When it first began 25 years ago, the Katz JCC’s Arts, Books and Culture Festival was a small, springtime event featuring Jewish authors, artists and speakers.
Now, the event has transformed into a weeklong series consisting of interactive events and activities in addition to a slew of authors and speakers.
The festival is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year and will take place from Nov. 9 through Nov. 16.
According to festival director Sabrina Spector, the first festival took place during the spring around Passover. After a successful first year, the JCC moved the event to November to coincide with Jewish Book Month.
“Since then, we’ve been pulling in speakers from all calibers and all areas,” Spector said.
Spector said the JCC has been able to bring in a number of well-known speakers because of the festival’s popularity over the past few years.
“We are one of the top festivals in the country,” she said. “We’re sought out by the top speakers. We are definitely putting South Jersey on the map.”
To help encourage guests to get directly engaged in the speakers, the Katz JCC has come up with new interactive events. For example, on Nov. 10, the JCC is holding a Casino Night with Las Vegas-inspired table games and food. Casino Night will lead into the evening’s speaker, Suzanne R. Krauss, who will be speaking about her book “To Vegas and Back.”
“We try to make our events a little bit more engaging and interactive to help bring some new folks in,” Spector said.
The interactive activities aren’t limited to adults. The JCC has gotten kids involved in the festival the past few years as well. In 2012, a writing contest was launched to run in conjunction with the festival.
“Together with the day schools, the teachers said it would be great if we could do a writing contest,” Spector said. “We would take the theme of the children author’s book and incorporate it.”
Kids in first through fifth grade are invited to participate in the writing contest. Each year, the contest is based off Sandy Lanton’s book “The Littlest Levine” and revolves around respect.
Teens have the opportunity to get involved this year as well. The JCC is accepting applications for the inaugural Justin Matthew Wolfe Teen Leadership Award. Teens in ninth through 12th grade who have exhibited leadership skills in the community are eligible for the award.
“We’ll be awarding three teenagers in the community the award for demonstrating leadership and service,” Spector said.
The deadline to apply for the leadership award is Nov. 3. The award will be presented in December.
Even with some new activities, the books remain the focus of the event. To engage more members of the community, the JCC is encouraging book clubs to register online at www.katzjcc.org and receive discounts on tickets and books.
Engaging groups such as book clubs is important for the festival. Many speakers are up-and-coming authors looking to expand their readership, and Spector said the festival is one of the few ways authors are able to do this.
“As times have changed and budgets have shrunk, it’s been really difficult for them to get on a tour,” she said. “They love it, there’s not very many opportunities for authors to get out and be in front of an audience.”
A full festival schedule and applications for the writing contest and teen leadership award can be found at www.katzjcc.org/abcfest. Guests can also purchase tickets on the site or by calling (856) 424–4444 ext. 1126.
