Fall 2023 Book Series

JWA Book Talks offer conversations with authors at the intersection of gender, history, and Jewish culture. All talks take place Thursdays at 8 PM ET. Register for our fall book series here.

September 7: Susan Rubin Suleiman, Daughter of History: Traces of an Immigrant Girlhood 

In Daughter of History: Traces of an Immigrant Girlhood, Suleiman tells the story of her early life as a Holocaust refugee and American immigrant – a life filled with love and joy along with loss. At once an intellectual autobiography and a reflection on the nature of memory, identity, and home, Daughter of History invites us to consider how the objects that underpin our lives become gateways to our past. 

September 21: Elizabeth Graver, Kantika  

A dazzling Sephardic multigenerational saga that moves from Istanbul to Barcelona, Havana, and New York, Kantika explores displacement, endurance, and family as home. A haunting, inspiring meditation on the tenacity of women, this lush, lyrical novel celebrates the insistence on seizing beauty and grabbing hold of one’s one and only life. 

October 5: Mattie Kahn, Young and Restless: The Girls Who Sparked America’s Revolutions 

Young and Restless recounts one of the most foundational and underappreciated forces in moments of American revolution: teenage girls. From the American Revolution to the Civil Rights Movement to nuclear disarmament protests and the women’s liberation movement, through Black Lives Matter and school strikes for climate, Mattie Kahn uncovers how girls have leveraged their unique strengths, from fandom to intimate friendships, to organize and lay serious political groundwork for movements that often sidelined them.

*Offered as part of our celebration of the 10th anniversary of JWA's national Rising Voices Fellowship for teens.

October 19: Marjorie Ingall, Sorry, Sorry, Sorry: The Case for Good Apologies 

In Sorry, Sorry, Sorry: The Case for Good Apologies, Marjorie Ingall and Susan McCarthy draw on a deep well of research in psychology, sociology, law, and medicine to explain why a good apology is hard to find and why it doesn’t have to be. Writing with humor and erudition, they lay out steps to a good and meaningful apology and explore the social and psychological forces that all too often get in the way. 

Register for our fall book series now!

Fall 2023 Online History Course: Jewish Women in the Medieval World

What was life like as a Jewish woman 1000 years ago (give or take)? How might she have earned money? What was her understanding of the divine? How did she experience marriage and motherhood? And how can we possibly know? Join JWA as four leading scholars offer us glimpse into the lives of medieval Jewish women from Northern Europe to Iberia to the Middle East. (Please note that all sessions in this series will take place at 12:00 PM ET/9:00 AM PT). Register for Jewish Women in the Medieval World here.

November 2: Sarah Ifft Decker, Capable Wives and Working Widows: Jewish Women’s Lives in the Medieval World

An introduction to Jewish women’s lives and work in the Middle Ages.

November 9: Elisheva Baumgarten, Men's Instructions, Women's Deeds: Gender and Religious Practice in Medieval Ashkenaz

How did Ashkenazi women in the medieval period practice Judaism? What daily and yearly rituals shaped their interior lives, family relationships, and community roles?

November 16: Sara Gardner, Women’s Domestic Culture in Iberia

Explore pre-Inquisition Sephardic women’s domestic culture and daily life in the Iberian Peninsula.

November 30: Renée Levine Melammed, Women’s Voices as Reflected in the Cairo Genizah

Among the numerous documents found in the Cairo Genizah (950-1250) are numerous letters and petitions sent by Jewish women. Reading these papers provides an unexpected entry into women's lives through which their voices can be heard loud and clear.

Register for Jewish Women in the Medieval World now!