{"id":663179,"date":"2026-11-01T01:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T01:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/663179\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T01:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T01:00:11","slug":"anglo-book-clubs-across-israel-unite-english-speaking-literature-lovers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/663179\/","title":{"rendered":"Anglo book clubs across Israel unite English-speaking literature lovers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Women of the Book in Nof Ayalon chose Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy as their 100th title since the club began nearly 21 years ago. Set on an island near Antarctica<\/a>, this novel neatly fits the theme of the club.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe focus on armchair traveling around the world,\u201d explains founder and discussion leader Tzippi Sha-ked.<\/p>\n

The book club has explored nearly 60 diverse locales through literature. Sometimes hosts serve cuisine related to the place or story. Sha-ked made kimchi for the group\u2019s discussion of Pachinko, a novel by Min Jin Lee about Korean refugees in Japan.<\/p>\n

At each meeting, every six to eight weeks, participants give their take on the book in a round-robin fashion. \u201cThen I launch into a discussion about the author and the writing process, followed by an analysis of the country we\u2019re covering in terms of its Jewish denizens and its relationship to Israel. Then we have a broader discussion,\u201d says Sha-ked.<\/p>\n

Book clubs for Anglos dot the map across Israel, providing a social and intellectual outlet for English-speakers \u2013 mostly middle-aged and older women \u2013 revolving around their love of the written word in their native tongue.<\/p>\n

\"WOMENWOMEN OF THE BOOK meeting at the home of leader Tzippi Sha-ked (C, in brown hat). (credit: MANODIKA SAMARAKOON)Focal point for friendship<\/p>\n

\u201cI started the book club as a way to connect with the Anglos here in Nof Ayalon,\u201d says Sha-ked, the author of The Jews of South Africa: What Future? and co-author of Three Ladies Three Lattes: Percolating Discussions in the Holy Land.<\/p>\n

\u201cI literally want to be on the same page and share experiences with friends. When you\u2019re all reading and discussing the same book, it becomes a focal point for friendship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Women of the Book member Chani Hadad agrees. \u201cFor many years, the book club was a key part of my social life, the only time I got together with grownups. It was an anchor for all of us. During COVID, the book club kept me sane. Now we\u2019re all basically empty-nesters, and it keeps me socially grounded with like-minded women.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hadad, who has a PhD in English literature, says she belongs to other book communities online, but they\u2019re not tailored in the same way.<\/p>\n

\u201cTzippi does so much research and customizes the discussions for our group. Each woman engages in the book on a different level. We connect; we disagree \u2013 which is what a book club should be. It\u2019s just perfect for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The toy we share<\/p>\n

Jacqueline Zivor recently started a book club in Zichron Ya\u2019acov<\/a>, where she has lived for 12 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a nice way to share what you\u2019re reading and thinking about,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s hard for adults to make friends; we need a \u2018toy\u2019 to play with together. This is the toy we\u2019re going to share.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"THETHE SECOND meeting of the new Zichron Ya\u2019akov book club included leader Jacqueline Zivor (L) with Ainav Bargev Michaeli, Shoshanit Etzion (holding \u2018The Calamity Club\u2019 by Kathryn Stockett), Hayley Haberer (holding puppy), Dori Goldberg, and brand-new immigrant Lori Forman-Jacobi. (credit: COURTESY JACQUELINE ZIVOR)<\/p>\n

Zivor got many responses to her Facebook post gauging interest in the new club and built a WhatsApp group with more than 40 members, who vote on which of three nominated books to read each month.<\/p>\n

Although only a handful came to the first meeting to discuss The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett, numbers began picking up with the second title, Land, by Maggie O\u2019Farrell.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI know once people step foot out of the door they will enjoy it; they just need to get started,\u201d Zivor says.<\/p>\n

To encourage people to engage at different levels of comfort and from afar, Zivor created a Padlet \u2013 an interactive digital noticeboard \u2013 with questions about the book that people can comment on. \u201cPeople have contacted me from New York, England, and Germany to say that they want to join when they come to Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many Anglo book club members in Israel prefer hard copies, even if that requires ordering or physically bringing books from abroad. Most of Zivor\u2019s group, which skews a little younger, orders books instantaneously on digital reading systems such as Kindle.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur members like historical fiction, and there seems to be an interest in female writers,\u201d says Zivor, a play therapist and dyslexia specialist who heads the English-speakers\u2019 program at the Keshet Democratic Pluralistic School in her community.<\/p>\n

She noted that few men seem interested in book clubs. Perhaps that\u2019s because for many women the clubs are \u201cmuch more about socializing than about the book.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sisterhood of readers<\/p>\n

Indeed, Ashkelon<\/a> resident Beth Newmark says the group she attends \u201cis more of a sisterhood\u201d than a book club.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been in existence since sometime in the 1980s. After we moved here seven years ago, I joined Weight Watchers and the instructor told me there were two other English speakers in the group, one Scottish and one American. They\u2019d been in Ashkelon for 30-plus years,\u201d says Newmark.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough them, I met about 15 Anglo women, most of them married to Israelis. They were each other\u2019s lifeline, like a support group.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey extended their hand in friendship and told me about their book club, whose original purpose was to pool their limited collections of English-language books \u2013 not to discuss the books. They hadn\u2019t had new members in many years, and I feel so privileged that they brought me in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following the flood of Anglos relocating to Ashkelon in the past decade, she adds, \u201canother woman is now starting a more traditional book club for the newcomers, and I\u2019m part of that too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"THISTHIS BOOK CLUB in Ashkelon has been meeting since the 1980s. (credit: ANDREA STERN)<\/p>\n

But the veteran group remains active. Approximately 12 members meet every five weeks for dinner at their homes on a rotating basis. These gatherings still center around milk crates full of books for the members to choose from.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe books draw everyone together,\u201d says Newmark. \u201cWomen even reschedule vacations to be at these meetings.\u201d<\/p>\n

To each her own book<\/p>\n

The Rehovot Area Book Group operates on a similar lending-library model. Members borrow books to read individually and summarize orally at the next meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started this group soon after I came on aliyah in 1999,\u201d says coordinator Rosalie Brosilow. \u201cI\u2019ve always been a big reader. Someone invited me to a book group, and I found it unfriendly. My daughter said, \u2018Why don\u2019t you start your own?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWe began with three people, and it\u2019s been going ever since. We have a list of 18 members; about 12 come every month without fail.\u201d<\/p>\n

Participants include Americans, South Africans<\/a>, Brits, and even a few sabras who enjoy reading in English. The age range is early 50s to early 90s. To keep the selection fresh, every member gets a turn choosing a new book to add to the collection, with money chipped in by everyone.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEach person has different preferences. This way, we get a broad perspective,\u201d says Brosilow.<\/p>\n

\u201cI chair the meeting with a very light hand. Everyone gets about five minutes to report on the book they\u2019ve taken to read the previous month. Then they put it back and take another,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe initially met in a different person\u2019s home each time, but that became difficult because it meant schlepping books from house to house. Now a different family hosts the group for a six-month period.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018We\u2019re people to whom ideas matter\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the Jerusalem Barnard Book Club, composed of graduates of Columbia University\u2019s college for women, the emphasis is more cerebral than social.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do socialize outside of our monthly meetings \u2013 and sometimes we go to plays and movies related to the books we\u2019ve read \u2013 but the social part grew out of the group,\u201d says veteran member Marcia Gelpe, Barnard class of 1965.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe devote the full hour and a half of our meetings not to eating or chit chat but to discussing the book. We tend to read more serious books that lend themselves to intellectual discussion.\u201d<\/p>\n

The list of more than 275 books under their belts thus far includes classics such as Jane Austen\u2019s Northanger Abbey as well as contemporary titles such as Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance. The current selection is Warlight, a 2018 novel by Michael Ondaatje.<\/p>\n

About 30 participants in the club\u2019s WhatsApp group suggest titles to be voted upon for the following year. \u201cWe have a tradition that each year we read six modern fiction, three classics, and three nonfiction works. Three of those are by Israeli authors; some of our members read them in the original Hebrew.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gelpe, a retired law professor living in Israel since 1991, joined the book club soon after its founding in October 2001. The age range in this group is unusually wide \u2013 the newest member is a recent Barnard alumna and the oldest is in her 90s. Members take turns leading the monthly discussion.<\/p>\n

Bringing people together<\/p>\n

Both the Jerusalem and the Nof Ayalon clubs occasionally invite authors to join their meetings.<\/p>\n

The Barnard group has welcomed locals such as Benjamin Balint, author of Bruno Schultz: An Artist, A Murder, and the Hijacking of History; and Matti Friedman, author of Pumpkinflowers.<\/p>\n

Women of the Book hosts authors in person, such as Rachel Kadosh (The Weight of Ink), and on Zoom, such as American author Joyce Maynard (The Bird Hotel) and Egyptian author Hussein Aboubakr Mansour (A Minority of One: The Unchaining of an Arab Mind).<\/p>\n

The Nof Ayalon group, like many others, moved its meetings to Zoom during the pandemic, and retained that option. In addition to about a dozen in-person members, the meetings are attended virtually by a few women in South Africa, Austria, Germany, and the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has a side benefit of introducing the world to Nof Ayalon, and that\u2019s very important to me,\u201d says Sha-ked, who has master\u2019s degrees in administration and leadership as well as creative writing, and runs a matchmaking group called Points of Contact.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main theme for me is that I want to build bridges and bring people together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kira Sirote of Ra\u2019anana is perhaps the best example of fostering connections.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the club\u2019s original members is a distant relative of ours, and she set up my son with the daughter of another member of the book club,\u201d she explains. \u201cAt the engagement party 11 years ago, Tzippi came over to me and invited me to join the book club. I read a lot, so I said okay, I\u2019ll give it a try.<\/p>\n

\u201cFour years later, my other son married the daughter of another member of the book club. Then my daughter married a close friend of Tzippi\u2019s daughter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Women of the Book has become a literal extended family.<\/p>\n

Important to Anglos<\/p>\n

Terry Mischel, cofounder and leader of a constantly growing book club in Modi\u2019in that\u2019s been meeting for nearly 15 years, finds the discussions not only enhance everyone\u2019s individual reading experience but also serve as a social glue for English speakers.<\/p>\n

\"ATAT THIS recent get-together, the Modi\u2019in Book Club discussed \u2018The Book Club for Troublesome Women\u2019 by Marie Bostwick. (credit: KAREN PRUZANSKY)<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s wonderful to talk to other women, mostly in the same age bracket, about the books we read,\u201d she says, citing examples such as Isola by Allegra Goodman; The Correspondent by Virginia Evans; June in the Garden by Eleanor Wilde; and books translated from Hebrew such as Aleppo Tales by Haim Sabato.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes we can\u2019t imagine where the topics will lead us. Often, people have very different reactions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mischel says she feels that making aliyah 17 years ago with her husband \u201cwas the best thing we\u2019ve ever done in our lives, and I didn\u2019t have to give up anything \u2013 including reading in my native tongue and talking about the books with like-minded people.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome members of our group have lived in Israel for 40 years and they could read the books in Hebrew, yet they love to come to our group. It\u2019s very important to all of us.\u201d\u25a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Women of the Book in Nof Ayalon chose Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy as their 100th…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":663180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[82871,412,14772,85,46,3794,1619,53804,43,243522,2631,73013],"class_list":["post-663179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-ashkelon","tag-books","tag-english","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-jerusalem","tag-magazine","tag-modiin","tag-news","tag-raanana","tag-reading","tag-rehovot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=663179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/663179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/663180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=663179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=663179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=663179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}