Congregation Beit Tikvah in Baltimore is a small but devoted Reconstructionist congregation, not the most common in Baltimore’s primarily Conservative and Orthodox-centered Jewish community.
The synagogue recently started a book club primarily focused on Reconstructionist writings in hopes of bringing its members together to learn more about Reconstructionism and discuss their ideas with their fellow congregants.
At Beit Tikvah, founded in 1985, much of the synagogue’s membership is aging, making it difficult for them to find and recruit new members.
“We’re a small group. I wouldn’t say we’re fully formed yet. But the basic idea was to have something else people can get together for, other than services,” explained Ira May, head of Beit Tikvah’s leadership committee. “Since the pandemic, we’ve really only brought services back in person, and we have a lot of people who still prefer virtual events.”
Some congregation members struggle to use social media, but virtual events held via Zoom have been a boon to Beit Tikvah. While they have resumed holding their services in person, they still offer virtual programming.
“We mainly get new people by word of mouth, and what little advertising we do … but because the congregation is more mature, most of us don’t use social media very much,” he noted.
Beit Tikvah’s book club had their first meeting on Monday, Dec. 4. Members read and met to discuss “A Guide for the Perplexed” by Dara Horn, a novel whose two intertwining stories across 100 years both focus on technology and its effect on the human soul. The book was a recommendation from Rabbi Doug Heifetz, Beit Tikvah’s rabbi.
Though May described the text as being “a bit difficult,” he added that the hour-and-a-half-long discussion was very enjoyable, and that book club participants were eager for another meeting.
Though the book club is taking a break during January, the club’s goal is to meet on the first Monday of every month.
February’s upcoming book is “My Jewish Year: 18 Holidays, One Wondering Jew” by Abigail Pogrebin, which was suggested by May. The idea, he noted, is for book club members to be able to suggest future monthly books so they can focus on subjects they are personally interested in.
“I saw a review of ‘My Jewish Year’ in the news, and thought it looked fun and interesting to discuss with others,” he said. “It’s about taking old traditions and making them new again, and that’s a theme we engage with at Beit Tikvah.”
The only restrictions are that books must tackle a Jewish subject in some way, and they must be available in audiobook form on Audible or another audiobook website, as to accommodate members who prefer consuming books in an audio format or may not have time to sit down and read.
May says this is in part because Heifetz is a jeweler, and often listens to audiobooks while working on jewelry.
As for what kinds of books they will read in the coming months, May is looking toward the future in more ways than one.
“A lot of the original members of Beit Tikvah were members of the Baltimore Science Fiction Society, so there’s a lot of overlap between the two. I suspect we’ll be reading a few Jewish science fiction novels,” he said.
