Featured Panel Discussion
Mining History and Ourselves: Creating the Jewish Story
Panel discussion with authors Zeeva Bukai and Shelly Sanders. Moderated by Susan Blumberg-Kason
Jewish Arts and Bookfest
Sunday, May 3, 2026
at UC Berkeley’s Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life, 2121 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA
What makes a story Jewish? How do authors draw from their own history and Jewish history to create stories that are relevant today? This panel discusses the elements that go into creating Jewish stories and the importance of keeping Jewish storytelling alive.
About Zeeva Bukai
Zeeva Bukai is the author of the novels, The Anatomy of Exile, winner of the National Jewish Book Award for Debut Fiction, and The World Between. Her stories have appeared in CARVE, The Master’s Review, Mcsweeney’s Quarterly Concern, December magazine, Lilith, and elsewhere. Her honors include fellowships at the Center for Fiction, Byrdcliff AIR program and Hedgebrook. She holds an MFA from Brooklyn College and lives with her family in Brooklyn, NY.
Photo Credit: Ghila Krajzman
The World Between
With the breakup of her marriage, a once famous Yiddish stage actress travels to Tel-Aviv to revisit the apartment she once shared with her husband. Soon after, she finds herself in the Saint Joseph of the Apparition Hospice run by a group of nuns. Unclear as to how she got there, she begins to piece together the events that led her to this moment. From NY to Tel Aviv, to the Siberian gulag, The World Between explores the landscape of a marriage, friendship, loss, and the way childhood war trauma bleeds into every aspect of the characters’ lives.
About Shelly Sanders
Shelly Sanders is the author of five Jewish novels including two bestsellers, The Night Sparrow, 2025, and Daughters of the Occupation, 2022, both published by HarperCollins. The Night Sparrow tells the story of unsung Jewish female snipers who fought fascism in WWII, and were then erased by the country they fought to protect. “Sanders highlights the breadth of the pre-war Soviet Jewish experience and presents the tension between traditional Jewish gender roles and Soviet ideals of egalitarianism.” (Jewish Book Council)
Sanders is also the author of three acclaimed Young Adult historical fiction novels (Rachel’s Secret, Rachel’s Promise, Rachel’s Hope, Second Story Press), inspired by her grandmother’s escape from a Russian pogrom to Shanghai, and her subsequent immigration to the US. Rachel’s Secret received a Starred Review in Booklist, and two of the three were named Notable Books for Teens from the Association of Jewish Libraries.
Before turning to fiction, Sanders was a journalist with articles in the Toronto Star, Maclean’s, Canadian Living, and Today’s Parent. Sanders graduated from the University of Waterloo with an Honors Degree in English Literature, followed by a graduate degree in journalism from Ryerson University.
Photo Credit: Dan Raiz Photo, Riga
Daughters of the Occupation
Daughters of the Occupation is based on the discovery of Sanders’ Jewish-Latvian roots as an adult, and by her relatives, many of whom were murdered during the Latvian Holocaust. Carol Memmott, of the Washington Post, says this “haunting novel refers not only to the victims of Latvia’s Holocaust but also to their descendants, who carry the trauma of their ancestors.”
About Susan Blumberg-Kason
Susan Blumberg-Kason is the author of Bernardine’s Shanghai Salon: The Story of the Doyenne of Old China (Post Hill Press, 2023), a 2023 Zibby Awards finalist for Best Book for the History Lover. She is also the author of Good Chinese Wife: A Love Affair with China Gone Wrong (Sourcebooks, 2014) and the 2024 Zibby Awards winner When Friends Come From Afar: The Remarkable Story of Bernie Wong and Chicago’s Chinese American Service League (University of Illinois Press, 2024). She is the co-editor of Hong Kong Noir (Akashic Books, 2018) and a regular contributor to the Asian Review of Books, Cha: An Asian Literary Review and World Literature Today. Her work has also appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books and PopMatters. Susan is currently working on a biography of Golda Meir’s childhood and teenage years in Milwaukee and Denver.
Photo Credit: Austin Johnson
Bernardine’s Shanghai Salon: The Story of the Doyenne of Old China
Meet the Jewish salon host in 1930s Shanghai who brought together Chinese and expats around the arts as civil war erupted and World War II loomed on the horizon.
Bernardine Szold Fritz arrived in Shanghai in 1929 to marry her fourth husband. Only thirty-three years old, she found herself in a time and place like no other. Yet from the night of their wedding, Bernardine’s new husband did not live up to his promises. Instead of feeling sorry for herself or leaving Shanghai, Bernardine decided to make a place for herself.
Like other Jewish women before her, Bernardine started a salon in her home, drawing famous names from the world of politics, the arts, and the intelligentsia. She introduced Emily Hahn, the charismatic opium-smoking writer for The New Yorker , to the flamboyant hotelier Sir Victor Sassoon and legendary poet Sinmay Zau. And when Hollywood stars Anna May Wong, Charlie Chaplin, and Claudette Colbert passed through Shanghai, Bernardine organized gatherings to introduce them to their Shanghai contemporaries.
When Bernardine’s salon could not accommodate all who wanted to attend, she founded the International Arts Theater to produce avant-garde plays, ballets, lectures, and visual arts exhibits, often pushing audiences beyond their comfort zones. As civil war brewed and World War II soon followed, Bernardine’s devotion to the arts and the people of Shanghai brought joy to the city just before it would change forever.