All emails end with: @etzhayim.org

Book Club

Welcome to Our Book Club!

Welcome to our monthly synagogue book club! We gather every six weeks or so to talk about great stories, share our thoughts, and learn, grow and connect with each other. We read books with Jewish themes, authors, or interesting moral questions. Everyone is welcome, whether you finish the whole book or just read a few chapters. We engage in warm, open conversation with friends over a good discussion (and maybe some snacks!). For more information, contact Steve Soreff at soreffs15[at]aol.com or 603-895-6120.

To purchase the book, click on each title that will route you to Bookshop.org, which helps local, independent bookstores thrive by giving over 80% of their profits to independent bookstores.

Sunday, October 11, 2026, 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM

The Trial of God

(as it was held on February 25, 1649, in Shamgorod)

A Play by Elie Wiesel

Translated by Marion Wiesel; Where is God when innocent human? Set in a Ukranian village in the year 1649, this haunting play takes place in the aftermath of a pogrom. Only two Jews, Berish the innkeeper and his daughter Hannah, have survived the brutal Cossack raids. When three itinerant actors arrive in town to perform a Purim play, Berish demands that they stage a mock trial of God instead, indicting Him for His silence in the face of evil. Berish, a latter-day Job, is ready to take on the role of prosecutor. But who will defend God? A mysterious stranger named Sam, who seems oddly familiar to everyone present, shows up just in time to volunteer.

Sunday, December 6, 2026, 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM

Joy Comes in the Morning: A Novel

by Jonathan Rose

Deborah Green is a woman of passionate contradictions--a rabbi who craves goodness and surety while wrestling with her own desires and with the sorrow and pain she sees around her. Her life changes when she visits the hospital room of Henry Friedman, an older man who has attempted suicide. His parents were murdered in the Holocaust when he was a child, and all his life he's struggled with difficult questions: Can happiness really come after such loss, or does the very wish profane the dead? Can religious promises ever bring peace? Deborah's encounter with Henry and his family draws her into a world of tragedy, frailty, love, and, finally, hope.

Sunday, January 17, 2027, 10:00 AM to 11:30 AM

Looking for Lost Bird: A Jewish Woman Discovers

Her Navajo Roots

by Yvette Melanson and Claire Safran

This is the story of a woman yearning to fit into an unknown heritage. Even as she learns to weave Navajo rugs, she looks for ways to intertwine her Jewish faith and the Navajo one to lace the Biblical story of Adam and Even with the Navajo tales of the corn people. Exploring the secrets of identity and the meaning of family, she measures the ties of upbringing against the tug of blood. What she finds is faith, in all its forms, and love, in all its faces.

Report abuse