Join Our Club!

Summer Reading 2025

First Hebrew Congregation of South Haven

249 Broadway Street

10:30 am-12 noon

Sunday, June 22

For Such A Time As This

On Being Jewish Today

by Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove

For Jews today, the attack on Israel on October 7th has drawn a clear and irreversible demarcation in time. On that day, the Jewish community woke up to an unrecognizable new reality, witnessing the stark rise in antisemitism, the world’s oldest hatred, in its wake. With warmth and wisdom, Rabbi Cosgrove explores the challenging questions embedded in the soul of contemporary Jewry. Where did all this antisemitism come from, and was it always there? How have Israel and Zionism shaped American Judaism, and what ties us and divides us today? How do we practice Judaism and understand our place in a world that has, without fail, in every century, turned against us? (Nonfiction, 204 pages)

Sunday, July 27:

The Borscht-Meister of Babi Yar

By Roger Levine

Two young lovers witness the murder of 35,000 Jews in September of 1941. One hundred years of horrifying and unbelievable events right up to Putin’s present -day invasion, are captured in this spellbinding novel of love, war and the Holocaust.  (Historical Fiction, 241 pages) Additional activity: Make and taste a vegetarian borscht together!

Sunday, August 24:

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store

By James McBride

Framed in the midst of a murder mystery, segregation, KKK marches, and discrimination, the author strives to depict the backbone of his Black and Jewish characters as they seek to overcome obstacles in a society (small town America in the 1920’s-1930’s) that has created systems to thwart their success.(Fiction, 400 pages)

We hope you will join us this summer for our book discussions. Sharona Shapiro, Michigan Area Director, Emeritus, American Jewish Committee will continue as our club facilitator. For questions, contact her at shapirolerner@gmail.com .