Denis Hirson and Judge Dennis Davis
Jewish Book Week: My Thirty-Minute Bar Mitzvah
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Summary
What kind of bar mitzvah lasts just half an hour? From the highly unusual ceremony as he turned 13 to the day his family secrets exploded, Denis Hirson recreates 1960s Johannesburg in his breathtaking memoir. With the surprising help of his 11-year-old daughter, the writer and lecturer confronts the troubles of his past with wisdom and humour, finally coming to understand his own father. The bestselling author of The House Next Door to Africa joins us to reflect on familial and political divisions in apartheid-era South Africa, and the silences that surrounded his Jewish heritage. Learn More
In partnership with the Jewish Literary Foundation.
Denis Hirson
Denis Hirson has lived in France since 1975, yet has remained true to the title of one of his prose poems, The long-distance South African. Most of his nine books, both poetry and prose, are concerned with the memory of the apartheid years in South Africa. Two of his previous titles, The House Next Door to Africa and I Remember King Kong (the Boxer) were South African bestsellers. photo credit Adine Sagalyn
Judge Dennis Davis
Dennis Davis is a judge of the High Court of South Africa and judge president of the Competition Appeals Court of South Africa. He has held professorial appointments at the University of Cape Town and University of the Witwatersrand, as well as numerous visiting appointments at Cambridge, Harvard, New York University, and others. He has authored eleven books, including Lawfare: Judging Politics in South Africa.