In honor of Oz's recent death, the Etz Bookworks are reading Panther in the Basement," a short novel narrated by a twelve-and-a-quarter year old boy in 1947, during the final year of the British Mandate. "Proffy" (short for "Professor"), the young man, belongs to a secret underground children's group with grandiose plans to drive out the British. But Proffy is also befriended by British police sergeant Dunlop, with whom he shares a love of words. The word that is most confusing to Proffy is "traitor," since he is accused by his friends of having betrayed their secret.

The Publisher's Weekly review observes "The question of treachery has a timely resonance--Rabin's assassin called him a traitor to his country--and this moral conundrum deepens the narrative's implications. Yet this is a gentle, unassuming story, both serious and amusing, told with perfect pitch and a humane awareness of life's paradoxes and ironies."

The Bookworms will meet to discuss Panther in the Basement on Sunday 2/03 at 4:30 p.m. The Superbowl is played at that time. My apologies for making you choose between the events.

Coming up in a few months: The One Bay One Book selection for 2018-2019 is another classic novel by Philip Roth, the Plot Against America. Aviation hero and isolationist Charles Lindbergh defeats Franklin Roosevelt in the 1940 presidential election, and a working class Jewish family in Newark, New Jersey pays the price. We will read the Plot Against America in 2019, in coordination with an event sponsored by the Jewish Community Library.

The book club dates are the first Sundays, except if there is a conflict with a festival or a major congregational event. The dates for the first half of 2019: 2/03, 3/03, 4/07, 5/05 & 6/02. Meetings are at 4:30 pm, in Room 10 if it is available, else in another one of the Etz Chayim classrooms. Read with us even if you can't come to the meeting. Meet with us even if you haven't read the book.