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Event Type: MJBW2024

  • Melbourne Jewish Book Week Opening Night Gala: Of Ghosts and Golems

    Melbourne Jewish Book Week Opening Night Gala: Of Ghosts and Golems

    Step into an evening of grand theatricality as our writers and performers dazzle us with mystical tales, dipping their toes in the dark landscapes of ghosts and golems…

    Prepare to be enchanted, entertained, and transported across the shtetls and oceans of your dreams, all the way from Prague to Ripponlea.

    Hosted and curated by award- winning author, playwright and performer Elise Esther Hearst, and featuring the incredible talents of international authors Eleanor Reissa (USA), Marina Benjamin (UK) and Hila Blum (Israel), and local writers and performers Bram Presser, Arnold Zable, Alex Skovron, Octopussy, and Evelyn Krape. With haunting artworks from Anita Lester as well as live music from Susan-Ann Walker (piano), Helen Mountfort (cello) and Alice Hurwood (cello).

    Set Design: Dann Barber

    Event image: Anita Lester, from her book The Hidden Farmacopeia

  • The Dressmakers of Auschwitz

    The Dressmakers of Auschwitz

    MJBW is delighted to bring you this special event in partnership with The Melbourne Holocaust Museum and The Shrine of Remembrance.

    At the height of the Holocaust, twenty-five young inmates of the infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp – mainly Jewish women and girls – were selected to design, cut, and sew beautiful fashions for elite Nazi women in a dedicated salon. It was work that they hoped would spare them from the gas chambers. Drawing on diverse sources including interviews with the last surviving seamstress, The Dressmakers of Auschwitz follows the fates of these brave women.

    In this captivating event, author and historian Lucy Adlington will join us virtually from the United Kingdom to uncover these stories. In conversation with the Melbourne Holocaust Museum’s Dr Breann Fallon, Lucy will reveal the bonds of family and friendship that helped these women endure persecution. 

    Guests will have an opportunity to explore the Shrine’s exhibition Trenches to Runway: Military Influences on Modern Fashion before the talk commences. While the exhibition does not explore the themes in The Dressmakers of Auschwitz, it draws important parallels between the impact of military clothing design and wartime conditions on popular fashion, tracing these influences from the 1870s to the present day.

    Important things to know before you book:

    • Light refreshments will be provided after the talk.
    • Guests will have an opportunity to submit questions for Lucy in their event booking.
    • Those wishing to explore Trenches to Runway will have the opportunity to do so from 5pm to 5.50pm. We cannot facilitate viewings after the talk.
    • Entry to this event is via the Shrine’s Education Foyer.
  • Raheen cocktail soiree: Deborah Conway, Willy Zygier and Alma Zygier

    Raheen cocktail soiree: Deborah Conway, Willy Zygier and Alma Zygier

    A life in music, a life in song, a life in the public eye, a life as child, a mother, a Jew and a Zionist and always a truth telling iconoclast…

    Melbourne Jewish Book Week is proud to present this exclusive event at Raheen, featuring Deborah Conway discussing her candid memoir, Book of Life with daughter and extraordinary vocalist, Alma Zygier. 

    Accomplished musician, Willy Zygier will be joining his wife and daughter on stage for a remarkable family performance. 

    Part interview, part concert, part therapy, this cocktail soiree offers a unique glimpse into the life of one of Australia’s most respected artists.

  • Scratch and Sniff with Tami — Children’s Session

    Scratch and Sniff with Tami — Children’s Session

    Tami Sussman’s hilarious and heart-warming debut So That Happened … tackles leaving your childhood home and memories behind, how to be a good friend (and realise when you have been a bad one) and most importantly, how to get back up when it feels like the world has knocked you down. Aspiring (and reluctant) writers aged 9-12 are invited to tap into their own creative juices at this exclusive ‘scratch and sniff’ workshop and Q&A hosted by the author.

  • The World According to Idan — Children’s Session

    The World According to Idan — Children’s Session

    Idan Ben Barak’s Do Not Lick This Book! can be found in most homes around Australia. Idan likes writing about things in the world – and ourselves – that we normally don’t pay attention to. Come and find out about what your brain can and cannot do; how many senses you really have (hint: more than five); what your skin looks like from up close and what lives there, and other weird things that happen to be true.

  • Hila Tells Stories: Max and The Wild Things — Children’s Session

    Hila Tells Stories: Max and The Wild Things — Children’s Session

    Max and The Wild Things – an Interactive Theatre Show based on Maurice Sendak’s iconic book, that invites children to Max’s wild world where big emotions rule! The show follows a boy named Max who takes the audience on an adventure to a magical land filled with strange and wonderful creatures known as The Wild Things. Through music, dance, and storytelling, Max learns valuable lessons about family, imagination, and the power of being true to oneself.

  • JQ live – Whitewash: The Jews and Poland

    JQ live – Whitewash: The Jews and Poland

    Jan Grabowski, world-renowned Holocaust historian, discusses his ground-breaking essay ‘Whitewash’ with Jewish Quarterly Editor, Jonathan Pearlman. Grabowski examines how museums, schools and state institutions have downplayed and denied the role of Poles in the destruction of the country’s Jews. He recounts how his work led to him becoming the victim of a notorious lawsuit, and reviews the far-reaching consequences of Poland’s efforts to challenge the truth about the Holocaust.

  • Journalism and its Discontents

    Journalism and its Discontents

    In The Constitution of Knowledge Jonathan Rauch argues that the key institutions of liberal democracies – academia, law, government and journalism – all build knowledge through gathering evidence and testing it against different viewpoints. But journalism appears to have lost its way. So what has gone wrong, how did we get to this moment and how do we find our way back to a reconstitution of these foundational principles?

  • In conversation with Marina Benjamin: Secret Messengers – housework, sleepless nights and midlife crises

    In conversation with Marina Benjamin: Secret Messengers – housework, sleepless nights and midlife crises

    What do these experiences all have in common? They are times when uninvited introspection and reflection rise from the shadows to unsettle us. These are the deep waters in which British author and journalist Marina Benjamin bathes. Senior editor at Aeon, a digital magazine of ideas and culture, her insightful and lyrical writing deftly explores themes such as identity and memory. Her latest book is A Little Give. Marina will be in conversation with physician and author Leah Kaminsky, whose most recent novel is Doll’s Eye.

  • The Ultimate Betrayal: When children are prey

    The Ultimate Betrayal: When children are prey

    Since time immemorial, people in power have sought to take advantage of their innocent subjects. This is no more prevalent than within religious institutions, where the semblance of piety, coupled with the naivety of the young and faithful, provides a perfect cloak and cover for child sexual abuse. Michael Visontay discusses the ultimate betrayal with survivors from within the ultra orthodox Jewish community, Dassi Erlich and Manny Waks, as well as Anne Manne whose research covers a particularly sinister, pedophilic network within the Anglican church.