Jewish Book Month is an important annual event in both the North American Jewish community and the publishing world. It is sponsored by the

Jewish Book Council The Jewish Book Council (Hebrew: ), founded in 1944, is an organization encouraging and contributing to Jewish literature.Chanukah or English translation: 'Establishing' or 'Dedication' (of the Temple in Jerusalem) , nickname = , observedby = Jews , begins = 25 Kislev , ends = 2 Tevet or 3 Tevet , celebrations = Lighting candles each night ...

gift-giving season (roughly during the month of November). Book fairs are held in most major cities with Jewish communities, albeit not in New York, and feature lectures by visiting authors. Jewish communities sponsor the fairs to promote Jewish culture. For the industry, they are a major marketing tool. According to ''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

'' book fairs generate over $3 million in annual revenue. For many years the

Jewish Book Council The Jewish Book Council (Hebrew: ), founded in 1944, is an organization encouraging and contributing to Jewish literature.Book Expo America, enabling Jewish book fair planners to look over the forthcoming books and meet the authors. In 2004, this system was replaced by an annual meeting of the Jewish Book Network coordinated by the

Jewish Book Council The Jewish Book Council (Hebrew: ), founded in 1944, is an organization encouraging and contributing to Jewish literature.Fanny Goldstein, a librarian at the

Boston Public Library The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, founded in 1848. The Boston Public Library is also the Library for the Commonwealth (formerly ''library of last recourse'') of the Commonwea ...

West End Branch. In 1925 she curated an exhibit of Jewish books to encourage book giving during the Jewish holiday of

Chanukah or English translation: 'Establishing' or 'Dedication' (of the Temple in Jerusalem) , nickname = , observedby = Jews , begins = 25 Kislev , ends = 2 Tevet or 3 Tevet , celebrations = Lighting candles each night ...

. She repeated the exhibit in 1926 and this inspired a call by Rabbi S. Felix Mendelssohn of Chicago, Illinois, for the observance of a Jewish book week. The observance of Jewish Book Week was coordinated in Boston by the Boston Jewish Book Week Committee, founded in 1930 and headed by Fanny Goldstein. The National Committee for Jewish Book Week was then organized in 1940. In 1943 the Jewish Book Council took over the duties of the national committee, and Jewish Book Week was extended to become Jewish Book Month. The Council was run by Carolyn Starman Hessel who is credited with growing Jewish Book Month and the associated book tours into one of the most important marketing events in American publishing, and a cultural center of American Jewish life, from 1994 to 2015. Hessel is credited with a knack for picking hot new novelists; she is said to have launched the careers of

Nathan Englander Nathan Englander (born 1970) is an American short story writer and novelist. His debut short story collection, ''For the Relief of Unbearable Urges,'' was published by Alfred A. Knopf, in 1999. His second collection, ''What We Talk About When We ...

, Myla Goldberg,

Nicole Krauss Nicole Krauss (born August 18, 1974) is an American author best known for her four novels '' Man Walks into a Room'' (2002), ''The History of Love'' (2005), ''Great House'' (2010) and '' Forest Dark'' (2017), which have been translated into 35 l ...

and

Jonathan Safran Foer Jonathan Safran Foer (; born February 21, 1977) is an American novelist. He is known for his novels ''Everything Is Illuminated'' (2002), ''Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close'' (2005), ''Here I Am (novel), Here I Am'' (2016), and for his non-fict ...

by selecting them and sending them on tours of the Jewish book fairs. In 2015 Hessel was named as one of ''

The Forward ''The Forward'' ( yi, פֿאָרווערטס, Forverts), formerly known as ''The Jewish Daily Forward'', is an American news media organization for a Jewish American audience. Founded in 1897 as a Yiddish-language daily socialist newspaper, ...

'' 50. Naomi Firestone-Teeter became the executive director of Jewish Book Council in 2015. The annual meeting is, effectively, an annual author's audition. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' calls it, "a bizarre rite of passage: the Jewish book tour casting call."

Jeffrey Goldberg Jeffrey Mark Goldberg (born September 22, 1965) is an American journalist and editor-in-chief of ''The Atlantic'' magazine. During his nine years at ''The Atlantic'' prior to becoming editor, Goldberg became known for his coverage of foreign affa ...

characterized the audition as an experience "somewhere between

JDate Jdate is an online dating service aimed at Jewish singles. The service is one of a number of demographically focused online match-making websites operated by Spark Networks, Inc. Because of the focus on relationships between Jewish singles, Jda ...

and a camel auction." Authors of books that range from serious works of religious history to comic novels stand and speak for precisely two minutes to an audience of over one hundred organizers of Jewish book fairs and lecture series. Getting signed to a tour of these venues is said to have the power not merely to launch a Jewish-themed book, but to lift titles from Jewish to general success."Star Search"
Rachel Donadio, June 24, 2007, ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

References

{{Reflist, 2 Jewish American literature Jews and Judaism in the United States Publishing organizations Jewish printing and publishing

See also

References