By Amichay Findling, Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor
As part of the rich and engaging programs of the 2024 Ann Arbor Jewish Book Festival, a unique event took place on Sunday, Nov. 3 at the AADL Downtown Library: an engagement in Hebrew with the Israeli author Maya Arad, a renowned fiction writer who focused much of her creation on two situations that relate closely to the small Israeli community of Ann Arbor: the lives of Israeli immigrants in the United States, as well as a specialty in novels taking place around college campuses. Arad, who herself lives in Stanford, CA, is an expert in both.
Thanks to the initiative of the JCC’s Book Festival staff, Nat Bension and Marie Pattipati, Arad engaged the Ann Arbor Israeli community by Zoom, with the local Israeli community gathering in-person for the event. Amichay Findling, the Jewish Federation’s Israel and Overseas Program Manager, arranged for a gathering space at the AADL for around 20 participants, who engaged the author and each other in their native language of Hebrew, while enjoying a tasty potluck dinner. The discussion was both about Maya Arad’s books, and the realities of living in the United States as Israelis and working in university campuses since Oct. 7th.
Special thanks to the JCC team and the AADL for enabling this meaningful evening to take place. To learn more about future gatherings for the Ann Arbor area Israeli community, contact Amichay Findling at amichay@jewishannarbor.org.