Open Book / Open Mind, Nicholas Lemann, "Returning: A Search for Home Across Three Centuries"
This program is full. But please come to the auditorium at 5:45 p.m. and we'll try to fit you in. Waiting list guests will be admitted at 6:35 p.m.
Nicholas Lemann, former dean of Columbia Journalism School and staff writer for The New Yorker, will talk to journalist and author Dale Russakoff ("The Prize") about about his new starkly honest family history, "Returning," in which he traces his Jewish Southern ancestors from Louisiana to Germany and explores their stories from peddlars to plantation owners (and enslavers) as well as shopkeepers and professionals. "Returning" is also a memoir of coming to terms with identity, assimilation and religious observance. Co-presented by Bnai Keshet, Congregation Shomrei Emunah, Temple Ner Tamid and Temple Sholom of West Essex.
"What does it mean to belong? 'Returning' offers a profound mediation on family, Jewish identity, and the meaning of home in a world constantly shaken by economic, social, and cultural change."― Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Doors open at 6 p.m. The discussion will be followed by an audience Q&A and book sales and signing with Watchung Booksellers.
Open Book / Open Mind is sponsored by Montclair Public Library Foundation, Watchung Booksellers, Anonymous, Dr. Alex and Doris Malaspina, David and Mary Lee Jones, and our individual Underwriters. We are also grateful for the generous support of our in-kind sponsors, First Congregational Church of Montclair, The George, and Amanti Vino. To support Open Book / Open Mind and other library programs, click here to donate.
- Date:
- Tuesday, April 7, 2026
- Time:
- 6:30pm - 8:00pm
- Location:
- Montclair Main - Auditorium, Montclair Main - Conference Room
- BCCLS Library:
- Montclair Public Library
- Audience:
- Adults
- Categories:
- Adult School Open Book / Open Mind
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nicholas Lemann is a longtime staff writer for The New Yorker and dean emeritus of the Columbia Journalism School. He is the author of The "Promised Land," "The Big Test," "Redemption," and "Transaction Man." He lives in New York City.
ABOUT THE BOOK
"A three–century family drama, in which he traces the Lemanns from their humble beginnings in Germany to the nineteenth–century American South, where they became Jewish plantation owners and aspirants to New Orleans society. Yet Lemann began chafing against the South’s strict racial hierarchy and his relatives’ eagerness to be accepted in an anti–Semitic environment, including a deliberate blindness to the plight of desperate European Jews. Returning follows the narrator as he rejects this assimilated world and embraces the rites of Judaism."—Liveright/Norton
ABOUT THE CONVERSATION PARTNER
Dale Russakoff spent 28 years as a reporter for The Washington Post and is the author of the New York Times bestseller, "The Prize: Who's in Charge of America's Schools." Raised Birmingham, Alabama, she is a longtime Montclair resident and a member of the Open Book / Open Mind advisory committee.
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