Book Club

Inspired by history and a trove of love letters, The Rabbi’s Suitcase, by Robert Kehlmann, recounts how, in the early 1880s, a battered steamship, overcrowded with Orthodox Jewish travelers makes a treacherous journey from Lithuania to Jerusalem. On board, a 12-year-old mystic named Yosef  is entranced with wild-haired Chana. Their story is told against a backdrop of Ottoman rule, the privations of WWI, and British Mandate uprisings.

The Book Circle meets monthly to discuss books with Jewish content by Jewish authors. This month’s meeting will be held on Thursday, Dec. 18, at 3:30 p.m., on Zoom.

The Book Circle has chosen to read an account of a shocking true story as its November selection. The group will meet on Wednesday, Nov. 19, at 3:30 p.m., on CTI’s Zoom to talk about Allegra Goodman’s story, Isola.

In this thriller, Marguerite is destined for a life of prosperity and privilege. Suddenly orphaned, her guardian spends her inheritance, then takes her on a trip where she is accused of betrayal, punished and abandoned on a small island. Here she discovers a faith she never before needed. It is a timeless story of a woman fighting for survival.

The Book Circle meets monthly to explore books by Jewish writers exploring Jewish topics. For more information about the group, email ctigreenport@gmail.com with a message for Susan Rosenstreich, coordinator of the group.

Coming up on Thursday, Oct. 23, at 3:30, at the shul, the Book Circle will meet the Fletcher family and come to terms with a deep-seated generational trauma and how that morphed into the destructive nature of wealth, identity and personal fulfillment. The October selection is titled Long Island Compromise, by Taffy Brodesser-Akner.

The Book Circle meets monthly to explore books by Jewish writers exploring Jewish topics. For more information about the group, email ctigreenport@gmail.com with a message for Susan Rosenstreich, coordinator of the group.