the arts Sausalito writer pens upbeat ode to his family dan pine
|
Judaism was important in the household, especially to Broder’s mother. Still, Broder early on felt the gravitational pull of American As a writer of fiction, Bill Broder is accustomed secular society. After his father died when to wrestling with characters in his mind. Broder was 14, it was just a matter of time Telling his own life story proved no different. before he set sail into a beckoning world. Broder’s “Prayer for the Departed” is a He joined the Navy and later attended memoir, but reads more like a collection of Columbia University, where he studied creshort stories peopled with vivid characters. ative writing. But through it all, Broder never They just happened to be his real-life family forgot where he came from. members. “Every American Jew has common ground,” “I’m a storyteller,” says the Sausalito-based he says. “If you grow up in a strongly Zionist, author. “This book was written deliberately as kosher household, you are a different person, a story. I believe that all writing, all intellectuno matter what happens.” al pursuit, is a matter of selection and storyA strong-willed mother, obdurate brothers, telling.” loving aunts and uncles, lovers and other Broder will read from his book on Sunday, strangers round out the book’s dramatis perFeb. 26 at Book Passage in Corte Madera. sonae. Broder recalls events from more than Broder, 80, grew up during the Depression, half a century ago with remarkable detail. the grandson of Jewish immigrants. His parThat’s not because he has a photographic memory; he actually ents typified the generation of Jews that grabbed the American Dream, achieving success while opening the door to assimilation, took notes. The text is “based on a tremendous number of journals I kept,” he says. especially for their children. After marrying and moving to Northern California, Broder Yet Broder did not want to be the star of his own autobiography. “I didn’t think of the book as a personal journey. It’s a story worked as a writing professor, freelance writer and playwright. about a family. My impulse was to create an Bill Broder He wrote “A Prayer for the Departed” as a image of this family that I saw as separate 4 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 26, at Book Passage, kind of Kaddish for those who made his a from me, a family in the 20th century.” 51 Tamal Vista Blvd., Corte Madera happy life. “I loved those people,” he says of Broder’s father had known abject poverty, and with Horatio Alger-inspired gumption “A Prayer for the Departed” his colorful family members. “They weren’t by Bill Broder (233 pages, Nobel prize winners, just good, kind people determined to make something of himself, Ainslie Street Project, $12.99). who tried to live. launching a successful coffee-roasting business. j. staff
■
Beatles cover band to rock PJCC gala A Beatles-themed fundraiser featuring the White Album Ensemble of Santa Cruz will take place March 10 in San Mateo. The dance concert — along with a wine, cheese and dessert reception, live auction and raffle — will benefit programs at the Peninsula JCC in Foster City. The event, which begins with refreshments at 6:30 p.m. and culminates with the concert, will be held at the College of San Mateo Theatre, 1700 W. Hillsdale Blvd., San Mateo. Tickets are $100 and can be purchased at www.brownpapertickets.com. For information, call (650) 378-2707.
Journalist’s book wins prestigious literacy award Journalist Gal Beckerman has won the $100,000 Jewish Book Council’s Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature for his 2010 book, “When They Come for Us We’ll Be Gone: The Epic Struggle to Save Soviet Jewry.” The prize recognizes the important role of emerging writers in examining the Jewish experience. The award of $100,000 — one of the largest literary prizes in the world — honors a specific work as well as the author’s potential to make significant contributions to Jewish literature. Beckerman’s book — his first — is a comprehensive chronicle of the history of the Soviet Jewry movement. Beckerman, of Brooklyn, N.Y., is an opinion editor at The Forward. The runner-up is Oxford University lecturer Abigail Green, for her biography, “Moses Montefiore: Jewish Liberator, Imperial Hero.” She received a $25,000 prize. The authors will be honored at an awards ceremony April 11 in Jerusalem.
Two Israeli films take Berlin prizes Two Israeli films that deal with relationships between Israelis and Palestinians were recognized at the Berlin International Film Festival, which ended Feb. 19. The top Berlin Today Award went to the humorous short film “Batman at the Checkpoint” by Rafael Balulu. The 10minute film was one of five finalists for the award, which goes to films produced in Berlin, though they may be filmed elsewhere. “Batman at the Checkpoint” features 6year-old Yuval, an Israeli, and his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud, who are stuck with their parents in traffic at a checkpoint outside Jerusalem. The two cars sit side by side, and eventually the children get out and end up play fighting over a plastic Batman doll in an impromptu game of hide and seek. A Caligari Film Prize honorable mention went to “Bagrut Lochamim” (“Soldier/Citizen”) by Silvina Landsmann. The sobering documentary follows young Israelis completing high school education after military service. — jta ■
.
J.
| the Jewish news weekly of Northern California
20