Jewish Studies Sunday Book & Discussion Group

In this lovely meditation on the innate power of women, critically acclaimed author Roiphe focuses on four biblical figures--Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah--who to Roiphe constitute the backbone of humanity. "We can't forget these women because they belong to us, come with us, across seas in exile." Millions of words have been written about their stories, which Roiphe maintains are foundational for Jewish, Christian, and Muslim history, yet she manages fresh interpretations. The biblical world she re-creates is a lived-in, gritty place, where the women ride camels, feed donkeys, grind barley, weave wool--in short, are flesh and blood, with all the foibles and imperfections that implies. Drawing on a variety of prayer books, religious texts from all major religious groups, and folklore and legends, Roiphe brings these characters to full-blown, messy life and confirms that their stories of love, faith, death, deception, and betrayal are indeed timeless. Moreover, Roiphe brings all her literary art to bear on retelling this seminal lore with effortless grace.

Set in a medieval European village where three itinerant Jewish actors put God on trial to answer for His silence during a pogrom, a powerful drama considers historical and especially post-Holocaust issues surrounding faith.

The courageous Marthe Hoffnung was born in 1920 in the city of Metz, 33 miles from the Franco-German border. Born into a close-knit Jewish family, Marthe and her six brothers and sisters basked in the glow of love, education, and freedom of expression, but darker times altered their lives forever when Hitler's machinations reached the perimeters of France to shatter their lives. Marthe's family played an active role in the Resistance movement, often hiding fellow Jews in their home or ensuring their passage to an escape route. This selflessness would manifest itself further when Marthe joined the French army and, with her perfect German accent and blond hair, made several trips into occupied Germany posing as a German nurse looking for her fiance in order to obtain critical intelligence information. In 1990, at the age of 80, Marthe was awarded the Medaille Militaire, France's highest honor. Despite having played a tremendous role in securing vital strategic information crucial to ending World War II, Cohn relays her amazing story of unprecedented bravery with simplicity and modesty.

Written in 1945, Focus was Arthur Miller's first novel and one of the first books to directly confront American anti-Semitism. It remains as chilling and incisive today as it was at the time of its controversial debut. As World War II draws to a close, anti-Semitism is alive and well in Brooklyn, New York. Here, Newman, an American of English descent, floats through a world of multiethnic neighborhoods indifferent to the racism around him. That is, until he begins wearing glasses that render him "Jewish" in the eyes of others, making him the target of anti-Semitic persecution. As he and his wife find friendship and support from a Jewish immigrant, Newman slowly begins to understand the racial hatreds that surround him.