For Howard Jacobson, James Joyce’s Ulysses is the greatest Jewish novel of the 20th century; for Henry Goodman the novel that hugely articulated and reshaped his artistic hopes and identity as an actor. Together they revisited, discussed and read from the iconic text published 90 years ago this February. They contended that Bloom, this great hero of consciousness and inaction, weakness and masochism, belongs in the great tradition of comic fiction. They also looked at Bloom as a ...

From the urban decadence of Yiddish theatre to the timeless world of the shtetl, Henry Goodman and Beverley Klein gave voice to the prose, poetry and drama of a century of Jewish Poland interspersed with new musical arrangements from Lemez Lovaz. They took us into an irrecoverable world, invoking deep pathos and great humour from writers including I.B. Singer, Y.L. Peretz, Bruno Shultz, Ida Fink, and Janusz Korczak, all the way through to second-generation writers from the Jewish Polish diasp...

With whom have we not spent heart-warming hours there, looking out from the terrace over the beautiful and peaceful landscape, without suspecting that exactly opposite, on the mountain of Berchtesgaden, a man sat who would one day destroy it all? —Stefan Zweig, Die Welt von Gestern Stefan Zweig was a true cosmopolitan, at ease in the international republic of letters and dreaming of a depoliticised world, whose life fell apart when he saw all he believed in destroyed. Here through ca...

We celebrate a half-century since the opening of Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway, looking at the life of the musical on stage and screen and Sholem Aleichem’s Yiddish stories that inspired it. What is it about Fiddler’s winning combination of family, tradition and song that has had such a hold on the Jewish cultural imagination ever since? Jeremy Dauber’s The Worlds of Sholem Aleichem: The Remarkable Life and Afterlife of the Man Who Created Teyve is the first comprehensive biogr...

Due to popular demand, Jewish Book Week have added a pre-festival performance of its opening night Gershwin event. In our specially commissioned two-act tribute to George and Ira Gershwin, we celebrate the wit and melodies of the brothers from Brooklyn who created some of the most memorable songs ever written. With performers Henry Goodman, Issy van Randwyck and Clive Rowe; musical direction and arrangements by ...

In our specially commissioned two-act tribute to George and Ira Gershwin, we celebrate the wit and melodies of the brothers from Brooklyn who created some of the most memorable songs ever written. With performers Henry Goodman, Issy van Randwyck and Clive Rowe; musical direction and arrangements by Michael Haslam and script by Stewart Permutt – join us for an unforgettable evening of dazzling songs and the ...

Henry Goodman, Issy Van Randwyck and Clive Rowe presented two performances of song, anecdotes and glamour celebrating the musical theatre of Rodgers and Hammerstein. With musical direction by Michael Haslam and script by Stewart Permutt.

The diaries of Ivan Maisky, Soviet Ambassador to the UK from 1932-43, discovered and scrupulously edited by Professor Gabriel Gorodetsky, offer  unprecedented insight into events surrounding the Second World War. Maisky enjoyed unique access to key players in British public life – politicians, diplomats, press barons, intellectuals and royalty – as well as being privy to the impact of personal rivalries within the Kremlin on Soviet policy, providing an extraordinary vie...

Ingrid Carlberg, winner of the prestigious August Prize for her seminal biography, Raoul Wallenberg, is joined by Philippe Sandsto explore the extraordinary life and unique contribution of this ‘Righteous Man’. As Sweden’s Special Envoy to Budapest in 1944, Wallenberg’s heroism and ingenuity at the height of the Holocaust saved countless lives while ultimately costing him his own. Henry Goodman read extracts from the biog...

Dora’s Story is a tale of triumph over every possible adversity – a story of terror and hunger and persistence. Dora Reisser, who made her way from Sofia to Vienna to London to Hollywood, recounts her life story as a Bulgarian-born Nazi refugee, who rose to become the youngest solo dancer for the Vienna Opera and, following a fall, an actor in both television and film. Dora knew the worlds of Harry Lime and Bernie Cornfeld, the KGB and the early days of Israel, and had lovers along the wa...

The grand finale of Jewish Book Week 2019, in partnership with World Jewish Relief, is a celebration of the power of words. A stellar line-up, featuring Henry Goodman, Nicholas Hytner, Jason Isaacs, Brian Leveson, Emily Maitlis, Simon Sebag Montefiore, Jay Rayner, Philippe Sands, Janet Suzman and Zoe Wanamaker, will read poems, letters and speeches, stretching from the beginnings of Jewish history, right up to the present day. Prepare to be piqued and provoked, dazzled and delighted. M...