Event Type: MJBW2026

Author of Dog and The Girl Who Rode the White Lion, Yishay Ishi Ron is the winner of two US National Book Awards, and Dog was long-listed for the prestigious Israeli Sapir prize. Dog is an auto-fiction about war, addiction and PTSD, soon to be made into a movie. Ben Lindner, acclaimed producer of Beyond the Zero podcast, is passionate about changing lives through interviewing outstanding authors.

What inspires some people to stand up to hatred in the face of danger? In this call to action, Erica Frydenberg speaks of the remarkable heroes who saved countless lives during the Holocaust. Michael Scott explains his drive, as a non-Jewish ally, to shine a light on the exponential rise in antisemitism since October 7. Lee Kofman speaks from the heart about the online doxxing of 600 creatives, and how Ruptured has confronted the scourge. And Kylie Moore Gilbert provides insight into the plight of Iranians and her experience as a hostage in Tehran. This huge session will be expertly convened by Rachelle Unreich who has herself contributed to 3 recent anthologies on being Jewish today.

**Speakers:** Erica Frydenberg, Lee Kofman, Kylie Moore-Gilbert, Michael Scott – moderator Rachelle Unreich

Amy Hack will be reading a reworked version of Galit Klas’ award-nominated original play DMG – Durch a Modneh Gloz, representing women poets of the early 20th century speaking of desire, guilt, freedom and the cost of silence. Following the reading, Amy Hack and playwright Galit Klas will invite audience responses in an interactive conversation about character, content and writing for performance.

**Speakers:** Galit Klas and Amy Hack: playreading and interactive session

In this soul-searching session, Joanne Fedler recounts her mother’s dying months during Covid, her mercy dash to be with her in South Africa, and the pull of the sea. Katia Ariel paints the remarkable life of deathworker, community builder, and cultural archivist, Ephraim Finch, with profound insight. And esteemed author, Andrea Goldsmith, reaches new heights with The Buried Life, her latest novel that centres on death while grappling with the conundrums of life.

**Speakers:** Katia Ariel, Joanne Fedler, Andrea Goldsmith – moderator Magdalena Ball

Romance has arrived! From historical romance to contemporary romance, and dark romance to ‘romantasy’, to a climax of everything in between, this much-anticipated session will bring it all together. Book-tokking sensation Charlotte Hayward joins best-selling Rom Com duo, Ali Berg and Michelle Kalus, and trauma-romance expert, Alicia Leigh in this sensationally saucy exposé of books that will make you swoon.

**Speakers:** Ali Berg, Michelle Kalus, Charlotte Hayward, Alicia Leigh – moderator Jessica Bellamy

On June 7th 1907, a ship packed with Russian Jews sets sail not to Jerusalem or New York, but to Galveston, Texas. In a highly inventive style, Cockerell uses exclusively source material to capture history as it unfolds. Melting Point follows her great-grandfather David Jochelmann’s family through two world wars, to London, New York and Jerusalem – as their lives intertwine with some of the most memorable figures of the twentieth century. It is a story that asks what it means to belong, and what can be salvaged from the past. Deborah Stone, Editor-in-Chief of The Jewish Independent, leads a captivating conversation with London-based historian and author Rachel Cockerell.

**Category:** International Spotlight

Only Howard Jacobson would dare write the post-October 7 Jewish diaspora experience with such irreverent wit, hilarity and frightening insight. Join the Beth Din of Books’ Tali Lavi and Bram Presser to discuss Jacobson’s astonishing new novel, Howl, and the state of contemporary Jewish fiction in a changed world. Whether you’ve read the book or not, this is bound to be a fun and thought-provoking interactive session.

**Speakers:** Bram Presser and Tali Lavi on Howard Jacobson’s Howl

Estranged sisters are forced to reckon with their wounds when they inherit their grandmother’s dilapidated home; a rare and fragile booklet of Holocaust songs is almost discarded when found deep in a cupboard; and an obscure legal document in a strongbox leads to a trail of leaves from the Gutenberg bible. In this session, a novelist, a musicologist and a journalist traverse the real and fictitious, to uncover remarkable stories in which physical remnants ‘speak’ from the past.

**Speakers:** Sophie Stern, Joseph Toltz, Michael Visontay – moderator Benjamin Preiss

Ayelet Tsabari is the acclaimed, Israeli-Canadian author of best-selling memoir, The Art of Leaving. Her debut novel, Songs for the Broken-Hearted – a sweeping, multigenerational saga of love, loss and reconnection and the complex history of Yemeni Jews – is a winner of the National Jewish Book Award for Fiction, the Canadian Jewish Literary Award for Fiction, the Association of Jewish Libraries Fiction Award and A Globe and Mail Best Book of 2024.
Ayelet is in conversation with Lee Kofman, Russian-born Israeli-Australian author of six books and editor of three anthologies. Lee is a writing teacher and mentor based in Melbourne.

**Category:** International Spotlight