For some, this is a time to grapple with our personal relationship with Judaism and our Jewish identity.  We want to call attention to several projects that deal with Jewish identity and its impact on the lives of individuals:

A new  program led by Rabbi Goldstein and co-sponsored by the Library Committee that invites  the congregation to read and discuss a shared text. Envisioned as a two-book series focusing on Jewish Identity, the program will kick off on Sunday, October 23rd at 9 AM, with a conversation about Jonathan Safran Foer's long-awaited and much heralded novel, Here I Am. Although the novel contains language and content not typically found in a synagogue educational setting, it raises important questions about contemporary Jewish identity. Described by words such as "high-energy inventiveness, hilarious irreverence and emotional energy" and his "most searching, hard-hitting, and grandly entertaining novel yet," this is an adult book and should generate adult, considered discussion. In the spring we will select the second book in the Sinai Reads series.

A relatively new series of biographies about well-known Jewish figures, current and past, being published by the Yale University Press.  We have been acquiring various volumes of this

series to add to our collection 

of some  600 biographies.  While each of the Jewish 

.

A collection of books on display that deal with some of the issues women have historically faced, and continue to face, in their relationships to Judaism. Included are books by women raised in ultra-orthodox communities who have sought to break away from the rigidity and demands of that life, books about the competing pressures placed on women in Israel by an influential orthodox population amid a modern secular society, and books about women drawn to the rabbinate in the United States over the past half-century and breaking the glass walls to create the places where they have been able to serve.