Book fairs are held in most major cities with Jewish communities, albeit not in New York, and feature lectures by visiting authors.
[4] The beginnings of Jewish Book Month can be traced to Fanny Goldstein, a librarian at the Boston Public Library West End Branch.
[6] She repeated the exhibit in 1926 and this inspired a call by Rabbi S. Felix Mendelssohn of Chicago, Illinois, for the observance of a Jewish book week.
Hessel is credited with a knack for picking hot new novelists; she is said to have launched the careers of Nathan Englander, Myla Goldberg, Nicole Krauss and Jonathan Safran Foer by selecting them and sending them on tours of the Jewish book fairs.
Getting signed to a tour of these venues is said to have the power not merely to launch a Jewish-themed book, but to lift titles from Jewish to general success.