My Life as a Jew

Book Talk Admission: Free Registration is required. Register

Born in a displaced persons’ camp two years after the end of the Holocaust, Michael Gawenda spent his childhood and teenage years at the Sholem Aleichem College in Melbourne. This shaped the sort of Jew he became — a secular Jew who loved Yiddish language and culture.

Gawenda went on to become a public figure during his 40 years as a journalist, including his role as editor-in-chief of the prestigious Australian publication The Age — the only Jewish editor-in-chief in the newspaper’s history. Throughout this time, hostility towards Israel that he witnessed in his professional life sparked him to examine his own Jewish identity and his relationships with his Jewish friends, and to forensically examine the basis of the critiques of Israel.

Join YIVO for a discussion with Gawenda about his new autobiography, My Life as a Jew, led by editor at large of the New York Jewish Week Andrew Silow-Carroll.

Buy the book.

This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.

About the Speakers

Michael Gawenda is one of Australia’s best-known journalists and authors. In a career spanning four decades, he was a political reporter, a foreign correspondent based in London and in Washington, a columnist, a feature writer, and a senior editor at Time Magazine. He was editor and editor-in-chief of The Age from 1997 to 2004. Michael Gawenda has won numerous journalism awards, including three Walkley awards. He was the inaugural director of the Centre for Advancing Journalism at the University of Melbourne, and is the author of four books.

Andrew Silow-Carroll is New York Jewish Week's Editor at Large and Managing Editor for Ideas of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Previously he served as editor in chief of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, editor-in-chief and CEO of the New Jersey Jewish News and wrote an award-winning weekly column in the Times of Israel. He was also the managing editor of the Forward newspaper, editor of the Washington Jewish Week, senior editor of Moment magazine, and a reporter for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.