sunday/4

Rudolf Weigl photo/wikipedia

Science, subterfuge and sabotage. The story of two scientists who outsmarted the Nazis is the subject of “The Fantastic Laboratory of Dr. Weigl: How Two Scientists Battled Typhus and Sabotaged the Nazis,” a new book by Arthur Allen. Rudolf Weigl, a Polish Christian zoologist who created the first typhus vaccine, made his lab a center for Nazi resistance by hiring Jewish specialists and sneaking vaccines into the ghettos. Jewish immunologist Ludwik Fleck, a prisoner at Buchenwald, subverted an SS order to re-create the vaccine for Nazi troops and instead immunized his fellow Jewish prisoners. The author will talk about these exceptional men, the risks they took and the impact of their work.

1:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 4 at Jewish Community Library, 1835 Ellis St., S.F. Free. www.jewishcommunitylibrary.org

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Michael Lavigne at Literary Shabbat. Author discusses his books “The Wanting” and “Not Me” and the themes of loss, anger and love found in his work. Part of Contra Costa Jewish Book and Arts Festival. At Temple Isaiah, 945 Risa Road, Lafayette. 8 p.m. Free. www.jfed.org/underonetent