High school students explore modern Jewish literature at Yiddish Book Center

The Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts, is accepting applications for its 2018 Great Jewish Books Summer Program. Due to the popularity of the program in past years, the Center will offer two sessions this year: July 22-27 and July 29-Aug. 3, 2018.

Now in its 7th year, the Great Jewish Books Summer Program brings together rising high school juniors and seniors from across the country, to read, discuss, argue about, and fall in love with modern Jewish literature.

Students read selections from important works of modern Jewish literature and consider how they speak to the opportunities and challenges we face today. Under the guidance of college professors, they consider how the rich legacy of modern Jewish literature can inform us in the 21st century.

 Although the program’s focus is on reading, this is not school in any conventional sense: Great Jewish Books is a lively program full of social, cultural and recreational opportunities – and no grades – for students who read for the love of reading and who are eager to discover the treasures of the Jewish canon.

 During the five-day program, participants read and discuss important works of modern literature by writers such as Franz Kafka, Sholem Aleichem, Grace Paley, Philip Roth, and Isaac Babel. The program is taught by college faculty as well as prominent visiting writers (including, in past years, novelists Allegra Goodman and Jami Attenberg, poet and critic Adam Kirsch, and graphic novelist and scholar Ilan Stavans). The program provides participants with the chance to develop skills for literary analysis and self-expression that will prepare them for college – and they get a taste of college life on the campus of Hampshire College, adjacent to the Yiddish Book Center.

The Yiddish Book Center is a nonprofit organization working to recover, celebrate, and regenerate Yiddish and modern Jewish literature and culture.

In summing up the week an alum said, “I learned that Jewish literature is touching, profound, often funny, and always enjoyable.” And a parent shared, “When I picked up my daughter from the airport, she promptly exclaimed. ‘This was the best week of my life!’”

Students at Great Jewish Books come from a wide variety of backgrounds, Jewish affiliations, and experiences. Anyone who has an interest in Jewish literature and culture is welcome to apply. Every admitted participant receives a scholarship for the full cost of tuition, room, board, books, and special events.

 Applications for the 2018 Great Jewish Books Summer Program are due by March 5. To learn more about Great Jewish Books Summer Program and to apply, please visit yiddishbookcenter.org/great-jewish-book

              Submitted by the Yiddish Book Center