Arts Beat

Novelists Joseph Heller and Leon Uris are headlining a speaker series sponsored by Congregation Beth El in La Jolla, the University of Judaism in Los Angeles, Valley Beth Shalom in Encino and Sinai Temple in Westwood.

Heller will read and discuss excerpts from his books “Catch-22,” “Something Happened,” “Good as Gold” and “God Knows” Jan. 13 at Congregation Beth El, 8660 Gilman Drive, La Jolla.

The other local lectures will feature Alan Dershowitz, the Harvard law professor and defense attorney who wrote “Reversal of Fortune: Inside the von Bulow Case” on Feb. 10; Richard Friedman, author of “Who Wrote the Bible?” on March 9; Uris, best-selling author of “Exodus,” “Trinity,” “The Haj” and others, and Rabbi Stanley Rabinowitz, who will speak on the confrontation between Israel’s sacred and secular population.