Shalom Book Club
We meet monthly on Zoom for a lively and interesting discussion of that month’s book.
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3rd Monday of each month
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4 pm Pacific (Exception: March 16: 3:30 pm).
Click here to join the Book Club and be notified of our meetings.
2026 Dates and Books
February 16
The Ministry of Special Cases, Nathan Englander (Fiction)
In 1974, Argentina was seized by a brutal dictatorship, which endured for nine years and disproportionally targeted Jews for persecution. This novel, based on real events, centers on the Poznan family, whose lives are upended when their son, Pato, is seized by the government and "disappeared." The author explores the family's desperate search for their son through a Kafkaesque bureaucracy, blending themes of Jewish tradition, totalitarianism, and identity.
March 16 (special start time: 3:30 pm)
Tablets Shattered: The End of the American Jewish Century and the Future of Jewish Life, Joshua Leifer (Non-Fiction)
Is American Judaism in decline? Synagogues are closing, and antisemitism is on the rise. American Jews are the most secular and unaffiliated of all religious groups in the U.S., and intermarriage is the norm among non-Orthodox Jews. Leifer maintains that the success of American Jews in the 20th century contained the seeds of our own destruction. Within a few years, Israel will be home to more Jews than the U.S. Given these developments, what does the future hold for American Jewry?
April 20
The Assistant, Bernard Malamud (Fiction)
Morris Bober is a struggling Jewish grocer in postwar Brooklyn. Frank Alpine, a young Italian American drifter initially robs Morris but ultimately becomes his assistant. Things get complicated when Frank, who is secretly stealing from the store, falls in love with Morris’s daughter. The novel explores themes of redemption and identity. and is as relevant today as it was at its 1957 debut.
May 18
The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother, James McBride (Non-Fiction)
James McBride and his black family grew up amid violence, racism, and poverty in the Brooklyn projects. Yet he and his 11 siblings thrived because their mother instilled positive values and bused them to the best schools. At 30, McBride learned his mother was the daughter of an orthodox rabbi and had experienced a childhood of poverty, antisemitism, and sexual abuse, ultimately escaping and marrying a black minister. When asked about race, Ruth replied that "God is the color of water.”
June 15
Songs for the Broken-Hearted: A Novel, Ayelet Tsabari (Fiction)
In 1995, Zohara, a young Yemenite Israeli woman, learns of her mother's secret romance around the time of her birth in the 1950s. She now questions her own identity and finds herself confronting long-buried family secrets. Upon her mother's death, Zohara leaves New York and returns to her estranged family in Israel, and what she learns shakes her to the core of her being. This novel offers us a glimpse into the distinct culture of Yemenite Jews living in Israel.
July-August: Summer Recess
September 14
As a Jew: Reclaiming Our Story from Those Who Blame, Shame, and Try to Erase Us, Sarah Hurwitz (Non-Fiction)
Sarah Hurwitz, former speech writer for Michele Obama, grew up in a secular Jewish household. In her mid-thirties, she discovered the depth of Jewish wisdom and is now studying for the rabbinate. She questioned why her upbringing was devoid of meaningful Jewish content and why so many Jews recoil from Judaism as if it were a liability. Hurwitz examines the ugly myths and antisemitic lies that have evolved over the centuries through today and describes how to confront hatred and reclaim our heritage without apology.
October 19
American Maccabee: Theodore Roosevelt and the Jews, Andrew Porwancher (Non-Fiction)
Roosevelt was a scion of the Protestant elite, yet he forged ties with Jews never before witnessed in a U.S. president. As a rising political figure in New York, he transformed the Lower East Side by reforming the sweatshops where Jewish laborers toiled for meager wages in perilous conditions. Porwancher uncovers the challenges of Roosevelt’s presidency as he faced the flood of Jewish refugees escaping the pogroms of Eastern Europe and confronted antisemitic xenophobia at home.
November 16
The Sistine Secrets: Michelangelo’s Forbidden Messages in the Heart of the Vatican, Rabbi Benjamin Blech and Roy Doliner (Non-Fiction)
Upon cleaning the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, a plethora of Old Testament figures and Jewish symbols were revealed. Michelangelo considered himself a sculptor and was resentful when a corrupt pope commandeered him to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. He struck back by embedding his famous mural with Old Testament figures, deliberately eschewing the depiction of Christian themes. The authors (a rabbi and a Vatican expert) chronicle the Jewish influence and affinity in Michelangelo's life, including his study with a rabbi.
December 21 - Book Selection for 2027