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Joan Kaye and the Read-as-One Committee finalize plans to introduce As a Driven Leaf to the Orange County Jewish Community
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This past Spring, serious readers in the Jewish community of Orange County, California all found themselves reading the same book—the classic novel As a Driven Leaf by Milton Steinberg. How did this come about, and why were we all reading a novel written around the time of World War II?
As part of its 25th anniversary celebration, the Bureau of Jewish Education held a community-wide "Read-as-One" program. Our purpose was to share in a reading event that would educate participants Jewishly, and engage them with their neighbors. The Board of Rabbis recommended As a Driven Leaf as a novel that explores Jewish history and Jewish heritage, and illuminates the sometimes conflicting pulls we all feel from our ties to the community and to modern life.
The program committee sprang into action, contacting every synagogue and encouraging them to create a program around the book. Gift shops received books to sell; they were also available directly from Behrman House and via the Amazon link on the Bureau's web site. The web site provided a study guide to encourage discussion of the book, an annotated historical timeline, maps of key locations mentioned in the book, a glossary, and a paper commemorating the 100th anniversary of Steinberg's birth. Community activities included individual book group discussions, synagogue Shabbat dinners followed by discussions, college campus lunchtime discussion groups, and lectures. Altogether, hundreds of people participated in discussion groups, lectures, and other events.
Primary among the themes chosen for discussion were those that dealt with eternal Jewish/secular conflicts. Howard Mirowitz, Committee Chair, explained: "This book reminds us that Jews throughout history have faced these same dilemmas. Their answers and ways of coping with them are now our cultural DNA, and the encoded wisdom of that genetic heritage is expressed daily in our modern lives."
Joan Kaye is Director of the Orange County, California, Bureau of Jewish Education.
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