WoOPT Book Club
November 18
7:30 pm

Join us on Monday, November 18^th at 7:30pm when we will be reading Unchosen: The Hidden Lives of Hasidic Rebels by Hella Winston.  When Hella Winston began talking with Hasidic Jews for her doctoral dissertation in sociology, she was excited to be meeting members of the highly insular Satmar sect. While several Jewish journalists and scholars have produced largely admiring books describing the Lubavitch way of life and that group's outreach efforts to unaffiliated Jews, very little has been written about the many other Hasidic sects in the United States. Unlike Lubavitchers, members of these other groups are raised to avoid all unnecessary contact with outside society, including contact with other Jews. Winston's access was all but unprecedented.

As a nonobservant Jew with little prior exposure to the Hasidic world, she never could have guessed what would happen next-that she would be introduced, slowly and covertly, to Hasidim from Satmar and other sects who were deeply unhappy with their highly restrictive way of life and sometimes desperately struggling to leave their communities. Unchosen tells the fascinating stories of these rebel Hasidim, serious questioners who long for greater personal and intellectual freedom than their communities allow. In so doing, Unchosen forces us to reexamine the history of these communities and asks us to consider what we choose not to see when we romanticize them.

The book will be available in limited supply at the Oak Park Public Library. 

ANYONE AND EVERYONE IS WELCOME… you don't have to be a woman, just need a desire to talk about great Jewish books!  Join us and see what a fun group of people we are! For more information contact Sheila Pont at swpont@gmail.com