See more, pay less with the Festival Pass! If you’re planning to see multiple events, you can save by purchasing a Festival Pass for $40. (Please note that the Festival Pass includes all events but does not include books.)

The 24th annual Ann Katz Festival of Books & Arts presented by Herbert Simon Family Foundation is a three-week festival featuring well-known authors, award-winning films and local visual and performing artists. For a full list of events, visit JCCindy.org/events.

Reflecting on subjects like the international veneration of Anne Frank, Dara Horn challenges the reader to confront the reasons why there might be so much fascination with Jewish deaths, as emblematic of the worst of evils the world has to offer, and so little respect for Jewish lives, as they continue to unfold in the present. People Love Dead Jews is a winner of the National Jewish Book Award, a New York Times Notable Book (Best Books of 2021) and a Chicago Public Library Best Book of 2021.

Along with this essay collection, Horn is the award-winning author of six books, including well-known titles A Guide to the Perplexed and The World to Come. Her books have been selected as New York Times Notable Books, Booklist’s 25 Best Books of the Decade, and San Francisco Chronicle’s Best Books of the Year, and have been translated into 11 languages. Her nonfiction work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, Smithsonian Magazine, and The Jewish Review of Books, among many other publications, and she has held the Gerald Weinstock Visiting Professorship in Jewish Studies at Harvard University.

Sponsored by Congregation Beth-El Zedeck and the Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library.

The JCC is a nonprofit organization; donations from program participants like you help us continue to provide stellar Arts & Education programming. Visit JCCindy.org/donate and select “Arts & Education” under the Campaign dropdown to make a donation.