Congregation for Humanistic Judaism

Shabbat Candle Lighting
2026-01-02 18:30 - 19:20, 2026-01-09 18:30 - 19:20, 2026-01-16 18:30 - 19:20, 2026-01-23 18:30 - 19:20, 2026-01-30 18:30 - 19:20, 2026-02-06 18:30 - 19:20, 2026-02-13 18:30 - 19:20, 2026-02-20 18:30 - 19:20 (America/New_York) and 5 more dates | Zoom
Zoom opens at 6:30pm just to kibbutz.
At 7pm we light candles with a short service. We listen to music and short lectures. Watch for the Zoom link on the listserv Friday afternoon.

Book Group - The Yid by Paul Goldberg
2026-01-10 10:30 - 12:30 | Member’s residence
CHJ BOOK GROUP

The Yid by Paul Goldberg

Saturday, January 10th at 10:30 AM

debut novel of daring originality, The Yid guarantees that you will never think of Stalinist Russia, Shakespeare, theater, Yiddish, or history in the same way again Moscow, February 1953. A week before Stalin’s death, his final pogrom, “one that would forever rid the Motherland of the vermin,” is in full swing. Three government goons arrive in the middle of the night to arrest Solomon Shimonovich Levinson, an actor from the defunct State Jewish Theater. But Levinson, though an old man, is a veteran of past wars, and his shocking response to the intruders sets in motion a series of events both zany and deadly as he proceeds to assemble a ragtag group to help him enact a mad-brilliant plot: the assassination of a tyrant.
While the setting is Soviet Russia, the backdrop is Shakespeare: A mad king has a diabolical plan to exterminate and deport his country’s remaining Jews. Levinson’s cast of unlikely heroes includes Aleksandr Kogan, a machine-gunner in Levinson’s Red Army band who has since become one of Moscow’s premier surgeons; Frederick Lewis, an African American who came to the USSR to build smelters and stayed to work as an engineer, learning Russian, Esperanto, and Yiddish; and Kima Petrova, an enigmatic young woman with a score to settle. And wandering through the narrative, like a crazy Soviet Ragtime, are such historical figures as Paul Robeson, Solomon Mikhoels, and Marc Chagall. As hilarious as it is moving, as intellectual as it is violent, Paul Goldberg’s The Yid is a tragicomic masterpiece of historical fiction.
New CHJ participants are always very welcome; All CHJ members are invited.
Let bookgroup@humanisticjews.org know if you are planning to attend, or if you want to be put onto the CHJ Book Club mailing list.

Women's Rap
2026-01-11 10:30 - 12:30, 2026-02-22 10:30 - 12:30 | Member’s residence
Come join other CHJ women to talk about a topic to be chosen at the meeting. It’s a great way to get to know one another.
Venue to be advised. Please watch the listserv .
RSVP: rcfnpl2@gmail.com

Board Meeting
2026-01-13 19:00, 2026-02-09 19:00, 2026-03-10 19:00 | Zoom
We will begin work on the year’s programs and any activities of specific interest.
Please send me subjects of interest you wish the Board to consider in order to prepare the agenda.
Open to all CHJ members. Request the Zoom link from Previn Patel.

Men's Rap
2026-01-18 09:30, 2026-02-01 09:30, 2026-03-15 09:30 | Member’s residence
9:30 kibbutzing
10 Meeting
RSVP lbwtz35@gmail.com
Watch the listserv for the venue.

Tu Bishvat Seder and Pot-Luck Luncheon
2026-01-31 12:00 - 14:30 | TBA
Tu Bishvat Seder and Pot-Luck Luncheon

Join us for a joyful Seder and Pot Luck Luncheon with guitarist David Sasso. Eat traditional foods provided by CHJ and enjoy different flavors (pot luck lunch) and Celebrate the New Year of Trees

What: Humanistic TuBishvat Seder & Pot Luck Luncheon
Date: Saturday, January 31, 2026
Time: 12:00 pm to 2:30 pm
Place: TBD
Open to all CHJ members. Watch the listserv for more information

Jewish Federation Author Series -Saving Abigail by Liz Hirsh Naftali
2026-02-10 19:00 | The Community Synagogue, N..Y., 160 Middle Neck Rd., Sands Point, N.Y.
Jewish Federation Author Series
Saving Abigail by Liz Hirsh Naftali

To register: https://shalomct.salsalabs.org/SavingAbigail/index.html

Book Group - An Empire of their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood by Neal Gabler
2026-02-14 10:30 - 12:00 | Member’s residence
Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Award for history, this “wonderful history of the golden age of the movie moguls” (Chicago Tribune ) is a provocative, original, and richly entertaining group biography of the Jewish immigrants who were the moving forces behind the creation of America’s motion picture industry.
Let bookgroup@humanisticjews.org know if you are planning to attend, or if you want to be put onto the CHJ Book Club mailing list.

AntiSemitism: an American Tradition presented by Pamela S. Nadell
2026-03-05 19:30 | Quick Center Fairfield University
For more info click:

Sponsored by Jewish Federation, Jewish Book Council and Fairfield University

Special Program by Rabbi Alison Brody
2026-03-08 10:30 | Zoom
This is a facilitated conversation on “The Wisdom of Words in Jewish Tradition”.
We will examine some short passages from Jewish Tradition as well as a quote from a US Supreme Court ruling.
Open to all CHJ Members

Book Club - Daughters of the Bamboo Grove - by Barbara Demick
2026-03-15 10:30 | Member’s residence
Daughters of the Bamboo Grove by Barbara Demick is a non-fiction book about twin sisters separated by China’s one-child policy, one of whom was abducted and adopted by an American family, while the other remained in China. The book investigates the impact of the one-child policy, the ethics of international adoption, and the story of the twins’ separate lives and eventual reunion, highlighting the human cost of these policies and the role of human trafficking.

Shabbat Service - Guest Speaker Susan Boyar
2026-03-27 19:30
After a short service, our own Susan Boyar will speak on short story Deal-Breaker, by Allegra Goodman.

Women's Rap
2026-03-29 10:30 - 12:30 | TBA
