Our 42nd Annual Jewish Community Book Fair celebrates the beauty and richness of Jewish thought and creative expression. The 2008 Jewish Cultural Arts Steering Team (JCAST) is very pleased to present a series of prominent and emerging authors discussing their recently published Jewish-content books.

These authors of both fiction and non-fiction publications will speak on a wide variety of topics of interest to our community. Following the presentations, authors will be more than happy to autograph your book purchases. Two concerts and a very special cultural arts discussion series are also offered during this Cultural Arts Festival.

Programs are held at the Jewish Community Center and other locations throughout the area as indicated in this Guide. All programs are underwritten, sponsored and hosted by local organizations and agencies committed to supporting Jewish Cultural Arts programming. We are also grateful for the support of the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) and the Jewish Book Council network (www.jewishbookcouncil.org). It is our privilege to continue the four-decade tradition of Book Fair and to affirm the importance of books for our continuity and survival as a people. We hope you will attend, enjoy and support these fine programs.

Books will be sold at all author events by Talking Leaves Books. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to Book Fair. We thank Jonathon Welch, proprietor of Talking Leaves Books, for handling the book sales. We’d like to thank our webmaster Joe Davis, owner of webstuff.org web development. Joe is also the new Director of Jewish Student Life at Hillel of Buffalo. Thank you committee members and volunteers. Your commitment, time, energy and ideas ensure the success of Jewish Cultural Arts programming year after year.