Join us for a lively discussion of a book of Jewish interest.

Sundays, 9:15 to 10:30 am

Schedule for 2007-2008

September 30 – The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream   by Barak Obama

Facilitator: Rabbi Geri Newburge

A senator and a lawyer, a professor and a father, a Christian and a skeptic, and above all a student of history and human nature, Senator Obama has written a book of transforming power. Only by returning to the principles that gave birth to our Constitution, he says, can Americans repair a political process that is broken, and restore to working order a government that has fallen dangerously out of touch with millions of ordinary Americans. Those Americans are out there, he writes --- "waiting for Republicans and Democrats to catch up with them."

Rabbi Newburge plans on choosing three books with political themes this year, each representing a different political outlook.  Join her also in December when she discusses John McCain's new book.

October 29 – The World to Come by Dara Horn

Facilitator: Peggy David, MSW, LCSW

Following in the footsteps of her breakout debut In the Image, Dara Horn's second novel, The World to Come, is an intoxicating combination of mystery, spirituality, redemption, piety, and passion. Using a real-life art heist as her starting point, Horn traces the life and times of several characters, including Russian-born artist Marc Chagall, the New Jersey-based Ziskind family, and the "already-weres" and "not-yets" who roam an eternal world that exists outside the boundaries of life on earth.  At the center of the story is Benjamin Ziskind, a former child prodigy who now spends his days writing questions for a television trivia show. After Ben's twin sister Sara forces him to attend a singles cocktail party at a Jewish museum, Ben spots Over Vitebsk, a Chagall sketch that once hung in the twins' childhood home. Convinced the painting was wrongfully taken from his family, Ben steals the work of art and enlists his twin to create a forgery to replace the stolen Chagall. What follows is a series of interwoven stories that trace the life and times of the famous painting, and the fate of those who come into contact with it.From a Jewish orphanage in 1920s Soviet Russia to a junior high school in Newark, New Jersey, with a stop in the jungles of Da Nang, Vietnam, Horn takes readers on an amazing journey through the sacred and the profane elements of the human condition. It is this expertly rendered juxtaposition of the spiritual with the secular that makes The World to Come so profound, and so compelling to readers. As we learn near the end of the beautiful tale, "The real world to come is down below--the world, in the future, as you create it."

November 18 – Lilith’s Ark by Deborah Bodin Cohen

Faciliator: Rabbi Debbie Cohen

Not long after the world was created, Lilith, the first woman, was expelled from the Garden of Eden. She built an ark, a magic box, in which future biblical women could hide their most prized possessions. And so, Lilith's Ark became a place for women to share their own experiences of adolescence with future generations of girls...  The women of Torah grew up at a time when gender roles were rigidly defined and girls were considered women at an early age. Still, the Torah hints that young biblical women faced challenges similar to those that teenagers encounter today: first loves, burgeoning identities, developing sexualities, and blossoming spirituality. Lilith's Ark melds text, biblical commentaries, and historic details about the ancient world with the experiences of modern girls and women and the author's own imagination.  Written by Temple Emanuel’s Rabbi Debbie Cohen and Winner of the 2006 National Jewish Book Award for Family Literature.

December 9 – Hard Call: Great Decisions and the Extraordinary People Who Made Them by John McCain and Mark Salter

Facilitator: Rabbi Geri Newburge

 At some point in our lives, we all face tough decisions and have to make that hard call. In this remarkable book, Senator McCain and Mark Salter use experiences of both extraordinary people and people in extraordinary circumstances to dramatically describe the anatomy of a great decision. Highlights include: - Henry Ford's decision to sacrifice his company's competitive edge by reducing the work day and guaranteeing a minimum wage. - Branch Rickey's decision to offer Jackie Robinson a contract to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers in the face of public opposition. - Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf 's decision to return to war-torn Liberia after receiving an economics degree from Harvard. - General Fred Weyand's decision to redeploy fifteen of his battalions despite resistance from senior American military commanders in Vietnam. - And much more.

January 13 – Marjorie Morningstar by Herman Wouk

Facilitator: Peggy David, MSW, LCSW

Marjorie Morningstar is a love story. It presents one of the greatest characters in modern fiction: Marjorie, the pretty seventeen-year-old who left the respectability of New York's Central Park West to join the theater, live in the teeming streets of Greenwich Village, and seek love in the arms of a brilliant, enigmatic writer. In this memorable novel, Herman Wouk, winner of the Pulitzer Prize, has created a story as universal, as sensitive, and as unmistakably authentic as any ever told.

February 10 – Disobedience by Naomi Alderman,

Facilitator: Rabbi Debbie Cohen

Disobedience is Naomi Alderman's richly told, endearingly evocative tale of two women and the choices they make as they come to terms with their identities in a traditional Orthodox Jewish community. In this groundbreaking debut, Alderman puts her characters to work, forcing them to confront issues of rebellion, isolation, loneliness and self-acceptance in a place where deviating from the norm often results in cold stares and hushed whispers at the kosher butcher shop.  Ronit Krushka is a lapsed Orthodox Jew, who fled the confines of Hendon, England, and her traditional upbringing for a secular lifestyle on Manhattan's Upper West Side. When her father, the community's revered Rabbi passes away, Ronit returns home to retrieve her mother's precious Shabbat candlesticks, and to revisit her troubled past. She reconnects with Esti, a former lover, whose choices have left her unsure and unfulfilled. As Ronit and Esti navigate through the demons of their past, each woman is forced to decide what kind of life she wants to lead, and with whom she wants to share it.

March 9 – Book TBA,

Facilitator: Peggy David, MSW, LCSW

April 27 – Book TBA,

Facilitator: Rabbi Geri Newburge

May 18 – Accidents by Yael Hedaya

Facilitator: Rabbi Debbie Cohen

This first novel from the Israeli author of the short story collection Housebroken (2001) presents an intimate portrait of a family under construction. Yonaton Luria, a widower raising a precocious daughter, is an author suffering from writer's block. The loss of his wife and the duties of parenting overwhelm him. His daughter, Dana, suffers the pain of being an outsider at school. When Shira Klein, a best-selling author paralyzed by stage fright, meets Yonaton, romance develops. The author's detailed, slowly unfolding story captures the growth of affection and the conflicts inherent in new relationships. By presenting the views of parents, children, friends, neighbors, and former lovers, Hedaya is able to bring an impressive multidimensionality to her characters as they alternately care for a dying father, seek the approval of the cool group, and grapple with differing levels of success in their work. The novel was a critical and popular success in Israel and should find an appreciative audience among literary fiction readers in this country, especially those familiar with the work of Israeli authors David Grossman and Amos Oz.

The congregation has purchased a limited number of books to loan out.  Please contact the Jean Klein in the Religious School Office to borrow one.