Jewish Community News

News: June 2007

Jewish literature monthly book club

The San José Public Library’s West Valley Branch will host a free five-part reading and discussion series from August through December called “Let’s Talk About It: Jewish Literature - Identity and Imagination.”
     The series explores Jewish literature and culture through scholar-led discussions of contemporary and classic books on the theme of “Neighbors: The World Next Door.” The five works of history and fiction included in the series examine the relationships between Jewish communities and their neighboring cultures from Muslim Spain to Bolshevik Russia to contemporary America.
      The San José Public Library is one of 95 libraries nationwide receiving grants to host the series developed by Nextbook and the American Library Association (ALA).
   The first program will explore “A Journey to the End of the Millennium” by A.B. Yehoshua and will be held on Sunday, August 26, from 2 to 4 p.m. All programs in the series will be held at the West Valley Branch Library, 1243 San Tomas Aquino Rd., San Jose. For details or to register, please email project director Ruth Kohan at ruth.kohan@sjlibrary.org or call the West Valley Branch Library at (408) 244-4766.
   David Mesher, PhD, Professor of English at San José State University will lecture and lead a discussion of the book at each session. He will also bring guest speakers from San José State University and Stanford University to several of the sessions. Following the first session, the additional books to be discussed once per month are:

Sept. 30  “Red Cavalry” by Isaac Babel
Oct.  28  “Neighbors” by Jan T. Gross
Nov.  18  “The Assistant” by Bernard
                Malamud
Dec.   9  “Mona in the Promised Land”