Between the Lines: Children of the Book
Date: Jan 21, 2026
Time: 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
Sponsor: The Library
Location: Online
Category: Book Talks
Children of the Book by Ilana Kurshan
Part of Between the Lines: Author Conversations from The Library of JTS
Wednesday, January 21, 2026
1:00 p.m. ET
Online
Join JTS for a conversation with Ilana Kurshan, author of Children of the Book.
In Children of the Book: A Memoir of Reading Together (St. Martin’s Press / On Sale: August 26, 2025), Ilana Kurshan reveals how literature weaves an invisible thread through the tapestry of family life. Kurshan, a mother of five living in Jerusalem, struggles to balance her passion for books with her responsibilities as a parent. Gradually she learns how to relate to reading not as a solitary pursuit and an escape from the messiness of life, but rather as a way of forging connection and teaching independence. Introducing her children to sacred and secular literature—including the beloved classics of her childhood—she becomes both a better mother and a more compassionate reader.
Chief among the books Kurshan reads with her children is the Torah, whose ancient wisdom illuminates her family’s path. Children of the Book, structured in five parts corresponding to the first five books of the Bible, traces the profound parallels between the biblical narrative and the daily rhythms of parenthood – from the first picture books that create the world through language for little babies, to the bittersweet moment our children begin reading on their own, leaving us behind, atop the mountain, as they enter new lands without us.
A luminous meditation on how shared stories become the foundation for family bonds, Children of the Book celebrates a life richly lived through literature.
About the Author
Ilana Kurshan is a graduate of Harvard University and the University of Cambridge. She has worked in literary publishing both in New York and in Jerusalem, serving as a translator, a foreign rights agent, and as the book reviews editor of Lilith magazine. Kurshan is the author of If All the Seas Were Ink, winner of the Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish literature.
