Social Justice Book Club

Social Justice Book Club

Hockessin Friends members and attenders are invited to participate in the next meeting of the Social Justice Book Club on Saturday, January 3, 2026, 10 a.m.-noon, at the meetinghouse.

The books selected for this meeting are: Occupied with Nonviolence by Jean Zaru and Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza by Peter Beinart. Participants may read either book or both.
The publishers describe the books as follows:
Jean Zaru, the longtime activist and Quaker leader from Ramallah, here brings home the pain and central convictions that animate Christian nonviolence and activity today. Zaru vividly paints the complex realities faced by all parties in Palestine — Jews and Muslims and Christians, Israelis and Palestinians, women and men. Yet even as Zaru eloquently names the common misunder- standings of the history, present situation, and current policies of the parties there, she vividly articulates an alternative: a religiously motivated nonviolent path to peace and justice in the world’s most troubled region.

In Peter Beinart’s view, one story dominates Jewish communal life: that of persecution and victimhood. It is a story that erases much of the nuance of Jewish religious tradition and warps our understanding of Israel and Palestine. After Gaza, where Jewish texts, history, and language have been deployed to justify mass slaughter and starvation, Beinart argues, Jews must tell a new story. After this war, whose horror will echo for generations, they must do nothing less than offer a new answer to the question: What does it mean to be a Jew?

Beinart imagines an alternate narrative, which would draw on other nations’ efforts at moral reconstruction and a different reading of Jewish tradition. A story in which Israeli Jews have the right to equality, not supremacy, and in which Jewish and Palestinian safety are not mutually exclusive but intertwined. One that recognizes the danger of venerating states at the expense of human life. Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza is a provocative argument that will expand and in- form one of the defining conversations of our time. It is a book that only Peter Beinart could write: a passionate yet measured work that brings together his personal experience, his commanding grasp of history, his keen understanding of political and moral dilemmas, and a clear vision for the future.

If you have questions or need more information, you may email Friends@HockessinQuakerMeeting.org or talk with Nedda Moqtaderi or Mark Parker Miller, who are the HFM contacts for the book club.

“Peace is not only the absence of war, but it is the absence of dire poverty and hunger. Peace is freedom from sickness and disease. It is employment and health. Peace is based on a deep sense of human equality and basic
justice. Peace is when we have no fear to assemble, to worship, to work, to speak and publish the truth, even to the powerful. Peace is hope for our future and the future of all God’s children and all God’s world.”
― Jean Zaru, Occupied with Nonviolence: A Palestinian Woman Speaks

“Palestinian support for violence goes up when Palestinian hopes of freedom go down.”
― Peter Beinart, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza