Booking is openSave your seat for all three evenings below, or tell us if you would rather hear when the fourth guest is announced.
Tell me about the fourth guestEver wished you could pull up a chair next to your favourite author, filmmaker or creator and just… talk? Now you can.
On The Couch is BNJC’s new series of intimate conversations with authors, filmmakers and storytellers: some of our favourite British Jews, plus a few friends from further afield. No lecterns, no rows of chairs facing a stage. Just a couch, a great conversation, and you, close enough to ask the question you’ve always wanted to ask.
How it works
Each evening has two halves, and both matter.
Tuesday 17 November
Jonny Daniels & Vanessa Roth, and The Righteous Road Trip
We open with a film and a conversation. The Righteous Road Trip follows British-Israeli humanitarian Jonny Daniels on a journey of nearly 2,000 miles through Poland, Slovakia and Hungary to meet some of the last surviving Righteous Among the Nations: non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.
Jonny founded From the Depths, which works on Holocaust remembrance, survivor welfare and honouring the Righteous. The 40-minute documentary is directed by Oscar- and Emmy-winning filmmaker Vanessa Roth, and it has picked up Best Director and Best Documentary Short awards on the 2026 festival circuit.
After the screening, Jonny and Vanessa join us on the couch to talk about the people they met and why these stories matter now. Presented with Jewish News.
- When: Tuesday 17 November. Doors 17:30, screening 18:00, conversation from 18:40
- Where: BNJC, Hove
- Good to know: Ages 16 and over. Bring photo ID for security checks.
- Book: Free. Save your seat
Thursday 19 November
Joel Haber
If one dish could tell the whole story of the Jewish people, it might be the one that’s been bubbling away overnight every Shabbat for centuries. Joel Haber brings his UK book tour for Cholent: The Most Jewish Food on Earth (Green Bean Books, foreword by Adeena Sussman) back to BNJC.
Joel is a Jewish food historian and licensed Jerusalem tour guide whose tastings of Shuk Machane Yehuda have fed more than 5,000 people. He hosts the 18 Jewish Foods podcast and has written for The Nosher, Tablet and the Jerusalem Post. On the couch, he’ll trace how one slow-cooked stew followed Jews from ancient Babylon to every corner of the world.
And yes, there will be cholent: a pot of vegetable cholent, made for the evening.
- When: Thursday 19 November, 19:15 to 20:30
- Where: BNJC, Hove
- Price: Free, with RSVP
- Book: Save your free seat
Motzei Shabbat, Saturday 21 November
Yehudis Fletcher
A rabbi’s daughter from Manchester’s Charedi community, Yehudis Fletcher grew up asking questions nobody wanted to answer. Her memoir, Chutzpah: A Memoir of Faith, Sexuality and Daring to Stay, tells what happened when her sexuality, her faith and her community’s expectations collided, and why she chose to stay.
Yehudis co-founded Nahamu, a think tank that counters extremism in the Jewish community, and has written for The Times, Haaretz, The Forward, Jewish News and the Jewish Chronicle. She’s spending the whole Shabbat with us, joining Friday Night Dinner at YOFI on 20 November, before settling onto the couch after Shabbat goes out.
- When: Saturday 21 November, 19:30
- Where: BNJC, Hove
- Book: Save your seat
And one more…
Three guests, three evenings, one week in November. And there’s a fourth name we can’t wait to share. We’re finalising the details now, so watch this space.
The best way to hear first is to join the BNJC WhatsApp community or keep an eye on What’s On. Places on the couch are limited, so when booking opens, don’t wait.
Hear about the fourth guest first
Leave your email and we’ll tell you the moment the next On The Couch evening is announced.
See you on the couch.