Jewish Book Group @ the Library

Stack of books by Maggie Anton from Jewish Book Group Tenth Anniversary Event

The Sunday Jewish Book Group is the longest-running program at the William H. Hannon Library. Established in fall 2008 with a small grant from the American Library Association, this book discussion group brings together readers who share an interest in Jewish literature, history, and cultures. Over the past decade, the program has attracted hundreds of faculty, staff, students, and Los Angeles community members to discuss more than 75 books, films, and short stories.

The Sunday Jewish Book Group is free and open to the public. A list of upcoming sessions is available on our Events page. To see a list of what we have been reading, or for more information and to RSVP, contact Rhonda Rosen.

Previous Sunday Jewish Book Group Selections

Fall 2023 - Spring 2024

  • September 10, 2023: Night Angels by Weina Dai Randel
  • October 22, 2023: Moses, Man of the Mountain by Zora Neale Hurston
  • November 19, 2023: Once We Were Home by Jennifer Rosner
  • February 18, 2024: The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz
  • March 17, 2024: Bad Jews: a History of American Jewish Politics and Identities by Emily Tamkin
  • April 14, 2024: The House of Glass: The Story and Secrets of a Twentieth-Century Jewish Family by Hadley Freeman

Fall 2023 - Spring 2024

  • September 11, 2022: Night by Elie Wiesel
  • October 16, 2022: Under Jerusalem: the buried history of the world's most contested city by Andrew Lawler
  • November 13, 2022: The Rabbi Wore a Fedora (Rabbi Daniels Mysteries) by Rabbi Arthur Gross SchaeferYiddish Women Writers - Short Stories Series
  • January 22, 2023: "Shadows" by Rachel Korn
  • February 19, 2023: "A House with Seven Windows" Kadia Molodowsky
  • March 19, 2023: "The 10th is Born in Mishkenot" by Ridukah Potash
  • June 11, 2023: "Fable of the Goat" by S.Y. Agnon

Fall 2021 - Spring 2022

  • August 1, 2021: Florence Adler Swims Forever by Rachel Beanland
  • October 17, 2021: Biblical Archaeology: A Very Short Introduction by Eric H. Cline
  • November 14, 2021: Plunder: A Memoir of Family Property and Nazi Treasure by Menachem Kaiser
  • December 5: The Great House by Nicole Krauss
  • February 6, 2022: The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
  • March 13, 2022: Spies of No Country: Israel's Secret Agents at the Birth of the Mossad by Matti Friedman
  • April 10, 2022: People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present by Dara Horn

Fall 2020 - Spring 2021

  • September 13, 2020: Miriam's Kitchen by Elizabeth Ehrlich
  • October 11, 2020: Belonging: a German Reckons with Home and History by Nora Krug
  • November 15, 2020: “The Shawl” [short story] by Cynthia Ozick
  • December 6, 2020: “The Loudest Voice” [short story] by Grace Paley
  • January 17, 2021: Snow in August by Pete Hamill
  • February 28, 2021: "Conversion of the Jews" [short story from Philip Roth's Goodbye, Columbus)
  • March 21, 2021: As a Driven Leaf by Milton Steinberg

Fall 2019 - Spring 2020

  • July 21, 2019: "Defender of the Faith" [short story] by Philip Roth
  • September 8, 2019: The Hare with the Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance by Edmund de Waal
  • November 3, 2019: "From Cairo to the Cloud" [film] by Michelle Paymar
  • December 15, 2019: The Lake on Fire by Rosellen Brown
  • January 19, 2020: "Jewbird" [short story] by Bernard Malamud
  • February 9, 2020: Jewish History: A Very Short Introduction by David N. Myers

Fall 2018 – Spring 2019

  • October 14, 2018: The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish
  • November 4, 2018: Address Unknown by Kathrine Kressmann Taylor
  • January 20, 2019: "Numbered" [film] by Uriel Sinai and Dana Doron
  • February 17, 2019: Hitler in Los Angeles: How Jews Foiled Nazi Plots Against Hollywood and America by Steven J. Ross
  • March 24, 2019: The Autograph Man by Zadie Smith

Fall 2017 – Spring 2018

  • September 10, 2017: After Abel and Other Stories by Michal Lemberger
  • October 15, 2017: Hope, A Tragedy by Sholem Auslander
  • November 19, 2017: Henna House by Nomi Eve
  • December 3, 2017: "Torn" [film]
  • January 21, 2018: Not in God's Name by Jonathan Sacks
  • February 18, 2018: Jews and Words by Amos Oz and Fania Oz-Salzberger
  • March 25, 2018: "Swimming In Auschwitz" [film] by Jon Kean
  • April 15, 2018: Forest Dark by Nicole Krauss

Fall 2016 – Spring 2017

  • September 11, 2016: The Archive Thief by Lisa Moses Leff
  • October 9, 2016: "Women Unchained" [film] directed and written by Beverly Siegel
  • November 6, 2016: Pictures at an Exhibition by Sara Houghteling
  • December 4, 2016: Midrashic Mirrors: Creating Holiness with Intimacy and Imager by Debra Linesch
  • January 22, 2017: My Promised Land: The Triumph and Tragedy of Israel by Ari Shavit
  • February 26, 2017: The Fifth Son by Elie Weisel
  • March 26, 2017: Nine Essential Things I've Learned about Life by Harold Kushner

Fall 2015 – Spring 2016

  • August 23, 2015: The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara by David Kertez
  • September 20, 2015: "No. 4 Street of Our Lady" [film]
  • October 18, 2015: The World to Come by Dara Horn
  • November 15, 2015: The Paris Architect: A Novel by Charles Belfoure
  • January 24, 2016: "The Optimists" [film] by Jacky and Lisa Comforty
  • February 21, 2016: A Bride for One Night: Talmud Tales by Ruth Calderon
  • March 20, 2016: David: A Divided Heart by Rabbi David Wolpe
  • May 22, 2016: Bread Givers by Anzia Yezierska

Fall 2014 – Spring 2015

  • August 17, 2014: Crossing Cairo: A Jewish Woman's Encounter with Egypt by Rabbi Ruth Sohn
  • September 14, 2014: Bearing the Body by Ehud Havazelet
  • November 2, 2014: "The Gatekeepers" [film] by Dror Moreh
  • November 16, 2014: Our Holocaust by Amir Gutfreund
  • January 25, 2015: Mendoza the Jew: Boxing, Manliness, and Nationalism: a graphic history by Ronald Schecter
  • February 11, 2015: A Replacement Life, by Boris Fishman
  • March 15, 2015: The Plot Against America by Philip Roth
  • April 19, 2015: The Short, Strange Life of Hershel Grynszpan: a Boy Avenger, A Nazi Diplomat and a Murder in Paris by Jonathan Kirsch

Fall 2013 – Spring 2014

  • September 29, 2013: "Sholem Aleichem: Laughing in the Darkness" [film]
  • October 20, 2013: What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank: Stories by Nathan Englander
  • November 17, 2013: A Cross and a Star: Memoirs of a Jewish Girl in Chile by Marjorie Agosin
  • December 15, 2013: The Crisis of Zionism by Peter Beinart
  • January 26, 2014: The Crooked Mirror: A Memoir of Polish-Jewish Reconciliation by Louise Steinman
  • February 16, 2014: "Nicky's Family" [film] by Matej Minac
  • March 23, 2014: My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
  • April 27, 2014: The Aleppo Codex: In Pursuit of One of the World's Most Coveted, Sacred, and Mysterious Books by Matti Friedman

Fall 2012 – Spring 2013

  • September 9, 2012: Wedding Song: Memoirs of an Iranian Jewish Woman by Farideh Goldin
  • October 7, 2012: Golems of Gotham by Thane Rosenbaum
  • November 11, 2012: Drawing in the Dust by Rabbi Zoe Klein
  • December 2, 2012: The One Facing Us by Ronit Matalon
  • February 10, 2013: Shtetl: The Life and Death of a Small Town and the World of Polish Jews by Eva Hoffman
  • March 17, 2013: The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel
  • April 21, 2013: Shanghai Diary by Ursula Bacon
  • June 23, 2013: Rav Hisda's Daughter, Book 1: Apprentice: A Novel of Love, the Talmud, and Sorcery by Maggie Anton

Fall 2011 – Spring 2012

  • September 18, 2011: The Preservationist by David Maine
  • October 16, 2011: The Prophet's Wife by Milton Steinberg
  • November 13, 2011: The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb
  • December 4, 2011: The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West
  • January 22, 2012: Lost In Translation by Eva Hoffman
  • February 12, 2012: Bernhard by Yoel Hoffmann
  • March 18, 2012: The Lemon Tree: an Arab, a Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East by Sandy Tolan
  • April 22, 2012: Displaced Persons by Ghita Schwarz

Fall 2010 – Spring 2011

  • The Five: A Novel of Jewish Life in Turn of the Century Odessa by Vladimir Jabotinsky
  • The Panther in the Basement by Amos Oz
  • Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky
  • The Sunflower by Simon Wiesenthal
  • Water from the Well: Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel and Leah by Anne Richardson
  • Trial of God by Elie Wiesel
  • Behind Enemy Lines by Marthe Cohn
  • Focus by Arthur Miller

Fall 2009 – Spring 2010

  • In an Antique Land: History in the Guise of a Traveler's Tale by Amitav Ghosh
  • Caspian Rain: A Novel by Gina B. Nahai
  • The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit: A Jewish Family's Exodus from Old Cairo to the New World by Lucette Lagnado
  • People of the Book: A Novel by Geraldine Brooks
  • The Centaur in the Garden by Maocyr Scliar
  • The Emigrants by W. G. Sebald
  • Wandering Stars by Sholem Aleichem
  • Rashi's Daughters, Book I: Joheved: A Novel of Love and the Talmud in Medieval France by Maggie Anton

Fall 2008 – Spring 2009

  • A Journey to the End of the Millennium: a novel of the Middle Ages by Abraham B. Yehoshua
  • Red Cavalry (in The Complete Works of Isaac Babel) by I. Babel
  • Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabne, Poland by Gross by Jan T.
  • The Assistant by Bernard Malamud
  • Mona in the Promised Land by Jen Gish
  • The Memoirs of Glückel of Hameln by Glueckel of Hameln
  • Tevye the Dairyman and The Railroad Stories by Sholem Aleichem
  • Noah the Water Carrier and Other Stories by Joe Lumer
  • Enemies: A Love Story by Isaac Bashevis Singer