LOS ANGELES, CA — On Thursday, February 22, at 7:00 pm (PT), Hadassah Magazine’s executive editor, Lisa Hostein, will speak with acclaimed Israeli author and clinical psychologist Ayelet Gundar-Goshen about her latest novel and her experience treating those suffering from trauma in post-October 7 Israel. Gundar-Goshen, whom The New York Times has described as “adept at instilling emotional depth into a thriller plot” and who is traveling from her home in Israel for this event, will discuss The Wolf Hunt (Little, Brown and Company, August 2023), her first book set in the United States. With its tale of an Israeli family dealing with antisemitism and what it means to be an Israeli living in America, the novel is a timely addition to the conversation about some of the most pressing issues of our day.

The interview will take place at American Jewish University’s Gindi Auditorium and will be followed by a dessert reception and book signing (copies of the novel will be available for purchase). The event is being presented by Hadassah West, the California branch of Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, and Hadassah Magazine. (See below for ticket, registration, location and contact information.)

The program is the first in-person event in Hadassah Magazine’s popular One Book, One Hadassah national book club, which focuses on Jewish-themed works by women. Since its launch at the height of the COVID pandemic in 2020, the series has become part of the Jewish-American literary landscape. Among the 22 authors whom executive editor Lisa Hostein has interviewed are Jennifer Weiner (Big Summer), Elyssa Friedland (Last Summer at the Golden Hotel), Jean Hanff Korelitz (The Latecomer), Francine Prose (The Vixen) and Letty Cottin Pogrebin (Shanda: A Memoir of Shame and Secrecy).

Ayelet Gundar-Goshen is the author of four novels and one work of nonfiction. Her first novel, One Night, Markovitch (2012), won Israel’s Sapir Prize for Debut Novel as well as other awards, and has been translated from Hebrew into 13 languages. Her novel Waking Lions was a New York Times Book of the Year and won Britain’s Wingate Prize, while her novel Liar was Editor’s Choice in People magazine. Gundar-Goshen has been an editor at Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel’s leading newspaper, and is a contributor to TIME, the BBC, the Financial Times and The Telegraph. She teaches at Tel Aviv University and the Holon Institute of Technology.

Lisa Hostein joined Hadassah Magazine in November 2015, becoming the first female executive editor in the publication’s more than 100-year history. Before that, she was editor-in-chief of JTA, the global Jewish news agency, for almost 15 years and executive editor of Philadelphia’s Jewish Exponent for eight. Hostein has received journalism awards from the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, the Pennsylvania Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, the Philadelphia Press Association and the American Jewish Press Association, which has honored her with its Award for Distinguished Service to Jewish Journalism.