The Rabbi Sacks Tidewater Community Book Club met last month at Temple Israel to discuss its third book together, Not In God’s Name: Confronting Religious Violence.
The book club, a partnership between the Konikoff Center for Learning of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater and area synagogues, is a grass roots effort to bring people across the community together to study the works of one of the greatest thought leaders of the Modern Jewish World: the late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks.
During the group’s wide-ranging discussion, it examined the causes of religious inspired violence and broke into small groups to better understand some biblical texts on sibling rivalry and how that can further an understanding of how religious diversity can flourish as coexistence.
The next book in the series is To Heal a Fractured World: The Ethics of Responsibility.
In this book, Rabbi Sacks argues for returning religion back to its original purpose: as a partnership with God for ethical and moral living. What duties are expected to others, to societies, and to humanity? How does one live a meaningful life in an age of global uncertainty and instability?
The next book club meeting will be hosted at Ohef Sholom Temple. All are welcome regardless of synagogue affiliation. It is not necessary to read the book in advance to benefit from the discussion.
To register, visit JewishVA.org/KCL.
For more information, contact Craig Schranz at schranzc@yahoo.com or Sierra Lautman at SLautman@ujft.org.