Festival of Jewish authors and civil discourse with headliners Joan Nathan and Nicholas Lemann, plus the free Mosaic Exhibit 'From Darkness to Light'.
Congregation Beth Shalom hosts the 2026 Pittsburgh Jewish Book Festival on Sunday, October 18, from 11 AM to 9 PM. It's a day that pulls together authors from around the corner and around the globe to celebrate Jewish culture, traditions, and civil discourse, and walk-ins are welcome.
This year's lineup brings in a wide range of voices. Joan Nathan, a James Beard Award-winning authority on Jewish cooking, is here with Jewish Cooking in America. Anita Wyzanski Robboy presents A Force for Good, which tells the story of her mother, Gisela Warburg Wyzanski, who worked with Henrietta Szold and Chaim Weizmann to rescue Jewish children during the Holocaust. Historian Dr. James Loeffler comes from Johns Hopkins University, and Dr. Miriam Udel, a professor of Yiddish literature and culture at Emory University and an ordained rabbinic interpreter, joins them. Rounding out the headliners is Dr. Nicholas Lemann, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and former dean of Columbia Journalism School.
Running alongside the talks is the Mosaic Exhibit, From Darkness to Light: Mosaics Inspired by Tragedy. It's a traveling exhibition created by the Cincinnati Skirball Museum, Hebrew Union College, and Seton Hill University in response to the 2018 shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue here in Pittsburgh.
Every week we pick 🏆 the 5 best 🏆 things to do in Pittsburgh and send them to your inbox. Just one weekly email, no spam.
By submitting your email, you accept our Privacy Policy
Walk-ins are $20 per headliner, while local authors and the Mosaic Exhibit are free. The festival runs from 11 AM to 9 PM at Congregation Beth Shalom, 5915 Beacon Street.
