Jewish Book Week is a unique nine-day literary festival in London which explores Jewish thought, life, history and literature.
The festival has been running since 1952, making it one of the oldest in Britain. It is the largest single such event in London, dubbed “The capital’s richest annual banquet of writers and ideas” by The Independent.
No other Jewish cultural gathering has the pedigree of Jewish Book Week, or its track record of welcoming a galaxy of international talent to engage with Jewish ideas. In recent years we have welcomed speakers including Jacques Derrida, Niall Ferguson, Gary Shteyngart, Nicole Krauss, Steven Pinker, Albie Sachs, Hélène Cixous, Zadie Smith, Sari Nusseibeh, Adam Phillips, Cynthia Ozick, Daniel Mendelsohn, Julia Kristeva, Nora Ephron, Christopher Hitchens and Martin Amis.
For many, Jewish Book Week is a treasure trove of new ways to explore the latest and best thinking on a vast range of topics published in the last 12 months. The festival attracts audiences Jewish and non-Jewish, visitors both religious and secular. Visitors come not just from all over the UK but also from Europe and the United States.
Increasingly too the festival attracts younger, more eclectic and diverse audiences from among the UK's many communities. A special day for children, Little Bookniks, takes place at London’s Jewish Museum in March each year.
Jewish Book Week is presented by the Jewish Book Council, a registered charity dedicated to the promotion of reading of books on every aspect of Jewish life and literature.The festival is its major annual initiative and is organised and curated by a small professional staff with the help of volunteers and in partnership with many other organisations.
Jewish Book Week takes place in late February and early March every year and celebrated its Diamond Anniversary in 2012.
Since 2012 Jewish Book Week has been presented at Kings Place, a new arts venue in the London regeneration area near London’s King’s Cross station, in collaboration with the Kings Place Music Foundation. Tickets can be bought from the Kings Place website.
Lin Morris, a visitor in 2012: “I loved the polished, professional venue. It puts Jewish Book Week on a par with all the other book fairs in the country. Can’t wait for next year.”
