Welcome! We are proud to host the 2026 Pittsburgh Jewish Book Festival. These challenging times call for gathering our diverse community to celebrate Jewish culture and traditions and to engage in civil discourse. Our festival includes authors from around the corner and around the globe.
Join us and be inspired!
Book Festival Pricing Options
VIP Pass - $360
This option includes access for up to 2 people to all book festival events and VIP Receptions with Headliners at 6:45pm in the Lehman Library.
All Festival Pass - $36
This option provides access for 1 person to all book festival events (paid and free) including all headliner events.
Single Headliner Events - $18
This option allows 1 person to choose individual headliners. You can select one headliner or multiple headliners. The headliners include Joan Nathan, Anita Wyzanski Robboy, Dr. James Loeffler, Dr. Miriam Udel, and Dr. Nicholas Lemann. Single Headliner tickets will be available for purchase at the door.
FREE Admission
This options allows access to all non-headliner events: the local author showcase and bonus Zoom session.
Meet the Headliners
Joan Nathan, author of "My Life in Recipes: Food, Family and Memories"
Building friendships around the world, Joan Nathan uses food and flavors to connect with each person's origin story. A remarkable food expert and cookbook writer, in 2024 Joan combined her best-loved recipes with her fascinating life story in My Life in Recipes: Food, Family, and Memories, weaving home, career and global travel highlights into a compelling read. Warm and charming, Joan reveals the beginnings of her passion for food linked to discovering the stories of others:
“I come from a family of eaters. My family food preferences and favorite recipes became the folklore of my life, as did the stories that accompanied the food they served. I have learned through the years that each person's defining recipe may be different—chicken and dumplings, lasagna, tacos, tamales, brisket, or steak and potatoes—but whatever it is, most of us have a dish that stays with us throughout our life. The thought, taste, and smell of that one dish reminds us of being safe as a child within our homes. Many of these foods become family folktales that appear again and again at the dinner table.”
Joan gains her in-depth knowledge of food, ingredients, and recipes through on-the-ground research along with guest visits to kitchens everywhere. She gets particularly excited wrangling invites to homes with uncommon meal traditions and preparations, spending time in the kitchen to watch, listen, and learn while intently scribbling notes for future reference.
Across decades Joan has been tapped by the New York Times, Washington Post, and PBS as a regular contributor to food education and commentary. Distinguished throughout her career, Joan's honors include multiple James Beard awards plus the Who's Who of Food & Beverage in America. Working with colleagues throughout the food world, her collaborations include Julia Child, Ruth Reichl, Alice Waters, Tom Colicchio, Madhur Jaffrey, Craig Claiborne, and Paul Prudhomme.
Often referenced as the foremost authority on Jewish cooking, landmark achievements include her seminal collection Jewish Cooking in America, and her PBS series “Jewish Cooking in America,” available today on YouTube. Her twelve books include The New American Cooking and King Solomon's Table, reaching out to home cooks in every kitchen.
Joan appeals to all audiences, blending her love of food with her compassion and humanity. Energetic and insightful, Joan inspires everyone to get into the kitchen and try something new, or whip up a lifelong favorite.
Anita Wyzanski Robboy, author of "A Force for Good"
Join us with Hadassah as we welcome Anita Wyzanski Robboy, who will discuss how her mother Gisela worked with Henrietta Szold to found Hadassah.
Robboy’s book, A Force for Good tells the remarkable story of her mother, Gisela Warburg Wyzanski. Gisela worked with important Jewish leaders, including
Henrietta Szold and Chaim Weizmann, to help rescue thousands of Jewish children from Nazi persecution during the Holocaust. She raised awareness and
funding to save and resettle children who were in danger of being killed.
The book uses letters and documents that Gisela carefully preserved and that were later discovered by her daughter. Readers follow Gisela’s journey through Germany, England, the United States, and what is now Israel as she worked to save Jewish children.
A Force for Good shows the horrors of the Holocaust while also showing how one person’s courage and determination can make a lasting difference in the lives of others.
Anita Wyzanski Robboy is a lawyer, scholar, and author. She is a partner at a Boston law firm and has worked as a visiting scholar at Brandeis University and Cambridge University. She is also the daughter of Gisela Warburg Wyzanski and Judge Charles E. Wyzanski.
Dr. James Loeffler, author of "Exceptional Hatred"
Exceptional Hatred by Professor James Loeffler examines the complicated relationship between antisemitism, hate speech, and free speech in America. The book explores how the United States has historically dealt with antisemitic incidents, from riots and neo-Nazi demonstrations to more recent events such as Charlottesville. Loeffler focuses on the difficult balance between protecting people from hatred and preserving First Amendment rights.
The book ultimately asks whether society can effectively confront antisemitism and other forms of hatred without sacrificing the principles of free speech, equality, and individual freedom. It uses American legal and political history to show that these debates are not new, but are part of an ongoing struggle within liberal democracy.
Professor James Loeffler is an American historian, professor, and author specializing in modern Jewish history. He is Felix Posen Professor at Johns Hopkins University, Senior Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute, and former co-editor of AJS Review. His research covers antisemitism, human rights, international law, and the concept of genocide. Loeffler has authored award-winning books including Rooted Cosmopolitans, The Most Musical Nation, and The Law of Strangers, and is working on a biography of Raphael Lemkin. His work often explores Jewish political thought across Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and America.
Dr. Miriam Udel, author of "Modern Jewish Worldmaking Through Yiddish Children’s Literature"
Professor Miriam Udel is Professor of Yiddish Literature and Culture at Emory University, where she studies Jewish encounters with modernity, with a focus on Yiddish literature, Jewish children’s literature, and cultural identity. She holds degrees from Harvard University.
Her research examines how Yiddish children’s literature shaped Jewish identity and transmitted cultural values across Europe and the Americas. Her book Modern Jewish Worldmaking Through Yiddish Children’s Literature (2025) won the National Jewish Book Award in Education and Jewish Identity. She is also the author of Never Better!: The Modern Jewish Picaresque (2016), winner of a National Jewish Book Award, and Honey on the Page (2020), a collection of translated Yiddish stories and poems for children.
Udel was ordained by Yeshivat Maharat in 2019 and uses the rabbinic title darshanit (“interpreter”). Her scholarship and teaching connect Yiddish culture, Jewish history, literature, and contemporary Jewish identity.
Dr. Nicholas Lemann, author of "Returning: A Search for Home Across Three Centuries"
Returning, an explanation of a diaspora community often overlooked in US history: the Jewish immigration to the American South in the 19th century, and the effect of the assimilation on that community in the generation to follow. Told via the perspective of the Lemann family, German Jews who came to Louisiana in the 1830s who meticulously documented their own personal and professional ups and downs across the years.
Professor Nicholas Lemann is an American writer, journalist, and academic, serving as the Joseph Pulitzer II and Edith Pulitzer Moore Professor of Journalism and Dean Emeritus at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. A staff writer at The New Yorker since 1999, he was dean of Columbia Journalism School from 2003 to 2013, leading major curriculum reforms and launching new programs. Lemann founded Columbia Global Reports and directed Columbia World Projects. His acclaimed books include Returning: A Search for Home Across Three Centuries, Transaction Man, Redemption, The Big Test, and The Promised Land, the last winning several book prizes. Lemann recently published a powerful opinion piece in the New York Times titled, A Profound Question Haunting Jews.
Thank you to the following who made this event possible
Carolyn Slayton and Seth Glick
Jewish Book Council
Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle
Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh
Thank you to the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh Funds
Arthur J. and Betty F. Diskin Cultural Endowment Fund
Early in her career as a teacher and graduate student at NYU, Betty Diskin eagerly partook of Broadway shows, operas, ballets and concerts. Moving to Pittsburgh in 1952, she continued her lifelong love of the performing arts and was herself active in local theater, including the Little Lake Theater and the original Pittsburgh Playhouse. She never stopped studying and learning and earned her PhD from the University of Pittsburgh later in life.
Betty and her husband, Arthur Diskin, a highly respected attorney, were enthusiastic and generous supporters of the cultural and civic organizations of the Pittsburgh community.
After the tragic loss of her husband, Arthur, and their two sons, William Diskin and Robert Diskin, Betty felt strongly about creating a legacy to honor their memory. Betty established the Arthur J. and Betty F. Diskin Cultural Endowment Fund to be administered by the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. The goal of the Fund is to reflect the Jewish values of cultural literacy and increased understanding of humanity through the support of cultural, educational, literary and civic organizations of the Pittsburgh community, particularly those organizations devoted to music and theater.
Thank you to the Leadership Team
Ronna Harris Askin
Barbara Barnett
Jessica Durkin
Mark Frisch
Seth Glick
Chris Hall
Bob Russman-Halperin
Eleanor Hershberg
Beth Kissileff
Jean Reznick
Toby Tabachnick
Nancy Tuckfelt
Shari Woldenberg, staff
Thank You Community Partner
