The director of the 39th Annual Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival Dana Camil Hewitt previews this year’s festival (10-15 February 2024), with Joseph Planta.

Text of the introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, British Columbia, at TheCommentary.ca.

The 39^th Annual Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival begins Saturday, 10 February 2024 and joining me to preview the events is the festival’s director Dana Camil Hewitt. They actually had an event yesterday afternoon, with Bernard Pinsky in honour of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a prologue to this year’s program of events showcasing Jewish writers and non-Jewish writers with Jewish interest subject matter. I’ll ask Dana to preview the events she’s looking forward to, authors she’s programmed in the interest of important discussions amid our challenging times. The opening event features Michael Posner and his landmark biography of Leonard Cohen. Yosef Wosk, a great supporter of the festival, will appear with his memoir, Naked in a Pyramid, which I’m reading right now, and is a terrific read. I’ll ask Dana about Rudolf Vrba, the subject of a new book by Jonathan Freedland, as well as the events for young readers such as an appearance by Eric Kimmel. Allen Levine, who’s been on the program in the past, will be in town to talk about his novel Details are Unprintable. Another previous guest on the program, actually he’s been on twice, Sean Michaels, will also be appearing this year. And I’ll get Dana to talk about the epilogue event, later in the month, 25 February 2024 with Israeli author Ayelet Gundar-Goshen. You can visit www.jccgv.com for tickets and more information on the festival. We taped this interview one week ago. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Dana Camil Hewitt; Ms. Hewitt, good morning.

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