Students enrolled in one of the club\u2019s three courses for the 2026-27 academic year will read one Jewish text or graphic novel per month from the 1930s onward and use the book\u2019s literary techniques to write their own stories. Students will eventually publish their work in a Yid Lit Club podcast and a magazine, called Dor Almagor, that they design as part of the course.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a bit like the way being part of a high school play is so powerful for some kids,\u201d Suzanne says of working on these collaborative projects. \u201cYou\u2019re working together to create something, so that sense of purpose is so big.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Alexanders have more than 45 years of combined experience in education. Darren, originally from Toronto, has taught remedial literacy programs for adults, and communications courses at several colleges and universities across Canada. Suzanne worked in alternative schools before becoming an adult writing educator.<\/p>\n
The couple have also run online workshops in the past. Over the 2025-26 academic year, they started Nifty Lit Club<\/a> as a pilot project to help general audiences read classic books from as far back as the 1880s. They had a total of 28 students across five shorter courses.<\/p>\n But the dream to create a curriculum around Jewish reading existed years before the pilot project. Nifty Lit Club helped them test the at-home assignment format, which involves no video calls or lectures, before they brought it to their own community.<\/p>\n Yid Lit Club students will do close readings of their books independently to discover \u201cthe building blocks of the text,\u201d a practice that\u2019s often found in university literature courses, the couple says. Students will then work on creative writing assignments where they recreate the author\u2019s style using their own worlds, characters and plots.<\/p>\n Suzanne says this format \u201cdemystifies the text\u201d for students, which helps them appreciate it more. To Darren, it\u2019s a format that can help youth regain higher-level reading skills as literacy rates drop for Canadians<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cI really do believe that this workshop approach is the way forward,\u201d says Darren on improving literacy skills across the country.<\/p>\n Their three courses, especially Shmues<\/a>, which is for 14- to 18-year-olds, will help youth learn to read advanced texts, Suzanne says. The syllabus includes works by Mordecai Richler, Chaim Potok and Dara Horn. Literacy rates have declined because teachers no longer help students bridge the gap between children\u2019s books and adult literature, Suzanne says.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not that young people are not bright. They are very bright, and they are potentially just as capable at reading complex texts,\u201d she says. \u201cBut they have not had the scaffolding that you need. You don\u2019t go from reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid to Dickens.\u201d<\/p>\n She adds that students will share their stories with peers as they progress through the workshops. This will help them connect with each other and their Jewish culture, which she says is crucial for adolescents who are still building their identities.<\/p>\n \u201cThe developmental task at that time for children is to become more independent, and to go outside of the family more,\u201d Suzanne says. \u201cPart of the impulse here is to provide a Jewish community experience and Jewish education that\u2019s not explicitly religious in nature.\u201d<\/p>\n Yid Lit Club\u2019s course Shvel<\/a> will give students aged 12 to 15 an \u201cout of the box\u201d extracurricular option by covering young adult books like Judy Blume\u2019s Are You There God? It\u2019s Me, Margaret and Karen Hesse\u2019s Letters from Rifka.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Screenshot-2026-08-14-115007-1024x262.png\")
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