Event Type: MJBW2024

Mark Raphael Baker was a Holocaust scholar, an inspiring teacher and the critically acclaimed author of The Fiftieth Gate and Thirty Days. He was also a much-loved member of the Melbourne and Sydney Jewish Communities. In this session, panellists who knew Mark well, will speak on aspects of his life and work and Michelle Lesh and Raimond Gaita will read from A Season of Death, Mark’s posthumous memoir, forthcoming.

Michael Gawenda’s arresting memoir, My Life as a Jew, preceded October 7 yet eerily prophesied the difficult questions that confront Jews today, in terms of identity, place and time. Hear Gawenda as he cuts to the core of what it is to be a Jew, then and now, in a heartfelt, honest conversation with former colleague and fellow journalist, James Button.

Join Tali Lavi in conversation with Eleanor Reissa, Dr. Leah Kaminsky and Professor Rebecca Margolis as they speak of the power of Yiddish in representing the Ashkenazi Jewish experience in new fiction, television and film. What happens when today’s artists employ Yiddish in their work? This session will draw upon the mysterious and the uncanny in reimagining Jewish pasts. Come prepared for the unexpected to occur.

Australia has had the largest influx of Holocaust survivors post war outside of Israel. Those survivors are now few in number leaving second and third generations to piece together their family’s stories. Rachelle Unreich has captured her mother’s story in A Brilliant Life. Tess Schofield -Peters’s book, Dear Mutzi tells of her grandfather’s experience fleeing Nazi Germany and Louise Helfgott explores her Polish family’s Holocaust past. This trio of authors discuss why they have detailed these dark family stories and what they learned by doing so.

Poetry lends itself to being lifted off pages and into the air. When asked to read their own work poets might consider how and why some verses wield performative power in terms of theme, rhythm and sounds. Some resonate and echo — travel through space with striking clarity or confounding chaos. Join Alex Skovron, Louise Helfgott and Magdalena Ball and Eva Collins as they reveal the inner workings of their process, with fellow poet Shoshy Rockman as facilitator.

Oma, bubba, nanna, gran – whatever we know them by, our grand and great grandmothers leave an indelible mark. Yet their matriarchal reach and rich histories are often untold or defined by stereotype, undermining the complexity and vibrancy of their lives. In this panel, three writers re-imagine their grandmothers’ lives across genre, from poetry to prose vignette and theatre performance.