Literatour Berks is back for a 7th year of exciting community events featuring exceptional Jewish authors from around the country! Authors will visit Reading to talk about their books. We have selected a range of authors, topics, and titles to engage, educate, and entertain you.
This year, you can purchase books in advance through out Bookshop.Org list here. Books will also be available to purchase after each talk. Online and in person purchases support our authors and our independent bookstore partner, Reads & Co. in Phoenixville.
Literatour is presented by the Jewish Federation of Reading in partnership with Exeter Community Library and the Jewish Book Council.
11/10/2025
6:00 PM
Exeter Community Library
Talia Carner
“Boy with the Star Tattoo”
An epic historical novel of ingenuity and courage, spanning postwar France when Israeli agents rescued hidden Jewish orphans to the 1969 escape of Israeli boats of Cherbourg.
11/25/2025
12:00 PM
JCC
David Denby
“Eminent Jews: Bernstein, Brooks, Friedan, Mailer”
Leonard Bernstein, Mel Brooks, Betty Friedan, and Norman Mailer. David Denby presents these four figures—100 perfect Jewish and 100 perfect American—larger-than-life, all of them, yet vulnerable, even heartbreaking, in their ambition, ferocity, and pride.
1/27/2026
12:00 PM
JCC
Nina Beth Cardin
“”
A must-read for anybody interested in the intersection of environmentalism and spirituality. Using meticulously researched Jewish texts, Rabbi Cardin makes the case that environmental sustainability is a fundamental religious principle.
2/24/2026
12:00 PM
JCC
Richard Kreitner
“”
Using original sources, journalist and historian Richard Kreitner tells the intertwined stories of six American Jews who helped to shape a tumultuous time and illuminates the shifting dynamics of Jewish life in America that endure to this day.
3/23/2026
6:00 PM
Exeter Community Library
Esther Chehebar
“Sisters of Fortune”
In this heart-warming and witty debut novel from a "Jewish Jane Austen" (Jill Kargman), three sisters chase love and grapple with the growing pains of young womanhood as they seek their place within and beyond their Syrian Jewish Brooklyn community.
4/28/2026
12:00 PM
JCC
Elizabeth Hyman
“The Girl Bandits of the Warsaw Ghetto”
The history of five young, courageous Polish Jewish women—known as “the girls” by the leadership of the resistance and “bandits” by their Nazi oppressors—who were central to the Jewish resistance as fighters, commanders, couriers, and smugglers.
5/11/2026
6:00 PM
Exeter Community Library
Barbara Josselsohn
"The Forgotten Italian Restaurant"
A heartbreaking love story that will sweep you away to sun-drenched Italian vineyards in 1943 and the present day to watch hope and bravery prevail in the darkest days of war.
5/13/2026
12:00
JCC
Cindy Schweich Handler
"A German Jew's Triumph"
Drawing on uncovered letters and documents, this book tells the courageous true story of Fritz Oppenheimer, a Prussian soldier and lawyer who fled the Nazis, joined the U.S. Army, and played a crucial role in shaping post-war justice.
9/14/2025
10:00 AM
JCC
Literatour Kick Off with Adam Nimoy
"The Most Human: Reconciling with my Father, Leonard Nimoy"
Join us for a morning with author Adam Nimoy, who will share how 12-Step recovery and Jewish wisdom enabled him to repair his relationship with his father, Leonard Nimoy. This ticketed event is brought to you by the Jewish Family Service.
9/30/2025
12:00 PM
JCC
Jean Lewanda
“SHALAMA”
Shalama is a moving epic following a Russian Jewish girl, born in 1928 in Harbin, China, whose life tracks one of the great rescues of the 20th century.
