What made you want to read The Choice? Did it live up to your expectations?
The author takes characters inspired by Chaim Potok and ages them into young adults in Brooklyn in the 1950s. If you read Potok’s The Chosen, The Promise, or Davita’s Harp, did reading The Choice change your opinion of those novels? In what way? If you have not yet read Potok’s books, are you now going to?
Discuss how the author depicts Hannah and Nathan, Sharon and Benny, and the world in which each lived. How did your perception of religious Jews change after reading the novel?
Although The Choice is set in 1950s Brooklyn, what similar issues do modern women face today?
The topic of family purity or niddah is rarely discussed publicly among Jewish women. Did you know about the laws of niddah? Do you think most Orthodox Jewish women fulfill the mitzvot of niddah? Why or why not?
Why do you think many Jewish women do not fulfill the mitzvot of niddah, neither visiting a mikveh nor abstaining from sexual relations during the extra seven clean days? Do you or did you ever observe these? Why or why not?
Many Talmudic texts are brought into the story. Which did you find most interesting? Why? Have you studied Talmud before?
Were you offended or disturbed by the subplot involving child sexual abuse by Orthodox Jewish men, especially clergy? Explain your answer.
What surprised you most about the book? Were you surprised that Nathan, ordained as an Orthodox rabbi, went out dancing or kissed women he was dating?
What other books by this author have you read? How did they compare to this book?
If you could ask the author one question, what would it be?
