Hear from three authors with unortho­dox per­spec­tives on what it means to keep the faith — in God, in Judaism, with the Jew­ish peo­ple, and with one­self. Some­times you need to go ​“off the derech” to find your real path. And sometimes…sometimes you get cir­cum­cised in your 40s. Mod­er­at­ed by Bari Weiss.

Shulem Deen is the author of All Who Go Do Not Return, a mem­oir about grow­ing up in and then leav­ing the Hasidic Jew­ish world. His work has appeared in The New Repub­lic, Salon, Tablet Mag­a­zine, and The For­ward, among oth­ers, and in 2015 he was list­ed in the For­ward 50, an annu­al list of Amer­i­can Jews with out­sized roles on polit­i­cal and social issues. He serves as a board mem­ber at Foot­steps, a New York City-based orga­ni­za­tion that offers assis­tance and sup­port to those who have left the ultra-Ortho­dox Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty. He lives in Brook­lyn, New York.

Christo­pher Nox­on is an author, jour­nal­ist, and illus­tra­tor. He’s the author of the nov­el Plus One and Reju­ve­nile: Kick­ball, Car­toons, Cup­cakes, and the Rein­ven­tion of the Amer­i­can Grown Up. He has writ­ten for The New York­er, Details, The New York Times Mag­a­zine, Los Ange­les Mag­a­zine, and Salon; his illus­tra­tions have been fea­tured on The Undo List and in Unscrolled: Writ­ers and Artists Wres­tle with the Torah. He lives in Los Ange­les with his wife, tele­vi­sion writer/​producer Jen­ji Kohan, and their three children.

Sigal Samuel is an award-win­ning fic­tion writer, jour­nal­ist, essay­ist, and play­wright. Cur­rent­ly opin­ion edi­tor at the For­ward, she has also pub­lished work in the Dai­ly Beast, the Rum­pus, Buz­zFeed, and Elec­tric Lit­er­a­ture. She has appeared on NPR, BBC, and Huff­in­g­ton Post Live. Her six plays have been pro­duced in the­aters from Van­cou­ver to New York. Sigal earned her MFA in Cre­ative Writ­ing from the Uni­ver­si­ty of British Colum­bia. Orig­i­nal­ly from Mon­tre­al, she now lives and writes in Brook­lyn. The Mys­tics of Mile End is her first novel.

Host­ed at the Jew­ish Muse­um in New York City (1109 5th Avenue), Unpack­ing the Book: Jew­ish Writ­ers in Con­ver­sa­tion brings togeth­er some of the finest writ­ers of the day for con­ver­sa­tions around con­tem­po­rary Jew­ish life and iden­ti­ty. This event is FREE with pay-what-you-want admis­sion and includes wine and refresh­ments, a book sale and sign­ing, and the oppor­tu­ni­ty to vis­it the Jew­ish Muse­um gal­leries on the day of the pro­gram; how­ev­er, space is lim­it­ed and guests must reg­is­ter in advance.