Programs for Interest: Lectures & Learning

Presented by local literary experts and beloved book reviewers, Treausures in Jewish Literature is an engaging five-session series exploring the best in contemporary Jewish literature. Each presenter offers insights into the reviewed titles and each session is filled with vibrant dialogue and debate. Join us for this 5-session series in which well-known reviewers discuss the best in contemporary Jewish literature.

Drop-in per /review costs inclusive of HST are: Member Value Fee: $16.00/Regular Fee: $18.00

Pass per series: Member Value Fee $58.00 + HST /Regular Fee $65.00 + HST

Refreshments: 1:00 - 1:30pm

Programs: 1:30 - 3:00pm

Age: All Adults

Tuesday, Mar 20, 2012 - 36 Arguments about the Existence of God by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein

After Cass Seltzer's book becomes a surprise best seller, he's dubbed "the atheist with a soul" and becomes a celebrity. Cass and a former girlfriend go on a quest and each encounter reinforces Casss theory that the religious impulse spills over into life at large. Throughout this fiction, Goldstein shows that the tension between religion and doubt cannot be understood through rational argument alone. It also must be explored from the point of view of individual people caught in the raptures and torments of religious experience in all their variety Using her gifts in fiction and philosophy, Goldstein has produced a true crossover novel, complete with a nail-biting debate and a stand-alone appendix with the thirty-six arguments (and responses) that propelled Seltzer to stardom. Reviewer: Sharoni Sibony

5 copies of each book will be available for loan at the PJCC Reception Desk from August 15, '11. Books are available to loan for 2 weeks. 5 copies of these books are available with a credit card to hold. A $20 dollar charge applies if book not returned.

For further information please contact Janet Klein-Slavin @ (416) 638-1881ext. 4259; for registration, please contact (416) 638-1881 ext. 4235, online @ prossermanjcc.com, or email @ rinak@prossermanjcc.com.

Presented by local literary experts and beloved book reviewers, Treausures in Jewish Literature is an engaging five-session series exploring the best in contemporary Jewish literature. Each presenter offers insights into the reviewed titles and each session is filled with vibrant dialogue and debate. Join us for this 5-session series in which well-known reviewers discuss the best in contemporary Jewish literature.

Drop-in per /review costs inclusive of HST are: Member Value Fee: $16.00/Regular Fee: $18.00

Pass per series: Member Value Fee $58.00 + HST /Regular Fee $65.00 + HST

Refreshments: 1:00 - 1:30pm

Programs: 1:30 - 3:00pm

Age: All Adults

Tuesday, May 15, 2012 - Great House by Nicole Krauss

An imposing wooden desk with nineteen drawers floats through this book like a buoy, and sometimes with shackles, loosely uniting four disparate but interconnected narrative threads. The desk is largely a monument to Jewish survival, loss, and recovery, and mirrors the dissolution, pain, and dire hope of each character. Additionally, it is a covetous object, given a poignant and existential significance by the chorus of voices that are bound to it by their memories. Krauss is a cultivated and gifted prose writer; she edifies the reader with striking imagery while digging down to the boots of a person's soul. Across the four short stories Krauss pulls together the disparate elements, settings, characters, and fragile connective tissue to form a formidable and haunting mosaic of loss and profound sorrow. Reviewer: Marilyn Herbert

5 copies of each book will be available for loan at the PJCC Reception Desk from August 15, '11. Books are available to loan for 2 weeks. 5 copies of these books are available with a credit card to hold. A $20 dollar charge applies if book not returned.

For further information please contact Janet Klein-Slavin @ (416) 638-1881ext. 4259; for registration, please contact (416) 638-1881 ext. 4235, online @ prossermanjcc.com, or email @ rinak@prossermanjcc.com.

Bill Gleberzon, (York U) discusses the Boomers’ Social Influence over the decades

David Cravit, VP of Zoomer Media, looks at our economic power

A facilitated discussion about how Boomers are seen around the world and will be viewed by history.