Author and songwriter Barry Lou Polisar records his self-written songs. He is one of the nine authors presenting at the Jewish Literary Festival. (Provided)
The Jewish Community Center of Greater Baltimore is inviting readers young and old to come face-to-face with their favorite authors at its Oct. 26 Jewish Literary Festival and Local Author Fair at The Gordon Center for Performing Arts in Owings Mills.
The one-day event starts at 1 p.m. and showcases three-to-five-minute TED-style talks with selected writers.
“This is the first time we have ever done this type of program,” said Melissa Berman, the JCC’s assistant director of arts and culture. “We are hoping to attract art lovers throughout the Jewish Baltimore community.”
Featuring authors Zackary Sholem Berger, Sydney Krome, Wendy Cohen, Carl Jacobs, Ed Kleiman, Barry Louis Polisar, Susan Schneider, Judy Pestonk and Judy Pachino, the event also includes a viewing of the film “Rock the Casbah” and opportunities to meet and purchase guest authors’ books.
“This is a 21st-century approach to encourage reading books,” said JCC film festival coordinator Danielle Feinstein, who helped plan the book fair. “There is something so special about reading novels from cover to cover. When you first open a book, you have no idea what adventure is in store. I hope the book fair can inspire more people to read.”
Polisar will discuss his new book, “Retelling Genesis.” Originally from Brooklyn, N.Y., he spent most of his life in Maryland. His latest claim to fame is “All I Want is You,” a song he wrote and performed to open the Academy Award-winning film “Juno.”
“I am a man of many hats,” said Polisar. “I began recording in 1975 and published my first book in 1985. Many people have heard my songs or read my stories without even realizing it. My newest creation takes a step away from children’s books and songs, as I delve into my Jewish roots.”
Raised as a secular Jew, Polisar claims that his bar mitzvah was “the first and last time his family entered a synagogue growing up.” After joining Shaare Tefila Congregation in Montgomery County, he became more invested in religion.
“When my wife and I had kids, we enrolled them in the local synagogue nursery school and then the Hebrew school,” said Polisar. “When they were required to attend services, I promised them that I would never drop them off at the door and leave but would always attend as well. During the Torah service each week, I read things as an adult that I had never read before — and discovered layers of subtlety and nuance in stories I thought I knew.”
Joining Rabbi Jonah Layman’s Torah class 14 years ago, Polisar used his new Jewish learning as inspirations for books. After penning “Telling the Story: A Passover Haggadah Explained” — an alternative look at the Passover story — Polisar wrote “Retelling Genesis” as a means to retell the stories from the Book of Genesis through the secondary characters’ points of view.
“‘Retelling Genesis’ puts the background characters in the limelight,” said Polisar. “I feel like I had been waiting for a project like this.”As a primarily secular writer, Polisar feels his Jewish roots spill into his mainstream pieces.
“Other than the Haggadah I adapted and wrote, most of my books are for children and are considered secular. However, if you look at my secular books from a Jewish point of view, you’d see many Jewish values and ideas — respect for animals and the earth; listening to alternative viewpoints; looking at things from two different perspectives — all very Talmudic and Jewish,” he said.
He said he was looking forward to sharing his work with other “Jewish bookworms.”
“My TED talk will mainly discuss the book and how I was inspired to write it,” said Polisar. “We are meant to wrestle with these stories, and I hope what I have written will inspire others to go back and read the original narratives, question and engage.”
For more information, go to jcc.org/Gordon-center/Gordon-center.