So, who doesn’t really like to go shopping? Join the Bethlehem Hebrew Congregation this summer as we read about the shopping experience and the Jewish merchants who changed retail forever. Our second great read this summer is “You Need a Schoolhouse,” by Stephanie Deutsch. This book charts the philanthropic and educational partnership between Booker T. Washington, who was born a slave and who became a founding leader of the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, and German-Jewish businessman Julius Rosenwald, who became an owner of Sears, Roebuck in Chicago and a trustee of the Tuskegee Institute. Rosenwald worked with Washington and others to construct nearly 5,000 schoolhouses for African-American children in the deep South.
We meet simultaneously in-person at the Bethlehem Public Library and on Zoom. For more information, visit our website at https://www.bethlehemsynagogue.org/books-2025