Ann Arbor Jewish Book Festival Program

VIRTUAL PROGRAM

With Author Diana Fersko, We Need to Talk About Antisemitism

Moderated by Dr. Jonathan Trobe, Ophthalmology, Michigan Medicine

7:00 PM over Zoom

A mil­len­ni­al rab­bi explores why we’re reluc­tant to dis­cuss anti­semitism — and empow­ers us to fight against it.

Anti­semitism is on the rise in Amer­i­ca, in cities and rur­al areas, in red states and blue states, and in guis­es both sub­tle and ter­ri­fy­ing­ly overt. Rab­bi Diana Fer­sko is used to hav­ing dif­fi­cult con­ver­sa­tions with mem­bers of her con­gre­ga­tion about the issues they face — from the threat of vio­lence to microag­gres­sions and iden­ti­ty denial. In We Need to Talk About Anti­semitism, she gives all of us the ulti­mate guide to mod­ern anti­semitism in its many forms.

Explor­ing top­ics like vile myths about Jew­ish peo­ple and the inter­sec­tion of anti­semitism with oth­er forms of dis­crim­i­na­tion, We Need to Talk About Anti­semitism gives read­ers the tools they need to under­stand the state of anti­semitism today. Fer­sko shows Jews and non-Jews alike how to speak up and come togeth­er, spread­ing a mes­sage of sol­i­dar­i­ty and hope. This is a time­ly read for any­one pas­sion­ate about fight­ing for social justice.

Rabbi Diana Fer­sko is the Senior Rab­bi at the Vil­lage Tem­ple in Man­hat­tan. She is the nation­al vice pres­i­dent of the Wom­en’s Rab­binic Net­work and a mem­ber of the New York Board of Rab­bis. Fer­sko has been pro­filed in The New York­er and has been pub­lished in Huff­Post. She lives in New York City.