, one woman stopped to tell me about her brother-in-law, who is Hungarian!
Books connect people. I love that.
– Susan Suleiman, author of Daughter of History: Traces of an Immigrant Girlhood (May 2023) and other books