Shmendrick and his friend the Croc travel through the Jewish year, sharing in its joy, searching for its meaning and having small adventures along the way. They always try to do the right thing, but Shmendrick’s love of chocolate is sometimes a distraction.

Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg and illustrator Barbara Jackson told these warm and funny stories, accompanied by the original toy Shmendrick and Croc.

North London Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg came to Jewish Book Week to talk about his journey from the site of his grandfather’s erstwhile German synagogue to his own. With his dog Mitzpah by his side, in 2010 he walked 300 miles across northern Europe carrying a “Ner Tamid”, an eternal light, as a symbol of hope. “My idea had never been simply to walk along the Rhine with the dog as if the two of us were on some rambling adventure à deux. I wanted to engage not only with Jewish p...

Ever wondered what it would be like if you crossed Jewish Book Week with TED, the popular conference which asks inspiring speakers to give “the talk of their life”? Here’s your chance to find out. Launched at the annual UK Limmud Conference, JDOV talks are now happening around the world and can be viewed at www.jhub.org.uk/jdov Four speakers gave their all at Jewish Book Week, journalist and writer Jonathan Freedland, actor Tracy Ann Oberman, photographer Judah Passow an...

Find out who is in the running to win 2016’s prestigious JQ Wingate Prize as this year’s judges, Tahmima Anam, Samantha Ellis, Hugo Rifkind and Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg, discuss the shortlist with JQ editor Nicola Christie. Past winners include Amos Oz, David Grossman, Zadie Smith, Imre Kertész, Oliver Sacks, WG Sebald and Shalom Auslander. The 2016 long-listed books are: Th...

Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg interweaves the story of his family during the 1930s and 40s with the tragic unfolding of events in WW2 Europe. In a beautifully written narrative he describes some of his unique family and their fates. In conversation with Rabbi Shoshana Boyd Gelfand, Director of JHub.

Gardens have been a source of enchantment since the dawn of time. Today’s speakers illuminate why gardening can be as vital an expression of the creative impulse as reading, writing or praying, and why designing, planting, tending, sharing produce, or simply looking, are so rewarding. In literature gardens can be oases or jungles, magical places where supernatural events happen and passions are aroused.