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The Raritan Valley Community College Institute of Holocaust and Genocide Studies will present its 5th annual virtual Summer Book Series beginning in June. The series, which is free of charge and open to the public, will begin June 27. The segments will be held via Zoom webinars and registration is required.

The following programs will feature discussions of novels that explore the past:

June 27, 10-11 a.m.: The Goddess of Warsaw by Lisa Barr

Before she was a “Living Legend,” Lena Browning was Bina Blonski, a wealthy Polish Jew whose life and prominent family were destroyed by the Nazis and imprisoned with the rest of Warsaw's Jews in a horrible ghetto. Determined to fight back, the beautiful, blonde Aryan-looking Bina becomes a spy and an assassin, gaining information and stealing weapons outside the Warsaw ghetto to protect her family and fellow Jews. While Bina accomplishes incredible feats of bravery, she sacrifices much in the process.

To register for the June 27 discussion, email michelle.edgar@raritanval.edu.

July 18, 10-11 a.m., All We Were Promised by Ashton Lattimore

Set in volatile, pre-Civil War Philadelphia, All We Were Promised tells the story of a housemaid with a dangerous family secret who conspires with a wealthy young abolitionist to help an enslaved girl escape. Longing to break away, Charlotte befriends Nell, a budding abolitionist from one of Philadelphia’s wealthiest Black families. Just as Charlotte starts to envision a future, a familiar face from her past reappears: Evie, her friend from White Oaks, has been brought to the city by the plantation mistress and is desperate to escape. But as Charlotte and Nell conspire to rescue her—in a city engulfed by race riots and attacks on abolitionists—they soon discover that fighting for Evie’s freedom may cost them their own.

To register for the July 18 book discussion, email michelle.edgar@raritanval.edu.

August 15, 10-11 a.m., One Good Thing by Georgia Hunter

One Good Thing, set in 1940 in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, depicts the story of Lili and Esti, who have been best friends since meeting at the University of Ferrara. When Esti’s son Theo is born, the two women become as close as sisters. As war is being fought across the borders, in Italy Mussolini’s Racial Laws have deemed Lili and Esti descendants of an “inferior” Jewish race. Yet somehow life goes on—until Germany invades northern Italy and the friends find themselves in occupied territory. A remarkable tale of friendship, motherhood, and survival, One Good Thing is a tender reminder that love for another person, even amidst darkness and uncertainty, can be a reason to keep going.

To register for the August 15 book discussion, email michelle.edgar@raritanval.edu.

For additional information about the Summer Book Series, contact Program Specialist Michelle Edgar at michelle.edgar@raritanval.edu. The Summer Book Series is co-sponsored by the Jewish Federation of West-Central New Jersey.

RVCC is located at 118 Lamington Road in Branchburg, NJ. For further information, visit www.raritanval.edu.

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May 20, 2025

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