Let's Talk About It Discussion Series 

On Tuesday, October 28, 2008 at 3:30pm Dr. Michael Hoberman will be reading from and signing copies of his book "How Strange It Seems:
The Cultural Life of Jews in Small-Town New England".  Please join us in the Center for Teaching and Learning for a brief presentation by Michael followed by snacks and discussion!

From the blurb: “Michael Hoberman weaves the personal stories of these individuals and families into a collective narrative that offers as much folklore as history and is equal parts Jewish and Yankee. He introduces us to Hiram Adelman, a Russian immigrant peddler and potato farmer who settled in northernmost Maine because its climate was comparable to his native Siberia, and to Shmuel Simenowitz, an urban transplant who produces kosher maple syrup in southern Vermont. We also meet Suzie Laskin, who moved to the White Mountains region of New Hampshire in the 1900s and soon established a local havurah, and Bob August of Whately, Massachusetts, who once ran what may have been the world's only Christmas tree farm owned by a Jewish family. Each section of the book explores how small-town New England Jews have both departed from and mimicked the broader patterns of Jewish American experience, while also illustrating how they have acclimated themselves to local practices without relinquishing a strong sense of Jewish identity.”

Learn more about Dr. Hoberman's book.