Jewish Book Group with Rabbi Judy Shanks
Meet for lively discussions of the book of the month facilitated by Rabbi Judy Shanks. Book group meetings take place Thursday mornings from 10:30 - 11:30 a.m in the Adult Lounge (Except our One Read event on Nov. 9). To be placed on the book group email list contact Nina Jones, the clergy secretary at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
October 8: Songs for the Butcher’s Daughter, by Peter Manseau
Manseau tells the story of fictional Yiddish poet Itsik Malpesh, born in Kishinev in 1903. Itsik’s story is told through his Yiddish memoirs, which he helps a young American Catholic translate. Inspired by the image of Sasha, the brave butcher’s daughter present at his birth, Itsik reaches America in young adulthood through haphazard luck and a taste for troublemaking. Sasha inspires and confounds Itsik throughout his life, becoming an apt symbol for Yiddish humor, sorrow and idealism.
November 9: The Zookeeper’s Wife, by Diane Ackerman
Ackerman tells the remarkable WWII story of Jan Zabinski, the director of the Warsaw Zoo, and his wife, Antonina, who courageously sheltered 300 Jews as well as Polish resisters in their villa and in animal cages and sheds. Using Antonina’s diaries, other contemporary sources and her own research in Poland, Ackerman takes us into a world known for its overwhelming barbarism and flashes of humanity and heroism. NOTE: This is the Contra Costa Jewish Book and ARTS Festival’s “One Read” book. We will meet at the CCJCC on Monday, November 9 at 3:30 p.m. for our community discussion, led by Rabbi Shanks. There is a $10.00 charge for the event: Chai Tea and delectable desserts will be served!
December 10: The Slave, by Isaac Bashevis Singer
Jacob, a pogrom survivor who has been sold as a slave to Polish peasants, lives a simple life in a remote village. Contrary to both Jewish and secular law, he falls in love with the daughter of his Christian owner, and together they begin a new life in another shtetl. Set in 17th century Poland, this dark and passionate allegory is considered Nobel Prize winner I.B. Singer’s most lyrical and well-constructed novel. (Book in a Box copies available to borrow)
January 7: The End of the Jews, by Adam Mansbach
In the 1930s, Tristan Brodsky escapes the Bronx, finds success as novelist, and marries a sensitive poet. Fifty years later, their hip-hop-obsessed grandson, Tris, aka RISK, gets involved with a half-Jewish Czech refugee, a photographer for a black jazz band, and starts writing novels too. Tensions arise when the writers makes use of each other’s life stories to create new fictions. Exploring the delicate lines between appropriation and exploitation, between blacks and Jews, and between the give-and-take of artistic partnership, this sensitive novel is a powerful statement about identity in 20th century America. (Book in a Box copies available to borrow)
February 4: Trumpet in the Wadi, by Sami Michael
Set in 1982 in the Arab quarter of Haifa, the Iraqi-born author’s bestseller paints a sensitive picture of a Christian Arab family, one of whose daughters enters into a romance with the Russian Jewish immigrant who moves upstairs. Contending with this unlikely turn of events, the protagonists and their families wrestle with complex questions of loyalty and identity. (Book in a Box copies available to borrow)
March 4: What Happened to Anna K. by Irina Reyn
Overly romantic thirty-seven-year-old Anna K. is comfortably married to an older businessman from her tight-knit Russian-Jewish immigrant community in Queens, but her longing for escape is ignited when she meets her cousin’s young boyfriend. This fresh reinvention of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina masterfully explores issues of identity, fidelity, and community in a contemporary setting. (Book in a Box copies available to borrow)
April 8: Matters of Honor, by Louis Begley
Henryk Weiss, a young Polish Holocaust survivor, has reinvented himself at Harvard as Henry White. In a world governed by genteel prejudice and strong class values, both Archie and Sam, his non-Jewish roommates, have secrets of their own. Narrated by Sam, this novel probes the inner workings of self-identity, thwarted love, and the cost of pursuing external rewards. (Book in a Box copies available to borrow)
May 6: An Introduction to Islam for Jews, by Rabbi Reuven Firestone
What does the Qur’an really say about Jews? Why is Jerusalem so important to Muslims? Jews today have a pressing need to understand the history, theology, and practice of Muslims and Islam. Rabbi Firestone explains the similarities and differences between Judaism and Islam, the complex history of Jihad, the legal and religious positions of Jews in the world of Islam, how various expressions of Islam regard Jews, the range of Muslim views about Israel, and much more. Introduction to Islam for Jews presents to Jewish readers for the first time the complexity of Islam and its relationship towards Jews and Judaism.
June 10: All Other Nights, by Dara Horn
Sometimes it only takes one night to change lives forever, often in ways that people only appreciate when reflecting from the distance of time. Jacob Rappaport, a Jewish soldier in the Union army during the Civil War, will forever ponder the age-old question asked around the Seder table: How is tonight different from all other nights? On Passover 1862, Jacob is ordered by a Union commander to kill his uncle (who is plotting to assassinate President Lincoln), and this particular evening changes forever his view of religious tradition, love, and integrity.