Israeli-born author Talia Carner will speak in a virtual program on Sunday, May 4 at 11 a.m. at Congregation Torat El in Oakhurst about her recently released novel, “The Boy with the Star Tattoo.”
The historical book weaves two yet-untold events set in France, the first in 1946 in the aftermath of the Holocaust, when agents from what is now Israel roamed through Europe to rescue hidden Jewish orphans. The second occurs in 1969 and centers on the daring escape of the boats of Cherbourg, Normandy, which were commissioned and paid for by Israel but whose delivery was blocked by a French arms embargo. Sharon, the assistant to an Israeli naval officer stationed in Cherbourg, is set to unravel the mystery of his journey from a French village to Israel, but as she traces it to the tragedy of a mother who lost her baby in the mayhem of war, she is unprepared for the moral dilemma she must face upon solving the mystery.
Carner is an award-winning author of six historical and psychological suspense novels. She is the former publisher of Savvy Woman magazine, a lecturer at international women’s economic forums, a board member of HBI– the Jewish women’s research center at Brandeis University–and an honorary board member of several anti-domestic violence, child abuse intervention and anti-sex-trafficking organizations.
The program is free. Go to torat-el.org to obtain the Zoom link. The book can be purchased at bookshop.org to support independent bookstores or from amazon.com.
Filmmaker Jennifer Baum, author of the newly released, “Just City: Growing Up on the Upper West Side When Housing Was a Human Right,” will speak on Sunday, May 4, at 10:30 a.m. at Anshe Emeth Memorial Temple in New Brunswick. The memoir is a tribute to growing up in Manhattan’s Upper West Side, where diversity flourished and a shared belief in the importance of a home for all bound residents together. The book has personal anecdotes and heartfelt accounts in which she shares her own upbringing alongside the stories of those who shared her neighborhood. As an adult moving around the world for school, her husband and work, Baum also writes about her search for a home that would embody the values and community she grew up with and asks readers what it means, as Jews, to live in a world when we have lost the value of making sure everyone has an affordable place to live.
The program is $15 for members, $18 for non-members and $10 for seniors and students. Registration is required at aemt.net.
Come learn the about and enjoy the tastes of Roma-Hungarian cuisine when Chef Dan from Global Gourmet Personal Chef in Asbury Park comes to the Chabad of the Shore in Long Branch on Tuesday, May 6 at 7 p.m. for an interactive cooking experience followed by a delicious dinner. Dan Yacowitz, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, has six years of experience as a personal chef. Among his specialties are ethnic and kosher cuisine. Yacowitz has appeared on television programs, including Eyewitness News. He has also helped with party functions for Francis Ford Coppola, Julia Child, Jacques Pepin and President Bill and Hillary Clinton.
Cost is $75. RSVP at (732) 229-2424 or chabadshore.com/chef.
Don Seeman, who holds a joint appointment as an associate professor in the Department of Religion and Tam Institute for Jewish Studies at Emory University, will appear in a virtual program, A Constitution for Israel?, on Thursday, May 15, at 8:30 p.m. hosted by the East Brunswick Jewish Center and Partners in Jewish Programming.
He will go over many topics during the discussion, including participation by non-Jewish citizens of Israel and the place of Jewish law within a Jewish and democratic polity, where absolute power rests with citizens.
Seeman will reflect on the thoughts of Rabbi Issac Halevi Herzog, Israel’s first Ashkenazi chief rabbi and holder of two doctorates, who wrote three volumes called, “A Constitution for the State,” in which he struggled to find a way to balance the needs of a modern democratic state, but remain faithful to Jewish law and tradition.
The program is free, but donations are appreciated. To register go to ebjc.org/pjpisrael.
