Stir Cheat Sheet: 5 events to check out at the 40th annual JCC Jewish Book Festival
The 2025 fest journeys from searing personal memoirs to hilariously neurotic short stories to a cookbook about modern Jewish cuisine
Selina Robinson.
Brett Gelman. Photo by David-Simon Dayan
The Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver presents the JCC Jewish Book Festival at various venues from February 22 to 27
IN CELEBRATION OF its 40th year, the JCC Jewish Book Festival is welcoming authors to Vancouver from all across Canada, the United States, and Israel. Here’s a look at five hot tickets to check out at this year’s fest.
Opening night: Truth to Power
February 22 at the Norman & Annette Rothstein Theatre
Selina Robinson, author of Truth Be Told, will be featured in conversation at the fest’s opening event. Before she entered politics, Robinson was a family therapist who worked with Jewish Family Services. She went on to be elected as the MLA for Coquitlam-Maillardville in 2013, 2017, and 2020, taking on roles of Minister of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills, Minister of Finance, and the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing. One of Canada’s most prominent Jewish elected officials, she was helping guide the province through the pandemic and overseeing economic recovery when a rise in anti-semitism hit the globe. She was immediately in the sights of anti-Israel and antisemitic activists. Truth Be Told is her searing memoir of the antisemitism she experienced in government and the silence of colleagues whom she thought she could trust.
Art & History: Paris, Jews and Surrealism
February 24 at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver
This event features Mark Braude, author of Kiki Man Ray: Art, Love and Rivalry in 1920s Paris, in conversation with Chris Friedrichs, professor emeritus of history at UBC. Braude is also the author of The Invisible Emperor and Making Monte Carlo, and his books have been translated into seven languages. He has been a visiting fellow at the American Library in Paris, a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford, and a Public Scholar at the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Kiki Man Ray looks at the influence of Kiki de Montparnasse on legendary American photographer Man Ray (born Emmanuel “Manny” Radnitzky, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, who was raised in Brooklyn). In 1920s Paris, de Montparnasse was a nightclub performer, visual artist, and actor whose best-selling memoir, featuring an introduction by Ernest Hemingway, made front-page news in France and was immediately banned in America. She met Man Ray in a Paris café in 1921 and the two had a tumultuous decade together, professionally and romantically; they created some of the shocking images that cemented Man Ray’s reputation as one of the greatest artists of modern era.
Queer Jewish Stories
February 26 at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver
Sara Glass is the author of Kissing Girls on Shabbat, a moving coming-of-age memoir about her desperate attempt to protect her children and family while also embracing her queer identity. Glass, who is a Manhattan-based therapist, writer, and speaker, was rejected by her controlling Orthodox Brooklyn community for being queer; now, she helps members of the queer community and individuals who have survived trauma to live bold, honest, and proud lives.
Food, Glorious Food
February 27 at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver
This special event features Micah Siva, a trained chef, registered dietitian, recipe writer, and food photographer. She shares Jewish-inspired, plant-forward recipes through her blog, Nosh with Micah, and in her cookbook, Nosh: Plant-Forward Recipes Celebrating Modern Jewish Cuisine. For her culinary endeavours, Siva draws inspiration from history through a 21st-century lens.
Closing night: Film and Quirky Stories
February 27 at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver
Brett Gelman, the actor and comedian best known for his roles in Stranger Things and Fleabag, has recently released his literary debut, The Terrifying Realm of the Possible: Nearly True Stories. He’ll be in conversation with the Globe and Mail’s Marsha Lederman. His book is a collection of short stories about five individuals who are each facing life’s biggest issues and unanswerable questions. 
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