Congregation for Humanistic Judaism of Fairfield County

A “towering, swash-buckling thrill of a book” (Newsweek), hailed as Chabon’s “magnum opus” (The New York Review of Books), The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is a triumph of originality, imagination, and storytelling, an exuberant, irresistible novel that begins in New York City in 1939. A young escape artist and budding magician named Joe Kavalier arrives on the doorstep of his cousin, Sammy Clay. While the long shadow of Hitler falls across Europe, America is happily in thrall to the Golden Age of comic books, and in a distant corner of Brooklyn, Sammy is looking for a way to cash in on the craze. He finds the ideal partner in the aloof, artistically gifted Joe, and together they embark on an adventure that takes them deep into the heart of Manhattan, and the heart of old-fashioned American ambition.

All members are welcome to join. RSVP Irene Blumenthal if you plan on attending.

We are having our annual Havdalah celebration, and this year, unlike last year, we will be meeting IN PERSON!  The place is Compo Beach, for which we have obtained a certificate to meet – further directions will follow as to exactly where people should go.  You won’t need a sticker – just say you are a member of CHJ.  Bring your own dinner – dessert and drinks will be provided.  Also bring a lawn chair.  We will have a short service, some delicious socializing, and a moonlit walk on the beach.

This is open to the public. If you are not a member of CHJ, please register by completing the form below.

Rain date:  August 21.

Shabbat service and The 200 Days of Dread

Following a Shabbat service, please join us for a journey into a little known part of WWII history that touched the Jewish Yishuv in British Palestine. The 200 days of dread was a period of 200 days in the history of the Yishuv in British Palestine, from the spring of 1942 to November 1942, when the German Afrika Korps under the command of General Erwin Rommel was heading east toward the Suez Canal and Palestine.

The presenter, Moshe Berman, is an engineer by training, a teacher by vocation, and an avid historian with a focus on Jewish History.

This event is open to CHJ members and nonmembers.

If you are not a CHJ member,  please fill out the form below so you will receive an invitation to the Zoom presentation.

Join us via Zoom. A topic is picked during the meeting. Come for the first time or if you’re a regular. New members always welcome. It’s a great way to connect from a distance.

Watch for the Zoom link just prior to the date.

SAVE the DATE!

7:30 Service

8:45 Zoom Oneg  Members only

The Zoom link will be sent out to members a week in advance.

No epidemic has equaled the devastation of the Bubonic Plague, which decimated between one-third and three-quarters of Europe’s population in the Middle Ages and continued to flare up in destructive pockets for centuries after. In Year of Wonders, Geraldine Brooks eerily captures every aspect of life during the plague the gruesomely painful death, the speed with which the disease spread and the superstitions surrounding it, which rivaled the plague itself for horror.

All members are welcome to join.

10:30 a.m. Sunday School Session
11:00 a.m. Congregation Service & BYO Picnic

Members’ Private Residence
Redding, CT

Inspired by the true story of a woman who changed the way we understand our world.

In 1933 three young, gifted anthropologists are thrown together in the jungle of New Guinea. They are Nell Stone, fascinating, magnetic and famous for her controversial work studying South Pacific tribes, her intelligent and aggressive husband Fen, and Andrew Bankson, who stumbles into the lives of this strange couple and becomes totally enthralled. Within months the trio are producing their best ever work, but soon a firestorm of fierce love and jealousy begins to burn out of control, threatening their bonds, their careers, and, ultimately, their lives.

Megha Majumdar’s excellent debut novel begins with a pile-on, the kind of digital public shaming… . A young Muslim woman named Jivan reads on her phone about a terrorist attack at a railway station near the slum in Kolkata where she lives. More than a hundred people were killed in the blaze. She posts a question – simple, pointed, instinctive: “If the police didn’t help ordinary people like you and me, if the police watched them die, doesn’t that mean the government is also a terrorist?” Her question spreads across social media like forest fire. Monstrous accusations are hurled at her. She is alleged to have been spotted at the station carrying a bulky package and, worse, chatting online with someone the local police declare is a known terrorist recruiter. Charged with the heinous crime, she’s sent to jail to await trial.

A Burning isn’t just about Jivan. Her fate lies in the hands of two people who might be able to vouch for her character. One of them is Lovely, a young hijra (a long-established class of intersex and transgender people in India) to whom she has been giving English lessons. The other is a PE teacher, known as PT Sir, who sometimes fed her when she was one of his pupils. Both are set on changing their lives – Lovely is taking acting lessons to become a movie star; PT Sir, earnest and efficient, is courted by a political party that wants to be known for its law and order credentials. The novel is both a crime thriller in which Jivan battles to avoid execution, and a moral drama: will her old acquaintances risk their burgeoning careers to speak up for a vilified Muslim woman?

All members are invited to join the discussion.

Save the Date:
Federation for Jewish Philanthropy of Upper Fairfield County
Mitzvah Heroes Awards