Yovel/Jubilee: Celebrating 50 Years of AJL!

Association of Jewish Libraries 2015 Conference

Washington, D.C., and Silver Spring, Md.

June 21-24, 2015

Hosted by the Capital Area Chapter/Association of Jewish Libraries

Program Book edited by Lenore Bell and Elana Gensler with Marci Bayer, Sharon Horowitz, Peggy Pearlstein, and Aaron Taub

Cover design by Ann Brener

Text in cover design from Nahmanides. Perush ha-Torah. [Lisbon: Eliezer Toledano, 1489] Library of Congress, Hebraic Section

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Table of Contents

Welcome Letters ........................................................................................................................ 4

AJL 2015 Conference Committee ...................................................................................... 11

Acknowledgments .................................................................................................................. 12

Association of Jewish Libraries Information ............................................................... 13

Association of Jewish Libraries Awards ........................................................................ 16

General Information ............................................................................................................. 18

Program Schedule At-a-Glance ......................................................................................... 21

Program Schedule and Session Abstracts ..................................................................... 28

Presenter Biographies ......................................................................................................... 51

Exhibitors .................................................................................................................................. 72

Tributes and Advertisements ............................................................................................ 73

Restaurants, Businesses, Area Synagogues ................................................................. 92

Evaluation Form ..................................................................................................................... 95

Notes ........................................................................................................................................... 98

Maps ............................................................................................................................................ 99

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Welcome Letters

Dear AJL Colleagues, Exhibitors, Conference Presenters and Moderators, Attendees, and Volunteers, Welcome to “Yovel/Jubilee: Celebrating 50 Years of AJL.” An exciting four-day program has been planned. We thank everyone involved for their creativity, vision, and hard work in planning this landmark event. Some of those individuals are listed in the program book, and others will be listed on individual meal programs and throughout the conference. Marina Korenberg, z”l, Co-President of AJL's Capital Area Chapter (AJL/CAC), passed away on January 15, 2015. We honor Marina's many contributions to AJL and our profession, and we miss her deeply. We also mourn the passing of longtime AJL/CAC member, Barbara Davis Widem, z"l, on April 12, 2015. Barbara had graciously hosted many chapter events in her home, and will be deeply missed. May their memory be for a blessing. The Sunday programming will feature a special Family Program that will be open to all attendees as well as members of the local community. The program will include storytelling by Rabbi Paul Schneider, a reading by author Jacqueline Jules, a musical performance and sing-a-long by Audrey Katz and Lisa Baydush, and a special program by PJ Library. The performers will be available for signings and conversation. In addition to the book vendors in the Exhibits Hall, there will be special artists and crafts vendors selling their work. The Sunday dinner will feature a keynote conversation with renowned scholar and contributing editor and critic at The Atlantic Leon Wieseltier. In addition, there will be a concert of Yiddish music by Jane Peppler, with Roger Lynn Spears. Monday's Authors' Luncheon will feature authors from the Washington, D.C. metropolitan region. We are delighted that Sari Feldman, President-Elect of the American Library Association and Merrill Leffler of Dryad Press will be speaking. Mr. Leffler received an award from the Capital Area Chapter of AJL for his contributions to the Jewish literary scene in the Washington, D.C. area. On Monday evening, a film by and a Q & A with documentary filmmaker Aviva Kempner will be presented. Tuesday’s Awards Luncheon will include a special program honoring past AJL presidents and the awarding of this year's Fanny Goldstein Merit Award to Joy Kingsolver. Given the Jubilee theme of the conference, we felt that it was especially important to honor our past leaders. Additionally, the Awards Committee felt that it would be fitting to honor Joy Kingsolver who has done so much to preserve the Association's history. We will also note the scholarship recipients and library accreditation. The Tuesday banquet will feature the Bibliography and Reference Awards and the Sydney Taylor Awards.

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On Wednesday we will offer a full day of programs with curators at leading cultural heritage institutions. The morning session will take place at the Library of Congress (LC). Attendees will have the option of selecting three out of six possible LC sites to visit: American Folklife Center; Children's Literature Center; and Hebraic Section, AMED or the Music Division; Preservation Directorate; and the Prints and Photographs Division. Judaica treasures will be highlighted. The afternoon session will take place at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) and will include sessions with curators and tours. Both programs are free but do require prior reservation. Throughout the conference, we are thrilled to bring you numerous sessions on librarianship, reading, Jewish culture and history, and the Holocaust. Presenters will include leading information science professionals, librarians, scholars, and writers from the Washington, D.C. area as well as from around the country and the world. In fact, the Program Committee made a special effort this year to draw upon the rich intellectual resources available in the National Capital area. And we are extremely grateful to all of these experts who will generously share their wisdom and knowledge with conference attendees. There are many crucial questions and challenges facing the profession of librarianship and AJL itself. In the era of Google and the internet and seemingly ever-shrinking budgets, libraries are redefining their mission anew. And yet despite the pronouncements of the end of paper publications, the People of the Book remain committed to books. Patrons continue to frequent reading rooms and value libraries and the work of librarians. And so, at this Jubilee, we celebrate the achievements of our profession and 50 years of AJL's commitment to Jewish culture, scholarship, and literacy. We invite you to join in the celebration and renew your dedication to the mission and vitality of AJL. With best wishes,

Dina Herbert Ellen Share Aaron Taub

Co-Chairpersons, "Yovel/Jubilee: Celebrating 50 Years of AJL!"

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AJL 2015 Conference Committee Conference Co-Chairpersons

Dina Herbert Ellen Share Aaron Taub

AJL Intern Rebecca Marcus AJL Slide Show Peggy Pearlstein, Compiler Joy Kingsolver Aaron Taub AJL Treasurer Debbie Stern AJL Website Heidi Estrin Authors’ Luncheon Peggy Pearlstein, Chairperson Michlean Amir Authors’ Luncheon Book Sales Yelena Luckert Automation Liaison Edith Creeger Conference Advisors Yaffa Weisman, AJL President Amalia Warshenbrot, AJL VP James Rosenbloom, VP/Devt. Sharon Benamou, RAS President Aimee Lurie, SSC President Shoshanah Seidman, AJL Nat’l Conference Chair Suzi Dubin Toby Harris Marsha Lustigman Judy Weidman

Conference Letterhead Randie Hovatter Conference Logo Ann Brener Conference Registrar Marcie Eskin Conference Site Scouts Marina Korenberg, z”l James Rosenbloom Aaron Taub Galina Teverovsky Exhibits & Ads Jackie Ben-Efraim, Chairperson Susan Freiband Rebecca Marcus Finance & Development Irene Münster, Chairperson Gail Shirazi Galina Teverovsky Hospitality Sharon Horowitz, Packing Party Coordinator Edith Creeger Ellen Share Gail Shirazi Meals Suzi Dubin, Chairperson Lenore Bell Edith Creeger Rebecca Levitan Peggy Pearlstein Aaron Taub

Minyan Coordinator Marga Hirsch Panelists’ Book Sales Kathy Bloomfield Program Book Lenore Bell, Compiler Marci Bayer Elana Gensler Sharon Horowitz Peggy Pearlstein Aaron Taub Program Committee Yelena Luckert, Chairperson Michlean Amir Kathy Bloomfield Peggy Pearlstein Gail Shirazi Aaron Taub Raffle Robin Jacobson Ellen Share Stipends Committee Lenore Bell, Chairperson Rachel Glasser Sunday Family Program Ellen Share, Chairperson Kathy Bloomfield Mirele Kessous, Flyer Design Rebecca Levitan Volunteer Coordinator Nahid Gerstein

Officers of the Capital Area Chapter/Association of Jewish Libraries Galina Teverovsky, President Holly Zimmerman, Treasurer

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge the generosity of the following conference supporters:

Agudas Achim Congregation American Reprographics, Inc., Bethesda, MD

Banner Hallmark Montgomery Mall Bnai Israel Congregation

Janice and Tom Burne Arlene David

The Embassy of Israel G.J. Fass

Tamar Fishman Giant Foods

Harris Teeter The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington

Jewish Review of Books Merrill Leffler

The Leonard and Helen R. Stulman Program in Jewish Studies, The Johns Hopkins University

Robin and Fred Levin Susie McBee

Media Flex - OPALS Meyerhoff Center at the University of Maryland

Laurie and Walter Minerbi Daniela Misri

Irene and Ricardo Munster

Paul’s Wines and Spirits of Chevy Chase ProQuest

Philip Ratner Alyson Richman-Gordon

Inna Saakova Lisa and Michael Sandman

Faith Schwartz Roberta Shaffer

Shalom Group: Shalom Kosher, Signature Caterers, and Max’s

Ellen and Stewart Share Elliot Share Gail Shirazi

Shanaz Shirazi Veronique Sriqui

Sunflower Bakery, Gaithersburg, Md. Tidewater Jewish Foundation

University of Maryland Libraries Washington Hebrew Congregation Sisterhood

Washington Jewish Week Dan Wyman

Yiddish of Greater Washington Bashir Yonoszai Zohra Men Salon

We recognize the following contributors whose donations supported conference attendance:

Don Dillin, in memory of Marina Korenberg, z”l

EBSCO Merry Firschein, in memory of her mother, Sylvia, z”l

Merrily Hart Kar-Ben Publishing

The Lucius N. Littauer Foundation Elizabeth Stabler

Alba Toscano

We thank the staff at the following institutions for their participation, the use of their facilities, and their gracious assistance:

The Library of Congress

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Sheraton Silver Spring

We especially acknowledge the help and guidance of the AJL Board and Council.

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Association of Jewish Libraries Information

Mission & Founding

The Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) is an international professional organization that fosters access to information and research in all forms of media relating to all things Jewish. The Association promotes Jewish literacy and scholarship, and provides a community for peer support and professional development. AJL was established in January 1966, with the merging of the Jewish Librarians Association and the Jewish Library Association. AJL has always been a volunteer-run nonprofit organization, and continues to rely on the energy and enthusiasm of its members. AJL is an affiliate of the American Library Association and the American Theological Library Association.

Goals

1. Maintain high professional standards for Judaica librarians and recruit qualified individuals into the profession.

2. Facilitate communication and exchange of information on a global scale. 3. Encourage quality publication in the field in all formats and media, print, digital, etc.; stimulate

publication of high quality children's literature. 4. Facilitate and encourage establishment of Judaica library collections. 5. Enhance information access for all through application of advanced technologies. 6. Publicize the organization and its activities in all relevant venues:

Stimulate awareness of Judaica library services among the public at large. Promote recognition of Judaica librarianship within the wider library profession. Encourage recognition of Judaica library services by other organizations and related

professions. 7. Ensure continuity of the Association through sound management, financial security, effective

governance and a dedicated and active membership.

AJL Divisions

RAS (Research Libraries, Archives, and Special Collections Division) serves academic and scholarly libraries, archives, and special collections in Judaic institutions, and Judaic collections in non-Judaic institutions. RAS activities include the Cataloging Committee, an influential body dealing with issues affecting Hebraica and Judaica cataloging policies, and the publication of Judaica Librarianship, AJL’s peer-reviewed journal and the only English language scholarly journal in its field.

SSC (Schools, Synagogues, and Centers Division) serves synagogue libraries of all denominations, libraries in Jewish day schools and Hebrew schools, Jewish community center libraries, and libraries serving other Jewish organizations. SSC projects include: The AJL Wiki, providing many helpful tips on establishing and managing libraries of all types; the Jewish ValuesFinder, helping with the selection and evaluation of titles for children and teens; and the Bibliography Bank, providing a wealth of tailored lists for acquisitions, book discussions, and subject research.

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AJL Board

President: Yaffa Weisman

Vice President/President-Elect: Amalia Warshenbrot

Past President: Heidi Rabinowitz Estrin

RAS President: Sharon Benamou

RAS Vice President: Rebecca J.W. Jefferson

SSC President: Aimee Lurie

SSC Vice President: Chaya Wiesman

Parliamentarian: Joy Kingsolver

Secretary: Marga Hirsch

Treasurer: Deborah Stern

VP for Membership: Sheryl Stahl

VP for Development: James P. Rosenbloom

AJL Committees

Accreditation Committee: The charge of the Accreditation Committee is to: 1) design accreditation instruments for Synagogue, School and Center Division libraries; 2) review completed accreditation forms and award Basic and Advanced Status to those libraries who qualify; 3) advise and mentor libraries who request help reaching accreditation status; and 4) publicize the accreditation process in appropriate venues and publications.

Conference Committee (Local): The Local Conference Committee plans and coordinates all aspects of the annual convention, including: working with the national chair to locate a hotel, arranging for meals and entertainment, planning the programming, soliciting vendors for the book fair, recruiting volunteers, and coordinating with national committees—everything necessary for those attending to have an enlightening, educational, and enriching experience during the conference.

Conference Committee (National): The organization-wide Conference Committee serves to advise, support, and assist the local convention chairs in planning and presenting the annual AJL Conference.

Conference Stipend Committee: The Conference Stipend Committee reviews all applications requesting funds to attend the annual conference. The committee makes every effort to accommodate all in need of a stipend.

Judaica Librarianship Committee: AJL publishes an online peer-reviewed scholarly journal, providing a forum for scholarship on all theoretical or practical aspects of Jewish Studies librarianship. This general editor and committee solicits articles, oversees the peer reviewing process, edits, and prepares the journal for publication.

Librarianship & Education Committee: The Librarianship & Education Committee develops and promotes specialized courses (online and/or in person) for individuals interested in Judaica librarianship, both those in library school and those seeking continuing education.

Member Relations Committee

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Member Merit Awards Committee: AJL presents a member annually with either the Life Membership Award or the Fanny Goldstein Merit Award. This committee selects deserving AJL members for recognition.

News & Reviews Committee: AJL publishes a quarterly online journal sharing organizational news and reviews of new Judaic books and other materials. A general editor oversees operations, assisted by review editors for adult and children’s materials. A large cadre of volunteer reviewers provides content, and members are welcome to submit articles in consultation with the general editor.

Public Relations Committee: The Public Relations Committee's charge is to publicize the work of AJL via traditional and social media, assist committees in sharing their news, and assist AJL with networking and outreach efforts.

RAS Cataloging Committee: The charge of the RAS Cataloging Committee is to act as a liaison with the Policy and Standards Division of the Library of Congress on issues affecting Judaica cataloging including problems raised by RAS members, to suggest possible solutions, and to educate members as to new policies or procedures affecting Judaica cataloging .

Reference and Bibliography Award Committee: The Reference and Bibliography Award Committee is charged with annually selecting the winners of the Reference and Bibliography Award. The committee is chaired by the vice-president of the RAS Division. Committee members review and evaluate books submitted by publishers for the awards.

Student Scholarship Committee: The Student Scholarship nurtures promising newcomers to the field of Judaica librarianship with assistance for attending the AJL conference. The Student Scholarship Committee is responsible for publicizing the AJL scholarship competition to library schools and for selecting the winner(s).

Sydney Taylor Book Award Committee: The Sydney Taylor Book Award Committee is charged with annually selecting the winners of the Sydney Taylor Book Award and with implementing the process by which the winners are selected, publicized, and presented. Committee members review and evaluate books submitted by publishers for the award.

Sydney Taylor Manuscript Competition Committee: The Sydney Taylor Manuscript Competition Committee is charged with annually selecting the winners of the Sydney Taylor Manuscript Award and with implementing the process by which the winners are selected, publicized, and presented. Committee members review and evaluate manuscripts submitted by authors for the award.

AJL Chapters

AJL chapters provide a means for AJL members within a geographic area to share their expertise, promote regional collection development, upgrade their library skills, and generate communal programming and recognition. Check the AJL website to find a chapter in your area.

Additional information at www.jewishlibraries.org

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Association of Jewish Libraries Awards

Fanny Goldstein Merit Award

Joy Kingsolver

AJL Scholarship Awards

Elissa Sperling and Jemima Jarman

Groner-Wikler Scholarship Award

Jill Ratzen

Achievement Award Presented by the Capital Area Chapter of AJL

Merrill Leffler of Dryad Press

Book Awards

AJL Judaica Reference Award

Outside the Bible: Ancient Jewish Writings Related to Scripture

edited by Louis H. Feldman, James L. Kugel and Lawrence H. Schiffman (Jewish Publication Soc., 2013)

AJL Judaica Reference Honorable Mention

Sephardi Lives: A Documentary History, 1700-1950

edited by Julia Cohen and Sarah Stein (Stanford University Press, 2014)

AJL Judaica Bibliography Award

Catalog of the Judeo-Persian Manuscripts in the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America

by Vera Busch Moreen’s (Brill, 2015)

Sydney Taylor Book Award Winner for Younger Readers

My Grandfather’s Coat

retold by Jim Aylesworth; illustrated by Barbara McClintock (Scholastic Press, 2014)

Sydney Taylor Book Award Winner for Older Readers

Hidden: A Child's Story of the Holocaust

written by Loic Dauvillier; illustrated by Marc Lizano; color by Greg Salsedo; translated by Alexis Siege

(First Second, 2014)

Sydney Taylor Book Award Winner for Teen Readers

Storm

by Donna Jo Napoli (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2014)

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Sydney Taylor Honor Books for Younger Readers

Goldie Takes a Stand written by Barbara Krasner and illustrated by Kelsey Garrity-Riley (Kar-Ben, 2014)

Never Say a Mean Word Again: A Tale from Medieval Spain

written by Jacqueline Jules and illustrated by Durga Yael Bernhard (Wisdom Tales, 2014)

Sydney Taylor Honor Books for Older Readers

Death by Toilet Paper by Donna Gephart (Delacorte Press, 2014)

Whispering Town by Jennifer Elvgren; illustrated by Fabio Santomauro (Kar-Ben, 2014)

Sydney Taylor Honor Books for Teen Readers

Isabel’s War by Lila Perl (Lizzie Skurnick Books, 2014)

Like No Other, by Una LaMarche (Razorbill, 2014)

Sydney Taylor Manuscript Award

Viva, Rose by Susan Krawitz

Library Accreditation

Advanced Accreditation

The Edwards H. Fields Media Center of the Alfred and Adele Davis Academy, Atlanta, Georgia

Todd Williamson, Media Specialist

Sylvia Bremen Library at the Alfred and Adele Davis Academy, Atlanta, Georgia

Stacy Brown, 21st Century Learning Coordinator

Basic Accreditation

Arnovitz Library of the Atlanta Jewish Academy, Atlanta, Georgia

Rebecca Butcher, Library Media Specialist

The Carol and Robert Nemo Media Center of The Weber School, Atlanta, Georgia

Tiffany Zonnenfeld, Media Specialist

The Dorothy Michael Library of Torah Day School of Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia

Davida Levin, Media Coordinator

Kaufman Silverberg Library of the Gray Academy of Jewish Education, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Ana Esterin, School Librarian

The Marian Renee Saltzberg Learning Resource Center of Congregation Beth Shalom, Northbrook, IL

Stephanie Gelb, Librarian

Pollen Family Library of Temple Emanuel of South Hills, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Paula Altschul, Librarian

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General Information

Book Sales and Signings

Sunday Family Program book sales and signings will take place in the Magnolia Pre-Function Room. The

“Authors’ Luncheon” on Monday will be followed by books sales and signings in/near the Cypress

Ballroom. Presenters will sell and sign books approximately 15 minute following their respective

presentations in the Magnolia Pre-Function Room. Sydney Taylor book sales and signings are scheduled

for Tuesday afternoon, following Session 7B, in the Magnolia Pre-Function Room. Some authors accept

only cash or check.

Catering & Meals

All meals at the hotel, including the Wednesday box breakfasts and lunches, are catered by Signature

Caterers, which is under the supervision of the Rabbinical Council of Greater Washington

(www.capitolk.org). Conference badges, which hold the meal tickets, should be worn at all times in the

conference venues. Those with special dietary requests will be issued specially marked tickets. See listing

in the Program Book of kosher dining options for Monday night.

Hospitality Suite

The Hospitality Suite offers snacks and beverages, and a place to gather informally. Hospitality Suite hours

are listed in the Program Schedule, and the location will be announced at registration.

Evaluation Form

Please complete the online Evaluation Form at http://goo.gl/forms/ybphlfYXz3. Alternatively, complete

the printed Evaluation Form in the Program Book, and submit it to the collection box in the Hospitality

Suite or give it to a member of the Conference Planning Committee.

Exhibits

The Exhibits are located in the Magnolia Room. Exhibit Hours are Sunday, 12:00 pm - 6:00 pm, Monday,

8:00 am - 5:15 pm (including Exhibits-Only time, 4:00 pm – 4:30 pm), and Tuesday, 8:00 am - 1:30 pm

(including Exhibits-Only time, 11:30 am - 12:00 pm). Exhibitors are listed in the Program Book.

Meeting Rooms & WiFi

All conference activities in the hotel will take place on the First Floor and the Fourth Floor. Please consult

the Sheraton Silver Spring maps in the Program Book for room designations. WiFi is available in the Lobby.

Minyanim

An Orthodox Minyan and an Egalitarian Minyan are scheduled for Shaḥarit, Minḥah, and Maʻariv. Please

consult the Program Book for times and locations. A listing of local area synagogues and their scheduled

services is also provided in the Program Book.

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Wednesday Programs at LC and USHMM

Library of Congress Program: The LC tours will begin at 10:00 am, and will conclude at 12:30 pm. Attendees should allow time to get through security screening. Attendees will choose either:

o Tour A: Jefferson Building, including the Hebraic Section (African and Middle Eastern

Division), American Folklife Center, and Young Readers Center. Meet inside the Jefferson

Carriage Entrance (Ground Level), on First St., SE.

o Tour B: Madison Building, including the Preservation Directorate, Prints & Photographs Division, and Music Division. Meet in the Madison Lobby, inside the Independence Avenue Entrance (First Floor).

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Program: The USHMM Program will commence at

2:00 pm, in the Rubinstein Auditorium. There will be three consecutive sessions of presentations

and tours, with options for each session. Sessions will be held in the Rubinstein Auditorium (Lower

Level), Classroom A (Lower Level), and Library (Fifth Floor). Courtesy tickets to visit the Museum’s

Permanent Exhibition from June 21-25, will be available at the AJL Registration Desk.

Luggage Storage: Luggage may be stored at the hotel in the Hickory Room—please see the Concierge or Bellman on duty. Union Station has luggage storage managed by Tiburon Lockers

(202-898-1592). If luggage is brought to LC, it should be carry-on size to pass through x-ray

screening, and may be stored in the Madison Cloakroom (LM140), Jefferson Cloakroom (West

Entrance), or the ASME Conference Room (Madison Bldg., LM541). LC is not responsible for lost or

damaged property. Luggage brought to USHMM should be carry-on size to pass through x-ray

screening, or may be subject to manual inspection. A coat check on the First Floor has limited

luggage storage. Luggage may be stored in Classroom A, where programming will take place.

USHMM is not responsible for lost or damaged property. Note: Items which could be deemed as

weapons, such as knives, may not be permissible in either LC or USHMM

Meals: On your own for breakfast and lunch o Those registered for Wednesday kosher box breakfasts and/or kosher box lunches may pick

them up beginning 7:15 am (pick-up location will be announced). Box lunches may be

eaten in the LC Madison Café and Snack Bar, and some picnic tables are available outside of

LC buildings.

o Restaurants near the hotel

Mica Restaurant (hotel lobby)

Starbucks (hotel lobby)

Goldberg's NY Bagels (dairy/Cholov Yisroel), 9328 Georgia Ave., 240.450.4177

Various area establishments (http://www.silverspringdowntown.com/dining)

o Restaurants near LC:

Madison Bldg. Café, 6th Floor (salad/hot food bar, sandwiches, sushi)

Madison Bldg. Snack Bar, Ground Floor (Subway & Dunkin Donuts)

Burrito Brothers, 205 Pennsylvania Ave., SE, 202.543.6835

Good Stuff Eatery (burgers), 303 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, 202.543.8222

Pret A Manger (salads/sandwiches), 301 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, 202.547.1025

Sweetgreen (salads), 221 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, 202.547.9338

We the Pizza, 305 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, 202.544.4008

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o Restaurants near USHMM

USHMM Café, Ross Building (packaged kosher selections and non-kosher

dairy/pareve; does not permit outside food)

Dept. of Agriculture, South Building Cafeteria (salad bar & food court), 12th and C

Sts., SW (enter through Door 2 on C St.)

Transportation & Directions: Program attendees are on their own for transportation. Both venues are accessible by Metrorail (http://www.wmata.com/), and the Silver Spring station is 0.5

miles (9 minute walk) from the hotel (allow 1.5 hours travel time). Driving distance is

approximately 9 miles (allow 1 hour or more if parking). Both LC

(http://www.loc.gov/visit/directions/) and USHMM (http://www.ushmm.org/information/plan-a-

visit/location-and-parking) lack parking facilities, and street parking and public lots are limited.

o Metro from hotel to LC:

From Silver Spring, take the Red Line to Metro Center, then change to the Orange,

Blue, or Silver Lines to Capitol South.

For the Jefferson Tour (A), exit Capitol South and walk north on First St., and cross

Independence Ave., to enter Jefferson’s Carriage Entrance. For the Madison Tour

(B), walk north on First St., and turn right on Independence Ave., to enter Madison’s

Main Entrance. Alternatively, an entrance to LC’s Madison Bldg. (Ground Level) is

diagonal from Capitol South on the corner of First and C Sts., SE, and tunnel access to

the Jefferson Building is available. Please see the LC maps in the Program Book.

Note: Union Station Metro on the Red Line is also walking distance to LC, but allow

15 minutes walking time.

o Metro from LC/Capitol South to USHMM:

Take the Orange, Blue, or Silver Lines to Smithsonian, and exit at 12th St. &

Independence Ave.

Walk west on Independence Ave. for one long block, cross and then go left on 14th

St. Walk through the Museum’s alley to the 15th St. Eisenhower Plaza entrance.

Inform Security or Visitor Services staff on duty that you are attending a conference

to be expedited through the line to the security screening. Proceed down the stairs

or elevator to the Lower Level to meet in the Rubinstein Auditorium. Note: Beverages other than water are not permitted in the Museum. Please see USHMM

maps in the Program Book.

Note: If walking from LC to USHMM (1.6 miles), allow 25 minutes.

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Program Schedule At-a-Glance Sunday, 21 June 2015

9:00 am - 12:00 pm Board Meeting Walnut

10:00 am - 6:00 pm REGISTRATION & INFORMATION Entrance to Magnolia Ballroom

12:00 pm - 6:00 pm Hospitality Suite Open TBA

12:00 pm - 6:00 pm EXHIBITS OPEN Magnolia Ballroom

12:00 pm - 3:00 pm Council Meeting Walnut

1:00 pm - 5:00 pm Special Family Program Open to AJL Attendees and the Community Magnolia Pre-Function

3:30 pm - 5:00 pm OCLC Update Willow

Newcomers Welcome Persimmon I

5:00 pm - 6:00 pm Judaica Librarianship Editorial Board Meeting (Maple) Accreditations Committee (Walnut) RAS Cataloging Committee (Cedar)

Strategic Planning Committee (Willow) Sydney Taylor Book Awards Committee Meetings (Persimmon II)

6:30 pm - 9:00 pm Welcome Dinner Keynote Conversation featuring Leon Wieseltier, with moderator Nadine Epstein

Yiddish Music by Jane Peppler, with Roger Lynn Spears with support from Yiddish of Greater Washington

Cypress Ballroom 9:00 pm - 10:30 pm Collection Development Committee Meeting

Cedar

9:00 pm – 11:00 pm

Hospitality Suite Open TBA

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Monday, 22 June 2015 6:00 am Morning Walk 6:45 am Orthodox Minyan

Walnut Egalitarian Minyan

Willow 7:15 am - 8:30 am BREAKFAST

Mentor Mingle Table Cypress Ballroom

8:00 am - 5:00 pm REGISTRATION & INFORMATION Entrance to Magnolia Ballroom

8:00 am - 5:15 pm EXHIBITS OPEN Magnolia Ballroom

8:30 am -10:00 am 1A Maple

1B Willow

1C Walnut

1D Cedar

Farewell, Kibbutzim and

Pioneers

Digitization and Libraries

The Case of the S.S. St. Louis

Jewish Music Sponsored by Yiddish of

Greater Washington

10:15 am - 11:15 am 2A Willow

2B Maple

2C Cedar

2D Walnut

National Library of Israel Update

Small Libraries

Writing an Excellent Book Review

Negotiating Skills for Librarians Workshop

11:25 am - 12:25 pm 3A

Maple 3B

Walnut 3C

Cedar 3D

Willow Legal Aspects of Jewish Identity

Jewish Poetry Reading

by D.C.-Area Poets

Library Vendors Roundtable

Microsoft Workshop

12:30 pm - 2:00 pm AUTHORS’ LUNCHEON & BOOK SIGNING Sponsored by ProQuest

Guest Speakers: Merrill Leffler, Dryad Press, Winner of AJL/Capital Area Chapter Award

Sari Feldman, ALA President-Elect Cypress Ballroom

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Monday, 22 June 2015

2:15 pm - 3:00 pm RAS Meeting Maple

SSC Meeting Cedar

3:00 pm - 4:00 pm GENERAL MEMBERSHIP MEETING Cedar

4:00 pm - 4:30 pm EXHIBITS ONLY Magnolia Ballroom

4:30 pm - 6:00 pm 4A Willow

4B Walnut

4C Cedar

4D Maple

Putting History to Work

What Motivates Jewish Children’s

Literature Authors

Perspectives on Modern Israel

Jewish Communities Around the World

6:00 pm Orthodox Minyan Walnut

Egalitarian Minyan Willow

6:00 pm - 8:15 pm Hospitality Suite Open (TBA) Dinner (on your own; see listing of kosher options)

8:15 pm -10:30 pm EVENING EVENT Documentary Film Screening and Q&A with Filmmaker Aviva Kempner

Cedar

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Tuesday, 23 June 2015 6:00 am Morning Walk 7:00 am Orthodox Minyan

Walnut Egalitarian Minyan

Willow 7:15 am - 8:30 am BREAKFAST

Cypress Ballroom 8:00 am - 5:00 pm REGISTRATION & INFORMATION

Entrance to Magnolia Ballroom

8:00 am - 1:30 pm EXHIBITS OPEN Magnolia Ballroom

8:30 am - 10:00 am 5A Maple

5B Walnut

5C Cedar

5D Willow

A Tale of Two Biblio-Cities:

Libraries in Vienna and Vilnius

Telling Stories from Your Center

Graphic Representations of the Holocaust and

Jewish Life

Reading and Translating Jewish

Texts

10:15 am - 11:30 am

6A Walnut

6B Maple

6C Willow

6D Cedar

Profiles of Judaica Collectors & Librarians

What Are We Reading?

On Presenting and Reading

Fundraising Workshop

11:30 am - 12:00 pm Exhibits Only Magnolia Ballroom

12:00 pm - 1:45 pm

AWARDS LUNCH Fanny Goldstein Merit Award Winner Joy Kingsolver,

Accreditation, AJL Scholarships, Honoring Past AJL Presidents, and Commemorative AJL Slide Show

Cypress Ballroom

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Tuesday, 23 June 2015

2:00 pm - 3:30 pm 7A Cedar

7B Maple

7C Willow

7D Walnut

Contemporary Anti-Semitism

Sydney Taylor Book Award Committee I Sponsored by

Ellen Share

In the Jewish Archives & Rare Books Stacks

Museums Roundtable

3:45 pm - 5:00 pm 8A Walnut

8B Willow

8C Maple

8D Cedar

Jews in the Military

Sydney Taylor Book Award Committee II

Reading Jewish Social History Through

Cookbooks

The Future of Librarianship: A Roundtable

5:30 pm Orthodox Minyan Walnut

Egalitarian Minyan Willow

6:00 pm - 7:00 pm RECEPTION Sponsored by Media Flex - OPALS

Magnolia Ballroom 7:00 pm - 10:00 pm AWARDS BANQUET

Cypress Ballroom 10:00 pm Orthodox Minyan

Walnut Egalitarian Minyan

Willow 10:00 pm – 11:00 pm Hospitality Suite Open (TBA)

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Wednesday, 24 June 2015 6:00 am Morning Walk 7:00 am Orthodox Minyan

Persimmon I Egalitarian Minyan

Persimmon II 7:15 am - 8:15 am Breakfast (on your own or pre-ordered kosher box breakfast) 8:15 am Departure from Sheraton Hotel Lobby for Travel to Library of Congress via Metro

See General Information for details including meals, transportation, luggage

10:00 am - 12:30 pm Programs with LC Curators and Staff - Choose either: Tour A (Jefferson Bldg.): Hebraic Section, American Folklife Ctr., Young Readers Ctr.

Tour B (Madison Bldg.): Preservation, Prints & Photographs, Music Division

12:30 pm - 2:00 pm Lunch (on your own or pre-ordered kosher box lunch) Travel to United States Holocaust Memorial Museum via Metro

2:00 pm - 4:30 pm Programs and Tours with USHMM Staff

Meet in Rubinstein Auditorium on Lower Level

4:30 pm - 5:00 pm Refreshments USHMM Classroom A on Lower Level

5:15 pm - 6:30 pm Conference Debriefing USHMM Classroom A on Lower Level

Bon Voyage! נסיעה טובה!

Next Year in Charleston, S.C.! לשנה הבאה בצ'רלסטון, ד"ק!

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Program Schedule and Session Abstracts

SUNDAY, JUNE 21 9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Board Meeting Walnut 10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m. Registration and Information Entrance to Magnolia Ballroom 12:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m. Hospitality Suite Open TBA 12:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m. Exhibits Open Magnolia Ballroom 12:00 p.m.-3:00 p.m. Council Meeting Walnut

1:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m. SPECIAL FAMILY PROGRAM Magnolia Pre-Function Open to AJL and the Community

Master of Ceremonies: Marsha Pinson Participants:

Jacqueline Jules Rabbi Paul Schneider, assisted by student Jenna Resnik, Chizuk Amuno Rosenbloom Religious School

Music and Songs by Audrey Katz and Lisa Baydush; PJ Library craft activity and puppet show

3:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m. OCLC Update Willow Moderated by Jasmin Shinohara Participants: John Chapman, Sandi Jones, Cynthia Whitacre 3:30 p.m.-5:00 p.m. Newcomers Welcome Persimmon I Led by Debbie Feder 5:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m. Judaica Librarianship Editorial Board Maple Accreditations Committee Walnut RAS Cataloging Committee Cedar Strategic Planning Committee Willow Sydney Taylor Book Awards Committee Persimmon II

6:30 p.m.-9:00 p.m. WELCOME DINNER Cypress Ballroom Keynote Conversation featuring Leon Wieseltier, with moderator Nadine Epstein

Yiddish Music Concert by Jane Peppler, with Roger Lynn Spears with support from Yiddish of Greater Washington

9:00 p.m.-10:30 p.m. Collection Development Committee Cedar 9:00 p.m.-11:00 p.m. Hospitality Suite Open TBA

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MONDAY, JUNE 22 6:00 a.m. Morning Walk 6:45 a.m. Orthodox Shaḥarit Minyan Walnut Egalitarian Shaḥarit Minyan Willow 7:15 a.m.-8:30 a.m. Breakfast Cypress Ballroom Mentor Mingle Table 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Registration and Information Entrance to Magnolia Ballroom 8:00 a.m.-5:15 p.m. Exhibits Open Magnolia Ballroom

8:30 a.m.-10:00 a.m. Session 1

Session 1A Maple FAREWELL, KIBBUTZIM AND PIONEERS: BRINGING ISRAEL TO TODAY’S KIDS AND FAMILIES THROUGH CHILDREN’S BOOKS Moderated by Joni Sussman

Participants: Laura Gehl, Katherine Janus Kahn, and Diane Levin Rauchwerger Learning about Israel is not about the kibbutz anymore. How do we foster a love of Israel and a connection to the Jewish state through children's books in challenging political times? Join Kar-Ben Publisher Joni Sussman and the panelists as they discuss the current state of children's books about Israel. They'll discuss how topics and story-lines are selected, how they're different from past stories about Israel, what inspires the authors to write their stories, the research that goes into them, as well as the illustration process and marketing of the books. In a world where virtually every aspect of Israel is political - ask Joni how she handles maps of Israel in Kar-Ben books! - picture books are a wonderful non-political way to bring the joys and wonders of Israel to children and families, showing us all that American and Israeli Jews have in common as well as celebrating the ways we are different. Joni attended the Jerusalem International Book fair in February and will talk a bit about the Israeli children's book market as well.

Session 1B Willow DIGITIZATION AND LIBRARIES Moderated by Elizabeth Vernon

Improving Research Outcomes through Digitization of Jewish Historical Newspapers Andon Baltakov This presentation will address how careful digitization of Jewish historical newspapers can influence and inform new forms and fields of research. Front-page headlines, classified advertisements, marriage and death announcements, comic strips, reviews, display advertising, editorials, birth notices, photographs, and many other article types can – when digitized and indexed carefully – be used to help today’s researchers not only access this important primary source material, but crucially also understand the context in which it was written and consumed. Using examples from ProQuest’s Jewish historical newspapers collection, Mr. Baltakov will look at examples of family and scholarly research made possible through this scale of digitization project – as well the next generation of research made possible through use of the latest text and data mining techniques.

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MONDAY, JUNE 22 Footprints: an Experiment in Digital Humanities Michelle Chesner As a result of a working group on the history of the Jewish book, four scholars got together and decided that they wanted to take their research to the next level. The result was Footprints - a database on the movement of the Hebrew book through time and space. This session will discuss the many aspects of creating a crowdsourced digital resource from scratch with no technical knowledge or funding, and the many lessons learned along the way. The American Jewish Newspaper Digitization Project Evelyn Ehrlich The objective of the American Jewish Newspaper project is to build “The Jewish Press in the USA” section, hosted by JPress, in collaboration with the National Library of Israel, Tel Aviv University, the MaRLI (Manhattan Research Library Initiative) partners (N.Y.U., Columbia University, New York Public Library), and additional partners. This presentation will talk about the genesis of the project and address how it was conceived. It will cover what was learned along the way, in terms of logistics, but will also explore the question: how can a number of institutions with very different cultures and resources available to them collaborate successfully? The presentation will conclude highlighting a number of planned “future developments.” Digitization and Beyond: New Projects at the Leo Baeck Institute (LBI) Renate Evers DigiBaeck was launched in 2012 and is the gateway to LBI's digital collections, a growing treasury of artifacts that document the rich heritage of German-speaking Jewry in the modern era. DigiBaeck not only provides instant access to almost all the archival holdings of the LBI which include more than 3.5 million pages of personal documents, correspondence, family and community histories, genealogical materials, business records, and audio files but also to materials ranging from art works, photographs to rare books and periodicals. The presentation focuses on experiences since the launch of the portal, new challenges, insights, and new projects.

Session 1C Walnut PERSPECTIVES ON THE HOLOCAUST: THE CASE OF THE S.S. ST. LOUIS, 1939 Moderated by Barbara Krasner

Participants: Martin Goldsmith, Barbara Krasner, Dr. Rafael Medoff, and Scott Miller On May 13, 1939, nearly 1,000 German-Jewish refugees boarded the MS St. Louis in Hamburg and set off for Cuba. When the ship arrived at its destination two weeks later, only 22 passengers were allowed to disembark. After a week in the harbor and failed negotiations between the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the volatile Cuban government, the ship was forced back to international water. The shipping line ordered the St. Louis back to Germany, setting off panic among the passengers, many of whom had been interned at Buchenwald, Dachau, and Sachsenhausen as a result of Kristallnacht. Ultimately, through the Joint’s Paris office, four countries—Belgium, the Netherlands, England, and France—agreed to provide safe haven, short-lived as it was for many. This panel explores the doomed voyage of the MS St. Louis and its repercussions, captured in children’s books by Kacer and Krasner, articles by Krasner, memoir by Goldsmith, author and survivor liaison Scott Miller, and scholarly and film interpretation by Medoff. Each panelist will discuss his/her research process and production of works.

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MONDAY, JUNE 22

Session 1D Cedar JEWISH MUSIC Moderated by Nancy Groce Sponsored by Yiddish of Greater Washington

Di Grine Kuzine and Green Label Columbias Sam Brylawski This presentation will provide an overview of recordings from the first decades of the 20th century that were directed at the Jewish market in the United States. From the beginning of the century, record companies, both large and small, produced music and spoken word recordings intended for Jewish immigrants, in Yiddish, Hebrew, and English. Many of these recordings may be heard through the internet, on the Library of Congress National Jukebox website and on websites of other institutions. We will look at, and listen to, these websites and examine the broad range of content to be heard on the records. Transition: Yiddish Audio Archives and the Benjamin Stonehill Collection Miriam Isaacs In 1948, Ben Stonehill, a lover of Yiddish culture, employed newly established wire recording equipment to collect over a thousand songs and the spoken words of Holocaust survivors. This collection was from men, women and children, who informally gathered in a hotel lobby, where they were temporarily housed in Manhattan. This presentation explores the range of the thousand songs gathered, mainly in Yiddish, and what the archive tells about the psychological condition of people in transition from DP camps. The Library of Congress played a key role in creating a lasting legacy, by taking on the transfer to tape and later digitizing the collection, and even more, by sharing this audio archive, especially with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, and elsewhere. Possession of the sound archive is just the first step. Tracking, transcribing, translating, interpreting the rich materials, and understanding the social context all remain to be done. The task remains, to revive the voices to contemporary interests and uses. Next steps include creation of a website, an online resource and transforming the audio to a form usable by contemporary musicians. Reviving Lost Yiddish Theater Songs: The Itzik Zhelonek Collection Jane Peppler For decades, performers of Yiddish music have been recycling the same few "shlagers" (hits), ignorant of the wealth of Yiddish theater songs now almost extinct but still - just barely - findable. When the last 78 of a pre-war song is broken, the song disappears from our world forever. Jane will discuss a spectacular primary resource found at the Chabad library in Brooklyn: a collection of seven booklets of "Newest and Most Beloved" theater song lyrics published in Warsaw, Poland 1929-1934. Jane spent three years tracking down the melodies to these lyrics and will share her process and some of the wonderful treasures she unearthed. The end product was the songbook Yiddish Songs from Warsaw 1929-1934: the Itsik Zhelonek Collection and three CDs of this clever, lovely, but obscure music, adored between the World Wars but evidently deemed too frothy and cosmopolitan for the post-Holocaust era. The presentation will include musical examples and the projected translations she now uses to bring the music alive for a generation which has lost its understanding of the Yiddish language. City Blocks Make Good Neighbors: Muslim-Jewish Musical Interaction in Brooklyn Samuel R. Torjman Thomas This paper explores the role of music in shaping individual and collective memories. In particular, it examines ways in which members of Brooklyn's Sephardi Jewish community — a transnational group comprised of Jews from North Africa, the Levant and Iraq — use music in sacred and secular contexts to construct and express a paradoxical identity. Due to massive emigration from Muslim lands, politics associated with events and tensions in recent decades as well as developing religious ideologies, Jews

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MONDAY, JUNE 22 and Muslims have grown increasingly estranged, creating feelings of resentment and distrust. Yet, as co-ethnics in many ways, they remain deeply connected through aspects of a shared cultural and historical consciousness — music, food, language, geographic origin and cultural mores. Out of the intersection of social estrangement and affinities for shared cultural and historical consciousness, a paradoxical identity has emerged. Brooklyn, New York, is home to many immigrant communities from Arab countries. The earliest communities were established in the first two decades of the twentieth century, with new waves of immigrants in the past three to four decades expanding and diversifying these Muslim-Jewish population centers. The ethnographic fieldwork presented in this paper is drawn from participant observations and interviews with Muslim and Jewish musicians, community leaders and lay informants. Musical selections will be presented as a means for illustrating ways in which memory serves to construct identity in the present.

10:15 a.m.-11:15 a.m. Session 2

Session 2A Willow NATIONAL LIBRARY OF ISRAEL UPDATE 2015

Elhanan Adler and Marina Goldsmith In the past year, The National Library of Israel (NLI) has continued to develop and upgrade services serving libraries, researchers, and the general public. The library has taken over management of the Israel national union list (ULI) and introduced a new user interface. It is also actively expanding its name authority data with both biographical data and multi-script headings towards becoming a national authority file. The Library is also linking its bibliographic records to those of the Bibliography of the Hebrew Book. The process of integrating the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People is also underway. In the area of digitization, the Library is working with numerous institutions to help in digitizing and proving access to their Hebrew manuscripts. Planning for the Library's new building, which will include significantly more space for events, exhibitions, and other educational and cultural activities is almost completed. This session will present these and additional ongoing and planned projects.

Session 2B Maple SMALL LIBRARIES Moderated by Mindy A. Hecker

Evaluating a Small Synagogue Library Haim Gottschalk Are you a librarian in a small Midwest synagogue library? Have you ever wondered if your library is “up to par”? Did you ever have a gut feeling that your collection might be lacking some books? This presentation will answer these questions and more by providing tools that can assist you in evaluating your collection to better help you organize and maintain your library. Behind The Scenes: Library Design for the Future Stephanie Entin Wald In 2012, divisions of The Heschel School in New York City moved to a new campus. This, of course, meant the library moved as well. This was a monumental task on many levels. In this multimedia presentation, Stephanie will discuss the process - from start to finish - of moving the library including major involvement with design (which included visiting other libraries for ideas) and the technicalities of the move itself. Practical applications for modifying an existing library or designing a new library will be discussed.

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MONDAY, JUNE 22 Practicing the Art of "Tzimtzum" in Preserving Jewish Communal Ready Reference Collections Avi West Presiding over the culling and transfer of a 10,000 item Jewish public library, a few challenges and questions surfaced. Is there any way to defend sustaining a public Jewish collection in the age of the Internet and in the face of sharply declining client traffic? How may we practice sacred contraction to preserve collections of resources (media and human) and continue our quest for a literate Jewish community? What are the flexible goals we need to have? Who may our partners be in creating a more decentralized network of resources? How can we prepare students of all ages to better use Rabbi Dr. Google in doing Jewish research and researching Jewishly? Should today's library professional have a "succession plan" to keep replenishing "library champions" for the future? We may not as yet have all the answers, but we ALL need to have the conversation.

Session 2C Cedar WRITING AN EXCELLENT BOOK REVIEW: TIPS & TOOLS FOR LIBRARIANS Moderated by Rachel Kamin

Participants: Alan Cheuse, Michael Dirda, Elissa Gershowitz, Michal Malen, and Lisa Silverman Reviewing books is an essential part of any librarian’s job, but how is a book review actually written? What are the elements of a good review? Does the book need to be read in order to review it? How can the review be critical, but not too negative? How do we evaluate e-books? What does a librarian look for in a book and write about in the review in order to make their review educational, engaging, and most of all encourage patrons to read the book? These are some of the issues that will be discussed as this lively panel of well-known and highly successful reviewing experts share their tips and tools for writing book reviews for your library.

Session 2D Walnut NEGOTIATING SKILLS FOR LIBRARIANS WORKSHOP Moderated by Gail Shirazi

Presented by Michael Gruenberg By setting clear goals and expectations, information professionals can make the most of their meetings with vendors and develop mutually beneficial relationships with content salespeople. Get strategies, tips, and techniques from a longtime sales executive, supporter of libraries, and recent author of Buying and Selling Information: A Guide for Information Professionals and Salespeople to Ensure Mutual Success. Filled with real-life situations resulting in real solutions, this interactive workshop provides practical strategies, tips, and tricks for successful negotiations around content purchase and licensing. Be prepared to participate! Bring your latest negotiation frustrations -vendor names not necessary - and get expert views on how your last negotiation could have resulted in a better conclusion for the library and how to develop a better plan that will help the information professional face future negotiations with more confidence. This session will provide the tools that you can use in your very next negotiation.

11:25 a.m.-12:25 p.m. Session 3

Session 3A Maple LEGAL ASPECTS OF JEWISH IDENTITY IN AN EVOLVING WORLD Moderated by Robert Price

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MONDAY, JUNE 22 Jewish Identity in the Jewish State: Legal implications of the Jewish Character of the State of Israel Ruth Levush This session will explore constitutional aspects of Israel as a “Jewish and Democratic State.” Among topics discussed will be the meaning of the Jewish character of the state, its impact on a variety of issues such as freedom of religion in the Jewish State, the application of Jewish law in Israel, personal Jewish identity and its implications on marriage, divorce, immigration, extradition, IDF draft of yeshiva students, etc. Relevant resources available at the Law Library of Congress and elsewhere will be mentioned.

Paragraph Five: Defining Jewishness by a non-Jewish Empire Peter Roudik This presentation will focus on legal and procedural aspects of defining the so-called “Jewish nationality” under laws of the Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia. Mechanisms of registering as a Jew in government issued identification documents and following legal consequences will be analyzed in historical perspective. Domestic and foreign resources from the Law Library of Congress collection that might be of interest to a researcher of Jewish legal history will be introduced to the attendees.

Session 3B Walnut JEWISH POETRY READING BY WASHINGTON, D.C. AREA POETS Moderated by Yermiyahu Ahron Taub

Dr. Julie R. Enszer, Merrill Leffler, Kim Roberts, Myra Sklarew, and Yermiyahu Ahron Taub The Washington, D.C. area is home to a vibrant poetry scene, including the Split This Rock Festival, numerous poetry journals, countless readings, and several Busboys & Poets cafes across the city and in the suburbs, including U Street, Brookland, Chinatown, Takoma, Arlington, Va., and Hyattsville, Md., with additional locations in development. By hosting readings and building poetry collections, libraries and librarians play an important role in the nurturing of poetic culture. This session will bring together D.C. area poets in a group reading and discussion. Poets will read poems on Jewish themes and discuss the role of Jewish culture in their work.

Session 3C Cedar LIBRARY VENDORS ROUNDTABLE Moderated by David Hirsch

Participants: Shai Nachmany, A.I. Weinberg, Inc.; Zina Somova, East View; Dan Wyman, Dan Wyman Books; and Moshe Zeilingold, Aleph Hebrew Books Participants will present a brief history of their company and their methods of operation, their customer base and target audience, and the types of material collected, including special collections. Particular focus of the discussion will be on the changing bibliographic environment, including the impact of digital materials and the effect of the Information Age on their daily work flows. Participants will be asked to speculate on the future of their trade.

Session 3D Willow MICROSOFT WORKSHOP Moderated by Laurel Wolfson

Presented by Carlo Manabat Carlo Manabat, Business Sales Specialist with Microsoft, will discuss the usage of Office365 with modern electronic devices (e.g. tablets, laptops, etc.). A range of innovations will be presented. Special focus will be paid to the many features of the new Cloud technology.

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MONDAY, JUNE 22

12:30 p.m.-2:00 p.m. AUTHORS’ LUNCHEON Cypress Ballroom Sponsored by ProQuest Speakers: Merrill Leffler, Winner of AJL/Capital Area Chapter Achievement Award Sari Feldman, ALA President-Elect

2:15 p.m.-3:00 p.m. Division Meetings: SSC Meeting Cedar

RAS Meeting Maple 3:00 p.m.-4:00 p.m. General Membership Meeting Cedar 4:00 p.m.-4:30 p.m. Exhibits Only Time Magnolia Ballroom

4:30 p.m.-6:00 p.m. Session 4

Session 4A Willow PUTTING HISTORY TO WORK Moderated by Cynthia Peterman

Building the World’s Most Comprehensive and Popular Online Library of Jewish History: Culture and Politics and the Future of the Jewish Virtual Library Mitchell Bard In 1997, a student interested in learning about a Jewish topic would be hard-pressed to find it on the Internet. Most of what was available was hard to find, spread across many sites and not always good or credible. As students began to look first to the Internet for information, AICE decided it was necessary to create a one-stop shop where the answers to most questions could be found. This was the start of the Jewish Student Online Resource Center (JSOURCE), later renamed the Jewish Virtual Library (JVL), which now has approximately 30,000 entries, more than 6,000 maps, photos and other graphics, and a global audience of 900,000 users each month. This presentation will trace the growth of the JVL, some of the obstacles to its creation and maintenance, current challenges and plans for the future. Bringing History to Life in Your School Library: How a Librarian and a Jewish History Teacher Created a Simulation to Teach Students about Jewish Immigration after World War Two Mirele Kessous This session will describe how the library teamed up with the Jewish History department to design a simulation that retraced the steps of DP camp survivors on their journeys to Palestine and the United States. Students were equipped with visas, ID cards, and packs containing fake money and valuables. Their objective was to take a train out of the DP camp, board a boat either to Palestine or the USA, and make it to their destinations safely. Included in this presentation will be photographs and lesson plans, as well as reflections on what went well and how it can be improved next time. Putting History in their Hands: White Gloves Sessions as a User Outreach Tool Elaine Mael and Nadia Nasr White gloves sessions have proven to be a popular and adaptable presentation format that creatively engages attendees by allowing them to hold history in their hands. This presentation will address the concept, content, and methodology of the WGS as a vehicle for library programming. It will encourage librarians of all types of libraries to contemplate the inherent value of their collections and to evaluate them for possible venues of involvement for the communities they serve. Local and/or unique collections would be prime candidates for benefitting from this concept. The presentation will also include planning, implementing and marketing ideas to inspire other libraries to consider the potential methods of leveraging their collections by means of this interactive programming model.

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. MONDAY, JUNE 22

Session 4B Walnut WHAT MOTIVATES JEWISH CHILDREN’S LITERATURE AUTHORS? Moderated by Jacqueline Jules

Participants: Jacqueline Jules, Debbie Levy, Erica Perl, and Madelyn Rosenberg Jacqueline Jules, Debbie Levy, Erica Perl, and Madelyn Rosenberg have all written children’s books of Jewish interest and books for general audiences. In a panel discussion, these authors will discuss the following questions pertinent to librarians acquiring children’s books for their libraries. What factors help an author decide to include a Jewish character? Do authors sometimes choose to make a story less Jewish (or more so) for marketing reasons? Is it difficult to sell a story with Jewish content? Has the market for Jewish children’s books grown or shrunk in the last decade? Is self-publishing a good option for a Jewish author who can’t find a publisher? Should librarians consider self-published books for their collections? What can librarians do to help make sure there is a viable market for Jewish children’s books? Join us for a lively discussion about what motivates Jewish children’s authors to include or exclude Jewish content from their work.

Session 4C Cedar PERSPECTIVES ON MODERN ISRAEL Moderated by Yaffa Weisman

The BDS Movement: Challenges and Responses Richard Foltin For close to a decade, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has sought to delegitimize and dismantle Israel as a Jewish state by unfairly and dishonestly singling out Israel for criticism and economic pressure, and by disregarding the responsibility of other parties for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. BDS is not only about criticisms of Israeli policy - it is a wholescale assault on the legitimacy of the only democratic nation in a sea of autocracy and oppression. Moreover, while BDS activists invoke parallels to the earlier movement to ostracize South Africa, the claims that Israel is an apartheid state are risible - not least because, unlike other parts of the region, Israeli Arab citizens are entitled to full civil rights and the protection of law. While there are trade and economic aspects to BDS, a key focus of the BDS movement has been on university campuses, where activists seek to delegitimize Israel via promotion of academic boycotts and university divestment from Israel. These efforts to limit interchange between American and Israeli academic institutions and scholars are contrary to basic principles of academic freedom and freedom of speech. Opponents of BDS must be respectful of those principles, even if BDS advocates are not. At the same time, it is crucial that opponents of the movement make use of their own right of free speech to show why the BDS movement is fundamentally flawed, as well as seek to change the conversation about Israel, and develop allies, both on and off campus, in that effort.

Why One Writer Chose to Write a Novel about Anti-Israelism on Campus (rather than a Non-Fiction Book) Nora Gold Fields of Exile is the first novel about anti-Israelism on campus. Nora is frequently asked why she chose to write a novel on this difficult topic, rather than a non-fiction book. This question is understandable given that Fields of Exile contains considerable intellectual content - so much that both Phyllis Chesler and Thane Rosenbaum called Fields of Exile a “novel of ideas.” The above question, though, seems to express a common attitude toward fiction (i.e., that it is less “truthful,” and therefore less valid, than non-fiction) which Nora doesn’t share. In her presentation, Nora will enumerate some excellent reasons why a writer

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MONDAY, JUNE 22 might approach a complex contemporary issue through fiction rather than non-fiction. She will also reflect on how the activism and research she did on anti-Israelism prior to writing this novel both helped her book and created special challenges for it - challenges probably typical for authors writing “political” novels. Finally, she will comment on the “usefulness” or “uselessness” of books, and whether or not fiction can - or should - play a role in trying to promote social change. The Members of the Knesset as Consumers of Information Rivka Markus The objective of this research was to investigate how the Members of the Knesset from 1949 till 2007 used information. A sampling of quotations of Members of Parliament ("participants") who participated in the debates that took place in the Plenum during a typical week of the second session in seven Knessets was analyzed. Three groups of variables were postulated: Period - the chronological development of informational resources and their uses; Type of activities - the relationship between, the framework of the activities and type of activities, and how the Members of the Knesset relate to the different sources of information; Personal Background - the relationship between the personal background characteristics of the members of the Knesset and how they relate to the various sources that were examined. The most significant finding regarding the sources used in the work of the Plenum regards the seniority of the participants in the debate in the Plenum. The more senior the "participant" in the debate, the more inclined he is to use internal sources. A lower-ranking participant relied on external sources.

Session 4D Maple JEWISH COMMUNITIES AROUND THE WORLD Moderated by Jonina Duker

Recovering the Lives of South African Jewish Women During the Migration Years, c1880-1945 Veronica Belling Of all Jewish diaspora communities in modern times, social conditions unique to South Africa allowed Jewish women, part of a privileged white European settler minority, to play a pioneering role in fields, such as politics, law, literature, theatre and art, to a degree beyond that in the older, larger and more established Jewish communities of the United Kingdom and the United States. If individual Jewish women became conspicuous in the public sphere, their self-confidence was nurtured by a Jewish community unusual in its cohesiveness, rooted in its homogeneous origins in the rural communities in Lithuania and Latvia that forged a common identity that was reinforced within South Africa’s racially and ethnically divided society. This presentation, based on the author’s doctoral thesis, will survey the collective experiences of Jewish women - including migration, immigrant neighbourhoods, marriage, education and careers, welfare and Zionist societies and the women’s enfranchisement movement - and will juxtapose them to those of a small number of highly individualistic women, iconoclasts, whose cultural and political backgrounds predisposed them to rebel against accepted social and political conventions and to contribute (in some cases at great personal sacrifice), to the political and cultural life of South Africa. Cape Verde Historical Project Carol Castiel This presentation will discuss the work of The Cape Verde Jewish Heritage Project, Inc. (CVJHP), a nonprofit 501(c) (3) organization that aims to honor the memory and explore the contributions of the many Sephardic Jewish families who immigrated to Cape Verde from Morocco and Gibraltar in the mid-19th century. The primary goals of CVJHP are to preserve Cape Verde’s Jewish heritage by restoring and maintaining Jewish burial grounds, to educate future generations about the Jews of Cape Verde, and to encourage Jewish heritage tourism. CVJHP has the support of the Government of the Republic of Cape Verde and is working in close partnership with both municipal authorities and descendants of Jewish families to achieve these goals.

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MONDAY, JUNE 22 Jacob's Children in the Land of the Mahdi: Jews of the Sudan Jeffrey S. Malka The story of a little known community of Jews who lived and prospered in the Sudan when it was still a British colony will be discussed. This presentation, based on Eli S. Malka's book, Jacob's Children in the Land of the Mahdi, will tell the group's history from its origins as an isolated group of eight Jewish families trapped in the turmoil of the Mahdi's revolt in 1881, through its period of growth, to its final demise a mere eighty years later. Eli Malka, who was at one time president of the community, director of the largest British company in East Africa, and eldest son of the Chief Rabbi was an eyewitness to most of the events in the book. The speaker is the son of Eli Malka and was born in the Sudan and therefore lived through many of the events presented. Redesigning Jewish life in Argentina: Fundación Judaica: A Network of Communities: Unity in Diversity Rita Saccal Fundación Judaica´s commitment for the future is to ensure continuity, enhancing Jewish identity through the spiritual and real connection with Israel and other Jewish communities of the Diaspora. This means Argentine Jewish life with all its components: synagogue, education, tzedakah, integration, participation and culture. Fundación Judaica trains and educates a new generation of leaders who will be able to lead the community by the Jewish values and principles of respect, plurality, and inclusion.

6:00 p.m.-8:15 p.m. Hospitality Suite Open TBA Dinner on Your Own (see kosher restaurant listing) Orthodox Minḥah Minyan Walnut Egalitarian Minḥah Minyan Willow 8:15 p.m.-10:30 p.m. Documentary Film Screening Cedar

Q&A with filmmaker Aviva Kempner

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TUESDAY, JUNE 23 6:00 a.m. Morning Walk 7:00 a.m. Orthodox Shaḥarit Minyan Walnut Egalitarian Shaḥarit Minyan Willow 7:15 a.m.-8:30 a.m. Breakfast Cypress Ballroom 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Registration and Information Entrance to Magnolia Ballroom 8:00 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Exhibits Open Magnolia Ballroom

8:30 a.m.-10:00 a.m. Session 5

Session 5A Maple A TALE OF TWO BIBLIO-CITIES: LIBRARIES IN VIENNA AND VILNIUS Moderated by Lyudmila Sholokhova

New Life for an Old Library: Report from the Vilna Ghetto Ellen Cassedy In the Vilna Ghetto during World War II, the ghetto library drew thousands of patrons and circulated more than 100,000 books. Today, a group of young Lithuanians are hoping that the now-empty building, currently owned by the Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum, will again become a place where Lithuania’s magnificent Jewish cultural heritage can be remembered, mourned, and honored. The first event – a reading of poetry by ghetto prisoner Avrom Sutzkever, in Lithuanian translation – was held in September. This presentation describes the library’s prewar history and its functioning as a cultural center within the ghetto. Ellen will then describe how current plans for the building’s restoration fit within the broader project of Lithuania’s encounter with the Jewish past. As expressions of anti-Semitism proliferate in many European countries, officials, educators, activists, and scholars are seeking to connect this small Baltic land with the Jewish past and with the Holocaust. Once, the ghetto library opened a wider world to trapped ghetto residents. In the future, perhaps, it will once again become a place that opens minds and hearts. Reconnecting the Past and Present at the Vilna/Vilnius Jewish Library Olga Potap The Vilnius Jewish Public Library, the first Jewish library in Lithuania since World War II, opened in 2011 thanks to the initiative of Mr. Wyman Brent. His goal was to establish a cultural institution for Jews and Gentiles that would foster compassion, respect, and responsibility for all members of the community. By 2014, the Vilnius Jewish Public Library made significant improvements, especially in the areas of collection development, the management of public relations, and the unification of the local community. However, the library website and its social networks provided very little information about the history of Jewish libraries in Vilna. This paper will explore how to create a bridge between the past and the present for the Jewish Public Library through an exhibition of digitized primary source materials that tells the story of the community built around the Strashun and Ghetto libraries in Vilna. Allowing the primary sources to tell the story of the Vilna Jewish Library’s past makes the Vilnius Jewish Public Library community more versatile, diverse, and not limited by geographic borders.

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TUESDAY, JUNE 23 Restoring Knowledge and Fairness: Vienna University's Jewish Studies Library and Historical Responsibility at the Seventieth Anniversary of the End of World War Two Monika Schreiber In 2015, Austrian libraries still struggle with the country’s responsibility for the legacy of National Socialism. Nazi looting is the issue here; historical fairness the aim; extended provenance research the pathway to achieving it. Vienna University's Jewish Studies Library has recently been a twofold site of this struggle: both as an unexpected holder of NS-confiscated Judaica and as the workplace of its librarian, who has just begun a new research project concerned with the provenance of the university's object collections. In both these areas, Monika has needed to address questions of Jewish identity, education, and the persecution of the Jewish intelligentsia. The presentation will include an account of the practical challenges posed by the occurrence of looted/restored books and objects among library holdings (cataloging, availability), as well as examples of stamps and notes that have allowed books and objects to be identified as looted.

Session 5B Walnut TELLING STORIES FROM YOUR CENTER: LIBRARIANS, LITERATURE, AND TELLING A TALE Moderated by Jennifer Rudick Zunikoff

Robin Jacobson, Sonia Kozlovsky, and Jennifer Rudick Zunikoff When librarian Robin Jacobson performs for her middle school students at Adas Israel Congregation, she transforms into Proffy, a boy living in Jerusalem in 1947, and the protagonist of Amos Oz's novella, Panther in the Basement. After befriending a British policeman, Proffy worries that he will be seen as a traitor to his people. Robin captivates her listeners as she powerfully uses her voice and facial expressions, sharing Proffy's fears and his high ideals. When Krieger Schechter Day School Librarian Sonia Kozlovsky performs for a 4th grade class, she becomes Goldie, the humorous and hopeful Yenta of Chelm. When Sonia teaches trickster tales to second graders, she is Joha desperately trying to remove a magical stick from his finger. The children watch with delighted smiles and giggles as their librarian embodies these unique characters and their foibles. Have you wondered if you could become a lively storyteller like Sonia and Robin? You can! Storytelling coach Jennifer Rudick Zunikoff will guide you through the steps necessary to transform your passion for literature into an oral story that will engage you and your students. In this session, these two Jewish librarians will share stories they have successfully performed at their schools. Jennifer will model exercises you can use to spark student excitement for different topics and have your students telling stories too. Prepare for an active session! You will have the opportunity to listen, learn, and become a teacher and librarian who uses storytelling to create a meaningful connection to the literature you love.

Session 5C Cedar GRAPHIC REPRESENTATIONS OF THE HOLOCAUST AND JEWISH LIFE Moderated by Rachel Leket-Mor

Secret Origins of The Jewish Comix Anthology Steven M. Bergson When an author is asked "What was your inspiration?" or "Where did the idea for your book come from?", the answer usually involves a singular story or event. The Jewish Comix Anthology is a varied mixture of stories and artistic styles. The sources and experiences which led to its eventual publication were varied, as well. Comic books, storytelling circles, library school and conventions (including AJL) had their roles to play in sparking the idea that a comix anthology could be a wonderful way to bring certain Jewish stories to life, while also gathering together the work of a talented group of artists and writers.

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Keeping My Hope Christopher Huh Christopher Huh started writing Keeping My Hope when he was 13, after learning about the Holocaust in his middle school. Created entirely with just paper and pencil, it took him about 1½ years to complete the book. To write Keeping My Hope, Christopher spent over a thousand hours conducting research on the subject. When the book was published in February 2013, Christopher was 14, and an 8th grade honor student attending public school in Montgomery County, Maryland. Keeping My Hope is a 169 page historical fiction graphic novel. Ari is a teenager whose entire life is turned upside down by the horrors of the Holocaust. He and his family are torn apart and moved to Auschwitz, where the reader gains an inside look at what prisoners in concentration camps suffered. However, even with these atrocities, the power of friendship shines through and gives Ari hope to keep surviving through the darkest blizzards of terror. Informative yet touching, Keeping My Hope spreads the message of how powerfully racism and prejudice can affect those around us. Cartoonists Against the Holocaust: A New Way of Teaching About Genocide Dr. Rafael Medoff Political cartoons offer an important but overlooked resource for learning about the Holocaust. Exhibits of select cartoons from 1930s-1940s U.S. newspapers can be used, both in classrooms and as library displays, to shed light on the plight of Europe's Jews - and the world's response. When juxtaposed with political cartoons about more recent genocides, such as Darfur, such displays can foster greater understanding of the way Americans have viewed human rights crises around the world. This presentation will examine how schools and libraries alike can take advantage of the recent surge of interest in graphic novels, comic books, and cartoons, by utilizing resources that shed light on the intersection between cartoons and current events. The presentation will include slides of sample cartoons from the Holocaust and Darfur.

Session 5D Willow READING AND TRANSLATING JEWISH TEXTS Moderated by Dr. Adele Berlin

A Most Unusual Source of Halakha (Jewish law) Rabbi Steve Glazer While the law codes and responsa are the major sources of Jewish law, a third, and rarely discussed, additional source is Piyyut, Hebrew Liturgical Poetry. Of the extant piyyutim, which may number as many as one hundred thousand, less than one thousand contain laws. After a brief overview of the field of Piyyut, this presentation will focus on several piyyutim that contain laws relating to Passover and will examine regional variants. In addition, it will offer suggestions as to why those variants existed. The crucial role that research librarians, from Alabama to Oxford, played in assisting the presenter will be highlighted! The Curlicues of Translating a 19th Century Text in Terms of the 21st Century Morton J. Merowitz This presentation will consist of reading portions of Merowitz’s translation of Nahman Krochmal's Moreh Nevuchei HaZeman, (A Guide for the Perplexed of Our Time), a book which seeks to analyze both the uniqueness of the Jewish people and its history. Krochmal (1785-1840), a Galician businessman and autodidact, was a rather reclusive individual, who evidently saw himself as an 18th century Maimonides. His Moreh Nevuchei HaZeman is an attempt to explain the unique nature of Jewish history and how something Krochmal called 'the Absolute Spirit' ( המוחלט רוחני ) gave impetus to the Jewish people's survival throughoutits history. The book, edited by Krochmal's literary executor, Leopold Zunz, was published

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posthumously in 1851. It has been published a number of times since then (one edition as recently as 2010) and consists of some seventeen chapters trying to ferret out the key of 'The Eternal People's” survival. The introductory part of this rather arcane work sets the tone for a journey through Jewish history and the Hebrew language as both evolved, and as the people and their unique history, transformed one another. The Past and Future of American Jewish Bible Translation and Commentary Rabbi Barry L. Schwartz Advances in scholarship and the digital revolution are shaping the translation, commentary and presentation of Judaism’s sacred texts, including the Bible, in dramatic new ways. This session outlines the history of American Jewish Bible translation and commentary and discusses the challenges with this enterprise in the coming decades. The session will be organized as follows:

I. A brief introductory word on the place of the TANAKH and the history of Hebrew Bible translation and commentary through the ages.

II. The translation of the Bible in America from Isaac Leeser to the Jewish Publication Society and contemporary efforts by Alter, Fox, Artscroll, Koren, and others.

III. The commentary of the Bible in America by JPS, the Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox movements, and the Jewish Study Bible (Oxford).

IV. What’s next in Bible translation and commentary? V. The quest for a fully integrated digital TANAKH: promises and challenges.

10:15 a.m.-11:30 a.m. Session 6

Session 6A Walnut PROFILES OF JUDAICA COLLECTORS AND LIBRARIANS Moderated by Jennifer Breger

Relics of a Long life: the Gaster Papers at University College London Vanessa Freedman Moses Gaster (1856-1939), Sephardi Chief Rabbi, Zionist leader and polymath, left behind a vast archive of over 170,000 items, including correspondence, diaries, notebooks, unpublished memoirs, photographs, press cuttings, ephemera and more. This paper will explain the history and content of the archive and how it illuminates both Gaster’s life and work, as well as the Anglo-Jewish community in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It will describe the arrangement, cataloguing, conservation and digitization of the archive carried out by the presenter and her predecessors since its deposit at University College London in 1960. It will also address the challenges faced by librarians in dealing with archival material. The Life and Career of Dr. Israel Schapiro, First Head of the Hebraic Section of the Library of Congress Brad Sabin Hill Polish-born Israel Schapiro, who headed the Semitic Division of the Library of Congress for over three decades, brought together various strands of traditional East European learning, modern Orientalist scholarship, Hebrew bibliography, and Western librarianship. This paper examines his background, education, writings and professional activity, especially in bibliography and the establishment of a national collection of Hebraica.

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TUESDAY, JUNE 23 The Library of Matisyahu Strashun: A Study of Private and Public Book Collection and Dispersal Dan Rabinowitz Most modern libraries with substantial Hebraica holdings were created through the acquisition of private collections either by purchase, donation, or fiat. This interplay between the private collector and library is a symbiotic and necessary one, ultimately furthering knowledge of the Hebrew book. Matisyahu Strashun was an avid collector of Hebraica in 19th century Vilna amassing a significant library. He bequeathed his library to the Vilna community after his death with instructions and capital to create a public library. His library has survived, while not completely intact, in remarkable condition, if in changed circumstances. Tracing his library’s journey, from Strashun’s collection efforts, the transformation into one of Vilna’s most important pre-World War II libraries, its survival through the war, and its status today, provides a window into the interplay between the public and private individual and each’s role in preserving and disseminating the Hebrew book.

Session 6B Maple WHAT ARE WE READING? THE LATEST AND GREATEST IN JEWISH FICTION FOR ADULTS Moderated by Rachel Kamin

Participants: Rachel Kamin, Lisa Silverman, and Ellen Tilman Our patrons are looking for a "Good Read." How can we help them find an appropriate book? How can we keep up with all of the new releases? What are Jewish book groups reading? Explore the latest and greatest in Jewish fiction for adult readers and come prepared to share some of your favorite new titles.

Session 6C Willow ON PRESENTING AND READING Moderated by Heidi Rabinowitz Estrin

Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia (JCCNV)’s Book Club for Special Needs Jean Gurman The Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia (JCCNV)’s Special Needs Committee launched a book club two years ago. The book club’s focus is on books about special needs, non-fictional stories of inspiration, and books related to disabilities to broaden knowledge. The goal is to be educated on most, if not all, disabilities. The JCCNV Cultural Arts Director attends the Conference of Jewish Authors in New York, held in May of each year, to identify inspiring authors who write about the story of their struggle of coming to terms and coping with their disability and are living successful and meaningful lives. They are invited to participate in the J Talk speaker programs of which the Special Needs Book Club and Special Needs Committee are partners in this program. The Book Club meetings are held at the JCCNV every six weeks from 6:30 p.m.–7:30 p.m. prior to the special needs committee meetings. The members are diverse in age, profession, single or married, with and without a child or children with a disability, and neighbors or friends of someone they know who has a disability in their family. All are welcome. Secular Stories from a Jewish Perspective Toby Harris From picture books to young adult series fiction, secular books can be used to illustrate Jewish values and culture. Though there are certainly many high quality Jewish stories available to us, bringing Jewish perspective to a secular story demonstrates the value of Jewish texts and insight for our students. Learn about some popular and not-so-popular titles for a range of ages along with crossover authors who write secular and Jewish books.

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TUESDAY, JUNE 23 On Presenting at AJL and Other Conferences Dina Herbert and Aimee Lurie Many of us have stage fright getting up in front of our peers to present topics relevant to AJL or librarianship. This workshop will give seasoned and new AJL members an opportunity to learn how to prepare and present at a session to dazzle peers. We will look at tools for presenting, like PowerPoint and Prezi, some basics like how to create slides and come up with an intriguing topic, and how to present in a panel, poster session, forum, or other ways. We hope to tap some AJL members and local talent, especially DC area librarians and professors at library schools, who are seasoned presenters, to give AJL members an opportunity to learn from colleagues and gain confidence in presenting in the future. Let’s Focus Ellen Share Attracting and holding children’s attention during library period is not easy in these times when children spend hours watching TV or movies and surfing the web. Ellen has found beginning a library period with an introductory activity which serves to transition and focus is important. An origami demonstration or yoga posture quiets the class as a whole, blocks out distractions and focuses the attention. The origami figures can also be integrated into storytelling and used as an easy and clean art project in the library. NO ARTISTIC ABILITY IS REQUIRED. Moving the body in the shape of Hebrew letters is for all ages, including pre-school. In addition to focusing and calming, it provides familiarity with Hebrew letters and helps to reinforce the Hebrew alphabet. It is another teaching modality to use to help students learn the shape of Hebrew letters. NO ATHLETIC ABILITY REQUIRED.

Session 6D Cedar FUNDRAISING WORKSHOP: SPEAKING OF MONEY! Moderated by Shoshanah Seidman

Presented by Andrea Glazer This session will focus on creating fiscal stability for our libraries. Annual giving, planned giving, and capital campaigns are components of funding plans. But how do they work? Is each mutually exclusive of the others? Does emphasizing one mean you diminish the potential of the others? We don’t have a development staff, how can we raise money and still do our jobs? Annual gifts are the lifeblood of an operating budget. What are the components of an annual appeal? Do I need training in financial planning to build an endowment? Why should we bother with planned giving when we need money now? Will a capital campaign detract from our other solicitations? The above questions and many others will be addressed. Sponsorships, partnerships, direct mail, managing a donor database, and donor recognition are important aspects of successful fundraising. What role does the board of directors have in meeting our goals? This session will help you create an annual approach and plan to raising operating funds, as well as longer term goals to building funding stability for years to come.

11:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m. Exhibits Only Time Magnolia Ballroom

12:00 p.m.-1:45 p.m. AJL AWARDS LUNCH Cypress Ballroom Fanny Goldstein Merit Award Winner Joy Kingsolver,

Accreditation, AJL Scholarships, Honoring Past AJL Presidents, and Commemorative AJL Slide Show

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TUESDAY, JUNE 23 2:00 p.m.-3:30 p.m. Session 7

Session 7A Cedar CONTEMPORARY ANTI-SEMITISM Moderated by Steven Luckert

Has Anti-Semitism Become an Epidemic on American College Campuses? Mitchell Bard Anti-Semitism on American college campuses has been growing in recent years. While the Arab-Israeli Conflict and the BDS movement have been major themes in this rise, they are by no means the only ones. This talk will examine the specific threats that anti-Semitism poses on today’s college campus and will frame them within the context of a resurgent global anti-Semitism. Israel and Anti-Semitism Joshua Muravchik Criticism of Israel need not stem from anti-Semitism nor is one tantamount to the other; nonetheless a growing share is in fact laced with anti-Semitism. One reason is that relentless extreme and unbalanced criticism of Israel has created a hothouse atmosphere in which anti-Semitism is metastasizing. The United Nations General Assembly, for example, has condemned Israel three times more than all other nations combined. British teacher unions have voted academic boycotts of Israeli universities but not those in countries where there is neither academic freedom nor independent labor unions. American church denominations have divested from Israeli companies but not those of countries which allow no freedom of religion and persecute Christians. With the 2014 war in Gaza, Turkey’s President Erdogan accused Israel of “barbarism that surpasses Hitler.” If that is so, then Hitler was the lesser evil. Had he only finished the job the world would have been spared something worse. The logic is plain. If the Jewish state is so evil, can the Jewish people be innocent? Anti-Semitism and the Middle East: Hard Data about a Hard (But Not Hopeless) Problem David Pollock Anti-Semitism related to Middle East conflicts is a major contemporary issue, but there is relatively little data-driven research about it. This presentation will attempt to fill that gap by analyzing actual empirical findings from survey and other research about the causes, consequences, and possible cures for anti-Semitism related to Middle East problems, especially the Arab-Israeli conflict and Islamic extremism. Reference will be made to public opinion polls, official statements, and related material from the U.S., Europe, and around the Muslim world.

Session 7B Maple SYDNEY TAYLOR BOOK AWARD COMMITTEE I Moderated by Diane Rauchwerger Sponsored by Ellen Share

Award winning author and illustrator Jim Aylesworth and Barbara McClintock, Sydney Taylor Book Award Winners for Young Readers, will discuss their book My Grandfather’s Coat. Editor Sylvie Frank will discuss Storm, by Donna Jo Napoli, Sydney Taylor Book Award Winner for Teen Readers. Diane Rauchwerger will discuss Hidden: A Child’s Story of the Holocaust, by Loic Dauvillier, illustrated by Marc Lizano and Greg Salsedo, winner of the Sydney Taylor Book Award for Older Readers.

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Session 7C Willow IN THE JEWISH ARCHIVES AND RARE BOOK STACKS Moderated by Henry Mayer

Illustrated Haggadot from the Collection of Duke Library Rachel Ariel Duke University libraries hold a significant collection of illustrated Haggadot, ranging from limited edition facsimiles of early manuscripts to a rich variety of Haggadot published all over the Jewish Diaspora and in Israel in the last hundred years. Among the 450 Haggadot in the collection are facsimiles of the 13th century Birds-Heads Haggadah and of illuminated medieval Haggadot created in Germany, Spain and Italy, as well as of Haggadot printed in Prague and in Amsterdam during the Early Modern era. The collection also holds modern, non-traditional Kibbutz Haggadot, unique Haggadot created by well-known contemporary artists, as well as recent Haggadot that represent the feminist and gender revolutions. Each illustrated Haggadah is the product of the time, culture and space in which it was created. In this presentation, Rachel Ariel will show an abundance of images and discuss how the time period in which Haggadot were produced, and the culture and artistic environment in which the artists lived and worked, influenced the style and imagery that accompany the traditional text. The illustrations that describe Biblical scenes and themes from the Midrash represent the artistic style, architecture and fashion of the time. The pictures of preparations for Pesach and the various parts of the Seder reflect the lives of the Jews at that particular period, their customs and traditions. In some illuminated Haggadot the landscape of the land of Canaan features medieval castles surrounded by green valleys and wooded European mountains. Moses searching for his stray sheep in front of Mount Horev looks like a shepherd in the Alps, and the Jewish figures, in the 13th century manuscript, are given birds’ heads instead of human heads. Modern artists such as Ze’ev Raban, Arthur Szyk, Maty Grunberg, David Moss and others bring to their illustrated Haggadot recent historical events, issues and ideologies that have permeated Jewish life since the beginning of the twentieth century.

Of Whitest Marble, Gold, and Pearls: Odes to the Printing Press in Early Hebrew Books Ann Brener It was apparently a case of love at first sight. How else to describe those first encounters between the earliest Hebrew printers and that newfangled technology that was spreading across Europe? Already in the Arba’ah Turim from 1475, the first dated Hebrew book, the printer expressed passionate admiration for the new invention - and he did so in a poem, a lovely little Hebrew poem written according to all the strictest rules of Golden Age Poetry from Muslim Spain. And this was only the beginning. Throughout the 15th and 16th centuries, printers often began (or ended) their books with poems expressing their sense of wonder over the new invention - and extolling the beauty and accuracy of their own craftsmanship. Although these poems have been almost entirely ignored in the research, they are often rich in historical data and peculiarly evocative of time and place. This lecture will examine the themes of these printers’ poems, their techniques and goals, and the use of biblical vocabulary in promoting the new technology. Rescue or Theft? The Postwar Transfer of French Jewish Archives to the U.S. Lisa M. Leff Historian Zosa Szajkowski (1911-1978) was responsible for the transfer of French-Jewish archives to a number of research libraries in the United States after the Holocaust. While some see these transfers as a form of rescue from certain destruction in the war and its wake, others see them as a form of theft, carried out at a time of crisis for French Jewry. This paper seeks neither to condemn nor to exculpate Szajkowski. Instead, Ms. Leff situates these transfers in the tumultuous aftermath of World War II, when vast quantities of Judaica were being moved across the Atlantic for political and economic reasons. Szajkowski had a complex set of motivations, shared with other refugee historians - the desire to preserve

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and study the Jewish past; to defend the Jewish people using documentation; and to establish the preeminence of American Jewish research institutions in the wake of the Nazi genocide. In putting these transfers in their historical context, the paper raises questions about why archives mattered in the aftermath of the war, and what effect the archive transfer has had on our conception of French Jewish history.

Session 7D Walnut MUSEUMS ROUNDTABLE Moderated by Pearl Berger

Building a Jewish Museum in the 21st Century Laura Apelbaum In the 20th century Jewish museums expanded, were built, and grew across the United States. Now a new Jewish museum is on the horizon in Washington, D.C. (projected opening 2020). What elements will distinguish this new facility? How will the core exhibition be a reflection of the unique Jewish community in Washington - a city that is at once local, national, and international. Attendees will be among the first to hear plans for the new facility and about the challenges building a Jewish museum presents in the 21st century. Rescuing the Evidence of the Holocaust Michael Grunberger This presentation will focus on the work of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to “rescue the evidence” of the Holocaust. The collection - which is inextricably bound to the Jewish experience - supports the Museum’s overall objective to ensure the permanence and relevance of Holocaust memory. As America’s national collection on the Holocaust, the Museum seeks to build the collection of record on the Holocaust that is fully accessible and preserved for posterity. This presentation will describe the extent and scope of the collections; the tools that have been developed to provide both on campus as well as web access; and the preservation challenges that the Museum faces in its work. Included in this part of the presentation will be a preview of the Museum’s new Shapell Collections and Conservation Center that is currently under construction in Bowie, Md.

What Makes a Museum Experience "Jewish"? Marvin Pinkert Marvin Pinkert's 27 years in the museum field has included displays of model trains, a coal mine, the US Constitution and Shaquille O'Neal's sneakers. Now as director of the Jewish Museum of Maryland he is leading the team that is reshaping that organization's future. His biggest surprise at JMM is how often the question arises "what makes that exhibit (on comic books, medicine, scrap industry) Jewish?" Pinkert will draw on examples, past, present and future to try to explain why he finds this question so unusual.

3:45 p.m.-5:00 p.m. Session 8

Session 8A Walnut JEWS IN THE MILITARY Moderated by Rabbi Yonatan Warren

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Jewish Aspects of Arlington National Cemetery Les Bergen Over 5,500 Jews are buried at the beautiful cemetery overlooking Washington. This talk will tell the accomplishments of several of them - warriors, but also Supreme Court Justices, U.S. senators, ambassadors, astronauts, the sculptor of the Confederate Memorial. All either served in the military from the Civil War to the Iraq War, or are spouses of veterans. This will be a slide presentation of a selection of veterans. It will also tell the Jewish history associated with the Confederate Memorial, USS Maine, and the Columbia and Challenger space shuttle monuments. Some examples are a dozen Union soldiers among the first interred at Arlington. Most were likely recent German immigrants about whom little is known and a Sephardi Confederate veteran who became famous after the war. Other examples to be discussed are Albert Sabin, who learned his skills in the WWII Army, Justice Arthur Goldberg, Senators Lautenberg (WWII), Warren Rudman (Korea combat leader), and two Millennials killed a month apart in Iraq – one a Soviet Jew; the other a grandson of a 1930s refugee from Germany. Preserving the Voices of Our (Jewish) Veterans: the Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress Bob Patrick Bob Patrick, Director, Veterans History Project (VHP), will speak on the background of VHP’s creation, the current status of VHP archive, VHP’s value to librarians, researchers and the general public, and the importance of volunteer participation in VHP to collect and preserve the stories of veterans in our families, our lives and our communities. He will also discuss the service of some of the Jewish veterans who have participated in VHP. Ours to Fight For: American Jewish Soldiers in World War II Jason Steinhauer Jason Steinhauer will present on the contributions, impact, and legacy of American Jewish service during World War II.

Session 8B Willow SYDNEY TAYLOR BOOK AWARD COMMITTEE II Moderated by Diane Rauchwerger The Sydney Taylor Book Award Committee will discuss recent trends in Jewish children’s literature and will highlight selected books received in 2014. Bibliographies for all ages will include inclusivity, young adult love stories, graphic novels and Holocaust literature.

Session 8C Maple READING JEWISH SOCIAL HISTORY THROUGH COOKBOOKS Moderated by Susan Barocas

The Roots and Routes of Jewish Cooking Joan Nathan For the past several years, and really throughout the majority of her professional life, Joan Nathan has been digging into the roots and routes of Jewish cooking investigating how food has changed and adapted as Jews moved throughout the Diaspora, and how the foods themselves have been transported across countries after centuries of exploration and conquests. She will talk about a few of her findings, such as the curious question of cornmeal's popularity in Italy and Romania, how a New World tuber came to be known as the Jerusalem artichoke, and how the spice trade has shifted and evolved over the centuries, changing not only the flavors of our food but also the very nations that grow and trade them.

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TUESDAY, JUNE 23 Researching the History of Hungarian/Czech Jewry through the Food and Memories of One Family Who Survived the Holocaust Lynn Shapiro Food Family and Tradition: Hungarian Kosher Family Recipes and Remembrances presents a unique perspective on the Holocaust by merging Lynn’s family’s authentic recipes with their culture and history. This presentation will allow participants to taste the spirit of Eastern European Jewry and appreciate the journey of developing the book. First, the book is a resource to learn about the Holocaust. Memories evoked by the comfort foods of “home” personalize the history. Lynn will describe the culinary traditions of Hungarian and Czechoslovakian Jews, as typified by her parents’ and family’s heritage. Lynn will describe the journey: the process of developing the recipes, documenting the memories, researching details, documents, and history through resources available, guiding others in researching their own family history. Additionally, Lynn’s presentation will pay tribute to all survivors of the Holocaust, recognizing their courage, kindness, and resilience. Finally, the goal of the presentation is to bring this important historical period alive by enveloping the culinary flavors within the memories – through food and storytelling, together. The Surprisingly Provocative Effects of a Turkish/ Sephardic Cookbook Beyhan Trock In this presentation, Beyhan Çagri Trock, the author of the Turkish and Sephardic cookbook/memoir The Ottoman Turk and the Pretty Jewish Girl: Real Turkish Cooking, will discuss the historical and culinary contexts of her family’s history. In Istanbul in the early 1940’s, Muslims and Jews rarely mixed. The cross-cultural love of Trock's Muslim father Zeki Bey and her mother, a Jewish girl named Beti was quite scandalous. The couple ran off together and ultimately immigrated to the United States with their children in the late 1950’s, bringing with them an exceptionally rich culture and cuisine. By presenting the history of the Turks and Sephardic Jews as the setting for her family’s cultural and culinary odyssey, Trock has woven a wonderful tapestry of her bi-religious family’s trek through some of humanity’s most tumultuous times. Her book reveals a complex saga of sacrifice and resilience as she traces the major political events which eventually brought her Turkish and Jewish ancestors to the shores of the Bosphorus. Trock’s presentation will highlight some of the central themes of her book and how she used family recipes and traditions to illustrate wider cultural norms.

Session 8D Cedar

THE FUTURE OF LIBRARIANSHIP: A ROUNDTABLE Moderated by Zachary Baker

Participants: John Carlo Bertot, Arthur Kiron, Roberta I. Shaffer, and David Shumaker Please join us for a wide-ranging, thought-provoking discussion on the future of our profession. The participants will bring expertise from a variety of perspectives on the innovations currently taking place and ones they envision will take place in the future. Given the rapidly changing nature of librarianship, what skill sets will librarians and information professionals need to fit this new reality? How can librarians prepare for the new changes? At the same time, how can we retain and hone our core skills in this new marketplace? How can we encourage information and cultural literary and sustained critical analysis in the era of Twitter and apps and Internet surfing?

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5:30 p.m. Orthodox Minḥah Minyan Walnut Egalitarian Minḥah Minyan Willow 6:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m. Reception Magnolia Ballroom

Sponsored by Media Flex--OPALS

7:00 p.m.-10:00 p.m. AWARDS BANQUET Cypress Ballroom

10:00 p.m.-11:00 p.m. Hospitality Suite Open TBA 10:00 p.m. Orthodox Maʻariv Minyan Walnut Egalitarian Maʻariv Minyan Willow

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24

6:00 a.m. Morning Walk 7:00 a.m. Orthodox Shaḥarit Minyan Persimmon I Egalitarian Shaḥarit Minyan Persimmon II 7:15 a.m.-8:15 a.m. Breakfast (on your own or pre-ordered kosher box breakfast) 8:15 a.m. Departure for tours and travel to Hotel Lobby

Library of Congress via Metro (See General Information for guidance on transportation, meals, etc.)

10:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m.

Programs with LC Curators and Staff. Choose one of the following two tours: Tour A (Jefferson Building): Hebraic Sect., American Folklife Ctr., Young Readers Ctr.

Tour B (Madison Building): Preservation, Prints & Photographs, Music Division 12:30 p.m.-2:00 p.m. Lunch on your own

Travel to United States Holocaust Memorial Museum via Metro

2:00 p.m.-4:30 p.m.

Programs and Tours with USHMM Staff Meet in the Rubinstein Auditorium, Lower Level Schedule of programs and tours to be provided

5:15 p.m.-6:30 p.m. Conference Debriefing USHMM, Classroom

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Presenter Biographies Elhanan Adler retired from the National Library of Israel in 2009 and is currently a consultant to the National Library of Israel. He is also the head of the graduate program in library and information science at David Yellin College of Education in Jerusalem.

Laura Apelbaum is a native of the Washington area and has been Executive Director of the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington for twenty years. Her work centers on preserving historic synagogues and artifacts, collecting archival material, and expanding youth programs. She is the editor of several books: Jewish Life in Mr. Lincoln’s City, Jewish Washington, Pocket Guide to Jewish Sites in Arlington National Cemetery, and Voices of the Vigil. She is a past chairperson of the Council of American Jewish Museums.

Originally from Israel, Rachel Ariel studied History, Political Science and Education at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Jewish Studies at the Hebrew College in Boston. Upon coming to North Carolina in 1994, Rachel became one of the two founding teachers of the new Jewish Community Day School of Durham-Chapel Hill. Rachel was the Director of Jewish Studies at the Lerner School as well as a Hebrew and Jewish Studies teacher. Since 2006, Rachel has served as the Librarian for Jewish Studies at Duke University Libraries. Libi Astaire writes about Jewish history for The Jewish Press, Mishpacha Magazine and Aish.com. She is the author of the historical novels Terra Incognita and The Banished Heart, as well as Day Trips to Jewish History, a collection of essays about lesser known people and places in Jewish history. The first volume in her popular Jewish Regency Mysteries series, The Disappearing Dowry, was a Sydney Taylor Notable Book for Teens in 2010. The newest book in the series, The Moon Taker, was published in February 2015. She lives in Jerusalem, Israel. Jim Aylesworth was a first grade teacher for twenty-five years, earning professional recognition for his work with children. (Those Who Excel, Illinois Office of Education; Governor’s Master Teacher, et al.) During that time, he read to his children nearly every single day and grew to love the books himself as much as the children did. Jim credits those years as a teacher and reader for gradually changing him into the author of more than thirty children's books. Now retired from the classroom, Jim travels widely - visiting with kids in their schools across America and telling the happy story of how it all came to be. Zachary M. Baker is Reinhard Family Curator of Judaica and Hebraica Collections in the Stanford University Libraries, where he also serves as Assistant University Librarian for Collection Development (Humanities & Social Sciences). A past-President of AJL (1994-1996) and former editor of Judaica Librarianship (2004-2012), currently he is Secretary-Treasurer of the Association for Jewish Studies (2013-2015). In addition, he is an active participant in the Digital Yiddish Theatre Project. Mitchell Bard is the Executive Director of the nonprofit American Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE) and an authority on U.S. Middle East policy. Dr. Bard is also the director of the Jewish Virtual Library (JewishVirtualLibrary.org), perhaps the most popular and comprehensive online resource on Jewish history, politics and culture. Bard holds a Ph.D. in political science from UCLA, a master's degree in public policy from UC Berkeley, and a B.A. in economics from UC Santa Barbara. In 2013, Dr. Bard was named one of the “top 100 people positively influencing Jewish life” by the Algemeiner newspaper. He has written and edited 24 books, including After Anatevka: Tevye in Palestine and Death to the Infidels: Radical Islam’s War Against the Jews.

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Susan Barocas finds the kitchen to be a place of unending creativity, personal expression and connection to her family history and Jewish heritage. Susan was the founding director of the Jewish Food Experience, an award-winning website and community-wide program. Her stories and recipes have appeared in the Washington Post, Washington Jewish Week, Tablet and D.C. Outlook among others. She has been catering and teaching cooking to all ages for over 15 years and is working on a cookbook. Susan does food-related appearances on television and radio and was honored to help prepare the 2014 White House Passover Seder. When not in a kitchen, she also writes and produces documentary films.

Andon Baltakov is Vice President, Product Management at ProQuest, where he oversees all news and genealogy publishing programs including ProQuest’s newspaper digitization program. The historical newspaper series includes major national titles (The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal), international titles (The Times of India, South China Morning Post, The Guardian and The Observer) and collections such as Jewish Historical Newspapers. Before joining ProQuest, Andon was the senior director of business operations at CNN. In his early career, Andon worked as a radio producer in his native Bulgaria, a broadcaster with the BBC World Service, and the editor of a Bulgarian newspaper in New York. He holds an M.B.A. from Yale University.

Lisa Baydush is an engaging singer, song-writer, and early childhood music specialist in the D.C. metropolitan area who delights in transmitting the values, stories and traditions of Judaism through the medium of Jewish music. A dynamic preschool and religious school music teacher, Lisa also leads experiential Tot Shabbat and holiday services throughout the year, and has produced four albums of original songs. Lenore Bell is the Library Director at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and was previously Head of the Israel and Judaica Section at the Library of Congress. Veronica Belling was the Jewish Studies Librarian at the University of Cape Town Libraries and the Isaac & Jessie Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies & Research for 31 years, 1981-2012. She is currently an Honorary Research Associate attached to the Isaac & Jessie Kaplan Centre, University of Cape Town. She has a Ph.D. in Historical Studies for a thesis entitled Recovering the Lives of South African Jewish Women During the Migration Years, c1880 to 1939 (University of Cape Town, 2013). She is the author of Bibliography of South African Jewry (1997); Yiddish Theatre in South Africa: a History from the Late Nineteenth Century to 1960 (2008); From Cape Jewish Orphanage to Oranjia Jewish Child and Youth Centre: a Hundred Years of Caring For Our Children, 1911-2011 (2014); and the translator from the Yiddish of Leibl Feldman’s Jews of Johannesburg until Union, 31 May 1910 (2007); Yakov Azriel Davidson: His Writings in the Yiddish Newspaper, Der Afrikaner, 1911-1913 (2009); and There Was Once a Home: Memories of the Lithuanian Shtetls in the Afrikaner Idishe Tsaytung – African Jewish Newspaper, 1952-1954 (2015); and many scholarly articles and papers. Lt. Col. Les Bergen (USAR, ret) has been leading annual tours of Jewish sites at Arlington National Cemetery for eight years under sponsorship of the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington (JHSGW). He managed the design of parts of the Washington Metrorail system, and was later a civilian employee of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and HQ, Dept. of the Army. Since retirement, he has served as treasurer for JHSGW and the Southern Jewish Historical Society. Mr. Bergen holds a B.S. from The Citadel and an M.B.A. from The George Washington University. Pearl Berger is Dean of Libraries at Yeshiva University and holds the University’s Benjamin Gottesman Endowed Librarian Chair. She served as president of the Association of Jewish Libraries from 2002 to 2004, and was previously president of AJL’s Research and Special Libraries Division. She was also president of the Council on Archives and Research Libraries in Jewish Studies. Ms. Berger served on the board of Metro, the Metropolitan New York Library Council, and of NYSHEI, the New York State Higher Education Initiative. Ms. Berger plans to retire from her position at Yeshiva University, effective July 2015, after thirty-five years of service at the University.

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A former librarian at the Jewish Public Library of Toronto and Past President of the Ontario chapter of AJL, Steven M. Bergson is currently a data processing specialist at UJA Federation of Greater Toronto and is the editor of The Jewish Comix Anthology (2014). Steven also wrote the "Scatter of the Literature" column for Judaica Librarianship for 12 years and maintains a blog about Jewish comics and graphic novels. Adele Berlin is the Robert H. Smith Professor of Biblical Studies Emerita at the University of Maryland. Her main interests are biblical narrative and poetry, and the ancient and modern interpretation of the Bible. Best known among her works is The Jewish Study Bible (Oxford University Press, 2004; revised edition, 2015), co-edited with Marc Brettler. Berlin also served as Editor-in-Chief of the revised edition of The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion. Professor Berlin is a Fellow of the American Academy for Jewish Research and past President of the Society of Biblical Literature. At Maryland, Professor Berlin served as Director of the Joseph and Rebecca Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Studies, as Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs, and as Chair of the University Senate.

Kathy Bloomfield has worked for Pacific Telephone, Pacific Bell, the Los Angeles Zoo, BabagaNewz magazine, InterfaithFamily.com, Mayyim Hayyim Community Mikveh, the Union for Reform Judaism and the Wellesley Public School System. She also founded Forwordsbooks, a national Jewish book fair business. Currently, she is the Clergy Assistant at Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation in Bethesda, MD. Her volunteer roles have included Temple President, Mikveh Guide, URJ Outreach Fellow, and member of the Sydney Taylor Book Award Committee. Kathy has a website at http://forwordsbooks.com, where she writes about children’s literature with Jewish values content. Lisa Bodziner grew up in Savannah, GA and then went to the University of Wisconsin Madison for her undergraduate degree. She lived in Israel for four years where she attended the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies and received her Master's Degree in Jewish Education. After leaving Israel Lisa taught 6th-12th grade for three years in California and then moved to Reisterstown, MD to work at the Pearlstone Center as an experiential educator and dabbled in signature program coordination. Lisa recently received a certificate in experiential Jewish education from Yeshiva University and loves working at the CJE as the Director of Educational Engagement! In her spare time she likes to participate in scribal arts, cook, and play with her dog. Jennifer Breger collects books, manuscripts, documents and ephemera written for, by and about the Jewish woman, and books printed by Jewish women. She has published on Hebrew printing and the Jewish book, and on the liturgy and literature of Jewish women in Antiquarian Bookman, The Jewish Book Annual, Encyclopedia Judaica, and the Encyclopedia of Jewish Women. She appraises books and Holy Land maps for individuals and institutions, and has curated and written catalogues for exhibits in Washington and Denver. She holds a B.A. and an M.A. from St. Hilda’s College, Oxford, and an M.A. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Ann Brener received her doctorate at Cornell University, and completed her undergraduate studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She is the author of two books on medieval Hebrew poetry in Spain as well as an historical novel, Samuel’s Daughter, set in the Talmudic period. She taught in the Department of Hebrew Literature at Ben-Gurion University for 5 years and is currently the Hebraic Area Specialist in the Hebraic Section of the African and Middle Eastern Division of the Library of Congress.

Sam Brylawski is co-director of the American Discography Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the former head of the Library of Congress Recorded Sound Section. In addition to editing UCSB’s Discography of American Historical Recordings (adp.library.ucsb.edu) he is the chair of the National Recording Preservation Board and a collaborator with the Library on its National Jukebox website. Sam is the co-editor of the ARSC Guide to Audio Preservation, recently published by the Council on Library and Information Resources.

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Gabrielle Burger has been a PJ mom for over 6 years, and now has the privilege of working as the director of PJ Library in her community! Gabrielle comes to PJ Library with a degree in Business Administration and has been an informal Jewish educator and passionate advocate for Judaism in every avenue of life for as long as she can remember. She has been a JCC camp director, Jewish ropes course coordinator, and a Hebrew school teacher. She has lived both in America and in Israel and loves to brag that every member of her family cannot live without books! Ellen Cassedy is the author of We Are Here: Memories of the Lithuanian Holocaust (University of Nebraska Press, 2012), which offers a close-up view of how a post-Holocaust nation is encountering its Jewish history. The book won the 2013 Grub Street National Book Prize for Non-Fiction, the 2013 Prakhin International Literary Foundation Award, the 2013 Towson University Prize for Literature, and a Silver Medal in History, 2012 ForeWord Reviews Best Book of the Year Award, and was shortlisted for the 2014 William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. Ellen’s work has been published in Polin, Shofar, Ha’aretz, Hadassah, The Jewish Forward, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, and other publications. In 2012, at the AJL conference in Pasadena, Ca., she spoke about her research into Lithuania past and present. For more information: www.ellencassedy.com.

Carol Castiel is in charge of producing and managing weekly current affairs programs for Voice of America’s English Language Division. She also hosts VOA’s Press Conference USA, and Encounter and oversees the production of Issues in the News, a round-up of the week’s top stories by distinguished Washington journalists. Before joining the VOA in 1999, she was a consultant and freelance journalist specializing in the promotion of trade and investment between the U. S. and Africa. A contributing editor to the London-based West Africa Magazine, she also managed scholarship programs for Portuguese-speaking Africa at the Africa-America Institute. Ms. Castiel is fluent in Portuguese, French and Spanish. She spearheaded the recovery of Jewish heritage in the Cape Verde Islands in the mid-1990’s. In 2007, she founded the non-profit Cape Verde Jewish Heritage Project, Inc., to honor the memory of the many Sephardic Jews who immigrated to Cape Verde from Morocco and Gibraltar in the 19th century.

Michelle Chesner is the Norman E. Alexander Librarian for Jewish Studies at Columbia University. She has worked at the University of Pennsylvania and the Jewish Theological Seminary, as well as the rare Judaica auction house, Kestenbaum and Company. Chesner dabbles in various digital humanities projects ranging from the movement of Jewish books to Yiddish theatre, and from American Jewish newspapers to Yiddish linguistics. She is also involved with a project to create a digital repository for such creations within the realm of Jewish Studies. John Chapman, Product Manager for WorldShare Metadata, manages OCLC's cataloging applications, including WorldShare Record Manager, Connexion, CatExpress, and the WorldCat Metadata API. John joined OCLC in August 2008. He began his career in the Manuscripts Section of the Minnesota Historical Society, and immediately prior to joining OCLC was the Metadata Librarian for the University of Minnesota. He has an M.L.I.S. from Dominican University (Illinois) and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Religious Studies from Macalester College. Alan Cheuse is the author of six novels plus several collections of short stories and novellas. As a book commentator, Cheuse has been a regular contributor to National Public Radio's All Things Considered. Since 1982 his work has appeared in The New Yorker, Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, The Southern Review, The Antioch Review, and elsewhere. A collection of his travel writing, A Trance After Breakfast, was published in 2009. His latest novel-length work, Prayers for the Living, recently appeared from Fig Tree Books.

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Deborah Bodin Cohen is celebrating her 18th year in the rabbinate. She is the author of many children's books and winner of a National Jewish Book Award. Her popular "Engineer Ari" series is based on the first train that traveled between Jaffa and Jerusalem in 1892. The series includes Engineer Ari and the Rosh Hashanah Ride, a Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner, Engineer Ari and the Sukkah Express, Engineer Ari and the Hanukkah Mishap, and her newest book, Engineer Ari and the Passover Rush. Ordained at Hebrew Union College, she has served congregations in North Carolina, New Jersey and Maryland.

Michael Dirda is a Pulitzer Prize-winning book columnist for The Washington Post. He is the author of the memoir An Open Book and of four collections of essays: Readings, Bound to Please, Book by Book, and Classics for Pleasure. His last book, On Conan Doyle, received a 2012 Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America; his newest - Browsings: a Year of Reading, Collecting and Living with Books - will be out later this summer.

Taibel bas Rachel Leah v'Shlomo Yehoshua (Jonina Duker) presents at Judaic conferences and speaks as an invited scholar-in-residence. Her Judaic teaching includes basic Judaism, genealogy, Hebrew calendar, history, literature, liturgy, and text in translation as well as diversity. She helped found Kulanu (www.kulanu.org) which reaches out to lost and dispersed Jewish communities and has helped B’nai Anusim research their backgrounds. She has contributed to Avotaynu and other publications. A certified Great Books Foundation discussion leader, she facilitates book discussions in many venues. She has a B.A. from Yale and Judaic certificates from many organizations including Hebrew University and Yad Vashem.

Evelyn Ehrlich works as a subject librarian and administrator in the Collections and Research Services and Public Services units at N.Y.U. In addition to a master’s in library science, she has advanced degrees in Jewish Studies and German history from Brandeis University and Columbia University.

Julie R. Enszer, Ph.D., is the author of Sisterhood (Sibling Rivalry Press, 2013) and Handmade Love (A Midsummer Night’s Press, 2010). She is editor of Milk & Honey: A Celebration of Jewish Lesbian Poetry (A Midsummer Night’s Press, 2011). Milk & Honey was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Poetry. She has her M.F.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Maryland. She is the editor of Sinister Wisdom, a multicultural lesbian literary and art journal, and a regular book reviewer for the Lambda Book Report and Calyx. You can read more of her work at www.JulieREnszer.com.

Nadine Epstein is the editor and publisher of Moment Magazine, founder and executive director of the Center for Creative Change, and founder of the Daniel Pearl Investigative Journalism Initiative. A longtime journalist, her work has appeared in Moment, The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, Smithsonian, The Christian Science Monitor, Ms., and other publications. She covered politics and news in the Chicago bureau of The New York Times and at The City News Bureau of Chicago, then covered the U.S.-Mexico border while based in Arizona. She has co-written three books, contributed to anthology collections and co-written a documentary film, which was selected as a semifinalist for the 2001 Academy Awards. She is a recipient of the prestigious 1990 Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan as well as many grants including the Washington, D.C. Commission on the Arts and the Fund for Investigative Journalism. During the 1990s, she taught in the Master’s Program in Journalism at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She holds a B.A. and an M.A. in International Relations from the University of Pennsylvania, and was a University Fellow in the political science doctoral program at Columbia University. In 2004 Epstein relaunched Moment Magazine, co-founded in 1975 by Leonard Fein and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, and has forged it into a multi-media platform of highly respected, award-winning independent journalism.

Heidi Rabinowitz Estrin is the library director and computer teacher at Congregation B’nai Israel of Boca Raton, Florida. She has played many roles within AJL, most notably as chair of the Sydney Taylor Book Award committee and as President 2012-2014. Heidi has hosted The Book of Life podcast at www.bookoflifepodcast.com for ten years.

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Head librarian of the Leo Baeck Institute since May 2002, Renate Evers has had extensive professional experience in libraries and archives in the United States and Germany. She earned her M.L.S. in Frankfurt, Germany, her M.I.S. in Konstanz, Germany and an M.C.I.S. from Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, U.S.A.

Sari Feldman is Executive Director of Cuyahoga County Public Library (CCPL), a position she has held since 2003. Under her leadership, CCPL has become one of the nation’s best and busiest public library systems, earning the Library Journal 5-Star recognition for five consecutive years (2010-2014). She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from State University of New York at Binghamton and a Master’s in Library Science degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She previously served as an adjunct faculty member at the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University, teaching graduate courses in library management, reference services, policy and grant writing for more than 20 years. In May 2014, Sari was elected president of the American Library Association for the 2015-2016 term. She is a past president of the Public Library Association (2009-2010).

Debbie Fink, M.A. is an author, educator, and performer, whose books, workshops, and performances reach audiences worldwide. She has had the honor of being the 'talent' on four international USO Tours (Japan / Okinawa; South Korea; Germany; and Italy). Debbie has written dozens of scripts, educational materials, and children’s books, including: multiple scripts and performances for numerous Jewish Involvement Theatre pieces; Brain Power! Celebrating Learning Differences; Friends! Building Friendship Value by Value; It’s a Family Thanksgiving! A Celebration of an American Tradition for Children and Their Families; Thinkin’ Like Lincoln: Velvet & Steel; and has co-authored an Ethical Covenant: A Practical Guide to Creating Honorable Menschen and a Moral, Caring Community; The Little CHAMPS – Child Heroes Attached to Military Personnel and its Curricular Supplement; as well as A Mom of Many Hats, an empowering book that helps children cope with their parent’s cancer diagnosis. Also a folk violinist and folk dancer, Debbie performed for 14 years with Calliope, a group of six Jewish vocalists and musicians, that performed for national / state / regional conferences, Women's Seders, folk festivals, simchas, and more. Debbie's greatest joy is helping children and adults "think with their hearts and feel with their minds," . . . and leading joyous, memorable hora dancing!

Richard T. Foltin is Director of National and Legislative Affairs in the American Jewish Committee's Office of Government and International Affairs in Washington, D.C. Mr. Foltin coordinates AJC’s policy and advocacy activities on a broad range of agency concerns, including religious liberty, immigration, energy security, and civil rights. He co-chairs the Religious Freedom Committee of the American Bar Association’s Section for Individual Rights and Responsibilities, and is a past member of the Board of Directors of the National Immigration Forum. In 1999, Mr. Foltin was named a Wasserstein Public Interest Fellow at Harvard Law School, and, in 2009, he received the Dorothy Height Coalition Building Award from SALDEF (the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund). A native of New York City and a child of Holocaust survivors, Mr. Foltin received his B.A. magna cum laude with honors in Political Science from New York University and his J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School.

Vanessa Freedman is Hebrew & Jewish Studies Librarian at University College London. She previously worked as Assistant Librarian at Leo Baeck College. She studied Classics at Cambridge University and Library and Information Studies at University College London, where her M.A. dissertation was on classification schemes for Jewish Studies libraries. In her current post she is responsible for the Hebrew & Jewish Studies and Dutch collections and also works on the Jewish rare book, manuscripts and archival collections. Laura Gehl is the author of several picture books, including And Then Another Sheep Turned Up (a Passover story) and Hare and Tortoise Race Across Israel. She also writes about science for children and adults. Laura lives with her husband and four children in Chevy Chase, Maryland. You can learn more about her at lauragehl.com.

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Elissa Gershowitz is senior editor of The Horn Book Magazine and online content editor for The Horn Book, Inc. She holds an M.A. from the Center for the Study of Children's Literature at Simmons College and a B.A. from Oberlin College. According to the online quiz "Which All-of-a-Kind Family Sibling Are You?" she is an Ella.

Principal of Andrea S. Glazer Inc., Andrea Glazer has worked within the Jewish community her entire career. She has served in many capacities including synagogue executive director, camp administrator, and Jewish Community Center program director. For the last eighteen years she has served as a development consultant to a variety of organizations and synagogues. She is an experienced professional having raised in excess of $35 million. Andrea guides organizations in fund stewardship, grant writing, funding and donor research, direct mail, donor recognition, major gift solicitation, feasibility studies, and capital and endowment fund campaigns. Andrea is married to Rabbi Steven Glazer. They are the parents of two adult children. Steven M. Glazer is Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation Beth Emeth in Herndon, Va. He is Adjunct Professor in the Department of Religion at George Washington University. Rabbi Glazer earned a B.S. from Columbia University (1965); a B.H.L., M.H.L., ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America (1966, 1968, 1970); and a D.H.L. from Hebrew Union College 1993; D.D. (hon.) from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, 1996. Dr. Nora Gold is a writer, activist, and the editor of the prestigious online literary journal, Jewish Fiction.net. Her first book, Marrow and Other Stories, won a Canadian Jewish Book Award and was praised by Alice Munro. Her recent novel, Fields of Exile, has received enthusiastic praise from Cynthia Ozick, Ruth Wisse, Phyllis Chesler, Steve Stern, and Thane Rosenbaum, among others. Dr. Gold, formerly a tenured professor, is now the Writer-in-Residence and an Associate Scholar at the CSWE, OISE/University of Toronto, where she coordinates the Wonderful Women Writers Series. In addition, she co-founded three Canadian Zionist organizations. Marina (Riny) Goldsmith is the head of the Foreign Language Cataloguing Department at the National Library of Israel. She is also the chairperson of the Israeli National Subcommittee on Cataloguing. Martin Goldsmith is the author of The Inextinguishable Symphony: a True Story of Music and Love in Nazi Germany (Wiley, 2000) and Alex’s Wake: a Voyage of Betrayal and a Journey of Remembrance (Da Capo Press, 2014), among other works. He is the daily morning programmer and host of the Symphony Hall channel at Sirius XM Satellite Radio in Washington, D.C. Haim Gottschalk has worked for over fifteen years in various Judaic libraries, including a library internship at the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit at Cambridge University. He was the Judaic copy-editor at Slavica Publishers. Currently, he is the Hebrew/Yiddish cataloger at Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind. Nancy Groce, Senior Folklife Specialist at the Library of Congress’s American Folklife Center, is an ethnomusicologist, folklorist, and historian specializing in the study of American music, occupational folklore, and urban culture. She holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Michigan as well as a Master of Arts, Music/Ethnomusicology, and a Bachelors of Arts/Music Performance. Prior to joining the Library of Congress in 2007, Groce worked as a curator at the Smithsonian Institution Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage where she was in charge of Smithsonian Folklife Festival programs in New York City (2001), Scotland (2003), Alberta (2006), and Northern Ireland (2007). She has authored numerous books and articles on folklore, music, musical instrument-making, history, and folklore as well as well-received Smithsonian Folkways albums, including Scotland the Real, Sound Neighbours: Contemporary Music from Northern Ireland, Alberta: Wild Roses/Northern Lights, and New York: Global Beat of the Boroughs. Earlier in her career, she served as the Senior Program Officer at the New York Council for the Humanities, Folklorist at the Brooklyn Arts Council, and worked in the musical instrument divisions of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

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Michael Gruenberg is currently the President of Gruenberg Consulting, L.L.C., a firm he founded in January 2012 to provide clients with sales staff analysis, market research, executive coaching, trade show preparedness and best practices advice for improving negotiation skills for librarians and vendors. Most recently, Mike was Director of Sales for Strategic Account Management at ProQuest. Previously, Mike organized and led a new ProQuest sales team that developed the Fortune 500/Corporate and Medical/Healthcare markets. In 2005, Mike joined CSA as its Sales Director for the Americas. Mike has held senior sales positions at Disclosure, OneSource, Primary Source Media and Oxford Analytica in his career that has spanned over thirty years. Mike has an Undergraduate degree (B.A.) from Long Island University and a Master’s degree (M.S.) from St. John’s University. He is an avid life-long collector of music recordings and since 2000 a columnist for www.jambands.com.

Dr. Michael W. Grunberger joined the staff of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2006, after more than twenty years at the Library of Congress. In his role as Director of Collections, he leads the Museum’s “Rescue the Evidence” initiative, which includes acquiring, making available, and preserving the historical record of the Holocaust. He currently serves on the Advisory Board of the European Holocaust Research Infrastructure -- a consortium of twenty research organizations from thirteen countries whose purpose is to encourage collaborative research on the Holocaust.

Jean Gurman served as JCCNV President from 2009 to 2011 joining the Board of the Center in 2005. During her Board tenure, she held several lay leadership roles including Assistant VP of Programming; serving on the JCC Maccabi ArtsFest Committee; and co-chairing the 2007 JCCNV Fall Gala benefitting special needs programs and services. Ms. Gurman’s most impactful role was serving as chair of the first JCCNV Special Needs Steering Committee whose goals were to strengthen and enrich the experiences of children, young adults and families with special needs through a broad range of recreational, educational and social activities, and to ensure that individuals with special needs have the opportunity to participate in JCCNV life to the fullest extent of the individual’s ability. The program, launched in 2006, now includes a wide array of programming for over one hundred teens, young adults, and adults over thirty years of age.

Toby Harris has been the librarian at a large two-campus Reform synagogue in Seattle since receiving her M.L.I.S. from the University of Washington in 2005. She also teaches 7th and 8th graders at another Reform synagogue. She is an active member and former conference chair of AJL. Prior to becoming a librarian, she worked in many fields including community history, education, law and the arts. She has a B.A. in Speech Communication.

Mindy A. Hecker is the Director of Information Resources for the Wilma L. West Library of the American Occupational Therapy Foundation and volunteers in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Survivor Center and Archives. Over the years she has been an officer of several community boards including the Association of Jewish Libraries Capital Area Chapter, Jewish Federation of Greater Washington and the Partnership for Jewish Life and Learning. Dina Herbert is the Coordinator for the Innovation Hub at the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, D.C. She was previously the librarian for the Iraqi Jewish Archive project at the National Archives and has held positions at the Jewish Theological Seminary Library in New York and the Johns Hopkins University SAIS Library in Washington, D.C. Dina has a B.A. in Ancient Studies from Columbia University and both a B.A. and an M.A. in Hebrew Bible and Ancient Semitic Languages from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. She received her M.L.S. from the University of Maryland. She lives with her husband in Northern Virginia.

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Brad Sabin Hill is Curator of the I. Edward Kiev Judaica Collection at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. He previously held positions in Canada and Britain, as Curator of the Lowy Collection of Rare Hebraica at the National Library of Canada, as Head of the Hebrew Section of the British Library, and as Fellow in Hebrew Bibliography at the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies; he also served as Dean of the Library at the YIVO Institute in New York. The author, co-author or editor of a number of books and articles in the field of Hebrew bibliography and booklore, including Incunabula, Hebraica & Judaica (Ottawa, 1981) and Hebraica from the Valmadonna Trust (London, 1989), Hill has published studies on Hebrew typography and Hebrew libraries, as well as on Yiddish manuscripts and Yiddish bibliography. He has curated exhibitions in Ottawa, London, New York and Washington, among them a display of Renaissance Hebrew printing at the Morgan Library in New York, of Spinozist writings in Yiddish at the YIVO Institute, and most recently of Hebrew printing in Ukraine at George Washington University. Formerly a member of the Oriental Faculty of the University of Oxford, Hill is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society and a Senior Associate of the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies.

David Hirsch has served as Librarian for Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies at the Charles Young Research Library, UCLA since 1989. He is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures. A native of Philadelphia, Pa., he received his B.A. Degree in Oriental Studies from the University of Pennsylvania and holds Master of Arts Degrees in Library Science and Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Chicago, and he worked as a Near East Cataloger at Princeton University from 1986-1989. He has lived, traveled, studied, and worked throughout the Middle East, most recently as an advisor to the National Library of Abu Dhabi. David is a Past President of AJL RAS Division, as well as a past program chair for RAS. He has also served as President of the Middle East Librarians Association.

Christopher Huh has enjoyed creating stories and drawing since he was very young. When he was just six years old, he would spend many hours watching movies, drawing, and took an early interest in the subject of history. He would draw whatever he found interesting ranging from the Titanic ship, to ancient scripts. As his writing skills developed, he began to create stories and fictional characters to accompany his drawings, and compose music for the story. In February 2013, fourteen year old Christopher published his first book, Keeping My Hope, a historical fiction graphic novel about the WWII and the Holocaust. Miriam Isaacs was born in a DP camp in Germany after WWII to survivor parents. She grew up first in Montreal, Canada and then in Brooklyn, New York. She holds a Ph.D. in linguistics from Cornell University and a B.A. in French and anthropology from Brooklyn College. She has published widely on Jewish Studies, Yiddish studies and endangered languages. She has also taught and lectured internationally. She previously worked as an advocate for public higher education. She has specialized in language education and advocacy and in Yiddish culture and literature. She taught Yiddish for sixteen years at the University of Maryland. Isaacs has held a fellowship at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies (2013) and has just completed a Fulbright in Sweden, researching and teaching Yiddish. Robin Jacobson is the Library and Literary Arts Director of Adas Israel Congregation in Washington, D.C. She also serves as the Chair of the Library committee of Congregation Beth El in Bethesda, Maryland. In addition to administering the two synagogue libraries, she also designs literary programs for children and adults, facilitates two book clubs, and writes a monthly book review for the synagogues' magazines. Sandi Jones, Product Manager, Metadata Management, manages WorldCat Cataloging Partners and WorldCat Selection. She is also involved in strategic development. Sandi joined OCLC in August 1982, beginning her OCLC career doing data entry, then moved to Contract Services where she was a cataloger for a number of years. Sandi has managed several products and has worn many hats at OCLC over the last thirty years.

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Jacqueline Jules is the award-winning author of 30 books for young readers, including three Sydney Taylor Honor Award winners, Sarah Laughs, Benjamin and the Silver Goblet, and Never Say a Mean Word Again. Ten of her picture books have been featured as PJ Library selections. Visit www.jacquelinejules.com. Katherine Janus Kahn, an award-winning illustrator, calligrapher, and sculptor, studied Fine Arts at the Bezalel School in Jerusalem and the University of Iowa. She has illustrated many children's books such as the popular Sammy Spider series which includes Sammy Spider’s First Trip to Israel. She lives in Wheaton, Maryland. Rachel Kamin has worked as a synagogue librarian for over eighteen years and is currently the Director of the Joseph and Mae Gray Cultural & Learning Center at North Suburban Synagogue Beth El in Highland Park, Illinois. She serves as the Book Review Editor for Children & Teens for The Association of Jewish Libraries Newsletter and contributes articles and book reviews to BookLinks, School Library Journal, Jewish Book World, Judaica Librarianship, and AJL Reviews. She has facilitated Beth El’s Sisterhood Torah Fund Book Club since 2009 and also facilitates groups for the Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership (Chicago, Ill.), McHenry County Jewish Congregation (Crystal Lake, Ill.), Congregation Sukkat Shalom (Wilmette, Ill.) and Congregation Etz Chaim (Lombard, Ill.). Kamin holds a B.A. in history from Grinnell College and a master’s degree in library and information science from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Audrey Schaeffer Katz is a charismatic Jewish song-leader who turned her love of Jewish music, spirituality and singing with children of all ages into her life’s work. The Religious School Music Director at Washington Hebrew Congregation, Audrey also independently song-leads at B'nai Mitzvah and Shabbat services, and has led the music for Woodmont Country Club's Passover seders for the past seventeen years. Audrey creates a sense of connection and community through song, engaging adults, teens and children alike with her irresistible enthusiasm. Award-winning filmmaker Aviva Kempner produced Partisans of Vilna (1986), about Jewish resistance against the Nazis. Kempner is also the writer, director and producer of George Peabody awarded The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg (2000), a documentary about the Jewish baseball slugger. Kempner made the critically acclaimed Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg, about television pioneer Gertrude Berg. She just finished Rosenwald, a documentary about how Chicago philanthropist Julius Rosenwald partnered with Booker T. Washington to establish over 5,300 schools for African Americans in the rural South which will be released later this summer. She is a voting rights advocate for the District of Columbia. A graduate of Queens College’s Master of Library Science Program, Mirele Kessous is enjoying her fourth year as a librarian at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School. She serves students in grades 7-12. She also moonlights as a children's illustrator by night. Dr. Arthur Kiron is the Schottenstein-Jesselson Curator of Judaica Collections at the University of Pennsylvania Libraries and an Adjunct Assistant Professor of History at Penn. He oversees multiple national and international partnerships to provide integrated on-line access to significant collections of Judaica and develops a variety of public programs of education and outreach, such as exhibitions, publications, lectures, concerts, and workshops. He is the Director of the Jesselson-Kaplan American Genizah Project and is the editor of Constellations of Atlantic Jewish History: The Arnold and Deanne Kaplan Collection of Early American Judaica (2014). Sonia Kozlovsky is a librarian at Krieger Schechter Day School and has served in that role for over thirty years. She has worked in Jewish education for the past thirty eight years. Sonia is passionate about literature and transmitting Jewish values to children.

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Barbara Krasner served on the Sydney Taylor Book Award Committee from December 2010 until December 2014. She is the recipient of the 2014 Groner-Wikler Scholarship and a 2015 Sydney Taylor Honor for Younger Readers with her debut children's book, Goldie Takes a Stand: Golda Meir's First Crusade (Kar-Ben). She is also the author of Liesl’s Ocean Rescue (Gihon River Press, 2014). She teaches creative writing at William Paterson University and hosts The Whole Megillah blog. Susan Kusel is the librarian at Temple Rodef Shalom in Falls Church, Virginia, the children's and young adult book buyer and selector for Words bookstore in Maplewood, New Jersey, and the owner of Dream On Books, a children's book consulting company. She has been a children's librarian at Arlington Public Library, a children's bookseller for Politics and Prose and Barston’s Child's Play and worked for the Imagination Stage theater company. She was a member of the 2015 Caldecott Medal selection committee. She and her family live in Arlington, Virginia. Lisa Moses Leff is Associate Professor of History at American University, specializing in the history of Jews in modern France. She is the author of Sacred Bonds of Solidarity: The Rise of Jewish Internationalism in Nineteenth-Century France (Stanford, 2006) and the forthcoming book, The Archive Thief: The Man Who Salvaged French Jewish History in the Wake of the Holocaust (Oxford, 2015), as well as numerous articles in journals including the Journal of Modern History, Jewish Social Studies, and Jewish History. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and her B.A. from Oberlin College.

Merrill Leffler's recent book of poetry is Mark the Music. The publisher of Dryad Press (www.dryadpress.com), he guest edited The Changing Orders: Poetry from Israel for Poet Lore; Sources of Jewish Poetry: A Thirty-Year Retrospective of SHIRIM, A Jewish Poetry Journal; and with Moshe Dor, translated and edited The Poetry of Eytan, also for SHIRIM. A former Professor of English Literature at the U.S. Naval Academy, for more than twenty years, he wrote about Chesapeake Bay science and policy at the University of Maryland Sea Grant College Program.

Rachel Leket-Mor is the Jewish Studies librarian at Arizona State University Libraries. Active in the Research Libraries, Archives, and Special Collections (RAS) Division since 2008 - first as Vice President and then as President of RAS - she now serves as editor of Judaica Librarianship, AJL’s peer-reviewed journal. Rachel is a veteran presenter at AJL who also co-chaired the 2007 conference in Scottsdale, Ariz. Materials related to the Holocaust and its representations in the popular culture are part of the IsraPulp collection for Israeli popular literature, a collection Rachel established at her home institution in 2004. She is delighted to moderate the Graphic Representations of the Holocaust and Jewish Life session wearing her curator hat.

Heather Lenson received her undergraduate degree from Pennsylvania State University in Business Logistics. She received her M.L.I.S. from Kent State University. She is the Media Specialist at the Jewish Education Center of Cleveland's Ratner Media & Technology Center. She also leads story time for Park Synagogue Wolf Religious School. In addition to being on the Sydney Taylor Book Award Committee, Heather is the editor of the Jewish Valuesfinder database, and she reviews books for the AJL Reviews. She lives with her husband Kevin and three children: Emma (12 years old), Owen (10 years old) and Dylan (7 years-old). Her favorite genre of books is young adult. Ruth Levush is a Senior Foreign Law Specialist at the Global Legal Research Center, Law Library of Congress. Her areas of expertise encompass Israeli law and comparative and international law. She previously served as a special assistant to Israeli Supreme Court Chief Justice Aharon Barak, and as an attorney with Israel’s Ministry of the Treasury and in private practice. She holds a Master of Comparative Law from the George Washington University National Law Center and an L.L.B. from Tel Aviv University Law School. She was admitted to the Israeli Bar and is a member of the District of Columbia Bar.

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Debbie Levy is the author of more than twenty books of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry for young people, including the Jane Addams Award Honor book, We Shall Overcome: The Story of a Song, and the Sydney Taylor Notable book, The Year of Goodbyes. Visit http://debbielevybooks.com/ Steven Luckert is Curator of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s highly-acclaimed permanent exhibition, The Holocaust. In addition, he also has curated or co-curated seven special exhibitions at the Museum, including The Voyage of the St. Louis; Life Reborn: Jewish Displaced Persons, 1945-1951; The Art and Politics of Arthur Szyk; and Life in Shadows: Hidden Children and the Holocaust. Most recently Dr. Luckert curated State of Deception: The Power of Nazi Propaganda, which is now traveling around the United States. He is the author of two companion volumes to the exhibitions, The Art and Politics of Arthur Szyk, and State of Deception: The Power of Nazi Propaganda (with Susan Bachrach). Prior to coming to the Museum, Dr. Luckert taught European history at several campuses of the State University of New York and at George Mason University. In 1993, he received his Ph.D. in modern European history from Binghamton University.

Aimee Lurie is the librarian at The Agnon School in Beachwood, Ohio. Since receiving her M.L.S. from Kent State University in 2000, she has worked in public and synagogue libraries in northeast Ohio. Aimee has been active in her local AJL chapter and at the national level. She is the past chair of the Sydney Taylor Book Award committee and is the current president of the Schools, Synagogues and Centers division of AJL. She received a B.A. from Ohio State University. She lives with her husband and sons in Orange Village, Ohio.

Elaine Mael earned her Master’s in Library Science from Columbia University and also holds a B.A. in English Literature from City College in New York. She was a librarian at the Baltimore Hebrew University Joseph Meyerhoff Library for many years. She presently is a Cataloging Librarian at the Towson University Albert S. Cook Library. The Baltimore Hebrew Institute (BHI) Collection was formed in 2009 with the integration of the Baltimore Hebrew University library into Towson University’s Cook Library. The BHI rare book collection is of particular interest to her for its broad history, varied content and diverse provenances. Michal Hoschander Malen has been the librarian of the lower and middle schools of the North Shore Hebrew Academy in Great Neck, N.Y. for the past thirty four years. She has addressed community and professional groups on topics related to information and literacy with a special interest in oral interpretation and read aloud skills and various facets of children’s literature. Michal is a member of AJL/NYMA and LIAJL. Michal spent many years reviewing both children’s and adult fiction and non-fiction books for the Jewish Book Council’s Jewish Book World and is currently the editor of the children’s and young adult section of the magazine.

Jeffrey Malka is a pioneer in Sephardic genealogy and author of Sephardic Genealogy: Discovering your Sephardic Ancestors and their World, (2002 “Reference Book of the Year” Award by the Association of Jewish Libraries). Awarded in 2002 the International Association of Jewish Genealogy Societies’ Lifetime Achievement Award, he was an invited lecturer at the Library of Congress, numerous Jewish Genealogy Societies in the U.S., Canada, Israel, Turkey, and Spain. He is also the developer of both JewishGen’s Sephardic SIG website and his own large SephardicGen website.

Carlo Manabat is a Business Sales Specialist with Microsoft. He specializes in devices such as the Surface Pro 3, the Surface 3, and Windows Phone. He is also versed in the benefits of Office 365 for businesses. He is passionate about how technology is integral into an organization’s ability to pivot and stay competitive in the modern world.

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Dr. Rivka Markus has been the Head Archivist of the Knesset since 1976. For the past eight years she has been in charge of digitizing all archival material including text, photos and audiovisual materials, and characterizing the underlying metadata. She holds a B.A. and M.A. in history, a diploma in archival and library studies, and a Ph.D. (2009). Her doctoral thesis is entitled The Members of the Knesset as Consumers of Information. Dr. Markus supervises graduate students enrolled in information and management science programs at Haifa University and teaches courses in record management in master's degree programs. She serves in various positions in the Israeli Archives Association and participates in national and international conferences held in Israel and abroad. Henry Mayer served as Chief Archivist at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum from October 1994 through May 2010, overseeing the growth of its holdings from about one-half million to then-approximately seventy million pages. Prior to that he served from 1977 in the National Archives and Records Administration, where he worked with, among others, war crimes, State Department, American post-World War II occupation, and military intelligence records; was responsible for the inventorying of the records of the Vietnam War; and helped to devise and prepare the first comprehensive inventory ever taken of National Archives holdings. Since June 2010, as Senior Advisor on Archives to the Museum’s Director of Collections, Henry and a colleague prepared a report of the “gaps” in the Museum’s holdings and has been working to fill them. Barbara McClintock has written and/or illustrated over 40 distinguished books for children, including My Grandfather's Coat retold by Jim Aylesworth, which received three starred reviews, and her own highly acclaimed Adele and Simon books. Her books have five times been named New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Books. She has received a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor, as well as a myriad of other awards and honors. Barbara lives in Connecticut with her family and two very graceful cats. Dr. Rafael Medoff is founding director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies and author of fifteen books about Jewish history and the Holocaust, including Cartoonists Against the Holocaust (2015). Morton J. Merowitz was born in Philadelphia, Pa. and attended schools there and in New York City. He graduated from Yeshiva University, the Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning, and the State University of New York at Buffalo. He earned an M.L.S. from the State University of New York at Geneseo. He served as teacher and principal of Hebrew and day schools in Philadelphia, New Jersey, Connecticut and Buffalo, New York. He has some seventy articles, essays and book reviews in journals, including Bitzaron, Judaism, Midstream, The Polish Review, Religious Education, YIVO Annual, and YIVO Bleter. In addition, he has reviewed various books for the Jewish Book Council and AJL Reviews. Scott Miller is the Director of Curatorial Affairs at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the co-author of Refuge Denied: The St. Louis Passengers and the Holocaust (University of Wisconsin Press, 2006). Joshua Muravchik is a writer and specialist on U.S. foreign policy. His most recent books, Making David Into Goliath: How the World Turned Against Israel, and a short companion e-book, Liberal Oasis: The Truth About Israel, were released in 2014. He is the author of nine previous books and more than four hundred articles which have appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the New York Times Magazine, Commentary, the New Republic, and the Weekly Standard, among others. He holds a Ph.D. in international relations from Georgetown University. Shai Nachmany was born in Jerusalem in 1971. His education and expertise is in the field of information technology. Mr. Nachmany has been a member of the A.I. Weinberg firm for the last four years.

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Since 2007, Nadia Nasr has been the University Archivist at Towson University’s Albert S. Cook Library where she collects, preserves, and provides access to historical materials which document the nearly 150 year history of the University. When Baltimore Hebrew University joined Towson University to become the Baltimore Hebrew Institute (or BHI), she became the custodian of the most rare and unique volumes of the BHI Judaic Collection. Through outreach programs such as the White Gloves Sessions, she demonstrates the importance of preserving unique materials and illustrates their value for understanding the past. Joan Nathan considers food through the lenses of history, culture, and tradition. She regularly contributes to The New York Times and Tablet Magazine and is the author of ten award-winning cookbooks. Her most recent book is Quiches, Kugels, and Couscous: My Search for Jewish Cooking in France, which was named one of the ten best cookbooks of 2010 by NPR, Food and Wine, and Bon Appétit magazines. In 1994, Nathan's Jewish Cooking in America won both the James Beard Award and the IACP/Julia Child Cookbook of the Year Award. Eleven years later, these awards were bestowed upon her 2005 cookbook, The New American Cooking. She is presently working on a book for Alfred Knopf, entitled King Solomon’s Table: Joan’s Journey with the Roots and Routes of Jewish Cooking. Ms. Nathan was born in Providence, Rhode Island. She graduated from the University of Michigan with a master's degree in French literature and earned a master's in public administration from Harvard University. The mother of three grown children, Ms. Nathan lives in Washington, D.C. and Martha's Vineyard with her husband, attorney Allan Gerson. For more information, visit her website at: joannathan.com. Bob Patrick is director of the Veterans History Project (VHP) of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. VHP is a national initiative mandated by Congress to collect, preserve and make accessible the first-person accounts of America’s wartime veterans. Since 2006, he has managed the Project and directed the building of a nationwide network of volunteer interviewers and organizations. To date, over 96,000 veterans have submitted their personal recollections making this the largest such collection in American history. Mr. Patrick, a retired US Army colonel, serves as the project’s chief spokesperson at events across the country. Jane Peppler performed in the Yale School of Music orchestra, the Yale Slavic Chorus, the Locrian String Quartet, and was music director of the Cantor Corps at Judea Reform Congregation for fourteen years and arranger/director for the Triangle Jewish Chorale. Peppler performs with the world music ensemble Mappamundi and studies Yiddish with Sheva Zucker. She's translated three novels and numerous essays. She described her process of finding and reviving lost Yiddish songs in the journal Afn Shvel and recently presented her research at the Library of Congress. Her recent books include Yiddish Songs from Warsaw 1929-1934: the Itsik Zhelonek Collection and American Yiddish Penny Songs: the Hebrew Union College Collection of Yiddish Broadsides 1895-1925 (available from http://YiddishEmporium.com). Erica S. Perl writes picture books and novels for children and teens, including the Sydney Taylor Honor Award winner, When Life Gives You O.J., and Aces Wild, both of which are PJ Library "PJ Our Way" selections for 9-11 year olds. Visit www.ericaperl.com. Cynthia Peterman is a Jewish educator specializing in Jewish history, with over twenty five years teaching experience. She is also a Museum Teacher Fellow at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Cynthia taught grades 9-12 and was head of Jewish history at the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School. Cynthia teaches adults throughout the Washington area including synagogues, the JCC of Greater Washington, Hadassah, and the Foundation of Jewish Studies. Cynthia served as a consultant to: Centropa , YIVO, and the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington. Since 2012, Cynthia has served as Executive Director of The Jewish Teacher Project (www.jewishteacher.org).

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Marvin Pinkert is the Executive Director of the Jewish Museum of Maryland (JMM). JMM is both a museum and an important Jewish historic site, as it includes synagogues built in 1845 and 1876. Prior to joining JMM, Pinkert served as director of the National Archives Experience in D.C. and as Vice President of the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. His first job was at the US Cultural Center in Seoul – where he ran the library! He holds a B.A. in English (Brandeis University), an M.A. in Japanese Studies (Yale University) and an M.B.A. (Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University). After taking education courses at Stanford University, but graduating with a Political Science degree, Marsha Pinson chose to stay at home with her four children, while volunteering in their school classes and the wider community. For eighteen years, she planned life-cycle events for friends. In 2006, she became an assistant teacher at Adas Israel Preschool and has been a lead teacher for the last seven years, becoming the Doris Herman Teacher of the Year in 2013. She earned her Certificate in Jewish Early Childhood Education from Gratz College. Continuing education includes study in Reggio Emilia, Italy and monthly Pedagogista Meetings.

David Pollock is the Kaufman Fellow at The Washington Institute, focusing on regional political dynamics and related issues. Olga Potap is a librarian at the School of Theology Library at Boston University. She holds a Master’s degree from Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science and a Masters in Liberal Arts from Boston University. While pursuing her Master’s degree at Boston University, she did her course work in Jewish Studies with Professors Elie Wiesel and Hillel Levine. She is a member of the European Association for Jewish Studies (EAJS). Her research focuses on the role of civil societies and benevolent organizations in the communal solidarity and orientation of European Jewish communities at different points in their development. Robert Price is a 1962 Graduate of George Washington University Law School, after which he received a Carnegie Foundation grant to study at the Hague Academy of International Law at the World Court. He has worked for the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and has been a legal advisor at the Department of State’s Passport Division. He has spent most of his career in the private practice of law, building his own firm which specialized in litigation and US Immigration Law. More recently, he has dealt with humanitarian issues and cases involving human rights and international asylum. For the past six years, he has been on the Board of Directors of Offender Aid and Restoration, a non-profit organization dedicated to assisting ex-offenders reintegrate into society. He is a regular commentator on the weekly cable news program Passion for Truth, which focuses on political events in the Indian sub-continent.

Dan Rabinowitz is the founder and editor-in-chief of the Seforim blog, a website focused on Hebrew book scholarship. Additionally, he has amassed a significant personal collection of Hebraica and has published articles in Ali Sefer, Tradition, and other journals. He practices law in Washington, D.C. Diane Levin Rauchwerger is Chair of the Sydney Taylor Book Award Committee for AJL and is the author of the "Dinosaur" series of children's picture books, including Dinosaur Goes to Israel, delightfully illustrated by Jason Wolff, published by Kar-Ben Publishing. Since 1990, Diane has been the librarian at Congregation Beth Am, Los Altos Hills, CA and was a children's librarian in the Sunnyvale Public Library. She has a Bachelor's degree in Education from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, a California Teaching Credential and a Masters of Library Science from San Jose State University. Kim Roberts is the author of four books of poems, most recently Fortune’s Favor: Scott in the Antarctic, a connected series of blank verse sonnets based on the journal of explorer Robert Falcon Scott (Poetry Mutual, 2015). She is editor of the literary journal Beltway Poetry Quarterly and the anthology Full Moon on K Street: Poems About Washington, D.C. (Plan B Press, 2010), and co-edits the web exhibit D.C. Writers’ Homes. Roberts has been featured in 31 anthologies, including The Bloomsbury Anthology of Contemporary Jewish Poetry. Her website is http://www.kimroberts.org.

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As a journalist, Madelyn Rosenberg writes about colorful, real-life characters. As an author, she makes up characters of her own. Her books include The Schmutzy Family, a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award, and Happy Birthday, Tree: A Tu B'Shevat Story. Visit http://www.squealermusic.com/madclips/wordpress2/ Peter Roudik is a director of legal research at the Law Library of Congress. Before joining the Law Library in 1996, Mr. Roudik worked as a research scholar at the University of Chicago Law School, served as a legal advisor to the Russian Parliament, and taught law at the Moscow Institute of Technology. He holds an M.A. from the U.S. Naval War College, a J.S.D. from the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Science, and a joint degree in history and law from the State University of Moscow.

Rita Saccal was the Head Librarian of the Seminario Rabinico Latinoamericano “Marshall T. Meyer”, Buenos Aires from 1997-2014. She is a member of the Editorial Committee of MajShavot, the Academic Journal of the Seminario. Rita joined the Association of Jewish Libraries in 1995 and has attended every AJL conference since her joining. She has held numerous positions within AJL, including President of the RAS Division as well as a member of the Book Awards committee. At present, she is the International Liaison. Rita belongs to the Red Latinoamericana de Información Teológica (The Latin American Network of Theological Information), representing the Association of Jewish Libraries. She is currently volunteering for several Jewish Institutions in Argentina, specifically Fundacion Judaica, where she will be organizing a new Jewish Library. Throughout 2014 she helped the Jewish Community of Sao Paulo, Brazil organize a library. She continues her efforts throughout Latin America to recruit new members to AJL. Before entering the field of Judaica librarianship, Rita was the Reference Director at the Centro de Información de las Naciones Unidas en Buenos Aires (U.N. Information Center).

Monika Schreiber, born in 1966, is married, has two children, a Ph.D. (2009), is the librarian of the Jewish Studies Library (Fachbereichsbibliothek für Judaistik), a branch library of Vienna University Library and Archives Services (since 1997), and has recently become a member of the Provenance Research Group located at Vienna University Library. She is the author of, among others: The Comfort of Kin: Samaritan Community, Kinship and Marriage. (Brill, 2014), and “A Response to Susannah Heschel”, The Review of Rabbinic Judaism 13:2 (2010), pp. 231-235. Barry Schwartz is director of the Jewish Publication Society in Philadelphia and rabbi of Congregation Adas Emuno in Leonia, New Jersey. Rabbi Schwartz is the author of the widely used textbook Jewish Heroes-Jewish Values and most recently Judaism’s Great Debates. In December, his play, As a Driven Leaf, an adaptation for the stage of Milton Steinberg’s epic novel, was read in N.Y. Since 2006, Shoshanah Seidman has been the Jewish Studies faculty liaison at Northwestern University Library. As a faculty liaison, Shoshanah is in charge of collection development, consultations, reference services and all other liaisons with students and faculty. Shoshanah joined AJL in 1991 and attended her first AJL conference in 1992. Shoshanah was co-chairperson of the 30th AJL convention held in Chicago in 1995. Shoshanah was AJL VP for Membership from 1996 to 2002. Shoshanah was again the co-chairperson of an AJL conference in 2009. In that capacity, Shoshanah concentrated heavily on fundraising and establishing connections with stakeholders in the Chicago area. Roberta I. Shaffer was appointed Associate Librarian for Library Services in January 2012 and she retired from this position in August 2014. As Associate Librarian, she managed fifty three divisions and offices whose over 2,000 employees are responsible for acquisitions, cataloging, public service, and preservation activities, services to the blind and physically handicapped, and network and bibliographic standards for America’s national library. Shaffer graduated cum laude from Vassar College with an A.B. degree in political science/demography, with highest honors from Emory University with a master’s degree in law librarianship and cum laude with a J.D. from Tulane University School of Law. Shaffer has a rich and diverse background in academics, management, law, librarianship and technology. Over the course of her nearly forty year career, Roberta has worked at University of Houston Law Center, at the Law Library of Congress, as Fulbright Senior Research Scholar, and George Washington University National Law Center Library.

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Lynn Kirsche Shapiro is the author of the cookbook/memoir Food Family and Tradition: Hungarian Kosher Family Recipes and Remembrances (thecherrypress.com), 2015 Gourmand World Cookbook Award Winner in the USA for Best Historical Recipes Book. Lynn has been cooking and baking with her parents since childhood, and is integrally involved in Hungarian Kosher Foods, the all kosher supermarket founded by her parents, Sandor and Margit Kirsche, Holocaust Survivors. Additionally, Lynn has been involved in education for over thirty years in multiple arenas, including college mathematics, adult Jewish text-based classes, and facilitating Holocaust education, initiating programs as well as speaking herself.

Ellen Share, Jubilee Conference co-chairperson, holds an M.L.S. degree from the University of Maryland at College Park. She has worked for nearly thirty years as the librarian at Washington Hebrew Congregation managing two libraries at the Temple in Washington, D.C. and one library at the Julia Bindeman Suburban Center. Ellen sees students of all ages, plans a yearly Jewish Book Month Shabbat celebration and runs an active book club which meets four times yearly. Ellen and her husband have two grown children, twins (boy & girl) as grandchildren, and a whistling cockatiel.

Jasmin Shinohara (neé Nof) has been the Hebraica Cataloging Librarian at the University of Pennsylvania since 2011. Prior to working at Penn, Jasmin served for six years as the Judaica and Hebraica Cataloger at the University of Maryland. She earned her M.L.S. at Indiana University and her B.A. in Judaic Studies at Yeshiva University.

Gail Shirazi is a librarian in the Israel and Judaica Section in the Asian and Middle Eastern Division of the Library of Congress, where she has worked for thirty nine years. She specializes in Israeli acquisitions in all formats and languages. She holds an M.L.S. from Catholic University, an M.A. from Syracuse University (Maxwell School) and a B.A. in Political Science from University of Maryland. She enjoys arranging lectures and programs at LC and in the community, co-sponsoring the events with embassies, academic organizations, Jewish organizations and other libraries. Lyudmila Sholokhova, Ph.D., is Head Librarian and Acting Chief Archivist at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York. Lyudmila was born in Kiev, Ukraine. She graduated from the Lviv State Conservatory with a Master’s Degree in Musicology. She received a Ph.D. in Musicology from the Tchaikovsky National Music Academy of Ukraine in Kiev in 2000. From 1989 to 2001, Lyudmila worked at the Musical and Judaica Departments of the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine. Lyudmila Sholokhova moved to the United States in 2001. She began working at the YIVO Institute in 2003 in the position of Yiddish Cataloger/Acquisitions Librarian, and she became a Head Librarian of the YIVO Institute in 2011. In addition, since 2014 she has been Acting Chief Archivist of the YIVO Archives and co-Director of the International YIVO Vilna Collections Project between YIVO, Lithuanian National Library and Lithuanian Central State Archives in Vilnius. Lyudmila is the author of the catalogue Phonoarchive of Jewish Musical Heritage (Kiev, 2001) and co-author of the multivolume edition Historical Collection of Jewish Musical Folklore, 1912-1917 (Kiev, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 1997-present. ) David Shumaker joined the Library and Information Science faculty at the Catholic University of America in 2006, following a career of over thirty years in librarianship. During the past several years, he has become identified with embedded librarianship. He co-authored the 2009 research report “Models of Embedded Librarianship”, which was funded by a Special Libraries Association research grant; and his 2012 book, The Embedded Librarian, was termed “a must read for every librarian” by Maureen Sullivan, former president of the American Library Association. His work has garnered a variety of awards, including the Rose Vormelker Award of the Special Libraries Association. He earned an M.S. in Library and Information Science at Drexel University, and an M.S. in Management at UMUC. He blogs at http://www.embeddedlibrarian.com . Myra Sklarew is the author of eleven collections of poetry, including From the Backyard of the Diaspora (National Jewish Book Council Award in Poetry); Lithuania: New & Selected Poems (Anna Davidson Rosenberg Award from the Judah Magnes Museum); Eating the White Earth (tr. to Hebrew); The Witness Trees (in English and Yiddish); Harmless; and collections of essays and fiction. A Survivor Named Trauma: Holocaust and Memory is forthcoming from SUNY Press.

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Roger Lynn Spears is a full-time architect and part-time musician from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. When not designing buildings, he plays banjo, guitar and piano, frequently accompanying Chapel Hill vocalist Jane Peppler in a revue of Yiddish show tunes from the early 20th century. Roger and Jane most recently performed a series of concerts at the Library of Congress and Tifereth Israel in Washington, D.C.

Sarah Rabin Spira runs PJ Library in Greater Washington and works with over two dozen community partners to offer 150 events each year to our 4,600 families. She has been working in Jewish education for over twelve years and worked in public relations, planning, organizing and outreach before that. She loves bringing her marketing, programming and education background to engage and connect local Jewish and interfaith families. Sarah studied children’s literature at the University of Florida and also has a Master’s degree from George Washington University. She currently “studies” children’s literature each night with her two children. She lives in Washington, D.C.

Jeff Spitzer was born in Manhattan and grew up in the Bronx and Washington Heights. He experienced the richness and dissonance of being part of a vibrant Conservative Jewish synagogue community and Orthodox yeshiva and excellent secular education in the shadow and stream of Yeshiva University. During studies towards his B.A. from NYU, he studied for a year at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and attended regular Hebrew classes in at Givat Ram campus in 1979-80. He completed his J.D. at Emory University Law school and worked as an A.D.A., in Brooklyn, under Elizabeth Holtzman. Twenty years ago he made aliya and worked at the Justice Ministry and as an Assistant to the Attorney General working as a trial attorney for the Jerusalem Municipality. About fifteen years ago, he took over Jerusalem Books, L.t.d., an Israeli export company that specializes in supplying Israeli books to Libraries. He has enjoyed working with librarians, curators and faculty to support research and supply the very best in Israeli publications in all areas.

Jason Steinhauer served as a curator on the award-winning exhibition “Ours to Fight For: American Jewish Soldiers in World War II,” organized by the Museum of Jewish Heritage – A Living Memorial to the Holocaust (New York). He currently works at The John W. Kluge Center at Library of Congress. Joni Sussman is the Publisher at Kar-Ben Publishing, a division of Lerner Publishing Group. Kar-Ben, celebrating its fortieth anniversary in 2015, publishes eighteen to twenty Jewish-themed picture books for children each year, both fiction and non-fiction for preschool through approximately 6th grade, including holiday books, Jewish life-cycle stories, Bible tales, Jewish folktales, stories about Israel, about Jewish history and about the Holocaust, as well as board books for the littlest readers. In particular, Kar-Ben seeks stories that reflect the ethnic and cultural diversity of today's Jewish family. Joni previously served as Publisher of Minnesota Parent Magazine, and as Editorial and Marketing Director for Meadowbrook Press, a children's and parenting publisher. She is a past-president of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, where she continues to serve as Chair of Holocaust Education. Aaron Taub is the Head of the Israel and Judaica Section in the Asian and Middle Eastern Division of the Library of Congress, the Chairperson of the AJL Awards Committee, and the Co-Chairperson of Yovel/Jubilee: Celebrating 50 years of AJL! Under the name Yermiyahu Ahron Taub, he is the author of four books of poetry, including most recently Prayers of a Heretic/Tfiles fun an apikoyres (2013). Tsugreytndik zikh tsu tantsn: naye Yidishe lider/Preparing to Dance: New Yiddish songs, a CD of nine of his Yiddish poems set to music by Michał Górczyński was released on the Multikulti Project label (www.multikulti.com) in 2014. Taub was honored by the Museum of Jewish Heritage as one of New York’s best emerging Jewish artists and has been nominated four times for a Pushcart Prize and twice for a Best of the Net award. He completed an artist’s residency at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA) in 2014. Please visit his web site at www.yataub.net.

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Tunesha Thigpen is a Community Development Specialist at Microsoft. She specializes in helping Small Businesses and Non-Profits learn how to use their Microsoft products and get the most out of their software and hardware. She also provides students with extracurricular STEM learning opportunities through Microsoft’s YouthSpark Fieldtrip program. Samuel R. Torjman Thomas, Ph.D. is an ethnomusicologist and professional performing multi-instrumentalist who has been forging an artist/scholar model for over fifteen years. His scholarship centers on musics of the Middle East and North Africa, worldwide Jewish musics, and jazz traditions. He is the artistic director of the New York Andalus Ensemble and the critically-acclaimed ensemble ASEFA. Thomas is an adjunct Assistant Professor at several campuses of the City University of New York, in music, interdisciplinary studies, and Jewish studies, on topics including Muslim-Jewish relations in music, philosophy, and poetics, American popular music, and diaspora studies.

Ellen Tilman is the Director of Library Services at the Meyers Library of Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel in Elkins Park, Pa. She leads the library’s adult book discussion group and a session on “What’s New in Jewish Books” at the Ramah Darom Passover Camp in Clayton, Ga. She currently serves on the Sydney Taylor Book Award Committee of AJL. Ellen has a B.A. in Political Science from Goucher College, a Master of Social Service Degree in Social Planning from Bryn Mawr College and an M.B.A. in Organizational Behavior and Industrial Relations from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Beyhan Çagri Trock is the author of the lavishly illustrated Turkish and Sephardic cookbook/memoir, The Ottoman Turk and the Pretty Jewish Girl: Real Turkish Cooking, in which she explores her parents’ relationship through the lens of history and cookery. Beyhan Çagri Trock is an architect, artist, musician, wife and mother (but not necessarily in that order). She lives in Bethesda, Maryland.

Elizabeth Vernon is Lee M. Friedman Judaica Technical Services Librarian in the Judaica Division of the Harvard Library. She has a Master’s in Middle Eastern Studies from Harvard University, and an M.L.S. in Library Science and a D.A. in Library Administration from Simmons College. She is the author of Decision-Making for Automation: Hebrew and Arabic Script Materials in the Automated Library and Jewish Studies Courses at American and Canadian Universities, as well as many articles related to Judaica and Middle Eastern librarianship. Stephanie Entin Wald has been the Early Childhood/Lower School Librarian at the A.J. Heschel School in New York City for seventeen years. She earned a Master’s in Library Science from Queens College with a specialty in School Library Media. A native of Hampton, Va., Rabbi Yonatan Warren graduated the University of Maryland, College Park in 2005. He received both his Masters of Arts and Rabbinic Ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary in May 2011. Following his graduation, he was commissioned to Active Duty in the US Navy. In November 2011, he reported as a Battalion Chaplain to 3d Marine Logistics Group, Okinawa, Japan and was assigned to 9th Engineer Support Battalion. Chaplain Warren was tasked to serve as the Rabbi for the Jewish communities of Okinawa and the Western Pacific; he deployed to Helmand Province, Afghanistan in support of the Jewish Holy Days observances. He served one year with Combat Logistics Battalion 31, where he deployed in support of military exercises in the region. In January 2014, he was assigned to the U.S. Naval Academy as Rabbi and 4th Battalion Chaplain. His military awards include the Navy Achievement Medal with one Gold Star and the Fleet Marine Force Officer insignia. He is married to Leora Skolnik, and is the proud father of Calanit (8 months).

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Yaffa Weisman, is the Library Director at the Frances-Henry Library, and the Adjunct Associate Professor of Jewish Studies at the Louchheim School of Jewish Studies in Los Angeles. Dr. Weisman, was born and educated in Israel, where she received her B.A. in theater studies. While studying for her Ph.D. at the University of Southern California, she began working at the Frances-Henry Library. Upon receiving her doctorate, Dr. Weisman began teaching at HUC-JIR and at The Louchheim School of Judaic Studies. She was appointed as the Frances-Henry Library Director in 2000. Dr. Weisman is a writer, translator and literary critic in the areas of feminist and theater studies, creative liturgies, and is a regular book reviewer in the Association of Jewish Libraries Reviews and in the Catholic Library Association Newsletter. Dr. Weisman is the President of AJL for the 2014-2016 term. Avi West is Senior Education Officer and Master Teacher, Jewish Life and Learning, at the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington. His portfolio includes integrating Judaic content into pedagogic and identity building experiences and articles, adult learning, and congregational innovation. As the Director of the Shulamith Reich Elster Resource Center and Master Teacher at the Partnership for Jewish Life and Learning, West has developed educational resources for educators, adults and families for the Partnership's website, e-blasts and workshops. West also consults, develops and writes educational resources for the Partnership's programs, including adult learning, professional development, youth philanthropy, and early childhood. West has been honored for his work in the community and with education through various accolades. West earned his B.A. from Columbia University after majoring in comparative literature with a concentration on folk literature, metaphor, and rabbinic Midrash. He also has a B.A. of Hebrew Letters and an M.A. in Education with a concentration in curriculum development from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America.

Cynthia Whitacre, Manager, WorldCat Quality, manages the group that sets policy for OCLC cataloging as well as making active corrections and improvements to WorldCat bibliographic and authority records. Cynthia joined OCLC in April 1987 and worked in Retrospective Conversion and Contract Cataloging prior to her current position. Her M.L.S. is from Indiana University. She has experience in academic and special libraries and is a former President of ALCTS (Association for Library Collections and Technical Services), a division of ALA.

Leon Wieseltier is the Isaiah Berlin Senior Fellow in Culture and Policy at the Brookings Institution, and Contributing Editor and Critic at The Atlantic. From 1983 to 2014 he was the Literary Editor of The New Republic. He is the author, among other books, of the highly acclaimed Kaddish, which has been translated into many languages. His essays on cultural and political subjects, and on Jewish history and Jewish literature, have been widely published, as have his translations of modern Hebrew poetry. He was born in Brooklyn in 1952, and was educated at the Yeshivah of Flatbush, Columbia, Oxford, and Harvard, where he was a member of the Society of Fellows. He has lectured and taught at many universities, and was recently the Gruss Lecturer in Talmudic Civil Law at Harvard Law School. In 2013 he was awarded the Dan David Prize. Laurel S. Wolfson is the Administrative Librarian of the Klau Library, Cincinnati, and the Acting Deputy Director of Libraries for Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. Her past AJL Activities include: Nominating Committee Chairperson, 2009/10; National Convention Treasurer, 2008-2009; President, 2006/07-2007/08; Vice-President/President Elect, 2004/05-2005/06; Treasurer, 2002/03-2003/04; VP Publications, 1998-2002; Nominating Committee, R&S Division, 1999-2000; Chair, AJL Duplicates Exchange, 1996-1999; National Publicity Chairperson, 1991/92-1994/95; AJL Continuing Education Committee, 1991/92-1997; May K. Simon Scholarship Committee, 1991-93; and recipient of the 1990 May K. Simon Scholarship Award. Dan Wyman Books, LLC, is a leading international dealer in rare and out of print Jewish books, serials, and ephemera. Specializing in materials connected to the Holocaust, Zionism, and modern Jewish history, the firm buys from and sells to most of the world's top Jewish libraries, museums, and institutions. They also do business with hundreds of synagogues, scholars, and collectors across the globe. Dan Wyman Books is an active member of both the Association for Jewish Studies and the Association for Jewish Libraries and regularly exhibits at important academic conferences.

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Moshe Zeilingold is the proprietor of Aleph Hebrew Books, which provides materials to libraries and museums and seeks to assist librarians in their collection development activity. We specialize in yizkor books, ephemera, and yiddish materials. We do not maintain a website or offer retail sales and are available to be reached at alephhebrewbooks@gmail.com. Tammy Ziegler studied Chinese language & literature and linguistics at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and Nankai University, Tianjin, China. For the past thirteen years, she has worked at East View Information Services in Minneapolis, Minnesota in several different roles. Since January 2015, she has served as Director of Sales. Now in its 25th year in business, East View is a leading provider of non-US publications and resources, including Russian, Chinese, and Arabic databases, print periodicals, books and microforms. The company serves all geographies and many customer types, including academic institutions, government organizations, corporations, public and federal libraries, and law firms.

Jennifer Rudick Zunikoff is a storyteller, poet, educator, facilitator, and coach. She is the founder and director of the Storyteller Teaching Training Project at Krieger Schechter Day School, and performs and teaches throughout the U.S. Her storytelling CD, The Growing Season, includes six original stories commissioned by the Macks Center for Jewish Education. Two additional stories are featured in the books, Mitzvah Stories: Seeds for Inspiration, and New Mitzvah Stories for the Whole Family. The Jewish Women’s Archive and the Philadelphia Jewish Voice have published her poetry. From 2004-2013, Jennifer co-taught the Oral Histories of the Holocaust course at Goucher College.

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Exhibitors

Albert Whitman

www.albertwhitman.com

Alden Films www.aldenfilms.com Alden Films is a distributor of DVDs and

CDs of Israel and Judaica. My wife also sells

jewelry and writes custom made poems for

special occasions. Presently, we have just

published the first catalogue of films and

media dealing exclusively with

antisemitism in conjunction with the Vidal

Sassoon Institute of the Hebrew University

of Jerusalem. Catalogues will be available

for all participants.

American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee

www.archives.jdc.org The JDC Archives houses one of the most

significant collections in the world for the

study of modern Jewish history. Comprising

the organizational records of JDC, the

overseas rescue, relief, and rehabilitation

arm of the American Jewish community, the

archives includes over 3 miles of text

documents, 100,000 photographs, a

research library of more than 6,000 books,

1,100 audio recordings including oral

histories, and a collection of 2,500 videos.

Association Book Exhibit

www.bookexhibit.com

The Baglady Boutique www.thebagladyboutique.com The Baglady boutique will present a large

variety of antique and vintage jewelry made

between 1880-1960. The price range is

from $9.00 to $250.00. A very generous

discount will be given if more than one item

is purchased or an item retails for more

than $50.00. All of the jewelry is one of a

kind.

Black Burn Fork Publishing

www.blackburnfork.com

Brill

www.brill.com Founded in 1683, Brill is a leading scholarly

publisher with a rich history and strong

international focus whose publications

focus on the Humanities and Social

Sciences, International and Human Rights

Law, and selected areas in Biology and Life

Sciences. We are especially proud to

announce the publication this year of the

Encyclopedia of Hebrew Language &

Linguistics, Online and in print.

Dryad Press

www.dryadpress.com

Fig Tree Books www.FigTreeBooks.net Fig Tree Books sources, publishes, and

promotes high-quality novels that chronicle

and enlighten the unique American Jewish

experience, emphasizing works from new

voices, from previously published writers,

and from authors of classic books.

Gihon River Press

www.gihonriverpress.com We publish books on Holocaust education.

We focus on heroes, resisters and survivors.

Our books are all age appropriate. Many of

our titles have teachers and readers guide

available free from our website. Volume

discounts available by contacting us

directly.

Haaretz www.haaretz.co.il

Jerusalem Books www.jerusalembooks.co.il Jerusalem Books Ltd. is an Israeli company

that supplies Israeli books in all categories

from all publishers to faculty, scholars,

students, and libraries.

The Jewish Publication Society

www.jps.org The Jewish Publication Society is the oldest

publisher of Jewish books in the United

States. Our legacy includes two acclaimed

translations of the Hebrew Bible (the JPS

Tanakh), esteemed biblical commentary,

and over 120 years of scholarly and popular

works of history, philosophy, and literature

that have stood the test of time.

KarBen

(hosted by Enjoy-A-Book)

www.enjoyabookclub.com

www.karben.com Enjoy-A-Book-Club, your source for Jewish

children’s books and Jewish book fairs, has

been providing a full line of Jewish

children’s books and creating outstanding

traveling book fairs since 1980. Kar-Ben

Publishing, the world’s largest publisher of

exclusively Jewish-themed children’s

books, including many Sydney Taylor

Award-winners, is celebrating its 40th

anniversary in 2015 with many wonderful

new books! Check out our new Fall 2015

titles.

MIPP International

www.mippbooks.com

OPALS - Media Flex

www.mediaflex.net OPALS Open-source Automated Library

System is a feature-rich, cooperatively

developed, Web-based, open source

program. This alternative technology

provides Internet access to information

databases, library collections, eBooks and

digital archives. OPALS latest updates

untangle eBook management as well as

database authentication and access,

making it easy to respond to the growing

demand for remote access to your library's

authentic information resources 24/7.

Poetica Publishing (with KarBen)

www.poeticapublishing.com

Reclaiming Judaism Press www.reclaimingjudaism.org Innovators of award-winning books,

programs and resources for meaningful

Jewish learning and living across the full

range of Jewish practice.

Scholar's Choice

www.scholarschoice.com

SISU Home Entertainment

www.sisuent.com

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The AJL Capital Area Chapter extends its

condolences to member Susan Freiband and

her family on the passing of her son,

Elie Freiband, z”l

May Susan and her family be comforted among

the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem

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Restaurants, Businesses, Area Synagogues

Kosher Restaurants All restaurants listed are under the Rabbinical Council of Greater Washington ("Capital K") or Orthodox

Union supervision. Please confirm hours and directions with establishments.

Silver Spring, Wheaton, College Park

Ben Yehuda Cafe and Pizzaria

(Dairy-Cholov Yisroel: Pizza, salads, pasta)

1370 B Lamberton Drive, Silver Spring, MD 20902

(Kemp Mill Shopping Center)

301.681.8900; www.ben-yehuda-pizza.com

Hours: Sun-Wed 11AM-8PM; Thu 11AM-9PM; Fri

11AM-2:30PM; Sat 90 mins. after Shabbat-Midnight

Distance: 4.8 miles

Goldberg's New York Bagels - Silver Spring

(Dairy-Cholov Yisroel: sandwiches, soups)

9328 Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring, MD 20910

240.450.4177

Hours: Sun-Thu 7AM-4:30PM; Fri 7AM-2PM

Distance: 0.5 miles The Kosher Pastry Oven

(Pareve bakery, dairy café: Moroccan, Italian, fish)

1372 Lamberton Drive, Silver Spring, MD 20902

(Kemp Mill Shopping Center)

301.592.8844; www.thekosherpastryoven.com

Hours: Cafe and Bakery: Sun-Thu 8AM-4PM, Fri

7:30AM-1PM; Dinner: Sun-Thu 5:30PM-9PM

Distance: 4.8 miles

Max's Kosher Cafe

(Meat: Deli, fried chicken, grill, Mediterranean)

2319 University Blvd. West, Wheaton, MD 20902

301.949.6297; www.theshalomgroup.comlmaxs-

cafe-and-catering

Hours: Sun- Thu 11:00 AM-9:00 PM; Fri 11AM-2PM

Distance: 3 miles

Nut House Pizza

(Dairy: Pizza, veggie subs)

11419 Georgia Ave., Silver Spring, MD 20902

301.942.5900; www.nuthousepizza.com

Hours: Sun- Thu 11AM-9PM; Fri 11AM-4PM; Sat 1

hr. after sundown-1AM

Distance: 2.9 miles

University of Maryland Hillel

(Dairy and Meat)

7612 Mowatt Lane, College Park, MD 20740

301.422.6200 (Hillel); www.hillelmd.org

Hours: Breakfast: Mon-Fri 8:30AM-9:30AM; Lunch:

Sun-Fri 11:30PM-2PM; Dinner: Sun-Thu 5PM-7PM

Distance: 7.7 miles

Rockville and Potomac

Blue Star Restaurant

(Meat: beef, burgers, BBQ)

11417 Woodglen Drive, Rockville, Md. 20852

301.881.6800; www.bluestarkosher.com

Hours: Sun-Thu 11AM-9PM; Fri 11AM-3PM

Distance: 6.8 miles

Cafe Shawreen

(Meat: Mediterranean and Middle Eastern)

188 Rollins Ave., Rockville, MD 20852

301.770.3003; www.cafeshawreen.com

Hours: Sun - Thu 11AM-8PM; Fri 11AM-2PM

Distance: 8.1 miles

Goldberg's New York Bagels - Rockville

(Dairy-Cholov Yisroel: Sandwiches and soups)

4824-4826 Boiling Brook Pkwy., Rockville, MD

20852 (Randolph Hills Shopping Center)

301.816.9229

Hours: Sun-Thu 7AM-4:30PM; Fri 7AM-2PM

Distance: 5.8 miles

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Moti's Grill

(Meat: Mediterranean, kebabs, Indian, sushi)

4860 Boiling Brook Parkway, Rockville, MD

20852 (Randolph Hills Shopping Center)

301.468.0400; www.motisgrill.com

Hours: Sun, Wed, Thu 11AM-9PM; Mon, Tue

11AM-8PM; Wed-Thu 11AM-9PM; Fri 11AM-3PM

Distance: 6.1 miles Royal Dragon Restaurant

(Meat: Chinese and American)

4832 Boiling Brook Parkway, Rockville, MD

20852 (Randolph Hills Shopping Center)

301.468.1922 www.royalkosherrestaurant.com

Hours: Sun-Thu 11:30AM-9PM; Fri 11:30AM-2PM

Distance: 5.8 miles

Siena's Restaurant

(Dairy-Cholov Yisroel: Pizza, Italian, Mexican)

12303 Twinbrook Parkway, Rockville, MD 20852

301.770.7474; www.sienasrestaurant.com

Hours: Sun-Thu 11AM-8:30 PM; Fri. 11AM-3PM

Distance: 7.9 miles

Washington, DC

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Café

(Sealed meals are available upon request)

100 Raoul Wallenberg Plaza SW, Wash., DC

20024 (Ross Building) 202.488.6151;

www.ushmm.org/information/museum-cafe

Hours: Sun-Sat 8:30AM-4:30PM

Distance: 11 miles (near Smithsonian Metro)

Char Bar Restaurant & Eli's Market

(Meat: Deli, grill, soups)

2142 L St. NW (Winston House Building), Wash.,

DC 20037

202.785.4314; www.charbardc.com

Hours: Sun-Thu 11AM-9PM; Fri 11AM-2:30PM

Distance: 8.0 mile (near Dupont Circle Metro)

Silver Crust at the DC JCC (Dairy, Italian) 1529 16th Street, NW, Wash., DC 20036 202.350.4373; www.silvercrust.com Hours: Sun-Thu 11AM-8:30PM Distance 5.6 miles (near Dupont Circle Metro)

Soupergirl (two locations)

(Vegetarian soups and salads)

314 Carroll St., NW, Wash., DC 20012

202.609.7177; www.thesoupergirl.com

Hours: Mon-Thu 8:15AM-8PM, Fri 8:15 AM-3PM

Distance: 3.1 miles (near Takoma Metro)

1829 M St., NW, Wash., DC

202.733.4401

Hours: 11AM-7PM, Fri 11AM-3PM Distance: 7.5 miles (near Farragut West Metro)

Kosher Markets

Moti's Market

4860 Boiling Brook Pkwy., Rockville, MD 20852

301.468.0400; www.motismarket.com

Shalom Kosher

1361 Lamberton Dr, Silver Spring, MD 20902

(Kemp Mill Shopping Center); 301.946.6500;

www.theshalomgroup.comlshalom-kosher

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Jewish Books and Gifts

Elli-Chai's 1-Stop Judaica

1319 Lamberton Dr., Silver Spring, MD 20902

(Kemp Mill Shopping Center)

301.933.1800; www.wheaton-

md.patch.comllistings/elli-chais-one-stop-judaica-

shop

Israeli Accents

4838 Boiling Brook Parkway, Rockville, MD 20852

(Randolph Hills Shopping Center)

301.231.7999; 800.420.9610;

www.israeliaccents.com

Business information courtesy of the Woodside Synagogue (www.wsat.org/Guest_Guide.pdf)

Area Synagogues Woodside Synagogue (Orthodox)

9001 Georgia Ave., Silver Spring MD, 20910

www.wsat.org

Morning Services: Sun 8AM; Mon & Thu 6:50AM

& 8AM; Tue, Wed, Fri, 7AM & 8AM; Afternoon and

Evening Services: Sun-Thu, 8:20PM

Turn right upon exiting hotel and walk (5 mins)

three blocks north

National Synagogue (Orthodox)

1600 Jonquil St, NW, Wash., D.C. 20012

www.ostns.org

Morning Services: Sun-Thu 6:30AM

Distance: 1.5 miles

Fabrengen (Independent, Egalitarian,

Participatory Chavurah)

7750 16th Street, NW, Wash., DC 20012

www.fabrengen.net

Distance: 1.5 miles

Tifereth Israel (Conservative)

7701 16th Street, NW, Wash., D.C. 20012

www.tiferethisrael.com

Morning Services: Sun-Thu 7:30AM

Distance: 1.5 miles

Temple Shalom (Reform)

8401 Grubb Road, Chevy Chase MD 20815

www.templeshalom.net

Distance: 2.0 miles

Ohr Kodesh (Conservative)

8300 Meadowbrook Lane, Chevy Chase MD

20815 www.ohrkodesh.org

Morning Services: Sun 8:45AM, Mon-Fri 6:45AM;

Afternoon and Evening Services: Sun-Thu 8PM

Distance: 2.2 miles

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Evaluation Form

2015 Yovel/Jubilee: Celebrating 50 Years of AJL! Silver Spring, MD

Form is also available online at: http://goo.gl/forms/ybphlfYXz3

*1. AJL Membership. Please indicate your membership status (Please select one) □ I was a member before registering for this conference. □ I joined AJL when I registered for this conference. □ I am not a member of AJL. *2. How many AJL international conferences have you attended? (Please select one) □ 0 □ 1 – 2 □ 3 – 5 □ 6+ *3. Participation at this conference. (Check all that apply) □ Attendee □ Presenter □ Planner □ Volunteer □ Student □ Other: _________________________________________________________________ 4. Financial Support. Please indicate any financial support you received to attend this conference. (Check all that apply) □ AJL National (AJL, EBSCO, Littauer) □ AJL Chapter □ Academic Institution □ Synagogue □ None □ Other: __________________________________________________________________ *5. How would you rate your overall experience at the conference? (Please select one) □ Very Satisfied □ Satisfied □ Unsatisfied □ Very unsatisfied 6. What did you like best about the exhibits and exhibits area? (Check all that apply) □ The layout □ The exhibitors (please specify which ones in the "other" section) □ Other: ______________________________________________________________ 7. Schedule. Please tell us your opinions about the schedule this year. (Please select one option per row)

I Liked This I Did Not Like This

I Did Not Attend This

Family Program on Sunday Keynote Speaker on Sunday Author's Luncheon on Monday General & Division meetings on Mon. Awards Luncheon on Tuesday Tours of LC and USHMM on Wed. General flow of the sessions Order and arrangement of sessions Types of sessions offered

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8. Please explain any choices from the previous question about the schedule 9. Favorites. Please write in your favorite programs or sessions. 10. Least Favorites. Please write in your least favorite programs and sessions. 11. What topics would you like to see covered next year? 12. Please share any other comments about the conference, the hotel, the programs. 13. Your name (optional): * Required

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Notes

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Notes

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Maps

Library of Congress

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United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - First Floor

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum – Lower Level

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Silver Spring Sheraton – Fourth Floor

Silver Spring Sheraton - First Floor

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