Our Second Meeting - March 5, 2013

This past month we read The Last Jew by Noah Gordon. Our attendance was oddly very weak; with roughly half the group at our meeting at the Art Café, we discussed some interesting questions over some fabulous food. A few in attendance loved the book, some of us didn’t finish the book and there was one person who actually detested the book. Everyone agreed the front end moved very slowly. The early part of the novel succeeded at introducing major and minor characters and set the stage for the historical novel (with rich and very accurate details), but the beginning was difficult to keep any of us gripped for the tale of Yonah which unfolds in the second two-thirds. Luckily things improved and we were able to have a lively discussion given that most of us read a significant portion of the text. We spent time to explore some of the turning events that led to Yonah’s decision to remain in Spain and perhaps how youth today might react in similar circumstances. Sadly, we all agreed that while there are good people like Nuno Fiero who helped Yonah, humanity is frail and history continues to repeat itself. We compared the events of the inquisition to those which have been witnessed throughout human history. We all felt humanity has not made significant progress since 1492 and religious persecution has occurred since and will likely occur in the future. We spent some time thinking about what an individual might do to address observed cruelty to others when we encounter such behaviors. Submitted by Bonnie