With her artistic ability and tasteful aesthetic choices, Cassie Gonzales always had the makings of an illustrator. But it certainly didn’t hurt that, as a child growing up in southwest Houston, there was an annual Jewish book fair where Gonzales could explore her budding passion.
“It’s really special. I was so excited to be invited because the book festival was my favorite thing growing up, going to bookstores and that was the beginning of my love for books,” Gonzales said.
The 2022 festival kicked off Saturday with a program featuring Dan Grunfeld, author of the acclaimed book “By the Grace of the Game: The Holocaust, a Basketball Legacy, and an Unprecedented American Dream” — an account of the Grunfeld family’s journey from Auschwitz in the NBA. The community center bookstore sold no copies of the book, according to festival chairwoman Lauren Kaufman Blachman.
Photos of authors including Milton Berle and Saul Bellow during previous iterations of the festival adorn the lobby of the community center, where this year’s theme is “Remember the Past and Celebrate the Future.”
During the opening night of the festival, there was a performance by Lanier Middle School band members, many of whom are not Jewish, explained festival co-chair Marcy Laviage.
“It exposes a lot of people to the Jewish community as well as (the other way around). It’s a two-way interaction, and it’s really important, and we’ve also been bringing so many authors to Houston for the last 50 years. , and exposing them to Houston,” Laviage said.
The festival, which runs until November 5, includes presentations by authors of books ranging from young adult fiction to contemporary collections of essays, along with film screenings and music and dance performances. Dozens of parents and children attended Sunday’s Oliver Lapin Family Day, which featured readings from several children’s book authors and arts and crafts stations for children.
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Martin Lindenberg, 69, watched as his 5-year-old grandson read “Hanukkah in Little Havana,” by Julie Anna Blank. The author led the children in a rendition of “Ocho Kandelikas,” a Judeo-Spanish or Ladino song behind the story. Lindenberg’s grandson, Isaac, used his allowance to buy a copy of “J is for Janucá” for himself and “Dreidel Dreidel Dreidel” for his 2-year-old brother.
“It’s a nice walk and I want him to get more Jewish education. And my wife (volunteers run) the bookstore and he always likes to see his grandma,” Lindenberg said with a smile.
“J is for Janucá,” a bilingual ABC book written by Melanie Romero, was one of two books featured that touch on the intersections between Judaism and Latino cultures. Gonzales and Romero are Mexican-American and Jewish, and Blank spent her early childhood in Caracas, Venezuela.
Blank’s book details her childhood Hanukkah trips from Washington, DC, to Miami, where her grandmother cooked her Caribbean and South American food to make her feel at home. The Jewish Community Center handed out buñuelos, the Latin American fried food popular during the holidays, and freshly squeezed orange juice to accompany her reading.
“I write this for third culture kids and Spanish-speaking Jews who don’t have a lot of representation. There are all kinds of ways to be Jewish, and this is one of them,” Blank said.
Most of the festival’s programming this year is being held at the Merfish Teen Center in Meyerland. The main campus, a few blocks away on Braeswood Boulevard, is rebuilding after devastating flooding as a result of Hurricane Harvey.
“Meyerland has been hit hard, and just like families having to decide, ‘Do we stay in Meyerland because we love it, or do we leave because (flooding) keeps happening,’ there was a lot of thoughtful conversation through board leadership. . . . . And it was a very conscious decision that we want to stay and be a pillar of this community,” Laviage said.
