Tuesday’s selection of online events as part of Jewish Book Week 2025 include: stories behind the priceless artefacts of the National Library of Israel with Raquel Ukeles, a freshly humanising perspective on the life of Anne Frank from Ruth Franklin, a celebration of the subversive, influential humour of MAD magazine with David Mirics and Liel Leibovitz, and an examination of a recent crisis of institutional ideals observed by Cary Nelson on worldwide University campuses.

101 Treasures from the National Library of Israel – 12:30pm

To mark the opening of its new home in Jerusalem, the National Library of Israel has published a magnificent volume showcasing its most extraordinary treasures. An unmissable chance to explore the stories behind these priceless artefacts and the people who created them.

From Maimonides’ autograph to Sultan Suleiman’s poetry and Isaac Newton’s theological musings, these items span centuries and continents, offering a fascinating glimpse into Jewish and global heritage. Head of Collections Raquel Ukeles shares insights into the curatorial process and challenges of preserving these rare works for future generations.

In Partnership with the National Library of Israel.

This event will last approximately 1 hour.

Register here to attend this online event.

About the speaker:

Raquel Ukeles is Head of Collections of the Islam and Middle East collections of the National Library of Israel.

The Many Lives of Anne Frank – 2:00pm

A groundbreaking new biography that explores Anne Frank’s transformation from an ordinary teenager into an enduring icon, whose diary—translated into over 70 languages—remains the most widely read literary work to emerge from the Holocaust.

Award-winning author Ruth Franklin, known for A Thousand Darknesses and Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life, joins us to discuss her contribution to Yale’s Jewish Lives series. Comprehensive yet innovative, her biography aims to write alongside Anne rather than over her, restoring Anne’s humanity and agency in all their messiness, heroism, and complexity.

This event will last approximately 1 hour.

Register here to attend this online event.

About the speaker:

Ruth Franklin is the author of A Thousand Darknesses: Lies and Truth in Holocaust Fiction, a finalist for the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature, and of Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.

MAD Magazine: Warping America’s Brain! – 6:30pm

Before The Simpsons, SNL and social media memes, there was MAD. Launched by Harvey Kurtzmann in 1952, it gleefully thumbed its nose at all the postwar pieties, unfazed by lawsuits or FBI ire.

The MAD Files features essays on the most subversive magazine ever to be sold on US newsstands, with contributors including Adam Gopnik, Roz Chast and Art Spiegelman, who writes “I couldn’t learn much about America from my refugee immigrant parents – but I learned all about it from MAD.” Editor David Mikics joins Liel Leibovitz, whose High Holy MAD essay delves into the Jewishness behind its hugely influential humour.

This event will last approximately 1 hour.

Register here to attend this online event.

About the speaker:

David Mikics is Professor of English at New College of Florida. He is the author, most recently, of Stanley Kubrick: American Filmmaker and Bellow’s People: How Saul Bellow Made Life into Art, and editor of The Annotated Emerson. He is the editor for Library of America of Harold Bloom’s The American Canon: Literary Genius from Emerson to Pynchon. His writing has appeared in Tablet, The Nation, and The New York Times.

Mindless: What Happened to Universities? – 8pm

In a groundbreaking essay for the Jewish Quarterly, Cary Nelson argues that, in the aftermath of October 7, universities have been gripped by a toxic and dangerous fervour—a betrayal of the ideals they are meant to uphold.

As Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Illinois and former president of the American Association of University Professors, Nelson charts how this crisis has been decades in the making. Author of Hate Speech and Academic Freedom, he joins us online to examine what he sees as profound institutional failures on campuses worldwide and the forces driving them.

This event will last approximately 1 hour.

Register here to attend this online event.

About the speaker:

Cary Nelson is an emeritus professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he taught modern poetry. He served for 23 years in the national leadership of the American Association of University Professors, including six years as president. He is the author and editor of 36 books including No University Is an Island and Manifesto of a Tenured Radical.