BC writers at the JCC Jewish Book Fest
February 20th, 2025
STAN LUBIN, author of 123 Very Short Stories from a Very Long Life in Medicine (FriesenPress, 2023)
Composed of personal anecdotes, this memoir is an engaging and emotional journey, not just for those in the medical profession but all readers who wish to get a glimpse inside the lives of people seeking care in both small towns and cities. Written with a depth of medical detail yet still accessible to casual readers, Dr. Lubin’s (at right) thought-provoking stories will make readers consider their own beliefs, vulnerabilities, joys and, indeed, mortality.
Dr. STAN LUBIN originally completed a degree in philosophy and political science and worked as a teacher in Tanzania, before finding his calling as a doctor. In BC he worked as a general practitioner doing house calls, anesthetics, delivering babies and working in the emergency. He also taught trainee family doctors at UBC. He lives in Vancouver. 9781039171374
DATE: Sunday, Feb 23, 1:00pm $18 Buy tickets
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Dr. Karine Rashkovsky
Dr. KARINE RASHKOVSKY, author of An Improbable Life: My Father’s Escape from Soviet Russia (Cherry Orchard Books, 2024)
From evading the KGB and disassembling a downed American plane to narrowly escaping a life sentence in Siberia, Reuven Rashkovsky’s story is a gripping tale of searching for belonging, and daring to escape the tightly controlled Soviet regime. Relayed in his point of view by his daughter, Dr. Karine Rashkovsky, An Improbable Life tells the story of a man who has been at the centre of some of the most tumultuous events in modern history, from World War II to the Six-Day War to the collapse of the USSR, providing insight into the world of Soviet Jewry and the almost insurmountable obstacles to getting out.
Dr. KARINE RASHKOVSKY is an award-winning entrepreneur, educator, speaker, author and academic. She is the founder of a Canadian enrichment program and a sought-after executive coach. She lives in West Vancouver. 9798887195131
DATE: Monday, Feb 24, 6:00 pm: $18 Buy tickets
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Tom Wayman
TOM WAYMAN, author of The Road to Appledore or How I Went Back to the Land Without Ever Having Lived There in the First Place (Harbour, 2024)
Tom Wayman’s account of his shift from urban to rural life follows him from Vancouver to BC’s Slocan Valley, deep in the Selkirk Mountains, and presents, with his characteristic humour and philosophical insight the ensuing major shifts of perspective and knowledge. Mishaps, misadventures and moments of delight abound during his decades of living immersed in nature.
TOM WAYMAN’s long writing career includes more than twenty poetry collections, three collections of critical and cultural essays, three books of short fiction, and a novel. His honours include the 2022 George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award, and being named a Vancouver BC literary landmark. He won the Western Canada Jewish Book Awards in 2016 for Fiction and in 2023 for Poetry. 9781990776632
DATE: Tuesday, Feb 25 , 2:00pm $18 Buy tickets
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Eli Greenbaum
ELI GREENBAUM, author of Hell, No, We Didn’t Go! Firsthand Accounts of Vietnam War Protest and Resistance (Univ Press of Kansas, 2024)
As long as there have been wars, there has been conscription. And conscription has never been popular. In Hell, No, We Didn’t Go!, Eli Greenbaum presents firsthand accounts of men who were driven to resist or dodge the Vietnam draft at all costs. These vivid essays and candid oral histories of individuals who found ways to defy the draft, depict events that were often controversial, and almost always emotionally charged. The first-person accounts of draft resistance and protest are held together by an overarching personal narrative, while providing context, commentary and an unusual fifty-year perspective on the men’s decisions to avoid the Vietnam War, no matter what.
ELI GREENBAUM is an attorney, former ad agency creative director, and the author of several published short stories and articles. He lives in Vancouver. 9780700636303
DATE: Tuesday, Feb 25 , 2:00pm $18 Buy tickets
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David Spaner
DAVID SPANER, author of Keefer Street (Ronsdale, 2024)
Jake Feldman grows up in the working-class immigrant neighborhood of Strathcona in Depression-era Vancouver. Jake’s left-wing, rabble-rousing street politics eventually lead him to join the international volunteers fighting fascism in the Spanish Civil War. Fifty years later, he recaptures the passion of his youth during a reunion of civil war volunteers in Spain.
This is the first novel to bring to life the vibrancy of Strathcona and its largely Jewish Keefer Street and explores how to preserve your idealism in order to live a life of purpose. 9781553807209
DAVID SPANER has been a feature writer, movie critic, reporter and editor for numerous newspapers and magazines. His most recent book, Solidarity: Canada’s Unknown Revolution of 1983, was nominated for the George Ryga Prize for Social Awareness in Literature.
DATE: Wednesday, Feb 26, 6:00pm $18 Buy tickets
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Ellen Schwartz
ELLEN SCHWARTZ, author of Friends to the Rescue (Apples & Honey Press, 2024), illustrated by ALISON MUTTON
Inspired by a true story, and told in two different time periods, Friends to the Rescue takes place in Fossa, Italy, a small mountain village that offered refuge to Jews during WW II. When the village suffers a devastating earthquake 65 years later, the Jewish refugees whom the town had helped travel to Fossa to return the favour.
ELLEN SCHWARTZ is an award-winning author of twelve children’s books including Heart of a Champion, Princess Dolls, as well as her memoir Galena Bay Odyssey. She is the winner of the 2020 Western Canada Jewish Book Award for Children/Youth Literature. 9781681156415
DATE: Wednesday, Feb 26, 9:00am FREE
FOR CHILDREN GR. 4 – 7 at the Vancouver Talmud Torah School (998 W 26th Ave, Vancouver)
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