By Carl Zebrowski
Editor

One of the challenges of gathering young adults for events is they don’t have a lot of free time. They’re busy with kids at home or with jobs as they push through the early stages of their careers. They want to get together, but too often they can’t. 

In response to that, the Jewish Federation of the Lehigh Valley’s NextGen is debuting its NextGen Book Club, a group that will meet virtually every other month beginning in December to discuss a selected book. You put the kids to bed and sink into a comfortable chair to read. You’ve got about eight weeks to finish! When the time comes to meet, you log onto Zoom, listen to what your peers have to say about the story the group voted to read, and maybe offer some insights of your own.

“It’s an easy entry point for people to just show up and talk about the book,” says Bill Miner, the NextGen (ages 30-45) co-chair who calls himself a “huge reader” and came up with the idea for the club. 

“We’re trying to make sure the book club is open and inclusive of everyone. That means parents with children, people who just love to read. We want people to feel connected to their community and not burdened by this.” 

The virtual gathering is a low-pressure “night out” with your friends. “We don’t expect everyone to speak at the first meeting,” Miner said. “You speak when you’re ready.” 

Hopefully you were able to read the book to the end, but close is close enough. “If they didn’t read the book,” Miner says, “we still invite them to show up. There should be no barrier to entry for this. We encourage people to read the books, but if you just want to show up for the conversation, that’s OK too.”

As Hakol goes to press, voting is closing for selecting the book to read for the inaugural December meeting. Club participants have gone online, read a description of each title, and voted for their preference. The ballot shows three novels this time: “The Hotel Neversink” by Adam O’Fallon Price, “Fleishman Is in Trouble” by Taffy Brodesser-Akner, and “The Immortalists” by Chloe Benjamin. 

“They’re all very different,” Miner says. Yet they have something in common: “It’s all about how people negotiate their relationships with their own personal community. Participants can see how characters navigate their own communities and how our members can learn to do the same.”

Although the three books up voting this time were fiction, they could be nonfiction next time. Miner, for example, is considering a work about Jewish Mafia members. “I try to find books that would appeal to the widest audience,” he says. 

There may be themed readings too. Maybe next spring puts a selection of Passover-related books on the ballot. A screening of a movie based on a book the group reads may also be a possibility at some point. 

The first NextGen Book Club meeting is December 7 at 7 p.m. Current NextGen members are receiving emails now about the club and how to register for the first meeting. If you haven’t joined NextGen and would like to know more about it, call Lee Kestecher Solomon at 610-821-5500, ext. 328.

“I hope this gives people a new way of thinking about things,” Miner says. “Forming community bonds is so important at this time.”