United Jewish Federation of Tidewater & Simon Family JCC's Lee & Bernard Jaffe Family Jewish Book Festival 2024

For over 40 years, this annual celebration of Jewish writers, books, and ideas has featured authors from various backgrounds who have written about diverse topics. Featured author events allow the community to engage with bestselling and up-and-coming writers.

Schedule of Events

12:00PM - 1:30pm: David & Susan Schwartz: Jewish Book Festival

Did you know that Costco sells more than half of the world's cashews? Or that they sell seven times more hotdogs than all Major League Baseball stadiums combined?

David & Susan Schwartz live in a tiny apartment in New York City – but that doesn’t stop them from being two of Costco's biggest fans. Since 2016, they have been to over 250 of Costco's 850+ warehouses, getting behind-the-scenes looks at depots, packaging facilities, vendors, meatpacking plants, and more. Traveling over 240,000 miles, they have visited at least one warehouse in 47 US states and 13 other countries.

The Joy of Costco covers a Costco-sized list of topics from A to Z, ranging from cashews and chicken to hot dogs and Hawaii. Whether you’re one of Costco’s 128 million members or just have a passion for fun facts, the Schwartzes will teach you something you didn’t know you wanted to know.

David Schwartz is the author of several books, most recently "The Last Man Who Knew Everything: The Life and Times of Enrico Fermi, Father of the Nuclear Age." David spent much of his youth in San Francisco, where his parents were early members of Price Club, Costco’s predecessor.

Susan Schwartz worked in marketing at Nabisco and General Foods in the 1980s when mass merchandising was still considered an “alternate channel” of distribution. She grew up in Philadelphia where she delighted in shopping at Costco with her parents.