Liberation Library Book Club
A gathering space for collective study. We read together to deepen our understanding of Jewish history, power, exile, embodiment, and liberation, especially where Jewish tradition meets anti-nationalism, decolonial thought, and solidarity with oppressed peoples.
Each session is at a different local business! See below our picks for 2026!
Reckless Rites: Purim and the Legacy of Jewish Violence
February 28
Fidel & Co
12:00-2:00pm
A provocative examination of Purim that traces how rituals of survival, vengeance, and power have shaped Jewish collective memory. Drawing on biblical text, rabbinic interpretation, and modern political thought, this book confronts the ethical tensions embedded in Jewish celebrations of violence and asks how inherited narratives continue to influence contemporary Jewish identity and moral responsibility.
The Necessity of Exile: Essays from a Distance
May 30
Pettaway Coffee
12:00-2:00pm
This work offers a sweeping philosophical meditation on exile as a defining feature of Jewish life and thought. Challenging the assumption that sovereignty is the solution to Jewish vulnerability, the book argues that exile has historically fostered ethical restraint, intellectual creativity, and diasporic responsibility—and remains essential for imagining just Jewish futures.
Taking the State Out of the Body: A Guide to Embodied Resistance to Zionism
August 22
Tea Capitol
12:00-2:00pm
Blending political critique with somatic and spiritual practice, this guide explores how state power, nationalism, and violence are internalized in the body. The book offers tools for embodied resistance to Zionism, emphasizing healing, deconditioning, and collective liberation as integral to political transformation beyond the logic of the nation-state.
Three Worlds: Memoirs of an Arab-Jew
November 28
Pettaway Coffee
12:00-2:00pm
A landmark memoir chronicling the life of an Arab Jew navigating the intertwined histories of the Middle East, colonialism, and Zionism. Moving across geographies and identities, the book preserves a world largely erased from dominant narratives and offers a powerful account of belonging, displacement, and the cultural richness of Arab Jewish life.