A century ago, Fanny Goldstein, a Russian-Jewish immigrant working as a librarian at the Boston Public Library, noticed Jewish visitors rarely checked out books about their own culture. With her colleagues’ support, she set up a display in the library and called it “Jewish Book Week.”

In 1943, the week became Jewish Book Month (JBM), organized by the Jewish Book Council. Every year it is timed to take place 30 days before the eight-day Jewish holiday of Hanukkah—a festival that often involves gift-giving. Leading off this year’s JBM, which runs November 13–December 13, is a new picture book published this week, Fanny’s Big Idea: How Jewish Book Week Was Born, written by Richard Michaelson and illustrated by Alyssa Russell (Rocky Pond Books).

Goldstein’s enduring message, says Jewish Book Council CEO Naomi Firestone-Teeter, is that “if you read about someone, if you have familiarity with people and their culture, there’s more opportunity for conversation and understanding.”

JBM is “a time to focus on the books that amplify Jewish voices and give people an opportunity to educate themselves and see reflections of themselves as they engage with literature,” says Miryam Pomerantz Dauber, the Jewish Book Council’s associate director.

In its early years, JBM displays could be seen in secular settings including Gimbles department store. In the decades following World War II, the month became more prominent in Jewish institutional spaces such as synagogues, libraries, and through promotion by the Jewish Book Council. The Council’s year-round programs now include the National Jewish Book Awards, the Jewish Book Club Network, Writer’s Seminars, and an annual conference.

To mark the centennial, the Council is hosting multiple events and has launched a robust publicity campaign around the theme “Share Your Shelf. Share Your Story.” This was inspired by part of the Council’s original mission statement: “Create a place of honor for Jewish books in your home.” Prominent authors such as Rachel Kadish, the 2017 National Jewish Book Award fiction winner for The Weight of Ink, Etgar Keret, an Israeli author of numerous novels and short stories for adults and children, and novelist Lauren Grodstein are creating social media videos showcasing their personal Jewish bookshelves.

And more than 80 organizations are participating in the social media campaign, says Arielle Landau, program and partnerships manager for the Jewish Book Council, including a Jewish community center, the 14th Street Y, Hadassah magazine, the PJ Library, and the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History.

What’s ‘Nu’

Today’s Jewish literature is the focus of Nu Reads, a new program developed by novelist Tova Mirvis, who is the Jewish Book Council’s writer-in-residence. It is an annual subscription service, taking its title from the Yiddish word nu, which means “So? Well?” Nu Reads will offer six books and virtual gatherings to connect readers and authors. The inaugural book, Maya Arad’s Happy New Years by Maya Arad (New Vessel Press), leads a list of “complicated and, we think, really engaging books for people to be thinking about when it comes to Jewish experience,” says Firestone-Teeter. Nu Reads has garnered more than 400 subscribers since its October launch, she added.

New York City will be home to multiple events including a free “cozy bookstore” pop-up event on November 16 and 17 at Schtick, a Lower East Side venue that hosts Shabbat dinners and other Jewish events. The event will feature book giveaways, author visits, and coffee and hot chocolate.

Attendees at the Council’s Jewish Writers Conference, an annual series of seminars that always falls during Jewish Book Month, will have a centennial-themed “author schmooze” event in partnership with 70 Faces Media, which promotes Jewish publications and products.

For younger readers, a free virtual event for Jewish day schools will offer read-alouds and author conversations with children’s authors Talia Benamy, Gayle Forman, and Richard Michaelson, who will read Fanny’s Big Idea.

The Council is also distributing a physical display honoring Jewish Book Month to 100 sites around New York City, Long Island, and Westchester County. The display, which is shaped like a house, contains 11 giveaway fiction, nonfiction, and children’s books, as well as branded bookmarks and pencils, 100 copies of posters designed by four different artists, and literary resources available through a QR code.

The Council will distribute copies of the original posters—a Jewish Book Month tradition that has featured designs made by artists including Maurice Sendak—to 130 synagogues, Jewish Community Centers, and federations across North America.

Firestone-Teeter reflects that Jewish Book Month has “supported the ecosystem” of Jewish publishing, including authors, readers, publishers, libraries, and other organizations. “It’s in sync with the very real needs of our authors, authors, and publishers, and in sync with the business of publishing,” says Firestone-Teeter. “The fact that the organization has been able to hold that ecosystem over its entire tenure is, for me, pretty remarkable.”

Now, said Council programming manager Landau, “we talk about looking a century ahead. It’s exciting to think about what another 100 years of Jewish literature could look like.”