The Jewish Book Festival is returning to the Soloway JCC (SJCC) this October for its second year and will be bringing Jewish authors from across North America to Ottawa for a week of literature, art, and thoughtful discussion.

Organized by Carlie MacPherson, librarian at the Greenberg Families Library, the festival will run from October 14-20 and will have both in-person and virtual offerings. 

“We wanted to offer different formats at this year’s festival,” said MacPherson. “This will allow people to get the most out of the festival in ways that work for them.”

Also new this year is an art exhibition featuring diverse styles of ketubahs. This exhibition will accompany author Michael Shapiro’s program on his book Ketubah Renaissance: The Artful Modern Revival of the Jewish Marriage Contract. 

Thanks in part to receiving an Ottawa Jewish Arts & Culture grant from the Jewish Federation of Ottawa, MacPherson says that the festival was able to diversify what will be offered at this year’s iteration.

“Because we received the Arts & Culture grant, we are able to welcome more varied authors than we could last year, as well as invest more in the programming,” she said.

One of the authors who will be holding an in-person talk at this year’s festival is Douglas Century. Originally from Calgary, Century is known for writing what he calls ‘narrative non-fiction stories,’ which is how he refers to the book that he will be discussing: Crash of the Heavens: The Remarkable Story of Hannah Senesh and the Only Military Mission to Rescue Europe’s Jews During World War II.

As a child, Century attended Calgary’s I. L. Peretz School, where he was taught by Holocaust survivors and where he learned about Hannah Senesh’s story for the first time.

“I remember first hearing Hannah’s story when I was about eight years old,” he said. “I recall being captivated by the brave woman who parachuted into danger to try and save her people.”

Sometimes referred to as the ‘Joan of Arc of Israel,’ Hannah Senesh was not only someone who went to fight for the Jewish people; she also was a poet and a playwright whose works were posthumously published and became the voice of the Israeli people, most notably through her poem A Walk to Caesarea (“Eli, Eli”). 

At the age of 23, she and 32 other volunteers were sent to Europe from what was then the British Mandate of Palestine to join the allied forces.

Century wanted his book not to be a chronological retelling of Senesh’s life story, but rather a glimpse into a specific historical moment when she and others parachuted into Europe from Israel to try and save Jews.

“I wanted to tell the story of brave, tough Jewish people who were willing to die for the cause they believed so deeply in,” Century explained. “I wanted to share that not only were Jews not sitting idly by while this was happening, but that they were willing to get up and do something about it.”

Century believes that it’s important to share the stories of the brave people who stood against Nazism and put their own lives on the line to save Jewish people.

“Jews were much, much more combative and engaged in self-defence against the Nazis than we’re often taught to believe,” he said.

These themes and more will be explored in a talk he will be giving at the Jewish Book Festival on its opening day, October 14. 

To learn more about the Jewish Book Festival and to purchase tickets, click here.