CBB’s Jewish Book Club meets four times a year on Sunday mornings to read and discuss both fascinating and critically-acclaimed Jewish novels. All events start at 9:30 AM.

Starting on June 8, 2025 we will once again be meeting in-person at CBB. Meetings are also available via Zoom. Click here to join. 

The JBC is co-organized and co-facilitated by Stephen Stone and Rich Appelbaum. Stephen is a psychotherapist, and Rich is a retired UCSB Sociology and Global Studies professor, and community activist. Rich and Stephen share a love of reading fiction and are passionate about making books come alive in discussion. Join them for fascinating journeys into Jewish literature. Do you have ideas for other books we should read? Contact Stephen here. 

Sun., Oct 26, 2025
9:30 AM

Originally published in 1953 (in English in 1955), The Pillar of Salt the semi-autobiographical novel about a young boy growing up in French colonized Tunisia. To gain access to privileged French society, he must reject his many identities – Jew, Arab, and African. But, on the eve of World War II, he is forced to come to terms with his loyalties and his past.

Sun., Jan 25, 2026
9:30 AM

First published in 1934 but fully imagining the future of Germany over the ensuing years, The Oppermanns tells the compelling story of a remarkable German Jewish family confronted by Hitler’s rise to power. This prescient novel strives to awaken an often unsuspecting, sometimes politically naive, or else willfully blind world to the consequences of its stance in the face of national events — in this case, the rising tide of Nazism in 1930s Germany.

Sun., March 15, 2026
9:30 AM

An exhilarating, twisted tale of desire, suspicion, and obsession between two women staying in the same house in the Dutch countryside during the summer of 1961—a powerful exploration of the legacy of WWII and the darker parts of our collective past.

Sun., June 14, 2026
9:30 AM

The classic novel of Jewish immigrants, with period photographs. This masterwork of American immigrant literature is set in the 1920s on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and tells the story of Sara Smolinsky, the youngest daughter of an Orthodox rabbi, who rebels against her father’s rigid conception of Jewish womanhood. Sarah’s struggle towards independence and self-fulfillment resonates with a passion all can share.