Great Jewish Books Summer Program

At the Yiddish Book Center’s Great Jewish Books Summer Program, rising high school juniors and seniors read selections from important works of modern Jewish literature and consider how they speak to the opportunities and challenges we face today. Under the guidance of college professors, they consider how the rich legacy of modern Jewish literature can inform us in the 21st century.

Although the program’s focus is on reading, this is not school in any conventional sense: Great Jewish Books is a lively program full of social, cultural and recreational opportunities—and no grades—for students who read for the love of reading and who are eager to discover the treasures of the Jewish canon.

Participants spend their days at the Yiddish Book Center, immersed in a lively world of Jewish culture, and live in dorms on the nearby campus of Hampshire College. Every admitted participant receives a scholarship for the full cost of tuition and books.

Great Jewish Books students:

• Read and discuss important works of modern literature by a diverse range of writers, such as Franz Kafka, Sholem Aleichem, Grace Paley and Clarice Lispector.
• Learn from college faculty as well as prominent visiting writers (including, in past years, award-winning authors Ayelet Tsabari and Molly Antopol, poet and scholar Joy Ladin, and graphic novelist and scholar Ilan Stavans).
• Develop skills for literary analysis and self-expression that will prepare them for college.
• Connect with other teenagers from across North America who love to read and who care about literature and Jewish culture.
• Discover how modern literature connects them to ancient traditions and contemporary ideas.

Sophomores and juniors are eligible to apply.