Throughout 2026, the library will host reading groups and related programs exploring the role of literature as a springboard for conversations about religion, assimilation, identity and immigration. Through the Yiddish Book Center’s Public Libraries Program, the library will organize reading groups to discuss three books of Yiddish literature in translation, one book by a local author and a fifth book selected for its focus on class and cultural differences, and family dynamics.
Book Discussions
When: Sunday, March 1 at 11AM or Monday, April 13 at 6PM
Tevye the Dairyman and Motl the Cantor's Son
Tevye the Dairyman is a collection of Yiddish stories by Sholom Aleichem about a poor milkman in Tsarist Russia whose life is shaped by his seven daughters' marriages and the changing times.
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Motl the Cantor's Son is a humorous, episodic novel about a young boy's journey from a Russian Jewish village (shtetl) to America at the turn of the 20th century.
Sholem Aleichem (1859-1916)
Sholem Aleichem, born Sholem Rabinovich, was a celebrated Yiddish writer and one of the founders of modern Yiddish literature. He is best known for his stories of characters like Tevye the Milkman, which inspired the musical Fiddler on the Roof. Originally from Ukraine, he wrote extensively on the lives of Eastern European Jews during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, capturing their struggles with modernity.
Photo courtesy of the Yiddish Book Center
When: Sunday, April 12 at 11AM or Monday, May 18 at 6PM
A Jewish Refugee in New York
A Jewish Refugee in New York is a novel about a young woman, Rivke Zilberg, as she experiences the trauma of displacement alongside the challenge of adapting to a new country, culture, and language. The book deals with grief, assimilation, modernity, changing gender roles, and community/familial acceptance.
Kadya Molodovsky (1894-1975)
Molodowsky was a major figure in the Yiddish literary scene in Warsaw and, later, in New York and Israel. She wrote for the Yiddish press, founded and edited journals and published poetry, novels, short stories, plays, and essays. Recurrent themes in her work include the lives of Jewish women and girls, Jewish tradition in the face of modernity, Israel, and the Holocaust.
Photo courtesy of the Yiddish Book Center
When: Sunday, May 17 at 11AM or Monday, June 29 at 6PM
The Zelmenyaners: A Family Saga
The Zelmenyaners by Moyshe Kulbak is a comical story about a Jewish family in pre-revolution Minsk struggling with the arrival of modernity under the Soviet regime. The novel humorously depicts the generational conflict between an older generation holding onto tradition and a younger generation embracing Soviet ideals secularism and electricity, all centered around their shared family courtyard.
Moyshe Kulbak (1896-1937)
Kulbak was a prominent Belarusian Jewish poet, novelist, and dramatist who was a leading figure in modernist Yiddish literature. His life and career were marked by movement between the major center of Jewish culture in Minsk, Vilna and Berlin. At the age of 41, he fell victim to the Stalinist purges targeting Yiddish intellectuals.
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When: Sunday, June 28 at 11AM or Monday, August 3 at 6PM
About Us
About Us is a semi-autobiographical novel by American writer and Butler native Chester Aaron. Published in 1967, it is a coming-of-age story featuring a rural Jewish family in southwestern Pennsylvania during the Great Depression and World War II. The novel is set in the fictional coal-mining town of Sundown with references to Butler, Kittanning, Pittsburgh, and other points of local interest.
Chester Aaron (1923-2019) - Local Author
A Butler native, Aaron served in World War II before working as an X-Ray technician and a garlic farmer. He participated in the liberation of the Dachau concentration camp and was profoundly affected by the experience. He later attended university and became a professor at Saint Mary's College, retiring in 1997. He wrote 26 books throughout his career, including fiction, non-fiction, cookbooks and young adult novels. About Us was his first novel and a semi-autobiographical exploration of his own youth.
When: Sunday, August 2 at 11AM or Monday, Sept. 21 at 6PM
Rental House
​Rental House is a 2024 novel that explores a marriage through the lens of two family vacations, highlighting themes of cultural differences, class, and family expectations. The story follows Keru and Nate, college sweethearts from vastly different backgrounds, as they navigate their marriage and their families' clashing worldviews.
Weike Wang (1989-Present)
Wang is a Chinese-American novelist and professor recognized for her minimalist prose and her exploration of the intersections between science, family, and the immigrant experience. She is the author of three novels: Chemistry (2017), Joan is Okay (2022), and Rental House (2024).
To participate in a book discussion, contact Anita at abowser@bcfls.org or 724-287-1715.