Join Our Book Club!

Summer Reading 2026

First Hebrew Congregation of South Haven
249 Broadway Street

JOIN US AT 10:30 AM ON THE FOLLOWING
SUNDAYS FOR LIVELY DISCUSSIONS & MORNING TREATS

This Summer’s Theme
Jewish Family

JUNE 7 – This Is Not About Us by Allegra Goodman

“When their beloved sister passes away, Sylvia and Helen Rubinstein are unmoored. A misunderstanding about apple cake turns into a decade of stubborn silence. Busy with their own lives—divorces, dating, career setbacks, college applications, bat mitzvahs and ballet recitals—their children do not want to get involved. As for their grandchildren? Impossible.”

JULY 12 – Unfinished Acts of Wild Creation by Sarah Yahm

“The night after fleeing her mother’s funeral, cellist Louise Rachof meets aspiring therapist Leon Rosenberg at a Rosh Hashanah dinner in 1974. Over the next two decades, they build a marriage and a family based on honesty, argument, and a shared appreciation of the absurd. But that rock-solid foundation crumbles when Louise is diagnosed with a rare degenerative disease—the same one responsible for her mother’s slow, agonizing passing.

Determined to spare Leon and their daughter Lydia from the mess of decline, Louise makes the simultaneously selfish and altruistic decision to leave her family and die on her own terms. Her disappearance forces the Rosenbergs to grapple with how to find meaning in the face of mortality—a manic and mystical quest that sends them careening across the globe, colliding into tattoo artists, Hasidic Jews, playwrights, and witches. And finally, back to each other.”

AUGUST 2 – The Gossip Columnist’s Daughter by Peter Orner

“Jed Rosenthal hasn’t published a book in fourteen years; the mother of his child left him in a ‘trial separation’ that has stretched on indefinitely and he struggles to navigate the daily sorrows of their co-parenting arrangement. But the implosion of Jed’s family is simply a footnote in the larger history of the Rosenthal family’s decline.

Just days after the JFK assassination, Karyn ‘Cookie’ Kupcinet was found dead in her Hollywood apartment. The press reported that the 22-year-old was strangled, yet unsupervised questions linger to this day. Cookie’s parents—Chicago royalty, Irv and Essee Kupcinet—have closed ranks with Jed’s grandparents, but in the aftermath of her death, their friendship abruptly and inexplicably ended. Decades later, Jed pours over family stories, newspaper archives, old photos, and crime scene notes, believing that if he can divine the truth of Cookie’s death—whether it was suicide, murder, or part of a larger conspiracy—it might shed light on a mystery closer to home.”

AUGUST 30 – Kaplan’s Plot by Jason Diamond

“Kaplan’s Plot is Jason Diamond’s debut novel, a multigenerational Jewish family saga set in Chicago that blends crime, humor, and family drama, following a disgraced entrepreneur who uncovers his grandfather’s gangster past while dealing with his mother’s illness, exploring themes of identity, trauma, and the American Dream.

The plot centers on protagonist Elijah Mendels as he investigates a mysterious family cemetery plot, leading him to discover his grandfather Yitz Kaplan was a powerful gangster, forcing a reconciliation with his mother and a deeper understanding of his roots.”

NO CHARGE & OPEN TO ALL

For more information about the synagogue, visit
www.firsthebrewcongregation.org