Led by BJ members Rabbi Carole Balin and Jennifer Sylvor, the Israeli Authors Discussion Group takes us on a journey of rich and thought-provoking Israeli literature. This year’s first selection will be Maya Arad’s Happy New Years, newly translated by Jessica Cohen. After emigrating to the United States in the mid-1960s, Leah maintains her connection to Israel by writing an annual letter on the Jewish new year to her old friends from a women’s teaching college. Comprising five decades of correspondence, the novel skillfully weaves together Leah’s high hopes and deep disappointments as she navigates relationships, marriage, divorce, single motherhood, financial struggles, and professional ups and downs. This is the epistolary novel at its best, inviting the reader to play detective and probe between the lines of Leah’s insistently rosy portrayal of her life.
After the October session, this group will meet on the third Thursday of the month.
