I Had a Brother Once, with Adam Mansbach

Join Adam Mansbach, novelist, humorist, and poet, for his second visit to Tidewater as he shares excerpts from his new memoir, I Had a Brother Once. The event is presented by the Konikoff Center for Learning at the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater, as a part of the Simon Family JCC’s Lee and Bernard Jaffe Family Jewish Book Festival.

Mansbach was in the middle of his own busy life approaching a career-high when the words from his father, “David has taken his own life” opened a chasm beneath his feet. I Had a Brother Once is Mansbach’s way to reckon with the ghost of a brother he thought he knew, confront his unsettled family history and distant relationship with tradition and faith, and reconcile with the desperate need to understand an event that always escapes his grasp.

In the 10 years after David’s death, Mansbach found himself wishing he had more rituals to fall back on to help him through his grief. “That moment of Kaddish is very powerful because you don’t need to know the words to understand the history,” says Mansbach. “The fact that this prayer has been recited for millions of people over thousands of years is very powerful.”

For more information or to register visit JewishVA.org/BookFest or contact Sierra Lautman, director of Jewish Innovation, at SLautman@ujft.org or 757-965-6107.