AMHERST, Mass. – The Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Mass. is now accepting applications for its 2015 Great Jewish Books Summer Program for high school students.

This will be the fourth year of the weeklong program, which introduces students to a wide range of modern Jewish novelists, poets, and short-story writers. All students accepted to the program receive full scholarships covering the cost of tuition, room and board, books, and special events.

The students spend their mornings in seminar-style classes led by college professors and in small discussion groups. In the afternoon, they can take part in various recreational activities under the supervision of resident advisers from the program – a hike, a sing-along, a visit to a local dairy farm for ice cream – and spend time reading for the next day’s class. In the evening, the students watch films and attend talks by contemporary Jewish writers.

The Great Jewish Books program aims to give students a taste of the richness and variety of modern Jewish literature, said Josh Lambert, the Yiddish Book Center’s academic director. He hopes they leave the program excited to continue exploring modern Jewish literature and Jewish history and prepared to consider the ways they have informed, and continue to inform, the larger American culture.

The Yiddish Book Center’s 2015 Great Jewish Books Summer Program runs Aug 2 – 9. Students are housed at Hampshire College, adjacent to the book center. Applications are due by April 1. For more information, visit yiddishbookcenter.org/great-jewish-books.