Meeting regularly at the Iowa City Public Library, this public book group explores Jewish thought and culture through the work of rabbis, scholars, journalists, and historians. The series is open to all and is usually led by Rabbi Hugenholtz. Our 2026 meetings, all scheduled on Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m., include the following titles (with links to our local independent bookstore, Prairie Lights):
- January 28 — Mark Mazower, On Antisemitism: A Word in History
- February 25 — Rabbi Angela Buchdahl, Heart of a Stranger: An Unlikely Rabbi’s Story of Faith, Identity, and Belonging
- March 25 — Alicia Jo Rabins, When We’re Born We Forget Everything: A Memoir
- April 22 — David Kraemer, Embracing Exile: The Case for Jewish Diaspora
- May 20 — Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg (editors), Judaism Unbound (Bound): Provocative Conversations About the Jewish Future with Visionary Thinkers and Practitioners
Past selections have included books by historians Michael Brenner and Joshua Leifer and works by rabbis Adina Allen, Julia Watts Belser, Sharon Brous, Tirzah Firestone, Shai Held, Shaul Magid, Danya Ruttenberg, Rami Shapiro, and Milton Steinberg. One session paired contrasting perspectives, reading Peter Beinart’s Being Jewish after the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning alongside Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove’s For Such a Time as This: On Being Jewish Today.