The annual Cherie Smith JCC Jewish Book Festival is back, and we’re excited to see its vibrant program once again! As one of Vancouver’s premier cultural and literary events, the festival draws a diverse audience of over 5,000 attendees of all ages.

This year's festival will take place from February 22 to 27, 2025.

Here are the books with connections to Germany, but the festival’s repertoire is much broader—there’s something for everyone! Don’t miss the chance to immerse yourself in this rich literary experience!

THE LONG SOVIET SHADOW IN NOVEL & MEMOIR

SASHA VASILYUK / Your Presence Is Mandatory

This riveting debut novel, based on real events, tells the story of a Ukrainian Jewish World War II veteran with a dangerous lifelong secret, the repercussions for his family, and the grace they find in the course of their survival. Spanning seven decades between WWII and the current Russia-Ukraine conflict, from Germany’s prison camps and forced labor system to the Soviet culture of pride and paranoia, Sasha Vasilyuk shines a revealing light on one family caught between two totalitarian regimes.

SASHA VASILYUK was born in the Soviet Crimea and spent her childhood between Ukraine and Russia before immigrating to San Francisco at age 13. She has a MA in Journalism from New York University, and her nonfiction has been published in The New York Times, Harper’s Bazaar, BBC, The Telegraph etc. She lives in San Francisco.

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH TEMPLE SHOLOM and VANCOUVER HOLOCAUST EDUCATION CENTRE

Monday, Feb 24, 6:00pm
$18 | Buy tickets

THE WORLD’S MOST RECOGNIZABLE FACE

BENYAMIN COHEN / The Einstein Effect: How the World’s Favourite Genius Got into Our Cars, Our Bathrooms, and Our Minds

A fascinating look into how Einstein’s genius and science continues to show up in so many facets of our everyday lives and his enduring legacy as an unlikely pop culture icon. In The Einstein Effect, Cohen embarks on a global quest to unearth Einstein’s ongoing relevance. Along the way, he meets scientists and celebrities, speaks to dozens with the last name Einstein, and even tracks down Einstein’s actual brain, stolen from his body during the autopsy. He shows us the myriad ways the Nobel Prize winner’s influence is still with us, giving an in-depth—and often hilarious—look at the world’s favorite genius like you’ve never seen him before.
BENYAMIN COHEN is the news director of The Forward, and has a bizarre side job as Einstein on social media, with 20 million followers. He is the author of My Jesus Year and lives in West Virginia.

Tuesday, Feb 25, 6:00pm
$18 | Buy tickets

A CANADIAN SPY

JASON BELL / Cracking the Nazi Code: The Untold Story of Agent A12 and the Solving of the Holocaust Code

In Conversation with Marsha Lederman

The thrilling true story of Agent A12, the earliest enemy of the Nazis. In public life, Dr. Winthrop Bell (no relation) was a Harvard philosophy professor and businessman. As an MI6 spy in Berlin in 1919, he broke open the emerging Nazi conspiracy. His reports, the first warning of the Nazi plot for World War II, went directly to the man known as C, the mysterious founder of MI6, and PMs. But a powerful fascist politician worked to suppress his alerts.
In 1939, Bell became a spy again and was the first to crack Hitler’s deadliest secret code: Germany’s plan for the Holocaust. Fighting an epic intelligence war from Eastern Europe and Russia to France, Canada, and finally Washington, DC, Agent A12 was a real-life 007, waging a single-handed struggle against fascists. Without Bell’s astounding courage, the Nazis just might have won the war.
JASON BELL, PhD, is a professor of philosophy at the University of New Brunswick. He served as a Fulbright Professor in Germany and has taught at universities in Belgium, the US and Canada. He lives in Fredericton, NB.

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH VANCOUVER HOLOCAUST EDUCATION CENTRE

Thursday, Feb 27, 5:00pm
FREE | Pre-register