Sunday of Strong Women to celebrate authors and the power of their words
To kick off Women’s History Month, the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades in Tenafly will present its annual Sunday of Strong Women on March 3, 10:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m. This year the JCC Book Event will celebrate three strong female authors Lisa Belkin, Marion Nestle, and Emi Nietfeld and the power of their words.
Lisa Belkin is the author of “Genealogy of a Murder: Four Generations, Three Families, One Fateful Night,” a multigenerational tale of three families whose paths collide one summer night in 1960 with the murder of a police officer. The story has a personal connection to the author, a journalist whose research uncovered a big story from the past that touches on some of today’s biggest issues. The author of many controversial pieces in “The New York Times Magazine,” Belkin coined the term “the Opt-Out Revolution” and created the “Life’s Work” column. She has been described by her editors as “the social conscience of our times.”
Marion Nestle wrote “Slow Cooked: An Unexpected Life in Food Politics,” offering proof that it’s never too late to find your purpose. This memoir charts her astonishing rise from bench scientist to the pinnacles of academia, how she overcame the barriers and biases women of her generation faced, and how she found her life’s purpose after age 50. “Slow Cooked” tells her personal story — one that is deeply relevant to everyone but especially to those who think it might be too late to follow a passion.
Emi Nietfeld, author of “Acceptance: A Memoir,” presents a success story — but is it really? As a homeless teenager writing college essays in her rusty Toyota, Nietfeld was convinced that the Ivy League offered her an escape from her dysfunctional childhood. She needed to craft the perfect resilience narrative, but the truth was complicated. Her mom was a hoarder who had her put on antipsychotics. Her other parent vanished after coming out as trans. And though Nietfeld would go on to graduate from Harvard and become a Google software engineer, she found that success didn’t solve all, and that acceptance challenges our ideas of what it means to overcome — and to find contentment on your own terms.
The event is sponsored by Kim and Marc Harrison, Lisa Beth and Greg Meisel, Peggy Kabakow, and Judith and Arnold Herrmann and supported in part by the James H. Grossman Memorial Jewish Book Endowment Fund.
Tickets cost $55, $46 for JCC members and includes lunch. Books will be available for purchase and author signing. All participants will be entered in a raffle to win prizes. To register, go to my.jccotp.org/s/registration.
For information, call Kathy Graff at 201-408-1454.
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