Interested in getting into cultural/historical Jewish literature, but haven't found the motivation or perhaps don't know where to start? Maybe you just want to get more involved with the community and have been waiting for a community-centered event or program to launch? Well here's your sign! 🪧 Join the Circle for our new Virtual Book Club! 📖

Book Clubs are a great way to squeeze more reading into your life, connect and build relationships within your community, get exposed to different viewpoints in a non-judgmental space, and learn something new. All books recommended as part of our Book Club will be written by a Jewish author, or about the Jewish experience.

When & Where We'll Meet

Our new Book Club will meet quarterly via Google Meet (meeting link furnished upon registration) from 7:30-9pm on the second Monday of the second month of the quarter, landing our first Book Club meet-up on Monday, November10^th. 💻

Save The Date!

• Monday, February 9th, 2026
• Monday, May 11th, 2026
• Monday, August 10th, 2026

What book are we reading first?

Our first book will be The Netanyahus: An Account of a Minor and Ultimately Even Negligible Episode in the History of a Very Famous Family by Joshua Cohen in 2021. This is a short, comical read.

Inspired by a story that literary critic and academic Harold Bloom recounted to Cohen, The Netanyahus tells the fictional tale of Benzion Netanyahu’s trip to Bloom’s university for a campus talk. Bloom gets stuck shepherding Benzion around while his family stayed at their house. While the story itself is fictional, the real-life Benzion Netanyahu (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s father) did spend some time at Cornell as a professor, and the book does provide insight for some of Prime Minister Netanyahu's current views. The book won the National Jewish Book Award in 2021 and a Pulitzer for fiction in 2022, among other awards.

If this book interests you, read on to the next section, where we'll detail where you can read the book for free. You need to finish the book before the meeting to be able to discuss it at the meeting!

If this book doesn't sound like it's for you, that's okay! There are many books on the horizon to come! At the end of each meeting, we'll vote on the next book, so register today to be kept in the loop and/or send in your book recommendations!

Where You Can Read the Book

Because we'll be discussing the book at the meeting, make sure you finish reading the book before the next meeting! This book is available for check-out as a physical book, ebook and audiobook from all local public libraries:

Future Books / Recommendations

Not interested in reading this quarter's book, but interested in what we might be reading in the future? At the end of each meeting, we'll vote on the next book we'll be reading, so if you want to be kept in-the-know, register today!

Have a suggestion for what we should read next? Submit book recommendations here!

Trouble registering?

Upon registration, you should receive your registration confirmation email within minutes. If you don't, please try re-registering, or register using our Google Form instead.

Questions, accommodations, feedback?

Don't be shy! You can contact the Book Club founder & host, SJC member Heidi Bennett, directly.