Welcome to the Jeremy Bruder Memorial Library!
Shalom, and welcome to the heart of our congregation's learning journey!
Our library is a cherished space where wisdom meets wonder, serving as a hub of knowledge and community for all our members, from our youngest explorers to our most seasoned scholars.
Here, you'll find:
- A carefully curated and ever-growing collection of books and resources that celebrate our rich Jewish heritage
- A cozy reading area for quiet contemplation and study
- Dedicated spaces for our Sunday school students to dive into Jewish literacy
- A welcoming environment for Torah study groups and adult education programs
Whether you're a curious child discovering the joy of Jewish stories, a student deepening your understanding of our traditions, or an adult seeking to enrich your spiritual and intellectual life, our library doors are open to you.
We invite you to explore, learn, and grow with us. Our library is more than just books—it's a living, breathing part of our community where ideas flourish, connections are made, and our Jewish identity is strengthened.
Get library updates and content recommendations from across our beloved CEC library, courtesy of our CEC Librarian, Nicole Coover-Thompson.
Book Highlight: To & Fro by Leah Hager Cohen
Ani, journeying across a great distance accompanied by a stolen kitten, meets many people along her way, but her encounters only convince her that she is meant to keep searching. Annamae, journeying from childhood to young adulthood alongside her mother, older brother, and the denizens of her Manhattan neighborhood, never outgrows her yearning for a friend she cannot describe. From their different worlds, Ani and Annamae reach across the divide, perhaps to discover—or perhaps to create—each other.
Told in two mirrored narratives that culminate in a new beginning, To & Fro unleashes the wonders and mysteries of childhood in a profound exploration of identity, spirituality, and community.
Cohen's lyrical prose brings to life the children at the heart of these mirrored stories. Readers of all ages will delight in the author's ability to capture the essence of growing up, and the bittersweet passage of time.
To & Fro is a celebration of the small moments that shape our lives and the invisible threads that connect us to our loved ones, even when we're far apart. It reminds us of the joys and mysteries of childhood and recalls the ubiquitous desire to find one’s place in this world.
Come check out To & Fro in the Library today!
Book Highlight: The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride
The first highlighted book from our library is also our Retreat read, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride.
It's June 1972, and the Pennsylvania State Police have some questions concerning a skeleton found at the bottom of an old well in the ramshackle Chicken Hill section of Pottstown that’s been marked for redevelopment. But Hurricane Agnes intervenes by washing away the skeleton and all other physical evidence of a series of extraordinary events that began more than 40 years earlier, when Jewish and African American citizens shared lives, hopes, and heartbreak in that same neighborhood. At the literal and figurative heart of these events is Chona Ludlow, the forbearing, compassionate Jewish proprietor of the novel’s eponymous grocery store, whose instinctive kindness and fairness toward the Black families of Chicken Hill exceed even that of her husband, Moshe, who, with Chona’s encouragement, desegregates his theater to allow his Black neighbors to fully enjoy acts like Chick Webb’s swing orchestra. Many local White Christians frown upon the easygoing relationship between Jews and Blacks, especially Doc Roberts, Pottstown’s leading physician, who marches every year in the local Ku Klux Klan parade. The ties binding the Ludlows to their Black neighbors become even stronger over the years, but that bond is tested most stringently and perilously when Chona helps Nate Timblin, a taciturn Black janitor at Moshe’s theater and the unofficial leader of his community, conceal and protect a young orphan named Dodo who lost his hearing in an explosion. He isn’t at all “feeble-minded,” but the government wants to put him in an institution promising little care and much abuse. The interlocking destinies of these and other characters make for tense, absorbing drama and, at times, warm, humane comedy.
Available on Spotify for free (audiobook) if you pay for Spotify premium. Also, on Libby for ebook or audiobook from your public library. We have physical copies in the Congregation Library available for checkout too!
