Tuscaloosa’s Jewish Book Discussion Series – Starts February 8, 2009!

Again this year, a book discussion series will be included as part of Tuscaloosa’s Jewish Cultural Arts Festival.

Join us for a three-session discussion entitled “The Road Not Taken”:  Recent works about Jewish histories that once were… or might have been. The series will take place over three Sunday afternoons this spring. Feel free to attend all three sessions or just one… even if you haven’t read the books.

February 8, 2009 – 4 pm -  “The Yiddish Policemen’s Union” By Michael Chabon

(Copies are available at the UA Gorgas Library and at the Tuscaloosa Public Library)

“…They are the “frozen Chosen,” two million people living, dying and kvetching in Sitka, Alaska, the temporary homeland established for displaced World War II Jews in Chabon’s ambitious and entertaining new novel. A murder-mystery speculative-history Jewish-identity noir chess thriller… the novel begins the same way that Philip Roth launched The Plot Against America—with a fascinating historical footnote: what if, as Franklin Roosevelt proposed on the eve of World War II, a temporary Jewish settlement had been established on the Alaska panhandle?”  (Excerpted from Publisher’s Weekly)

March 8, 2009 – 4 pm – “The Last Jews of Kerala” By Edna Fernandes

(Followed by a buffet dinner at Maharaja Indian restaurant at 6 pm. Approx $10 per person – see below for more information)

(The Tuscaloosa Public Library will be purchasing a copy)

“…Two thousand years ago, trade routes and the fall of Jerusalem took Jewish settlers seeking sanctuary across Europe and Asia. One little-known group settled in Kerala, in tropical southwestern India. Eventually numbering in the thousands, they prospered. Today, this once-illustrious people is in its dying days. Centuries of interbreeding and a latter-day Exodus from Kerala after Israel’s creation in 1948 have shrunk the population. On the threshold of extinction, the two remaining Jewish communities of Kerala have come to realize that their destiny, and their undoing, is the same.  It is the story of the twilight days of a people whose community will, within the next generation, cease to exist. Yet it is also a rich tale of weddings and funerals, of loyalty to family and fierce individualism, of desperation and hope… ” (Excerpted From Amazon.com)

April 12, 2009 – 4 pm – “The Plot Against America” By Philip Roth

(Copies are available at the UA Gorgas Library and at the Tuscaloosa Public Library)

“…In this stunning novel, Roth creates a mesmerizing alternate world, in which Charles A. Lindbergh defeats FDR in the 1940 presidential election, and Philip, his parents and his brother weather the storm in Newark, N.J. Incorporating Lindbergh’s actual radio address in which he accused the British and the Jews of trying to force America into a foreign war, Roth builds an eerily logical narrative that shows how isolationists in and out of government, emboldened by Lindbergh’s blatant anti-Semitism (he invites von Ribbentrop to the White House, etc.), enact new laws and create an atmosphere of religious hatred that culminates in nationwide pogroms.Historical figures such as Walter Winchell, Fiorello La Guardia and Henry Ford inhabit this chillingly plausible fiction, which is as suspenseful as the best thrillers and illustrates how easily people can be persuaded by self-interest to abandon morality. The novel is, in addition, a moving family drama, in which Philip’s fiercely ethical father, Herman, finds himself unable to protect his loved ones, and a family schism develops between those who understand the eventual outcome of Lindbergh’s policies and those who are co-opted into abetting their own potential destruction…” (Excerpted from Publisher’s Weekly)

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All discussions will be held at the Hillel House at the University of Alabama, 900 Anna Avenue. The events are free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided.

Join us for the more of the Tuscaloosa’s Jewish Cultural Arts Festival… terrific food (Jan 24, 6 pm at the Bama) and film festivals, (Jan 24-27, see schedule for times and locations), and the upcoming Jewish exhibit at UA Special Collections library- “Campus Meets Town meets All Around: Glimpses of Tuscaloosa’s Jewish Community From the Hoole Library Collections” (Opens Jan 20)

To reserve your space at the Indian Dinner at Maharaja on Sunday, March 8:  email rebeccarothman@gmail.com