WEST HARTFORD – World-renowned attorney Alan M. Dershowitz will be the first speaker at the Mandell JCC Jewish Book Festival on Thursday, Nov. 19, at 7 p.m.

Dershowitz will discuss his new book, Abraham, The World’s First (But Certainly Not Last) Jewish Lawyer, in which he profiles Jewish lawyers, well-known and unheralded, admired and excoriated, victorious and defeated, and gives a no-holds-barred glimpse into the practice of law.

Dershowitz, who has been called one of its “most distinguished defenders of individual rights,” is also hailed as the State of Israel’s lead attorney in the court of public opinion.”

A graduate of Brooklyn College and Yale Law School, he is currently the Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. In addition to several books, his articles have appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Law Review, Yale Law Journal, Huffington Post, The Jerusalem Post and Ha’aretz.

The Mandell JCC is located at 335 Bloomfield Ave., West Hartford. Tickets are $25 per person. For more information about this and other Jewish Book Festival events, call (860) 231-6339 or email jziplow@mandelljcc.org. For tickets, call (860) 231-6316 or email tickets@mandelljcc.org.