Klickstein recently published a new book titled “The Little Encyclopedia of Jewish Culture: 101 People, Places, Things (and Foods) Every Jew Should Know.” According to Klickstein, the idea for the book started out as a children’s book series that introduced kids to Jewish figures from history that many of them didn’t know about.
“I think that it’s important for me, as a pop culture historian, to remind people of and to keep those people in the limelight as much as possible,” he said. “I really want to try to show people, especially young people, that there’s a lot more to Jewish culture than what little they were learning or that they knew. I really wanted to reach out to this next generation and show them what we’ve done and who we are.”
The encyclopedia has much more than just 101 aspects of Jewish culture. There are entries on common Yiddish words, Jewish foods and celebrities. Klickstein said that the book is not only for Jewish people and that non-Jewish people should read it.
“We’re all a group of people on this planet of ours and we should be familiar with each other’s backgrounds and cultures and rituals,” he said. “There’s a connection when you know more about a certain culture community. We were trying to focus on some of the mostly positive stuff.”
The idea for Saturday’s event was a collaboration between Klickstein and Marc Jacob, senior director of the JCC. The center already has a book series where Jewish authors are featured, so Klickstein’s book discussion fit in perfectly.
“This (event) is not part of the series, but just fit in nicely with the theme,” said Jacob. I hope everyone has an enjoyable evening. It’s just a fun social event. No agenda, nothing political. Just relax and have a good time listening to a writer from our community. Let’s get together to snack, listen and use our brains.”
HOW TO GO
What: A pop culture/trivia night featuring author Mathew Klickstein’s discussion of his book “The Little Encyclopedia of Jewish Culture: 101 People, Places, Things (and Foods) Every Jew Should Know”
When: Saturday, Jan. 28 from 7 pm. to 9 p.m.
Where: Boonshoft Center for Jewish Culture and Education at 525 Versailles Dr., Centerville
Cost: Free but registration is required
More info: To register, visit https://jewishdayton.org/event/jcc-boomers-author-talk-and-trivia-night.
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