It’s all about the books and authors at the 46th annual St. Louis Jewish Book Festival, Nov. 2-17. The festival, nationally recognized event and one of the largest in the country, brings in Jewish authors and features books with Jewish interest and themes, offering a wide variety to inform, delight, amuse and enlighten readers. 

Some offerings are light, with humor, cooking and fiction, while others are deep, with current events, culture and history, and spanning from big topics like antisemitism to intimate ones like family connections. 

The festival’s opening and closing night authors indicate the range at this year’s festival, opening with Mickey Bergman, a former Israel Defense Forces paratrooper who has negotiated the release of American hostages around the world, and closing with Daniel Handler, aka “Lemony Snicket,” the author of the wildly popular, darkly humorous kids’ books.

The JBF co-chairs this year are Barb Raznick and Madelon Scallet. Madelon is new as co-chair this year, as is The J’s Director of Literary Arts, Jessica Fischoff. 

“Madelon Scallet and I were so fortunate to welcome Jessica Fischoff, the new literary arts director, who came to St. Louis and joined the staff at the J in April and really hit the ground running and made it easy for us to organize this year’s festival,” Raznick said. “And we have such an incredible, hard-working committee who work on every aspect of the festival and pitch in to get everything done.”

Once again, this year’s JBF has an exciting schedule of authors and events. “There truly is an event for everyone,” said Scallet. “We have it all: history, romance, current events, memoirs, children’s books, sports, musical theater. Whatever your readers’ interests are, they will be there.”

Fischoff said opening night (Nov. 2 at 7 p.m.) Bergman, the former IDF paratrooper and executive director of the Richardson Center for Global Engagement, was chosen. 

“Mickey has this stunning way of putting a human face on international diplomacy, and his book, ‘In The Shadows: True Stories of High-Stakes Negotiations to Free Americans Captured Abroad,’ gives personal insight to his behind-the-scenes crucial role in the release of Gilad Shalit, and more recently, Americans held abroad such Otto Warmbier and Britney Griner.”  

“We are so lucky to have Mickey Bergman as our headliner,” Scallet added. “We selected this author because ‘In the Shadows’ will help us understand international negotiations, and perhaps, why it has been so hard to get our hostages home from Gaza.”

Closing night (Nov. 17 at 7 p.m.) will feature Handler, aka Lemony Snicket, who will be interviewed by Fischoff about his memoir “And Then? And Then? What Else?” at the St. Louis County Library’s Clark Family Branch. His program is appropriate for adults as well as grade school and up age children (children may attend for free).

Handler’s new memoir “is a deep dive into the cultural analysis of what helped frame and inspire his work and career,” Fischoff said. “But more importantly, Daniel is a truly entertaining speaker, and I have complete confidence that this is going to be a night of enjoyment for the whole family. He’s smart, he’s quick, and his cultural criticism is really an elevated and thought-provoking exploration into what contributes to our own creative processes.”

In between those opening and closing night is a whole lot of wonderful book festival. 

Other headliners 

• Julia Quinn, author of the wildly popular “Bridgerton” historical fiction series. She will headline Women’s Night “A Romantic Affair,” joined by Felicia Grossman and her “Once Upon the East End: Wake Me Most Wickedly,” on Nov. 7 at 7:30 p.m. (with a reception at 6:30 p.m.), at J’s the Staenberg Family Complex Edison Gymnasium. The discussion will be moderated by Ellen Futterman, editor-in-chief of the Jewish Light.

• Renowned cookbook author Joan Nathan will discuss her new memoir “My Life in Recipes: Food, Family, and Memories” on  “Cookbook Night” (Nov. 16 at 7 p.m.).

Additional highlights: 

• Adam Nimoy talks about his book (and his famous father), “The Most Human: Reconciling with My Father, Leonard Nimoy,” on Nov. 4 at 5 p.m. 

• Brian Levant and Fred Fox Jr.’s “50 Years of Happy Days: A Visual History of An American Television Classic,” (Nov. 4 at 7:30 p.m.) with stories and video outtakes with the writers of this classic TV series.

• Benjamin Ginsberg will discuss a very timely concern with his “The New American Anti-Semitism: The Left, the Right, and the Jews” (Nov. 7 at 1 p.m. at the St. Louis Kaplan Feldman Holocaust Museum).  

“A Night of Theater” features Eddie Shapiro and his book “Here’s to the Ladies: Conversations with More of the Great Women of Musical Theater” plus special performances by New Jewish Theatre (Nov. 9 at 7:30 p.m.).

• The annual Kristallnacht remembrance will feature Karen Kirsten’s “Irena’s Gift: An Epic World War II Memoir of Sisters, Secrets, And Survival” (Nov. 10 at 7:30 p.m.)

• A Veteran’s Day program will include Stuart E. Eizenstat, author of “The Art of Diplomacy: How American Negotiators Reached Historic Agreements That Changed the World” (Nov. 11 at 7:30 p.m.). 

• An overview of the baseball film genre with Noah Gittell (“Baseball: The Movie,” Sports Night, Nov. 14 at 7:30 p.m.). Gittell offers a multimedia presentation, joined by Post-Dispatch sports columnist Ben Hochman. 

• How to kick your clutter habit with Andrew J. Mellen (“Unstuff Your Life!” Nov. 15 at 11 a.m.).

Missouri’s Own and other panel discussions:

The Missouri’s Own panel (Nov. 14 at 2 p.m.) includes a favorite of Scallet. 

“My favorite book this year is ‘Harry Gets Wise’ by Michael Vines. This book is about Michael’s grandfather trying to run a store here, in downtown St. Louis, and all the gangsters he had to deal with to keep his business running. Reading this book reminded me of my own father’s store downtown. He had many of the same problems and dealt with some of them in the same ways. Michael describes St. Louis so artfully throughout this book. It was a very fast read for me, and now I need a signed copy — or three — so I can pass it down to my children.”

Other panels include: 

• “The Old Jewish Men’s Guide to Eating, Sleeping and Futzing Around” with Noah Rinsky, along with Reuven Fenton’s “Goyhood.” (Humor in Literature panel, Nov. 3, 7:30 p.m.). 

• Historical Fiction (Nov. 8 at 1 p.m.)

• Women’s Memoirs (Nov. 13 at 5 p.m.)

Must-see recommendations

When asked if they thought one program was a must-see, both co-chairs mentioned the same one: Ilan Evyatar, author of “Target Tehran: How Mossad is Using Sabotage, Cyberware, Assassination/and Secret Diplomacy to Stop a Nuclear Iran and Realign the New Middle East” (Nov. 12 at 1 p.m. at the Chabad Jewish Center of St. Charles County). 

“I believe this presentation will help all of us to better understand current events in the Middle East, which of course can be helpful for so many of us at this time,” Scallet said.

Raznick mentioned two programs: The Evyatar event, as well as the event with R. Derek Black, godson of KKK Grand Wizard David Duke, and author of “The Klansman’s Son” (Nov. 12 at 7:30 p.m.). Raznick said the book chronicles the author’s “journey from hate to understanding. It should be an extremely powerful evening.”

The festival will include an in-house bookstore, staffed by festival committee members, to give attendees a chance to buy books from any of the events. 

Fischoff said the 2024 St. Louis Jewish Book Festival offers a literary banquet for readers. 

“This festival is an opportunity not simply for us to amplify Jewish writers or writers on Jewish themes, it’s a chance to support them, to celebrate them, to engage with them, and to help continue on the legacy that is Jewish literature,” Fischoff said.