1109 5th Ave at 92nd St
New York, NY 10128
Directions
Plan your visit to the Jewish Museum and discover the intersection of art and Jewish culture Learn More
The Jewish Museum is open 11 am - 4 pm. Please review visitor policies.
The Jewish Museum is open 11 am - 4 pm. Please review visitor policies.
1109 5th Ave at 92nd St
New York, NY 10128
Directions
Plan your visit to the Jewish Museum and discover the intersection of art and Jewish culture Learn More
Talk
Thursday, April 30, 2020
7
–
9 pm
Unpacking the Book series is moving virtual! Join us for a Zoom Meeting conversation with Esther Safran Foer (I Want You to Know We’re Still Here: A Post-Holocaust Memoir) and Keith Gessen (A Terrible Country), together with Tablet Magazine's Stephanie Butnick.
Join us from anywhere, no video/microphone necessary (video of you will not be visible to others). Register here and a confirmation email with a link and instructions on how to join the webinar on Thursday, April 30 will be emailed to you.
During the talk, share your photos on social media with @jewishbookcouncil, @thejewishmuseum, @tabletmag.
We encourage you to purchase books online from either your local indie bookstore, or another third party retailer.
The Saul and Gladys Gwirtzman Lecture
In the twenty-first century, it’s become easier than ever to explore one’s family history—but even with an increased ability to travel, analyze DNA, and explore archival material, how close can we really get to understanding our origins, and why they matter? Authors Esther Safran Foer (I Want You to Know We’re Still Here) and Keith Gessen (A Terrible Country) recount journeys to their ancestral homes of Ukraine and Russia, respectively, as they grapple with how the past informs our understanding of self and home. Join us as we explore a century of personal Jewish history in a conversation moderated by Tablet Magazine’s Stephanie Butnick.
Esther Safran Foer was the CEO of Sixth & I, a center for arts, ideas, and religion. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband, Bert. They are the parents of Franklin, Jonathan, and Joshua, and the grandparents of six.
Keith Gessen is the author of the novels A Terrible Country and All the Sad Young Literary Men and a founding editor of n+1. He is the editor of three nonfiction books and the translator or co-translator, from Russian, of a collection of short stories, a book of poems, and a work of oral history, Nobel Prize-winner Svetlana Alexievich’s Voices from Chernobyl. A contributor to The New Yorker and The London Review of Books, Gessen teaches journalism at Columbia and lives in New York with his wife and son.
Stephanie Butnick is deputy editor of Tablet Magazine and a host of the Unorthodox podcast. She is the author, along with her co-hosts, of The Newish Jewish Encyclopedia: From Abraham to Zabar’s and Everything in Between. She has written for The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
The conversation will be followed by a reception, book sale, and signing.
Co-presented with the Jewish Book Council, in partnership with Tablet Magazine.