Theodore “Theo” Bikel will be this year’s keynote speaker Nov. 2 when the 36th annual St. Louis Jewish Book Festival officially kicks off.  Best known for the role of Teyve in “Fiddler on the Roof.” Bikel will depart from the traditional interview format of keynotes past to directly address the audience and perform when he takes the stage at 7 that Sunday night.

The actor, who turned 90 years old in May, will discuss his book, “Theo: An Autobiography,” where he talks about his numerous roles on stage and screen, including 2,000-plus performances as Tevye.  He also originated the role of Captain Von Trapp in “The Sound of Music” on Broadway, and played Zoltan Karpathy, the dialect expert, in the film version of “My Fair Lady.” His recently released film is “Theodore Bikel: In the Shoes of Sholom Aleichem.”

“We are very excited to have Theo, and the timing couldn’t be better with the 50th anniversary of ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ along with his new film and the re-release of his autobiography,” said Scott Berzon, executive director of the Book Festival. Berzon said Bikel had been at the book festival “many, many years ago” and also had starred as Teyve in a Muny production of “Fiddler” in 1998.

Bikel isn’t the only highlight of the two-week long festival, which runs from Nov. 2 to 16. Other notable attractions include:

• Tracy Davis, daughter of Sammy Davis Jr., who has written a memoir about her relationship with her father, “Sammy Davis Jr.: A Personal Journey with My Father.”

• Bob Mankoff, the longtime cartoon editor of the New Yorker magazine and a true character himself. His book is called “How about Never – Is Never Good for You?”

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• Cindy Chupack, an award winning writer of TV’s “Sex and the City” and “Modern Family,” whose new book is “The Longest Date: Life as a Wife.”

• Josh Fattal, co-author of “A Sliver of Light: Three Americans Imprisoned in Iran,” which tells how he and two American hiker cohorts survived capture, psychological torture and imprisonment in Iran.

• David Greene, NPR’s Moscow bureau chief, whose book, “Midnight in Siberia: A Train Journey into the Heart Of Russia,” tells of his 6,000-mile train ride interviewing Russian citizens about how their life has changed in the post-Soviet years.

• Al Clark, the first Jewish umpire in American League history and 30-year vet of the league, whose book is entitled, “Called Out But Safe.” 

And of course you wouldn’t want to miss (shameless plug) yours truly moderating the fiction panel on thrillers at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, Nov. 4, with authors Andrew Gross (“Everything to Lose”) and Linda Fairstein (“Terminal City”).

Berzon notes that beloved special events, including programs with the St. Louis Symphony and St. Louis Ballet, are also on the schedule. And it wouldn’t be a Jewish book Festival without food authors. Prior to the official start of the festival, but in conjunction with it, and with the Light’s Primetime Expo, Allen Salkin will be discussing his book, “From Scratch: Inside the Food Network,” at 11 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 26. 

Berzon suggests ordering tickets sooner than later, as certain events are sure to sell out. Single tickets for Bikel are $40; Series tickets (good for all author events from Nov. 2-16) are $75 and Series Plus tickets (good for all author events from Sept. 1 to July 31, 2015) are $95. All are available at brownpapertickets.com.

The 36th Annual Festival co-chairs are Judy Scissors and Judy Schwartz Jaffe. To view the festival line-up to date, which includes more than 30 authors, go to stljewishlight.com/bookfest2014. Brochures with blurbs about each author and event will be available Sept. 15. 

Building a city

The Sukkah City STL national competition is back on this year, sponsored by Washington University’s Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts, in partnership with St. Louis Hillel.

“The sukkah is a fascinating, paradoxical structure — a monument to impermanence,” said Jacqueline Ulin Levey, executive director of Hillel, who is organizing the competition with Brian Newman, a project manager in the university’s facilities department.

“Its temporary nature symbolizes the 40 years Jews spent wandering in the desert,” Levy said, “but it’s also a place of community, celebration and joy.”

Sukkah City STL builds on a previous competition, hosted at Washington University in 2011. That competition drew more than 40 proposals from artists, architects and teams of designers from across the country.

This year’s Sukkah City is subtitled, “Between Absence and Presence.” The competition is open to artists, architects and designers of all faiths and backgrounds, working in teams or as individuals.

Deadline for submissions is Aug. 22. A panel of architects, designers, critics, academics and religious thinkers then will select 10 designs for construction, with each project receiving a $1,000 honorarium to help defray building costs.

Completed Sukkahs will be installed on Washington University’s Danforth Campus Oct. 5 and 6, and will be open to the public Oct. 7-13.

For more information or detailed submission guidelines, go to samfoxschool.wustl.edu/sukkahcitystl or email [email protected].