At the opening ceremony of the 21st Jerusalem International Book Fair, held June 23—27, author Aharon Applefeld welcomed the attendees, thanking them "for having the courage to come. This is not an easy time here. Jerusalem, since it has been a city, has been caught between despair and hope." At all events, public officials, publishers and authors repeatedly thanked the international community at the fair for just showing up.
Getting ready for the biennial weeklong event was a difficult task in the face of political upheaval, wars and scheduling obstacles. The fair originally was set for late March, but conflicting events became an issue—publishers from Germany (one of the fair's major supporting countries) were in the midst of sales conferences. Then, with the war in Iraq and the fear of SCUD missiles and increased terrorist activity, many felt that just getting on a plane to go to another country was a hazardous decision. Less than two weeks before the fair, a suicide bus bombing in the center of Jerusalem killed 17 people. Also, in the days leading up to the fair, the media quoted Hamas warning international travelers to avoid Israel. Certainly, these factors contributed to a significant falloff in attendance.
More mundane issues also resulted in fewer attendees. Open to the public, JIBF has always had the atmosphere of a bustling marketplace, with people crowding the aisles to pore over books and make purchases. The fair's June 23 opening came immediately after Hebrew Book Week, a long tradition in Israel during which Israeli publishers set up kiosks in venues all over the country, selling books at discounted prices; bookstores throughout Israel join in, advertising reduced prices. There were posters and ads all over Jerusalem suggesting that Israelis could extend Hebrew Book Week by attending the international fair to buy more books. That strategy did not work, as a weakened economy meant that there were just not enough shekels for both.
JIBF chairman and managing director Zev Birger estimated that the drop in traffic and international visitors was about 35%— 40%. Still, there were 600 publishers from 40 countries represented either by staff and/or books—the latter in combined country exhibits or in the collective groups managed by the country's major retailer, Steimatzky, and by Academon, with bookshops on Israel's university campuses.
In addition, a personal tragedy affected Israel's book community. Last July, Zev Birger's wife, Trudi, died suddenly. She had been very involved with fair activities (she also authored two books) and, with her husband, each year hosted a party on the rooftop of their home. Attendees always agreed the Birgers' soiree was the best event on any international circuit. In his wife's memory, Zev Birger did everything he could to make this fair successful, but his indefatigable zeal was clearly challenged.
A Holocaust survivor, Trudi Birger devoted her life to Israeli children; a fitting international book award, for a children's title that "inspired young readers to selfless devotion to the community," has been established in her memory. Milan literary agent Susanna Zevi helped instigate the award and literary lawyer Martin Levin helped set it up. To enable the initial prize to be awarded at this fair, a one-time decision was made to limit nominations to books published in the U.S. At an emotional ceremony, the first Trudi Birger Prize was presented to Darkness over Denmark: The Danish Resistance and the Rescue of the Jews by Ellen Levine (Holiday House, 2000); the award included a handsome plaque and a $2,000 cash prize.
Enthusiasm, Nonetheless
Those who did come to Jerusalem were committed to making the most of the fair. Despite the smaller crowd, many managed to do respectable business.
Jean Mattern of Editions Gallimard in France (his first Jerusalem Fair was in 1999) told PW that while he was disappointed that there were fewer editors and publishers, he did have "a few extremely profitable meetings." He also echoed the sentiments of many others about the fair's unique contribution to the international marketplace. "JIBF has created a place, an atmosphere and a moment on our agendas where talking about books and doing business is carried out in a different spirit. This year, it was certainly a major achievement of Zev Birger and his team to have organized the event at all.''
Stuart Matlins, publisher of the Woodstock, Vt.—based Jewish Lights, has been to the last seven fairs. He reported that this year, "we connected with and expanded the domestic Israeli market for our books—all three imprints [including SkyLight Paths and GemStone Press]—and also developed foreign-language rights and other business opportunities." He noted that Russia was an interesting surprise. "With the immigration of Russian Jews to Israel, several publishing houses have been developed that publish in Israel in Russian. We had strong interest in a number of GemStone Press titles, including the new edition of Gem Identification Made Easy by Antoinette Matlins [40,000 copies sold], and have given options for sales of rights to four Jewish Lights books in Russian, including titles by Dr. David Hartman and Dr. Arthur Green."
Hail Fellows, Well Met
What makes Jerusalem different from other international fairs is the Editorial Fellows program, the brainchild of Newmarket's Esther Margolis, who, at a gathering at Zev Birger's home at the close of the 1983 fair, noted that most of the international cadre were well into their middle years. She suggested that programs be put in place to bring in younger editors. Birger got the message; in 1985, Margolis, Birger and others launched the Editorial Fellows program with a group of 15 editors from the U.S., the U.K. and France. By the end of 2001, the program could count more than 215 editorial alumni from about 25 countries. The 2001 fair was also the first time the program was expanded to include agent fellows. Sponsorship was helped by HarperCollins CEO Jane Friedman, who, after her first visit to the fair in 1999, thought that international agents would greatly enhance business opportunities for all fairgoers.
Despite the various obstacles, the one area of the 2003 fair that had almost no downturn was the Fellows program—22 editors came, from 11 countries (this was the first time India, Brazil and Norway were represented), along with nine agents from six countries. Three Fellows did cancel, citing work conflicts and security concerns. But the lively and passionate group that attended was very pleased with the program. Many admitted to second thoughts about coming to Israel, a decision not made any easier when friends and family voiced their concerns. Not surprisingly, it was the alumni Fellows who encouraged the new group not to give up this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, noting that the rewards of membership in this "club" included networking opportunities not available in any other international venue. As usual, sightseeing was a key element in the Fellows program. The first trip is always to Masada and the Dead Sea, which offers historical perspective plus the opportunity to float in healing salt water and partake of mudbaths. These experiences pave the way for bonding and forging professional friendships. Other trips include a tour of Jerusalem and its ancient walled city, and visits to museums including Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Museum. There were also opportunities to meet with Israeli journalists and authors.
Adrienne Leahy of the House of Anansi Press in Toronto best summed up this aspect of the fair: "The strong social component of the Fellows program was definitely successful—there's nothing like exposing your sun-deprived body to your fellow publishers on the shores of the Dead Sea to instantly put you at ease with one another!" German literary agent and agent fellow Astrid Poppenhusen was also pleased with the program: "The working atmosphere was nice, but it could have been better if more publishers had been present."
For many of the Fellows, this was their first trip to Israel and first impressions were very dramatic. Nina Schorr of S. Fischer Verlag in Frankfurt was surprised by "how small and narrow Israel is, and how in Jerusalem, Jews and Arabs live so close to each other. That puts the political problems in another light." Arcade's Darcy Falkenhagen said that her most memorable experience was visiting the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem: "We were five editorial Fellows, each from a different country, each a different type of publishing house, each at a different stage in our careers, but all equally as awed and amazed at what we were experiencing."
This year, fewer alumni Fellows returned to Jerusalem, and they were missed. Andrew Franklin, who owns Profile Books in London, was among the first group back in 1985 and has returned to Jerusalem for all but two fairs. He said, "Why do I keep coming back? Two reasons. First, because the fair is the only truly enjoyable international book fair. It is a chance to think about how one publishes in an international context, how to do so better, and to forge lasting friendships. Second, publishing is like the Roman aphorism: bread and circuses. But there is too much bread and not enough circuses. The Jerusalem International Book Fair is undoubtedly the best show around."
French 2001 Fellow Cecile Duthiel de la Rochere returned because she, too, finds the fair "an exceptional opportunity to share views, exchange ideas and literary tastes, and thus establish a friendly/professional network that might be useful in the future." She began dealing with buying and selling rights at Balland at the beginning of 2002 (before that, she was an editor at Gallimard) and several of the novels that she has bought and published are from Fellows she was with in 2001.
Petra Hardt of Suhrkamp Verlag in Frankfurt was a new Fellow; like just about all of her compatriots, she found the fair very rewarding. "You meet some of the same people as in Frankfurt, London, Paris or New York, but the atmosphere of the city is completely different. I think one of the fair's strengths for the future will be that the book market in the Near East will be open for other countries in the Arabian world." She lauded the Fellows program, noting its reputation all over the world. "The organization and the mixture between holiday, sightseeing, business and networking in international publishing groups is very effective," she said.
New Fellow Gisela Zingone of Gryphus Editora in Rio de Janeiro was so impressed that she is hoping to set up a similar program in her country. One of her main objectives in attending the fair "was to make personal contacts and to put my country on the world publishing map. Listening to the various speakers, none of them mentioned anything about Third World countries, so it was an opportunity to make a point about working with a peripheral language in a peripheral country."
Outlook Press associate publisher Tracy Carns regularly attends the Frankfurt, London and BEA fairs, among others. She found Jerusalem "more intimate and less a rights fair than any of the others, but I doubt that's its raison d'être. And we saw it in a slow year, certainly. German publisher Lothar Menne in his speech talked about publishing comprising two parts; the cafe and the marketplace, the personal relationships and the business aspect. Well, the JIBF is certainly more cafe than marketplace—and therein lies its charm. "
For Israeli agents, the Fellows program is an important part of their business during the fair and the smaller crowd was a disappointment. Israeli literary agent Deborah Harris of Harris/Elon agency noted that she judged this year's international visitors using the quality yardstick, not quantity. "I had many special, intimate talks with wonderful editors, especially from Europe, with whom I anticipate doing business for a long time." She estimates that her agency had talks that could generate at least a dozen deals in the near future. At her annual party held at her home, quantity and quality were represented in the approximately 175 guests in attendance. If you missed anyone during the fair, you would have been able to find them at her Wednesday evening soiree.
Nilli Cohen, director of the Institue for Translation of Hebrew Literature, noted that even though the numbers had shrunk at this year's events, she still had about 50 meetings with editors and agents. "The Fellow editors became the core of the fair, and I was very impressed with the attentiveness of those I met." She pointed out that the serious cultural budget cuts in Israel mean that more publishers need financial support to publish quality translated fiction. She and Harris used the word "intimacy" in describing this year's JIBF experience and both anticipate forthcoming publishing relationships for their authors.
Programs, Seminars and More
The more formal part of the fair program included a special alumni editorial Fellows seminar, chaired by Esther Margolis. The main speaker was regular JIBF fair-goer Lothar Menne from Ullstein Heyne in Germany. The title of his talk: "The Cafe and the Stock Exchange: Publishing in the Corporate Jungle." Menne also floated another title: "The Sober Spirit of the Post-Bubble Era." His thesis, a familiar one to publishers worldwide, was that the bubble was the huge investments made in the last decade of the 20th century, "when tons of money was invested in the Internet, entertainment and media industries." The book community knows the rest of the story: "Once, publishers were seen as semi-glamorous objects of synergies with other media," said Menne, "and now these same masters of the universe are very quick to decide that trade books are no longer core business assets and should therefore be sold." Menne was nostalgic about the cafe era of the book business, back in the '60s and '70s, when many important houses were run by their owners. He pointed to an "inherent ambivalence in publishing. We are dealing with ideas and language, in risk and emotions, in a contribution to culture. But we are also dealing with a market and the need for profit and growth. Books may well be a holy, sanctified commodity, but they are a commodity."
The result is the rise of regional and national chains and independent houses being bought by large corporations. "The power structure moved from the cafe to the stock market," said Menne. An optimist, Menne believes that "the cafe and the stock exchange can joyfully co-exist and make for a lively, competitive and multi-faceted industry." A lively q&a among the Fellows followed, wherein it quickly became obvious that similar challenges are faced by publishers in different countries.
The program also had on its docket Jean Piccolec, a French editor who discussed the challenges of publishing books about terrorism, and Toronto-based author Irshad Manji, an articulate speaker who has a Canadian TV talk show, Big Ideas. She noted that her book, In the Name of God and the Trouble with Islam (to be published in the U.S. in January by St. Martin's), is meant to challenge Muslims living in the West to question some of the fundamental Islamic aspects, including "inferior treatment of women, Jew-bashing and scourge of slavery in Islamic regimes."
A dozen authors, both from Israel and worldwide, participated in a round-table discussion on "Literature in Times of Crisis," moderated by Israeli TV talk-show host Oren Nahari. The distinguished group included well-known Israeli writers David Grossman, Meir Shalev, Etgar Keret and Michal Govrin; and American authors Robert Littell, Norman Manea and David Rieff.
Profile's Andrew Franklin moderated an event at the American Colony Hotel in East Jerusalem, at which two of his authors engaged in a political conversation about the Israeli/ Arab conflict. Palestinian lawyer/ activist Raja Shehadeh's book, When the Bulbul Stopped, is about the April 2002 occupation of Ramallah. He had previously written a memoir, Strangers in the House: Coming of Age in Occupied Palestine. Bernard Wasserstein, a history professor, talked about his latest book, Israel and Palestine: Why They Fight and Can They Stop. The conversation was engaging and the audience discussion (it included people from the book industry at the fair as well as local Israelis and Arabs) was lively. While illuminating, it also reflected the great divide between Jews and Arabs.
It's Miller Time
The last official event on the fair calendar was the presentation of the coveted Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of the Individual in Society to playwright and author Arthur Miller. Miller had a scheduling conflict and could not accept the award in person, but he did prepare a video acceptance and used the occasion to admonish Israel: "The Jews have from their beginnings declared that god above all means justice before any other value. We are the people of the book and the book, after all, is the Bible, and the Bible means justice or it means nothing." Miller firmly believes that the settlement policy is a deviation from justice. Uri Lupoliansky, the new mayor of Jerusalem, and also the city's first ultra-Orthodox mayor, spent about 15 minutes trying to discredit Miller's point of view, but his speech, like many others in the course of the fair, was delivered in Hebrew and never translated into English—only a handful of the international visitors understood his comments. The mayor challenged Dan Kurtzer, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, who was accepting the award on Miller's behalf, to take up his argument. Ever the diplomat, Kurtzer noted that while justice is a hallmark of Judaism, so is peace, truth and loving kindness. One can only hope that all these tenets inform the peace process. For the book community, that could mean a larger and more vibrant event in 2005.
