Doris Bass Memorial Library & Book Club

Doris Bass, a beloved member of Israel Congregation, was a dedicated lover of books and literature. After a long career beginning in the Brooklyn Public Library and progressing to publishing, Doris moved to Vermont in 1996. Her passion for life was contagious and her passing has left us with a large hole in our lives. We have dedicated our extensive library in her memory. Today we are fortunate to have devoted congregants stewarding the library Doris championed.

Set in Newark, New Jersey, during the summer of 1944, Philip Roth’s Nemesis tells the story of Bucky Cantor, a young, dedicated playground director whose life is upended by a devastating polio epidemic. While the disease spreads through the community, Bucky struggles to protect the children in his care and confronts his own fears about illness, responsibility, and the future. When he leaves Newark for a summer job at a camp in the Pocono Mountains, he hopes to escape the epidemic, but the consequences of his decisions follow him.



Through Bucky’s personal tragedy, Roth explores profound questions about fate, free will, faith, guilt, and the unfairness of human suffering. How do we make sense of terrible events that seem to have no explanation? Can we hold ourselves responsible for circumstances beyond our control? And how does guilt shape the way we understand our own lives? Nemesis is a moving and thought-provoking novel that invites readers to consider the limits of human power, the burden of moral responsibility, and the ways tragedy can permanently alter our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.

Philip Roth (1933–2018) was one of America’s most celebrated and influential novelists, known for his sharp wit, psychological insight, and exploration of Jewish-American identity and culture. Born in Newark, New Jersey, many of his works examine themes of family, sexuality, morality, politics, and the tensions between individual desires and societal expectations. He received numerous literary honors, including the Pulitzer Prize for American Pastoraland the National Book Award, and was frequently considered a leading contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature.