Gelber Conference Centre, 1 Cummings Square
Admission: Free for members, $5 for non-members.
For information, please call (514) 345-2627 ext. 3019.

Moving back and forth in time, Oz describes growing up in war-torn Jerusalem of the 1940s and 50s in a small, dark apartment crowded with multilingual books and relatives. His mother's suicide when he was twelve years old was a turning point in his young life, and at fifteen he left the claustrophobia of home for the freedom of the kibbutz.
Set against a backdrop of modern Israel's turbulent history, A Tale of Love and Darkness is both an epic family saga and the intimate self-portrait of a writer.

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Sunday, May 7, 2006, 10:00 a.m. to noon
The Jewish Genealogical Society of Montreal
Sunday Morning Family Tree Workshops
And on the following Sundays: May 7 and June 4, 2006

Jewish Public Library, 1 Cummings Square
Venue to be announced.
Admission: Free
For information, please call the JGS of Montreal Hotline at (514) 484-0969 at anytime.

The popular Sunday Morning Family Tree workshops (formerly Scholar-in-Residence) are an opportunity for beginners to get 'one-on-one' help with family history questions. Jewish family history does not have to be a mystery. We all leave a paper trail that can unravel the story of our families for many generations, across the ocean and into the smallest of 'shtetls'- Join with other Montrealers in the fascinating quest for your roots.

Visit the JGS website at www.jgs-montreal.org. For further information, please call: Stanley Diamond, President (514) 484-0100; Merle Kastner, Programming (514) 735-4739; Jerry Zell, Membership (514) 486-2171.

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Sunday, May 7, 2006 from10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Sunday Walks with Stan Asher
Montreal's Maisonneuve Neighbourhood

Explore ethnic and cultural Montreal on Sunday mornings with expert guide Stan Asher, co-director of the Montreal Jewish Memories film series. Co-sponsored by Montreal's Radio Shalom, North America's first full-time Jewish radio station.

Meeting Place: Pie IX metro station.
Admission: Free. For information, please call (514) 345-2627 ext. 3017

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LUNDI 8 MAI 2006 À 19 H 30
(Plus qu'un) Lancement du livre avec Dr Amnon Jacob Suissa
" Le jeu compulsif : vérités et mensonages "

Centre de conférence Gelber, 1, carré Cummings
Frais d'admission : 3$ membres de la BJP, 5$ autres.
Pour obtenir vos billets à l'avance, composez le (514) 345-6416.
Pour plus d'information composez le (514) 345-2627, poste 3017.

Depuis quelques décennies, nous assistons, mondialisation oblige, à une expansion fulgurante des espaces de jeux de hazard et d'argent à travers le monde (casinos, appareils de loterie vidéo, course de chevaux, loteries, Internet Gambling, etc.). Quels sont les fondements scientifiques de cette dépendance? Est-elle similaire à celle observée avec les toxicomanies? Y a t-il des caractéristiques plus propices à devenir dépendant? Quel est l'impact des valeurs culturelles sur le développement du jeu dit compulsif? Face à ces questions, Dr Suissa analysera certains enjeux en mettant en relief les déterminants psychosociaux et culturels de ce phénomène contemporain.
Docteur en sociologie et thérapeute familial, Amnon J Suissa est professeur à l'École de travail social à l'Université du Québec à Montréal et est l'auteur des deux autres livres sur la même thème.
Livres et dédicaces disponibles. Réception à suivre. En collaboration avec l'Alliance Israélite Universelle.

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Wednesday, May 10, 2006 at 7:30 p.m.
West Island Book Review
"The Plot Against America" by Philip Roth

What if....what if the Nazi-sympathizing aviation hero Charles Lindbergh had defeated Franklin Roosevelt in the 1940 American presidential election? How would life have changed for the country’s Jewish citizens?
In his thought-provoking new novel, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Roth interweaves fact and fiction to create a moving family drama set in an eerily imaginable America during those
difficult war years.

Kathy Diamond, Outreach Librarian at the Jewish Public Library and noted book reviewer, will lead the discussion.

FEDERATION CJA West Island - 96 Roger Pilon, Dollard-des-Ormeaux
Inaugural program free of charge
For information : (514) 345-2627 ext. 3019

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Wednesday, May 10, 2006 at 6:30 p.m.
Readings with Wine & Cheese
"Sweetness in the Belly" by and with Camilla Gibb

Gelber Conference Centre, 1 Cummings Square
Admission: $3 members, $8 others.
For advance tickets call (514) 345-6416. For information, please call (514) 345-2627 ext. 3017.

Sweetness in the Belly is a love story set against the backdrop of the 1974 revolution in Ethiopia, when Haile Selassie's empire was brought to its dramatic end. The novel moves between a walled Muslim city in Ethiopia and a community of refugees struggling to build meaningful new lives for themselves in Thatcher's Britain. It tells the heartbreaking story of a white Muslim nurse's search for her missing lover - an idealistic young Ethiopian doctor named Aziz.
Gibb has a PhD in social anthropology from Oxford University, for which she conducted fieldwork in Ethiopia in the mid 1990s. In addition to writing novels she writes short stories, essays, articles and reviews, serves as Vice President of PEN Canada and is currently Writer-in-Residence at the University of Toronto.
Introduced by Arjun Basu, Editor in Chief, EnRoute magazine.
Books and autographs available.

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Thursday, May 11, 2006 at 7:00 p.m.
Book Discussion Club for 25 to 35 year olds
"The five people you meet in heaven" by Mitch Albom

Do you remember the New Kids on the Block, Wham or Nirvana? Then the JPL is pleased to invite you to a book discussion group providing an opportunity to combine your love of reading with stimulating and entertaining dialogue.

Our first book will be the Five People You Meet in Heaven. This is a book that readers of fine fiction, and those who loved Tuesdays with Morrie, will treasure.

Free admission for Library members, $5 for non-menbers.
Refreshments will be served.
For tickets or information, please call (514) 345-2627 ext. 3042

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Tuesdays, March 7, April 25 and May 16, 2006 from 11:45 a.m. to 1:45 p.m
The Jewish Public Library in collaboration with Women's Federation CJA present a three part Lunchtime Book Review Series.

Gelber Conference Centre, 5151 Côte Ste-Catherine.
Admission including lunch: $54 for the series, $20 per individual session.
To reserve your place and for further information, please call Luna at (514) 345-2645
ext. 3308.

March 7: The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
Reviewed by Claire Stern

What would have happened in America if Charles A. Lindbergh, an anti-Semite, had defeated Franklin Roosevelt in the 1940 presidential election? How would that have affected Jewish families everywhere, especially the Roth family living in Newark, N.J.? Philip Roth captures the uncertainties of that horrific time for Jews everywhere.

April 25: Brazzaville Beach by William Boyd
Reviewed by Elaine Shatenstein

The craving for certainty and knowledge and the nature of human aggression are explored by following the life of Hope Clearwater, who, despite her strengths and competence, has found herself "washed up" and ruminating by the seashore.

May 16: The Second Scroll (1951) by A.M. Klein
Reviewed by Glen Rotchin

Written soon after the founding of the State of Israel, the five "books" of the novel are a modern testament to the Jewish experience. The action centers on a young writer from Montreal whose search for his legendary Uncle Melech becomes a journey of revelation through Italy, Morocco, and the Holy Land.

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Wednesday, May 17, 2006 at 7:00 p.m.
Launch of the 23rd Annual First Fruits Anthology
First Fruits Gala

Gelber Conference Centre, 1 Cummings Square
Admission: Free. For information, please call (514) 345-2627 ext. 3017.

The 23rd annual First Fruits launch will feature an anthology of fiction, essays, and poetry in English, French, Hebrew and Yiddish, original artwork and a musical performance by high school students in grades seven to twelve from Montreal and area schools. The guest speaker, Monique Polak, will talk about the unique challenges of writing for young people.
Polak is the author of four novels for young adults: Flip Turn (James Lorimer); No More Pranks (Orca Books); On the Game (James Lorimer) and Home Invasion (Orca Books).
Reception to follow.
Sponsored by the Professors Peter and Ellen Jacobs Endowment, the N.E. Mendelson Endowment Fund and Canadian Heritage.

The First Fruits Anthology will be on sale for $15 per copy.
Prior to May 16, 2006, copies may be purchased at a special price of 3 books for $35.

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Thursday, May 18, 2006 at 8:00 p.m.
Yiddish Café
An Evening in Honour of Sholem Aleichem's 90th Yortsayt

Gelber Conference Centre, 1 Cummings Square
Admission: $7 JPL members, $10 others.
For information, please call (514) 345-2627 ext. 3006.
Sponsored by the Augenfeld Family Endowment.

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Sunday Walks with Stan Asher
Explore ethnic and cultural Montreal on Sunday mornings with expert guide Stan Asher, co-director of the Montreal Jewish Memories film series. Co-sponsored by Montreal's Radio Shalom, North America's first full-time Jewish radio station.

A.M. Klein's Montreal
Sunday, May 21, 2006 from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Meeting Place: Mount Royal metro station.
Admission: Free. For information, please call (514) 345-2627 ext. 3017

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Thursday, May 25, 2006 at 7:45 p.m.
JPL Gala Honoring Sam Gesser
"Isn't This A Time"

Maxwell Cummings Auditorium, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 1379 Sherbrooke Street West
General Admission: $100.
For information, please call (514) 345-2627 ext. 3042.

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Sunday, May 28, 2006 at 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
The Hebrew Theatre Workshop of the Jewish Public Library proudly presents its 5th production
Oil City by Hillel Mitelpunkt, directed by Yael Feingold
In Hebrew with English translations projected on the screen.

F.C. Smith Auditorium, 7141 Sherbrooke Street West
Admission: $15 members, $20 others. Reception to follow.
For advance tickets call (514) 345-6416. For information, please call (514) 345-2627 ext. 3017.

Following the great victory of the Six Day War, the Sinai Desert becomes a heaven for many Israelis. Far away, in Abu Rodes, an oil city in the desert, we find a drab roadside inn owned by Ita, a Holocaust survivor, who runs the modest inn with the assistance of her daughter Yudit. Among those who flock to the inn we find labourers, entrepreneurs, gamblers, prostitutes and an army troupe that have the same illusion of becoming rich quickly.
Oil City is the Israeli version of the gold rush between the two wars. It is a funny, bitter and moving story about an imperial dream, which begins and ends in the lonely sands of the desert.

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Wednesday, May 31, 2006 at 7:30 p.m.
Michael Wex, author of Born to Kvetch will talk about
Don't Knock Me a Teapot: Strange Yiddish Expressions and How They Got That Way.

Gelber Conference Centre, 1 Cummings Square
Admission: $7 members, $12 others. Reception to follow.

For advance tickets call (514) 345-6416. For information, please call (514) 345-2627 ext. 3017.

We'll look at three basic sources of Yiddish idioms - natural phenomena, the basic meanings of words, and religious life - and see how they influence daily thought and speech. Along with the title phrase, the writer will also look at such idioms as "six feet under, baking bagels" and "doctors should have need of you," among others.
Michael Wex is a novelist, playwright, lecturer, performer and authority on Yiddish language and literature.
Books and autographs available.

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