Best of
Jewish

2021

People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present


Dara Horn - 2021
    Often asked by major publications to write on subjects related to Jewish culture—and increasingly in response to a recent wave of deadly antisemitic attacks—Horn was troubled to realize what all of these assignments had in common: she was being asked to write about dead Jews, never about living ones. In these essays, Horn reflects on subjects as far-flung as the international veneration of Anne Frank, the mythology that Jewish family names were changed at Ellis Island, the blockbuster traveling exhibition Auschwitz, the marketing of the Jewish history of Harbin, China, and the little-known life of the "righteous Gentile" Varian Fry. Throughout, she challenges us to confront the reasons why there might be so much fascination with Jewish deaths, and so little respect for Jewish lives unfolding in the present.Horn draws upon her travels, her research, and also her own family life—trying to explain Shakespeare’s Shylock to a curious ten-year-old, her anger when swastikas are drawn on desks in her children’s school, the profound perspective offered by traditional religious practice and study—to assert the vitality, complexity, and depth of Jewish life against an antisemitism that, far from being disarmed by the mantra of "Never forget," is on the rise. As Horn explores the (not so) shocking attacks on the American Jewish community in recent years, she reveals the subtler dehumanization built into the public piety that surrounds the Jewish past—making the radical argument that the benign reverence we give to past horrors is itself a profound affront to human dignity.

Jews Don't Count


David Baddiel - 2021
    People fighting the good fight against homophobia, disablism, transphobia and, particularly, racism. People, possibly, like you.It is the comedian and writer David Baddiel’s contention that one type of racism has been left out of this fight. In his unique combination of reasoning, polemic, personal experience and jokes, Baddiel argues that those who think of themselves as on the right side of history have often ignored the history of anti-Semitism. He outlines why and how, in a time of intensely heightened awareness of minorities, Jews don’t count as a real minority.

Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth


Noa Tishby - 2021
    The small strip of arid land is 5,700 miles away but remains a hot-button issue and a thorny topic of debate. But while everyone seems to have a strong opinion about Israel, how many people actually know the facts? Here to fill in the information gap is Israeli American Noa Tishby. But “this is not your Bubbie’s history book” (Bill Maher, host of Real Time with Bill Maher). Instead, offering a fresh, 360-degree view, Tishby brings her “passion, humor, and deep intimacy” (Yossi Klein Halevi, New York Times bestselling author of Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor) to the subject, creating an accessible and dynamic portrait of a tiny country of outsized relevance. Through bite-sized chunks of history and deeply personal stories, Tishby chronicles her homeland’s evolution, beginning in Biblical times and moving forward to cover everything from WWI to Israel’s creation to the disputes dividing the country today. Tackling popular misconceptions with an abundance of facts, Tishby provides critical context around headline-generating controversies and offers a clear, intimate account of the richly cultured country of Israel.

The Stolen Child (Jews, The Third Reich, and a Web of Secrets Book 2)


Roberta Kagan - 2021
    It was meant to be foolproof.Who would think of finding an Aryan-looking Jewish child in the household of a high-ranking Nazi officer?What could possibly go wrong?When four-year-old Karl, Kara’s son, suddenly disappears, Kara’s worst fear becomes her painful reality. Has someone seen through her cover?An increasingly frustrating search for the missing boy ensues. Kara is succored by Oskar, an SS officer who would do anything to have Kara's love. His compassion is in stark contrast to his office's macabre nature.As her world is turned upside down, the grim nature of the Third Reich becomes much more apparent to Kara. The rot has eaten deep into many German hearts, even that of her beloved sister Anka.As a fog of fear and evil envelops Kara's life, the hope of a love she had always ached for stirs ever so slightly.How far would one go to get a hold of what they so desperately want?Will Kara see her son ever again?

Immodest


L.S. Einat - 2021
    But she knows that once she makes a drastic decision, there will be no way back into the arms of the Jewish community.Immodest tells the story of a courageous young woman who chooses to obey the commandments of her heart and not give up, despite the huge price she is forced to pay.

How to Find What You're Not Looking For


Veera Hiranandani - 2021
    Virginia decision, and she's forced to grapple with both her family's prejudice and the antisemitism she experiences, as she defines her own beliefs. Twelve-year-old Ariel Goldberg's life feels like the moment after the final guest leaves the party. Her family's Jewish bakery runs into financial trouble, and her older sister has eloped with a young man from India following the Supreme Court decision that strikes down laws banning interracial marriage. As change becomes Ariel's only constant, she's left to hone something that will be with her always--her own voice.

Letters to Camondo


Edmund de Waal - 2021
    Moise de Camondo created a spectacular house and filled it with art for his son, Nissim; after Nissim was killed in the First World War, the house was bequeathed to the French state. Eventually, the Camondos were murdered by the Nazis.After de Waal, one of the world’s greatest ceramic artists, was invited to make an exhibition in the Camondo house, he began to write letters to Moise de Camondo. These fifty letters are deeply personal reflections on assimilation, melancholy, family, art, the vicissitudes of history, and the value of memory.

Rebel Daughter


Lori Banov Kaufmann - 2021
    This stunning tale of family, love and resilience was inspired by a major archaeological discovery in southern Italy: the 2,000 year-old gravestone of Claudia Aster (Esther). The few Latin words chiseled into the ancient stone, proof of a very unlikely romance, shocked and intrigued scholars around the world.Rebel Daughter is Esther’s story. An aristocratic young woman, she comes of age during the Jewish revolt against Rome. Esther dreams of so much more than the marriage her parents have arranged to a prosperous silversmith. Yet she is torn between her family duties and her own desires. Meanwhile, the growing turmoil in Jerusalem threatens to tear apart not only her beloved city, but also her own family. As the alleyways turn into a bloody battleground between rebels and Romans, Esther's journey becomes one of survival. She remains fiercely devoted to her family, and braves famine, siege, and slavery to protect those she loves.This thrilling and impassioned saga, based on real characters and meticulous research, seamlessly blends the fascinating story of the Jewish people with a timeless protagonist determined to take charge of her own life against all odds.

Dear Mr. Dickens


Nancy Churnin - 2021
    But some of his books reflected a prejudice that was all too common at the time: prejudice against Jewish people. Eliza was Jewish, and her heart hurt to see a Jewish character in Oliver Twist portrayed as ugly and selfish. She wanted to speak out about how unfair that was, even if it meant speaking out against the great man himself. So she wrote a letter to Charles Dickens. What happened next is history.

X Troop: The Secret Jewish Commandos of World War II


Leah Garrett - 2021
    The shadow of the Third Reich has fallen across the European continent. In desperation, Winston Churchill and his chief of staff form an unusual plan: a new commando unit made up of Jewish refugees who have escaped to Britain. The resulting volunteers are a motley group of intellectuals, artists, and athletes, most from Germany and Austria. Many have been interned as enemy aliens, and have lost their families, their homes—their whole worlds. They will stop at nothing to defeat the Nazis. Trained in counterintelligence and advanced combat, this top secret unit becomes known as X Troop. Some simply call them a suicide squad.   Drawing on extensive original research, including interviews with the last surviving members, Leah Garrett follows this unique band of brothers from Germany to England and back again, with stops at British internment camps, the beaches of Normandy, the battlefields of Italy and Holland, and the hellscape of Terezin concentration camp—the scene of one of the most dramatic, untold rescues of the war. For the first time, X Troop tells the astonishing story of these secret shock troops and their devastating blows against the Nazis.“Garrett’s detective work is stunning, and her storytelling is masterful. This is an original account of Jewish rescue, resistance, and revenge.”—Wendy Lower, author of The Ravine and National Book Award finalist Hitler’s Furies

When I Grow Up: The Lost Autobiographies of Six Yiddish Teenagers


Ken Krimstein - 2021
    It’s as if half a dozen new Anne Frank stories have suddenly come to light, framed by the dramatic story of the documents’ rediscovery.Beautifully illustrated, heart-wrenching, and bursting with life, When I Grow Up reveals how the tragedy that is about to befall these young people could easily happen again, to any of us, if we don’t learn to listen to the voices from the past.

Red and Green and Blue and White


Lee Wind - 2021
    They enjoy all the things they share, as well as the things that make them different.But when Isaac's window is smashed in the middle of the night, it seems like maybe not everyone appreciates "difference."PRAISE★ "Wind's lightly fictionalized version of the 1993 incident wherein a community stood up to bigotry . . . is conveyed with lyrical simplicity. The visual treatment here is particularly striking—Caldecott Medalist Zelinsky's vibrant digital art has bold, rough-hewn textures of scratch block, and dramatic compositions . . . .[A] moving historical tale that encourages taking a stand." —Publishers Weekly, starred review★ "Zelinsky has covered every page with bright colors, with optional text that dances through the pictures and occasional vignettes that add detail and movement to the story. This is a strong addition to holiday stories, one that can be reread and rediscovered many times and whose theme of community support and friendship is appropriate year-round." —School Library Connection, starred review"[A] quiet, uplifting tale. . . . Readers will feel heartened at children's power to influence others to stand up for justice and defeat vile prejudice. . . . The true meaning of the holiday season shines here." —Kirkus Reviews

Ayuni


Sarah Ansbacher - 2021
    Although they live in the same north London neighbourhood of Stamford Hill, they come from two culturally different communities that rarely interact.Miri is a sheltered but contemplative young woman from a Chassidic family. Her strict upbringing has prevented her from pursuing a career or being allowed to date. She has never even spoken to a boy other than a close relative. Soon, she will be expected to marry, but she fears being forced into an unsuitable shidduch (traditional, arranged marriage).When her more adventurous friend invites her for an evening out, she agrees on a whim. It is an experience she will never forget. There, she meets Ben. Kind, sensitive, and hiding his own secret pain, Ben is from the exiled, Middle Eastern Jewish community of Aden. Despite their differences, Ben and Miri are drawn to one another. What her friend only intended as a bit of harmless fun soon develops into something more serious, with far-reaching consequences for them all, and risks tearing Miri’s family apart.With distinct nuances from two little-known communities, Ayuni is a powerful story about forbidden love, loss, the complexities of family and community, and the bonds of friendship.

The People's Painter: How Ben Shahn Fought for Justice with Art


Cynthia Levinson - 2021
    So when Ben and the rest of his family make their way to America, Ben brings both his sharp artistic eye and his desire to fight for what’s right. As he grows, he speaks for justice through his art—by disarming classmates who bully him because he’s Jewish, by defying his teachers’ insistence that he paint beautiful landscapes rather than true stories, by urging the US government to pass Depression-era laws to help people find food and jobs.

Recipe for Disaster


Aimee Lucido - 2021
    The middle grade novel is a hybrid of prose, verse, and recipes about a 12-year-old girl whose best friend's Bat Mitzvah inspires her to plan one for herself. But when she finds out that her Jewish and non-Jewish family is split on whether she is "Jewish enough" for one, she takes matters into her own hands to plan the rite of passage she craves, discovering her own Jewish identity along the way. Publication is set for spring 2021.

Squirrel Hill: The Tree of Life Synagogue Shooting and the Soul of a Neighborhood


Mark Oppenheimer - 2021
    On October 27, 2018, a gunman killed eleven Jews who were worshipping at the Tree of Life synagogue in Squirrel Hill--the most deadly anti-Semitic attack in American history.Many neighborhoods would be understandably subsumed by despair and recrimination after such an event, but not this one. Mark Oppenheimer poignantly shifts the focus away from the criminal and his crime, and instead presents the historic, spirited community at the center of this heartbreak. He speaks with residents and nonresidents, Jews and gentiles, survivors and witnesses, teenagers and seniors, activists and historians.Together, these stories provide a kaleidoscopic and nuanced account of collective grief, love, support, and revival. But Oppenheimer also details the difficult dialogue and messy confrontations that Squirrel Hill had to face in the process of healing, and that are a necessary part of true growth and understanding in any community. He has reverently captured the vibrancy and caring that still characterize Squirrel Hill, and it is this phenomenal resilience that can provide inspiration to any place burdened with discrimination and hate.

We Share the Same Sky: A Memoir of Memory & Migration


Rachael Cerrotti - 2021
    Rachael knew that her grandmother was a Holocaust survivor and the only one in her family alive at the end of the war. Rachael also knew that she survived because of the kindness of strangers. It wasn't a secret. Hana spoke about her history publicly and regularly. But, Rachael wanted to document it as only a granddaughter could. So, that's what they did: Hana talked and Rachael wrote.Upon Hana's passing in 2010, Rachael discovered an incredible archive of her life. There were preserved albums and hundreds of photographs dating back to the 1920s. There were letters waiting to be translated, journals, diaries, deportation and immigration papers as well as creative writings from various stages of Hana's life.Rachael digitized and organized it all, plucking it from the past and placing it into her present. Then, she began retracing her grandmother's story, following her through Central Europe, Scandinavia, and across the United States. She tracked down the descendants of those who helped save her grandmother's life during the war. Rachael went in pursuit of her grandmother's memory to explore how the retelling of family stories becomes the history itself.We Share the Same Sky weaves together the stories of these two young women--Hana as a refugee who remains one step ahead of the Nazis at every turn, and Rachael, whose insatiable curiosity to touch the past guides her into the lives of countless strangers, bringing her love and tragic loss. Throughout the course of her twenties, Hana's history becomes a guidebook for Rachael in how to live a life empowered by grief.

An Observant Wife


Naomi Ragen - 2021
    Adding to their difficulties is the hostility of some in the community who continue to view Leah as a dangerous interloper, questioning her sincerity and adherence to religious laws and spreading outrageous rumors. In the midst of their heartfelt attempts to reach a balance between their human needs and their spiritual obligations, the discovery of a secret, forbidden relationship between troubled teenage daughter Shaindele and a local boy precipitates a maelstrom of life-changing consequences for all.

Can We Talk About Israel?: A Guide for the Curious, Confused, and Conflicted


Daniel Sokatch - 2021
    As the head of the New Israel Fund, which is dedicated to equality and democracy for all Israelis, not just Jews, Sokatch is supremely well-versed on the Israeli conflict.Can We Talk About Israel? is the story of that conflict, and of why so many people feel so strongly about it without actually understanding it very well at all. It is an attempt to grapple with a century-long struggle between two peoples that both perceive themselves as (and indeed are) victims. And it's an attempt to explain why Israel (and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict) inspires such extreme feelings-why it seems like Israel is the answer to "what is wrong with the world" for half the people in it, and "what is right with the world" for the other half.Complete with engaging illustrations by Christopher Noxon, Can We Talk About Israel? is an easy-to-read yet penetrating and original look at the history and basic contours of one of the most complicated conflicts in the world.

Philip Roth: The Biography


Blake Bailey - 2021
    The result is an indelible portrait of an American master and of the postwar literary scene.Bailey shows how Roth emerged from a lower-middle-class Jewish milieu to achieve the heights of literary fame, how his career was nearly derailed by his catastrophic first marriage, and how he championed the work of dissident novelists behind the Iron Curtain. Bailey examines Roth’s rivalrous friendships with Saul Bellow, John Updike, and William Styron, and reveals the truths of his florid love life, culminating in his almost-twenty-year relationship with actress Claire Bloom, who pilloried Roth in her 1996 memoir, Leaving a Doll's House. Tracing Roth’s path from realism to farce to metafiction to the tragic masterpieces of the American Trilogy, Bailey explores Roth’s engagement with nearly every aspect of postwar American culture.

Sorry for Your Loss


Joanne Levy - 2021
    She does think about it a lot, though, but only because her family runs a Jewish funeral home. At twelve, Evie already knows she's going to be a funeral director when she grows up. So what if the kids at school call her "corpse girl" and say she smells like death? They're just mean and don't get how important it is to have someone take care of things when your world is falling apart. Evie loves dusting caskets, polishing pews, and vacuuming the chapel--and on funeral days, she dresses up and hands out tissues and offers her condolences to mourners. She doesn't normally help her parents with the grieving families directly, until one day when they ask her to help with Oren, a boy who was in a horrific car accident that killed both his parents. Oren refuses to speak and Evie, who is nursing her own private grief, is determined to find a way to help him deal with his loss.

Hope Valley


Haviva Ner-David - 2021
    Tikvah and Ruby meet one summer day right before the outbreak of the 2nd intifada, in the Galilean valley that separates the segregated villages in which the two women live. The valley Ruby’s father had called Hope came to symbolize the political enmity that has defined the history of two nations in this troubled land and which has led to parallel cultures with little meaningful interaction between them.Tikvah, a fifty-two-year old artist from Long Island, is the daughter of Holocaust survivors and was raised in a loveless and lifeless household. Ruby, a world-renowned Palestinian-Israeli artist, returns to her childhood village from a life abroad to be treated for her worsening cancer. At first, Ruby pursues Tikvah’s friendship to get into Tikvah’s house and retrieve the diary Ruby’s father had left behind when his family was expelled from that same house in the 1948 war. But as their friendship grows, they not only open up to each other’s narratives and humanity, but uncover secrets from their own lives.Tikvah’s and Ruby’s stories show both the strength and fragility of family ties, the power that trauma and fear has in shaping our lives, the strength we muster to face death and suffering, the vicissitudes of marriage and the glorious meaning of friendship. Their lives tap into the primal need for connection, as well as the rich and transformative bonds that can be formed from synchronistic encounters. In Hope Valley we meet two strong women from nations in conflict, who circle each other and, in recognizing each other's pain, offer us hope that fear and resentment can grow into love.

The Keeper of Miracles


Phillip Maisel - 2021
    Each testimony of survival is a miracle in itself - earning Phillip the nickname 'the Keeper of Miracles'.But, for Phillip, confronting and overcoming trauma is also personal. A Holocaust survivor himself, he, too, has unthinkable stories of triumph and tragedy, cruelty and hope.Published as Phillip turns 99, this deeply moving, healing and inspiring memoir shows us the cathartic power of storytelling and reminds us never to underestimate the impact of human kindness.'This is my responsibility and my privilege: to be custodian of their memories, to be able to pass their stories on to the next generation - for me, this will be the greatest miracle of all.'

A Fortress in Brooklyn: Race, Real Estate, and the Making of Hasidic Williamsburg


Nathaniel Deutsch - 2021
    . . . To fully understand Satmar, of course, one has to be born into it. But to understand how political prowess and real-estate know-how shaped the group’s current iteration in Brooklyn, it would be wise to start with this outstanding book."—Laura E. Adkins, LA Review of Books The Hasidic community in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn is famously one of the most separatist, intensely religious, and politically savvy groups of people in the entire United States. Less known is how the community survived in one of the toughest parts of New York City during an era of steep decline, only to later resist and also participate in the unprecedented gentrification of the neighborhood. Nathaniel Deutsch and Michael Casper unravel the fascinating history of how a group of determined Holocaust survivors encountered, shaped, and sometimes fiercely opposed the urban processes that transformed their gritty neighborhood, from white flight and the construction of public housing to rising crime, divestment of city services, and, ultimately, extreme gentrification. By showing how Williamsburg’s Hasidim rejected assimilation while still undergoing distinctive forms of Americanization and racialization, Deutsch and Casper present both a provocative counter-history of American Jewry and a novel look at how race, real estate, and religion intersected in the creation of a quintessential, and yet deeply misunderstood, New York neighborhood.

Osnat and Her Dove: The True Story of the World's First Female Rabbi


Sigal Samuel - 2021
    But very few believed that girls should learn to read.Yet Osnat's father was a great scholar whose house was filled with books. And she convinced him to teach her. Then she in turn grew up to teach others, becoming a wise scholar in her own right, the world's first female rabbi!Some say Osnat performed miracles – like healing a dove who had been shot by a hunter! Or saving a congregation from fire!But perhaps her greatest feat was to be a light of inspiration for other girls and boys; to show that any person who can learn might find a path that none have walked before.

Abby, Tried and True


Donna Gephart - 2021
    But then her older brother, Paul, is diagnosed with cancer, and life upends again. Now it’s up to Abby to find a way to navigate seventh grade without her best friend, help keep her brother’s spirits up during difficult treatments, and figure out her surprising new feelings for the boy next door.

The Christmas Mitzvah


Jeff Gottesfeld - 2021
    Al Rosen, a Jewish man, takes on the jobs of his Christian neighbors on Christmas Eve and day so they can spend the holiday with their families, starting a tradition that lasts for decades.

A Queen to the Rescue, the Story of Henrietta Szold, Founder of Hadassah


Nancy Churnin - 2021
    In 1912, she founded the Jewish women's social justice organization, Hadassah. Henrietta started Hadassah determined to offer emergency medical care to mothers and children in Palestine. When WWII broke out, she rescued Jewish children from the Holocaust, and broadened Hadassah's mission to include education, youth development, and women's rights. Hadassah offers free help to all who need it and continues its mission to this day.

The Passover Guest


Susan Kusel - 2021
    Her father has lost his job, and her family barely has enough food most days, let alone for a Passover Seder. They don't even have any wine to leave out for the prophet Elijah's ceremonial cup.With no feast to rush home to, Muriel wanders by the Lincoln Memorial, where she encounters a mysterious magician in whose hands juggled eggs become lit candles. After she makes a kind gesture, he encourages her to run home for her Seder, and when she does, she encounters a holiday miracle, a bountiful feast of brisket, soup, and matzah.But who was this mysterious benefactor? When Muriel sees Elijah's ceremonial cup is empty, she has a good idea.This fresh retelling of the classic I.L. Peretz story, best known through Uri Shulevitz's 1973 adaptation The Magician, has been illustrated by graphic novelist Sean Rubin, who based his art on photographs of D.C. in the 1930s. An author note with information about the holiday is included.

Thunder in the Soul: To Be Known by God


Abraham Joshua Heschel - 2021
    He made the insights of traditional Jewish spirituality come alive for American Jews while speaking out boldly against war and racial injustice.Heschel brought the fervor of the Hebrew prophets to his role as a public intellectual. He challenged the sensibilities of the modern West, which views science and human reason as sufficient. Only by rediscovering wonder and awe before mysteries that transcend knowledge can we hope to find God again. This God, Heschel says, is not distant but passionately concerned about our lives and human affairs, and asks something of us in return.This little book, which brings together Heschel's key insights on a range of topics, will reinvigorate readers of any faith who hunger for wonder and thirst for justice.Plough Spiritual Guides briefly introduce the writings of great spiritual voices of the past to new readers.

The Unfinished Corner


Dani Colman - 2021
    She’s not even sure she wants to be Jewish. So, imagine her confusion when a peculiar angel whisks her off to finish the mythological Unfinished Corner, a place full of monsters and mystery.TWELVE-YEAR-OLD MIRIAM IS FULL OF QUESTIONS, BUT THE WHOLE UNIVERSE IS COUNTING ON HER FOR ANSWERS. Jewish mythology has it that when God created the universe, one corner of it was left unfinished. Opinion is divided on why, but everyone agrees that the Unfinished Corner is a dangerous place full of monsters. Twelve-year-old Miriam neither knows nor cares about the Unfinished Corner. She's too busy preparing for her Bat Mitzvah, wrestling with whether she even wants to be Jewish--until a peculiar angel appears, whisking her, her two best friends, and her worst frenemy off to this monstrous land with one mission: finish the Unfinished Corner. An original graphic novel.

In This Place Together: A Palestinian's Journey to Collective Liberation


Penina Eilberg-Schwartz - 2021
    Imprisoned at the age of 14, he began a process of political and spiritual transformation still unfolding today. In a book he asked Penina Eilberg-Schwartz, an American Jew, to write, and based on years of conversation between them, Khatib shares how his activism became deeply rooted in the belief that we must ground all work--from dialogue to direct action to healing--in recognition of the history and humanity of the other. He reveals how he became convinced that Palestinian freedom can flourish alongside Jewish connection to the land where he was born.In language that is poetic and unflinchingly honest, Eilberg-Schwartz and Khatib chronicle what led him to dedicate his life to joint nonviolence. In his journey, he encountered the deep injustice of torture, witnessed the power of hunger strikes, and studied Jewish history. Ultimately, he came to realize mutual recognition, alongside a transformation of the systems that governed their lives, was necessary for both Palestinians and Israelis to move forward. Still, as he built friendships with Israelis and resisted the occupation alongside them, he could not lose sight of the great power imbalance in the relationship, of all the violence and erasure still present as they dreamt forward together.Intimate and political, In This Place Together opens us up to the dangers and hopes of working with others across vast differences in power and experience. And it opens a new space, shapes a third narrative, and finds another world that can exist--though it's often hard to see--inside this one.

Sharkbot Shalom


Jenna Waldman - 2021
    But will he be ready in time?Get ready for an under water, steam-punk Shabbat! Count down with this cheerful shark robot as he sets the table, stirs the seaweed soup, and braids kelp into challah loaves. You'll want a byte of the food when a stingray brings seagrass cakes and algae sweets. Some pufferfish made a plankton pie!Sharkbot sweeps the ocean floorBefore his guests swim through the door . . .'Slime of snail and tail of trout!My charge is low -- I might run out!'

The Netanyahus


Joshua Cohen - 2021
    When Benzion Netanyahu shows up for an interview, family unexpectedly in tow, Blum plays the reluctant host, to guests who proceed to lay waste to his American complacencies. Mixing fiction with non-fiction, the campus novel with the lecture, THE NETANYAHUS is a wildly inventive, genre-bending comedy of blending, identity, and politics - 'An Account of A Minor and Ultimately Even Negligible Incident in the History of a Very Famous Family' that finds Joshua Cohen at the height of his powers.

Lilyville: Mother, Daughter, and Other Roles I've Played


Tovah Feldshuh - 2021
    But offstage, Tovah struggled to fulfill the one role she never auditioned for: Lily Feldshuh's only daughter.Growing up in Scarsdale, NY in the 1950s, Tovah—known then by her given name Terri Sue—lived a life of piano lessons, dance lessons, shopping trips, and white-gloved cultural trips into Manhattan. In awe of her mother's meticulous appearance and perfect manners, Tovah spent her childhood striving for Lily's approval, only to feel as though she always fell short. Lily's own dreams were beside the point; instead, she devoted herself to Tovah's father Sidney and her two children. Tovah watched Lily retreat into the roles of the perfect housewife and mother and swore to herself, I will never do this.When Tovah shot to stardom with the Broadway hit Yentl, winning five awards for her performance, she still did not garner her mother's approval. But, it was her success in another sphere that finally gained Lily's attention. After falling in love with a Harvard-educated lawyer and having children, Tovah found it was easier to understand her mother and the sacrifices she had made during the era of the women's movement, the sexual revolution, and the subsequent mandate for women to "have it all."Beloved as he had been by both women, Sidney's passing made room for the love that had failed to take root during his life. In her new independence, Lily became outspoken, witty, and profane. "Don't tell Daddy this," Lily whispered to Tovah, "but these are the best years of my life." She lived until 103. In this insightful, compelling, often hilarious and always illuminating memoir, Tovah shares the highs and lows of a remarkable career that has spanned five decades, and shares the lessons that she has learned, often the hard way, about how to live a life in the spotlight, strive for excellence, and still get along with your mother. Through their evolving relationship we see how expectations for women changed, with a daughter performing her heart out to gain her mother's approval and a mother becoming liberated from her confining roles of wife and mother to become her full self.

Free as a Jew: A Personal Memoir of National Self-Liberation


Ruth R. Wisse - 2021
    Its illuminations are likely to be as urgent one hundred years hence as they are now.” —Cynthia Ozick A Jewish child born into the worst of times in Europe grows up during the best of times in North America—only to recognize that it could be moving back in the opposite direction.First came parents with the good sense to flee Europe in 1940 and the good fortune to reach the land of freedom. Their daughter, Ruth, grew up in the shadow of genocide—but in tandem with the birth of Israel, which remained her lodestar. She learned that although Jewishness is biologically transmitted, democracy is not, and both require intensive, intelligent transmission through education in each and every generation. They need adults with the confidence to teach their importance. Ruth tried to take on that challenge as dangers to freedom mounted and shifted sides on the political spectrum. At the high point of her teaching at Harvard University, she witnessed the unraveling of standards of honesty and truth until the academy she left was no longer the one she had entered.

The Prison Minyan


Jonathan Stone - 2021
    

Moldovan Hotel


Leah Horlick - 2021
    What she unearthed there is an elaborate web connecting conscious worlds to subconscious ones, fascism to neofascisms, Europe to the Americas to the Middle East, typhus to HIV/AIDS, genocide in Romania to land grabs in Palestine, women’s lives in farming villages to queer lives in the city, language to its trap doors, and love to its hidden, ancestral obligations.With force, clarity and searing craft, Horlick’s poems are equal to the urgency of our political moment. “No one ever thinks they might be the dragon,” Horlick writes, and yet history repeats its cruelties. This work takes things apart to put them profoundly back together.“Every poem in Moldovan Hotel is a room thick with ghosts. Here, Horlick takes the language of the past—used to dehumanize and unmoor—and crystalizes it around revelation after revelation. A graceful, striking collection.” — Carmen Maria Machado“If Leah Horlick’s second book invited us to witness, this time she draws from her Jewish heritage and takes us back to show us how to read the landscape and mind-scape and tell us what the texts left out. This is an accounting, a calling, an invocation, a return, a skilful mediation on how to remember when the ‘names of the oppressors are blotted out’.” — Juliane Okot Bitek

Gitty and Kvetch


Caroline Kusin Pritchard - 2021
    One perfect day, Gitty ropes Kvetch into shlepping off on a new adventure to their perfect purple treehouse. Even when Kvetch sees signs of impending doom everywhere, Gitty finds silver linings and holds onto her super special surprise reason for completing their mission. But when her perfect plan goes awry, oy vey, suddenly it’s Gitty who’s down in the dumps. Can Kvetch come out of his funk to lift Gitty’s spirits back up?

What Would You Do If You Weren't Afraid?: Discover a Life Filled with Purpose and Joy Through the Secrets of Jewish Wisdom


Michal Oshman - 2021
    It is easy to think that the daily challenges we experience in the 21st century are new and unlike any that people faced in the past. Michal draws on her own heritage and a wide range of Chassidut (Jewish teachings) to offerpractical advice for common concerns, such as a broken heart, parenting, overcoming setbacks, and getting the most out of your career.By challenging you to explore what matters, Michal offers solutions to your everyday struggles. She will empower you as well as teach you how to adopt her self-development tools to discover who you really are and what you were born to do with your life. With its uplifting belief that you already have all the ingredients within you to lead a joyous life, Michal's unique mix of corporate culture experience and Jewish wisdom will help you reconnect with yourself.This unique book will help you to find your courage, and move forward freely, with no fear at all!

Circumference of Silence


Jacquie Herz - 2021
    Her mother’s handwriting on the lined notepaper is so familiar, and the slight German accent Mali hears ticking through her words, so haunting. Mali reads the memories of her mother’s Jewish childhood in 1930s Berlin, then her life in war-torn London. But when she comes to her mother’s account of her too-early marriage and the divorce that forced her to leave her young daughter in London and go to New York, Mali is thrust back into her own unhappy childhood, where that relentless ache for her absent mother, lodged like a stony pit inside her, must now be reconciled.

Founding God's Nation: Reading Exodus


Leon R Kass - 2021
    Compelling modern reflections on ancient wisdom.”—Bryce Christensen, Booklist (starred review) In this long-awaited follow-up to his 2003 book on Genesis, humanist scholar Leon Kass explores how Exodus raises and then answers the central political questions of what defines a nation and how a nation should govern itself. Considered by some the most important book in the Hebrew Bible, Exodus tells the story of the Jewish people from their enslavement in Egypt, through their liberation under Moses’s leadership, to the covenantal founding at Sinai and the building of the Tabernacle. In Kass’s analysis, these events began the slow process of learning how to stop thinking like slaves and become an independent people. The Israelites ultimately founded their nation on three elements: a shared narrative that instills empathy for the poor and the suffering, the uplifting rule of a moral law, and devotion to a higher common purpose. These elements, Kass argues, remain the essential principles for any freedom-loving nation today.

The Many Mysteries of the Finkel Family


Sarah Kapit - 2021
    She and Caroline don't have to do everything together. But Caroline won't give up, and when she brings Lara the firm's first mystery, Lara relents, and the questions start piling up. But Lara and Caroline’s truce doesn’t last for long. Caroline normally uses her tablet to talk, but now she's busily texting a new friend. Lara can't figure out what the two of them are up to, but it can't be good. And Caroline doesn't like Lara's snooping—she's supposed to be solving other people's crimes, not spying on Caroline! As FIASCCO and the Finkel family mysteries spin out of control, can Caroline and Lara find a way to be friends again?

The Telling: How Judaism's Essential Book Reveals the Meaning of Life


Mark Gerson - 2021
    Instead, the Seder is an experience your family should love, treasure and remember. Have you ever wondered that there might be something more to Passover, the Seder and in the Haggadah—something that just might hold the secrets to living the life of joy and meaning that you were intended to?By using this book, you’ll be able to:· Lead the Seder with wisdom, confidence and fun that guests will remember· Make the Haggadah burst alive with insight for our opportunities, questions and challenges · Show Gentile friends the richness of the Jewish tradition· Instill a lasting love of Judaism within your children· Bring your family closer together and closer to GodThe Telling will enable you to see what the Haggadah really is: The Greatest Hits of Jewish Thought. This understanding will enable you to provide your guests with the most interesting, insightful and practically helpful night of the year—with teachings and lessons that will continue to brighten in the year to come. What leaders are saying about The Telling:Senator Joseph Lieberman:In The Telling, Mark Gerson brilliantly illuminates some of the big questions from the Haggadah whose answers can define what constitutes a meaningful life. By showing how the Haggadah enables its readers to deploy ancient Jewish wisdom to help answer the most contemporary questions, this book will help your Pesach to be what it can be: a life-guiding event, every year, for anyone who learns enough to give it the opportunity.Yossi Klein Halevi, Author of Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor and Like DreamersOnce a year, shortly before Pesach (emphatically not Passover!), Mark Gerson steps out of his role as a world-class entrepreneur and becomes a teacher of Torah—or more precisely, of the Haggadah. Those sessions have become legendary, and this book helps explain why. Here is Gerson's inimitable voice—passionate, erudite and most of all deeply in love with Jewish wisdom. Read this book to understand why the Haggadah has endured as a seminal Jewish text and why it remains no less relevant today than when it was first written.Gordon Robertson - CEO, The Christian Broadcasting Network"The Telling is the perfect introduction for those desiring to explore this aspect of Jewish life. This book is full of knowledge and thought-provoking questions and answers to the many mysteries that surround this sacred Jewish holiday."

Forgiveness: The Story of Eva Kor, Survivor of The Auschwitz Twin Experiments


Joseph E. Lee - 2021
    Within moments of their arrival, the twins lost their entire family to the gas chambers without a chance to say goodbye. Because twins were considered valuable for research, the girls were spared immediate death by Josef Mengele, the Nazi doctor and war criminal, in favor of experimentation and torture.This stunning, heartbreaking illustrated biography tells the story of a tenacious girl's fight to survive a horrific childhood ravaged by tragedy; her growing anger as an adult who settled in Terre Haute, Indiana; and her eventual discovery that forgiveness might just save her life.

Layers: Personal Narratives of Struggle, Growth, and Resilience from Jewish Women


Shira Lankin Sheps - 2021
    

Babka, Boulou & Blintzes : Jewish chocolate recipes from around the world


Michael Leventhal - 2021
    The perfect book for chocoholics, anyone keen to grow their repertoire of chocolate-based recipes, or those with an interest in the diverse uses of chocolate in Jewish cooking.This collection is rooted in Jewish tradition, family and place, such as Paulo Gavin's chocolate hazelnut cake, often served during Passover; Claudia Prieto Piastro's 'Chocolate al agua' the most popular breakfast drink in Oaxaca, Mexico; and Aviva Elias' Chocolate Cardamom Truffles, a recipe he adapted to include flavours he enjoyed.With a variety of recipes from your morning hot chocolate, to your afternoon cake, through savoury dinner's and on to chocolate-rich deserts, this book includes a chocolate recipe for any time of day. There are also delicious, naturally gluten-free and vegan recipes to cater a variety of dietary requirements.Each recipe provides an insight into the important role chocolate has played in the Jewish community across the centuries, from Jewish immigrants and refugees taking chocolate from Spain to France in the 1600's, to contemporary Jewish bakers crossing continents to discover, adapt and share new chocolate recipes for today's generation.

Moshkeleh the Thief: A Rediscovered Novel


Sholom Aleichem - 2021
    The eponymous hero, Moshkeleh, is a robust chap and horse thief. When Tsireleh, daughter of a tavern keeper, flees to a monastery with the man she loves—a non-Jew she met at the tavern—the humiliated tavern keeper’s family turns to Moshkeleh for help, not knowing he too is in love with her. For some unknown reason, this innovative novel does not appear in the standard twenty-eight-volume edition of Sholom Aleichem’s collected works, published after his death. Strikingly, Moshkeleh the Thief shows Jews interacting with non-Jews in the Russian Pale of Settlement—a groundbreaking theme in modern Yiddish literature. This novel is also important for Sholom Aleichem’s approach to his material. Yiddish literature had long maintained a tradition of edelkeyt, refinement. Authors eschewed violence, the darker side of life, and people on the fringe of respectability. Moshkeleh thus enters a Jewish arena not hitherto explored in a novel.

The Woodcarver's Daughter


Yona Zeldis McDonough - 2021
    But while many things in America are different from the world of her shtetl, one thing seems to be the same: only boys can be woodcarvers. Still, Batya is determined to learn. With the same perseverance that helped her family survive and start over in an unfamiliar land, Batya sets out to carve a place for herself.

The Bubbe Diaries


Paula Span - 2021
    Where was Dr. Spock for the silver-haired set? In The Bubbe Diaries, Span picks up where Spock left off. She passes along the latest research on sleep, safety, and bonding; explores why mothers-in-law may have tension with daughters-in-law; and shows how baby boomers are finding their own way through grandparenting. Along the way she shares sweet (and funny) stories about helping to raise her own young granddaughter."Listening to The Bubbe Diaries is like sitting down with a friend and fellow grandmother, chatting candidly about what it means to be a grandparent, how the role evolves in each family (and why it's important to talk to the parents about everyone's expectations for that), trips to the playground, long child care days, playtime and virtual grandparenting, alongside more weighty matters like family estrangement and even death." –Julie Pfitzinger, Nextavenue.org

The Jewish Book of Horror


Daniel Braum - 2021
    ReissHow to Build a Sukkah at the End of the World by Lindsay King-MillerDemon Hunter Vashti by Henry HerzThe Horse Leech Has Two Maws by Michael PiccoThe Rabbi's Wife by Simon RosenbergBa'alat Ov by Brenda TolianEighth Night by John BaltisbergerBread and Salt by Elana GomelIn the Red by Mike MarcusA Purim Story by Emily Ruth VeronaCatch and Release by Vivian KasleyPhinehas the Zealot by Ethan K. LeeThe Wisdom of Solomon by Ken GoldmanWelcome, Death by J.D. BlackroseForty Days Before Birth by Colleen HalupaThe Hanukkult of Taco Wisdom by Margret TreiberThe Divorce From God by Rami UngarThe Hand of Fire by Daniel BraumBar Mitzvah Lessons by Stewart Gisser

The Covered Wife


Lisa Emanuel - 2021
    Daniel is handsome, passionate and is part of the kind of large, chaotically loving family Sarah longed for as an only child.When Daniel introduces her to a charismatic young couple, rabbi Menachem Lev and his wife, Chani, despite herself, Sarah is drawn in by the vibrant community at the beachside synagogue. By the time the couple move to the Jamison Valley, where Menachem and Chani have established a community of believers, Sarah can't imagine life without the joy, purpose and love she's discovered.Four years on, youthful passion has given way to something darker. The community will celebrate its first wedding, between the beautiful convert, Avital, and a much older divorcee, but no one seems to be able to give a clear explanation of where Rebecca, his wife, has gone. In the lead up to the wedding a series of terrifying truths emerges that rock Sarah's world and cause her to question everything - her faith, her marriage, and her future.

The Witches of Escazú (and Other Jewish Fairytales)


Roots Metals - 2021
    Witches and wicked kings. Tragedy and triumph in the Promised Land.The Witches of Escazú and Other Jewish Fairytales marries Jewish ancestral wisdom and mythical fantasy in this fast-paced, galvanizing collection.Cast Hebrew incantations to manifest a terrorizing beast, creep through dark forests on plagued land, and embark on a sage’s long pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Devour generational history and ancestral knowledge from every corner of the Diaspora. Meet the bewitching supernatural beings of Jewish legends from a faraway past.The author’s debut celebrates poignant characters met with evil forces and armed with the strong Jewish resolve to overcome adversity. The anthology discards the antisemitism of classic European fairytales from the root and plants seeds for a new perspective of Jewish folklore.Artist Roots Metals demonstrates intricate storytelling and provides an exclusive glossary of Jewish monsters and other mythical creatures to add depth to the reader’s experience.

Town Crier: Poems


Sarah Matthes - 2021
    The death of the author’s dear friend, the late poet Max Ritvo, becomes the cornerstone of the book, a foundational pain along which the poems are aligned. The poems grieve. They try to cope. They come up short. They try again, insisting as they do that language holds consequential, redemptive powers. Sarah Matthes is equal parts jester and conjurer, sensing the precious alchemy of laughter and lament, crying out to those who have left her and those who remain.

Ashkenazi Herbalism: Rediscovering the Herbal Traditions of Eastern European Jews


Deatra Cohen - 2021
    Ashkenazi Herbalism rediscovers the forgotten legacy of the Jewish medicinal plant healers who thrived in eastern Europe's Pale of Settlement, from their beginnings in the Middle Ages through the modern era.Including the first materia medica of 25 plants and herbs essential to Ashkenazi folk medicine, this essential guide sheds light on the preparations, medicinal profiles, and applications of a rich but previously unknown herbal tradition--one hidden by language barriers, obscured by cultural misunderstandings, and nearly lost to history. Written for new and established practitioners, it offers illustrations, provides information on comparative medicinal practices, and illuminates the important historical and cultural contexts that gave rise to eastern European Jewish herbalism.Part I introduces a brief history of the Ashkenazim and provides an overview of traditional eastern European medicine. Part II offers descriptions of predominantly Jewish towns in the Pale, their many native plants, and the remedies applied by indigenous healers to treat a range of illnesses. This materia medica names each plant in Yiddish, English, Latin, and other relevant languages. Ashkenazi Herbalism also details a brief history of medicine; the roles of the Ba'alei shem, Feldshers, Opshprekherins, midwives, and brewers; and the seferot.

You're My Little Latke


Natalie Marshall - 2021
    This sweet, festive book includes cut-outs and raised elements on every page, featuring everything from yummy latkes to golden gelt to shining menorahs. With chunky pages and tactile elements, children will love the interactive features alongside the story. This special holiday book in the best-selling You’re My Little series makes a treasured Hanukkah gift for the little ones in your life. Parents and children alike will be delighted by the text that celebrates the love between parents and children with a holiday twist.Get to know the You're My Little series from Silver Dolphin Books! From Valentine’s Day to Christmas Day and every day in between, the bestselling You’re My Little series is cute as can be—and festive too! Each spread of these chunky board books shows a child and parent pair with adorable illustrations by Natalie Marshall, as well as shaped cut-outs and raised elements. Perfect for cuddling up with your little one, these sweet rhyming stories celebrates a parent’s love for their child.

The Rabbi Who Prayed with Fire


Rachel Sharona Lewis - 2021
    But Vivian Green has other ideas. She wants her flock to engage meaningfully with their city-special mayoral elections, interfaith breakfasts, fights for affordable housing and all. Also, she would like just one night off to go dancing in the leather boots that make her look like her finest gay self.Taking on the city's old boys' club is already proving difficult...but then Beth Abraham bursts into flames. Fingers get pointed, and everyone's biases rise to the surface. It turns out that wasn't the only fire burning in town.Vivian sticks to her instincts, raising tensions with her boss, her community, and a certain hottie in a power suit. And she learns that knowing whodunnit is only half the battle.

Broken Leaves of Autumn: A Novel


Eli Hai - 2021
    In Brooklyn, he grows an unexpected friendship with Aaron, a young ultra-orthodox Jew that helps him find a job and invites him to his home. Jeff meets Eva, a successful businesswoman, who works as a broker at the World Trade Center. When Rebecca, Aaron’s ultra-orthodox sister, falls in love with Jeff, she throws her life, and his, into a swirl.A touching and mind-opening novel that will catch your attention from the very first page.Broken Leaves of Autumn is a fascinating and many-folded love affair that takes the reader from small-town Arizona to the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish community of Brooklyn NY, and from World Trade Center “ground zero” to Israel. It is a delicate and absorbing love story which will not leave you indifferent.A sensitive and perfectly written story the holds an unexpected surprise.A young man trying to build a new life for himself while dealing with his family secrets; A beautiful young woman exiled from her community after her passion is exposed; A handsome broker, pregnant with two, caught in the World Trade Center in 9/11. All these are brilliantly and skillfully brought together into a page turning novel that will catch you by the heart.

Queen Vashti's Comfy Pants


Leah Rachel Berkowitz - 2021
    . . A well-crafted revision sure to spark discussion . . . Why did Queen Vashti, the other queen in the Purim story, refuse to obey her king's commands? Although the traditional biblical text gives us no real clue, this story humorously imagines what it might have been like of a queen to stand up for herself against a string of high-handed demands. In doing so, it demonstrates to children the value of understanding the worth of their own needs and desires.

Jacobo's Rainbow


David Hirshberg - 2021
    It focuses on the issue of being an outsiderthe 'other'an altogether common circumstance that resonates with readers in today's America. Written from a Jewish perspective, it speaks to universal truths that affect us all.On the occasion of the 15th anniversary of a transformative event in Jacobo's life the day he is sent to jail he writes about what happened behind the scenes of the Free Speech Movement which provides the backdrop for a riveting story centered on his emergence into a world he never could have imagined. His recording of those earlier events is the proximate cause of his being arrested. Jacobo is allowed to leave jail under the condition of being drafted, engages in gruesome fighting in Vietnam, and returns to continue his work of chronicling America in the throes of significant societal changes.Jacobo's Rainbow is a story of triumph over adversity (hypocrisy, loss, lies, murder, concealment, prejudice) that is told with vivid descriptions, perceptive insights, humor and sensitivity, which enables the reader to identify with the characters who come to life in a realistic fashion to illustrate who we are, how we behave, and what causes us to change.It can be read on three levels: (1) The story of what it was like to have lived through and been a participant in the Free Speech Movement and the Vietnam War ('The Sixties'); (2) A metaphor for what is going on college campuses today, in terms of the shutting down of speech and the rise of anti-Semitism; and (3) What life is like for the 'outsider.'

Blood Libel: An Isaac Alvarez Mystery (Isaac Alvarez Mysteries Book 1)


M Lynes - 2021
    

$150,000 Rugelach


Allison Marks - 2021
    The delicious descriptions of baked goods are sure to make readers' mouths water; fortunately, three recipes are included. A refreshing and uplifting book filled with friendship, heartache, and a generous sprinkling of love." -- Kirkus Reviews"The Markses excel at creating goofy but appealing characters: extrovert Jack seems beyond embarrassment, yet he honors Jillian's wish to keep her mom's story private; Grandma Rita has no cooking skills, but she rocks at martial arts and plumbing repairs; and Phineas Farnsworth exploits everyone he encounters but has a soft spot for the memory of the nanny who raised him." -- Booklist"The authors excel at lay­ered depic­tions of the hard­work­ing young pro­tag­o­nists and the adults in their lives, offer­ing an enter­tain­ing jour­ney that cel­e­brates friend­ship, team­work, and con­nec­tions that span generations."-- Jewish Book Council"A sweet delight of a middle-grade story that reminds readers that the key ingredient for any recipe is always love."--Entertainment WeeklyA delicious tale of rivalry, friendship, heartache, and dessert! Fame-obsessed Jack and somber Jillian, who is mourning the loss of her mother, become a mismatched duo selected to compete for $150,000 in a high-stakes baking contest jam-packed with hilarious high jinks.Exploding with loud, rock 'n' roll attitude, eleven-year-old Jack Fineman dreams of becoming the greatest pastry chef who ever lived. His plans are thrown off course when his butterscotch basil brownies are upstaged at his sixth-grade holiday party by a simple plate of chocolate rugelach brought in by Jillian Mermelstein-the new girl at school whose mother has just died and who only wants to be left alone. These budding bakers' lives are mixed together when they are selected to compete as teammates in a nationally televised competition. For Jack, this is his chance to advance one step closer to culinary greatness. For Jillian, it's an opportunity to help her father by winning her share of the $150,000 top prize.Preparing to face bakers from the city's other middle schools, Jack and Jillian struggle to find the right recipe for working together. Along the way, they make the world's most irresistible oatmeal cricket cookies, battle Jack's checkered-pants-wearing brother for miniature golf supremacy, and discover the troubling reasons why each of them was chosen for the contest.

Reading Ruth: Birth, Redemption, and the Way of Israel


Leon R Kass - 2021
    A marvelous gem of a book."--Russ Roberts A thoughtful and thought-provoking book.--BooklistThrough close reading and responsive commentary, Reading Ruth: Birth, Redemption, and the Way of Israel vivifies this much-loved biblical text, enabling readers to imagine how a widowed woman from an alien nation becomes the ancestress of the greatest Israelite king.As the authors (granddaughter and grandfather) also show, the Book of Ruth is about much more than the Cinderella-like rise of a woman from misery to glory. Ruth's story sheds light on certain enduring questions of human life, and on the Hebrew Bible's answers to those questions: the meaning of national membership and identity; the nature and limits of female friendship, marital love, and familial obligations; the importance of attachment to the land; and, especially, the redemptive powers for human life of childbirth, loving-kindness, and loyal devotion.

Summer of Stolen Secrets


Julie Sternberg - 2021
    But now, with an opportunity to spend three weeks in Baton Rouge and away from her best-friends-turned-bullies, Cat packs her bags and leaves New York City to get to know the woman who has always been a mystery. Down South, she begins working at her grandmother's luxury department store with her rebellious cousin Lexie. Nothing seems to be going right and nobody talks about the past. But just when Cat is starting to think that this whole trip may have been a huge mistake, she stumbles onto a secret from a time her grandmother refuses to speak of. Suddenly Cat's summer, and everything she thought she knew, has changed.Award-winning author Julie Sternberg tells a tender family story full of humor, heart, and heartbreak that reveals the power of forgiveness and proves it's never too late to start over.

Soosie: The Horse That Saved Shabbat


Tami Lehman-Wilzig - 2021
    

Sarah's Solo


Tracy Brown - 2021
    But as she explores some of the Jewish customs at the wedding, she begins to realize how much her own culture's traditions have to offer. Although not the delicate melodies of classical music and elegant movements of ballet, the hypnotic rhythms of the klezmer band and the energetic steps of the hora still transport her - and the reader - to another world.

Sephardi: Cooking the History. Recipes of the Jews of Spain and the Diaspora, from the 13th Century to Today


Hélène Jawhara Piñer - 2021
    Steeped in the history of the Sephardic Jews (Jews of Spain) and their diaspora, these recipes are expertly collected from such diverse sources as medieval cookbooks, Inquisition trials, medical treatises, poems, and literature. Original sources ranging from the thirteenth century onwards and written in Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, Occitan, Italian, and Hebrew, are here presented in English translation, bearing witness to the culinary diversity of the Sephardim, who brought their cuisine with them and kept it alive wherever they went. Jawhara-Piñer provides enlightening commentary for each recipe, revealing underlying societal issues from anti-Semitism to social order. In addition, the author provides several of her own recipes inspired by her research and academic studies.Each creation and bite of the dishes herein are guaranteed to transport the reader to the most deeply moving and intriguing aspects of Jewish history. Jawhara-Piñer reminds us that eating is a way to commemorate the past.

Rationalism vs. Mysticism; Schisms in Traditional Judaism


Natan Slifkin - 2021
    

The Luckiest Guy in the World: The Political Memoir of Robert Abrams


Robert Abrams - 2021
    At the heart of this political memoir is the story of how the office of state attorney general, an historically sleepy backwater post, has evolved into a front line major protector of the rights of citizens across the country. New York State Attorney General Robert Abrams exercised leadership in organizing attorneys general throughout the nation to take collective action against the Reagan administration’s punishing laissez-faire anti-regulatory policies. Abrams and his fellow attorneys general set the precedent for the successful challenges mounted by today’s attorneys general against the Trump administration’s immigration policies and rollback of consumer and civil rights protections.        Through lively anecdotes, Abrams captures the Bronx of his childhood, his early insurgent grassroots campaigns taking on the powerful Democratic Party machine, the urban challenges of being Bronx Borough President, the turbulent Vietnam anti-war years, and the beginnings of the environmental justice movement. He revisits the explosive Tawana Brawley case where an African American teenage girl alleged rape and brutality by a group of white men that included law enforcement officials.     Abrams provides behind-the-scenes interactions with important figures ranging from Golda Meir, George McGovern, Mario Cuomo, Robert Moses, and Cesar Chavez to Shirley Chisholm. The book demonstrates how ordinary people battling unequal odds against corporate and other powerful forces can prevail when laws are enforced to protect their rights. A chapter about the infamous Love Canal case details the shocking revelation that buried beneath the seemingly placid upstate New York working class community lay tons of toxic waste spawning chronic health problems for residents. Abrams in a landmark lawsuit took on Occidental Petroleum for its callous actions, paved the way for the passage of the Superfund Act and a victory for the emerging environmental justice movement. He describes dramatic confrontations with the radical anti-abortion group, Operation Rescue, and its increasingly violent efforts to deny a woman’s right to choose. His courageous, path-breaking support of LGBT rights, seeking to end the prevailing bigotry with legal victories that ultimately led to marriage equality is also revisited.   In The Luckiest Guy in the World, Robert Abrams wears his progressive values on his sleeve, providing an optimistic view about our nation’s return to its fundamental values.

A Land with a People: Palestinians and Jews Confront Zionism


Esther Farmer - 2021
    Eloquently framed with a foreword by the dynamic Palestinian legal scholar and activist, Noura Erakat, this book began as a storytelling project of Jewish Voice for Peace-New York City and subsequently transformed into a theater project performed throughout the New York City area.Stories touch hearts, open minds, and transform our understanding of the "other"--as well as our comprehension of own roles and responsibilities-- and A Land With a People emerges from this reckoning. It brings us the narratives of secular, Muslim, Christian, and queer Palestinians who endure the particular brand of settler colonialism known as Zionism. It relays the transformational journeys of Ashkenazi, Mizrahi, queer, and Palestinian Jews who have come to reject the received Zionist narrative. Unflinching in their confrontation of the power dynamics that underlie their transformation process, these writers find the courage to face what has happened to historic Palestine, and to their own families as a result. Contextualized by a detailed historical introduction and timeline charting 150 years of Palestinian and Jewish resistance to Zionism, this collection will stir emotions, provoke fresh thinking, and point to a more hopeful, loving future--one in which Palestine/Israel is seen for what it is in its entirety, as well as for what it can be.

Titan of Tehran: From Jewish Ghetto to Corporate Colossus to Firing Squad - My Grandfather's Life


Shahrzad Elghanayan - 2021
    

The Last Words We Said


Leah Scheier - 2021
    Rae’s pouring herself into rage-baking. Deenie's deepening her commitment to Orthodox Judaism. And Ellie—Danny’s best friend and girlfriend—is the only one who doesn’t believe he’s dead.Because she still sees him.Moving back and forth between past and present, the story of Ellie and Danny unspools, from their serendipitous meeting to Danny and Ellie falling for each other. In the past, they were the perfect couple—until it all went wrong. In the present, Ellie’s looking for answers. Her friends are worried about her mental health, but Ellie’s certain that the tragedy that’s rocked their modern Orthodox community isn’t as simple as they all believe. She’s determined to uncover the truth about what happened to the love of her life. But to do that, she’ll have to be more honest with herself.

Luisa: The Final Chapter of A Jewish Family Saga


Roberta Kagan - 2021
    

The Rabbi and the Reverend: Joachim Prinz, Martin Luther King Jr., and Their Fight Against Silence


Audrey Ades - 2021
    Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech at the March on Washington, he did not stand alone. He was joined by Rabbi Joachim Prinz, a refugee from Nazi Germany, who also addressed the crowd. Though Rabbi Prinz and Dr. King came from very different backgrounds, they were united by a shared belief in justice. And they knew that remaining silent in the face of injustice was wrong. Together, they spoke up and fought for a better future.

Larry's Latkes


Jenna Waldman - 2021
    This year he is throwing a Hanukkah party for all this friends, and the latkes need to be extra special. He goes on a quest to find some brand-new flavors at the farmer's market. But peaches are a soggy mess, and turnips are a flop. Big Larry’s kitchen is a latke disaster. Good thing he has some help from his friends.Jenna Waldman brings her joyful rhymes and a friendly alligator to Hanukkah, helped by a sweet menagerie created by Ben Whitehouse.

from hell to challah: rising from fragile to fearless, one grain at a time: a memoir


Shari Wallack - 2021
    

The Papercutter (The Split, #1)


Cindy Rizzo - 2021
    When he’s accepted into an experimental pen pal program and paired with Dani Fine, an openly queer girl in the UPR, he hopes that he can finally find a way out.As danger mounts and their alarm grows, Judith embeds a secret code in her papercuts so that she and Jeffrey can tell Dani what’s happening to Jews in the GFS without raising suspicions from the government. When the three arrange a quick, clandestine meeting, Jeffrey is finally faced with the choice to flee or to stay and resist. And Judith is reeling from a pull toward Dani that is unlike anything she has ever felt before.Genre: Young AdultEditor: Katherine V. ForrestCover Designer: Kayla Mancuso

The Magician's Visit


I.L. Peretz - 2021
    When a magician knocks on their door asking to join their Seder, they are unable to oblige, but the stranger is undeterred. "I have brought the Seder with me" he claims, snapping his fingers to produce two lit candlesticks.At the magician's command, the house is transformed, and the table is laid with everything Rebecca and Jonah could need for a perfect Seder and a fabulous Passover feast. But is this all a magician's illusion or could it be the heavenly intervention by the prophet Elijah?The Magician's Visit has been adapted from a classic folktale by I. L. Peretz - one of the greatest Yiddish writers of all time. Written by acclaimed children's author Barbara Diamond Goldin and with beautiful new illustrations by award-winning illustrator Eva S�nchez G�mez, this is a spellbinding retelling of a much-loved tale.

With an Unopened Umbrella in the Pouring Rain


Ludovic Bruckstein - 2021
    The eerily shocking ending of many of these stories is the moment their protagonists climb on the cattle trains to be transported to Auschwitz; while leaving the tale of their often tragic fate unstated.Bruckstein’s works, novels, stories and plays, deal with the sometimes cruel, sometimes comic, lives of simple people whose fate is controlled by highly unpredictable forces. These he describes with understanding, compassion and forgiveness; smiling at the petty worries and trivialities that people take so seriously, while often remaining unaware of very real and existential dangers.

Raising A+ Human Beings: Crafting a Jewish School Culture of Academic Excellence and AP Kindness


Bruce Powell - 2021
    

The Arab and His Rabbi: A Story of Awakening


Yacoub Gibran - 2021
    

Sydney A. Frankel's Summer Mix-Up


Danielle Joseph - 2021
    She figures she deserves some time to herself to do what she wants before her mom delivers Sydney's new sibling in just four months. Too bad Sydney's mom has other plans for her.Sydney's forced to take a summer course at the South Miami Community Center. She's allowed to take any class, except for what she really wants--a reading course. But when Maggie comes up with a switcheroo plan so that they can both take the classes they like, unexpected complications arise.

The Jewish Brigade


Marvano - 2021
    Leslie Toliver, a racecar driver in the pre-war years, eagerly joined the all-volunteer force for a chance to fight with his people against those who sought to murder them.When the war in Europe ends and the “savage continent” sits on the brink of continental civil war from chaos, terror, and famine, Leslie and the Brigade move to Tarvisio, Italy, a border triangle city perfect for covert action. While out searching for Holocaust survivors, Leslie undertakes vigilante missions in Soviet occupied Eastern Europe hunting down Nazis on the run for both vengeance and justice. With each Nazi found or refugee rescued, he looks for more information to complete his most personal mission: to find his mother and fiancée who went missing in the upheaval of the war.

Expecting Jewish: A Millenial Mom’s Practical Guide to How Judaism Can be a Blessing to New Moms and Moms-to-be


Marion Haberman - 2021
    Covering everything from the essentials of bris and baby-name planning to the mysticism of the mikvah, Expecting Jewish! is a guide for infusing Jewish customs and wisdom into each stage of the parenthood journey, from conception to the newborn days.Expecting Jewish! doesn't shy away from the most important conversations including genetic testing, infertility, miscarriage and pregnancy loss - and most importantly how Judaism can be a blessing throughout these difficult journeys.Building on the Jewish value of inclusion the book also provides essential resources for interfaith couples, conversion and adoption!The book shares an unfiltered perspective on what new parents can really expect during this stage of life, with advice from real moms who have lived through it. The book also includes interviews from prominent rabbis, Jewish thought leaders and social media game-changes who offer their own insights into what's trending and what's changing for Jewish women today when it comes to motherhood.

To Repair a Broken World: The Life of Henrietta Szold, Founder of Hadassah


Dvora Hacohen - 2021
    She became the first woman to study at the Jewish Theological Seminary, and was the first editor for the Jewish Publication Society. In 1912 she founded Hadassah, the international women's organization dedicated to humanitarian work and community building. A passionate Zionist, Szold was troubled by the Jewish-Arab conflict in Palestine, to which she sought a peaceful and equitable solution for all.Noted Israeli historian Dvora Hacohen captures the dramatic life of this remarkable woman. Long before anyone had heard of intersectionality, Szold maintained that her many political commitments were inseparable. She fought relentlessly for women's place in Judaism and for health and educational networks in Mandate Palestine. As a global citizen, she championed American pacifism. Hacohen also offers a penetrating look into Szold's personal world, revealing for the first time the psychogenic blindness that afflicted her as the result of a harrowing breakup with a famous Talmudic scholar.Based on letters and personal diaries, many previously unpublished, as well as thousands of archival documents scattered across three continents, To Repair a Broken World provides a wide-ranging portrait of a woman who devoted herself to helping the disadvantaged and building a future free of need.

The Jewish World of Alexander Hamilton


Andrew Porwancher - 2021
    For more than two centuries, his youth in the Caribbean has remained shrouded in mystery. Hamilton himself wanted it that way, and most biographers have simply assumed he had a Christian boyhood. With a detective's persistence and a historian's rigor, Porwancher upends that assumption and revolutionizes our understanding of an American icon.This radical reassessment of Hamilton's religious upbringing gives us a fresh perspective on both his adult years and the country he helped forge. Although he didn't identify as a Jew in America, Hamilton cultivated a relationship with the Jewish community that made him unique among the founders. As a lawyer, he advocated for Jewish citizens in court. As a financial visionary, he invigorated sectors of the economy that gave Jews their greatest opportunities. As an alumnus of Columbia, he made his alma mater more welcoming to Jewish people. And his efforts are all the more striking given the pernicious antisemitism of the era. In a new nation torn between democratic promises and discriminatory practices, Hamilton fought for a republic in which Jew and Gentile would stand as equals.By setting Hamilton in the context of his Jewish world for the first time, this fascinating book challenges us to rethink the life and legend of America's most enigmatic founder.

Come and Hear: What I Saw in My Seven-and-a-Half-Year Journey through the Talmud


Adam Kirsch - 2021
      Spurred by a curiosity about Daf Yomi—a study program launched in the 1920s in which Jews around the world read one page of the Talmud every day for 2,711 days, or about seven and a half years—Adam Kirsch approached Tablet magazine to write a weekly column about his own Daf Yomi experience. An avowedly secular Jew, Kirsch did not have a religious source for his interest in the Talmud; rather, as a student of Jewish literature and history, he came to realize that he couldn’t fully explore these subjects without some knowledge of the Talmud. This book is perfect for readers who are in a similar position. Most people have little sense of what the Talmud actually is—how the text moves, its preoccupations and insights, and its moments of strangeness and profundity. As a critic and journalist Kirsch has experience in exploring difficult texts, discussing what he finds there, and why it matters. His exploration into the Talmud is best described as a kind of travel writing—a report on what he saw during his seven-and-a-half-year journey through the Talmud. For readers who want to travel that same path, there is no better guide.

Kaddish: Before the Holocaust and After


Jane Yolen - 2021
    In it, the sacredness of the Almighty One is affirmed. In her new gathering of sixty poems, award-winning author Jane Yolen gives us a feminist view of Biblical themes and personalities such as Eve, Sarah, David and Goliath. The poems then morph into those about the Holocaust and after. Yolen's unflinching and stark record of the many death camp horrors serve as reminders of that era's brutality and the unrelenting suffering visited upon an innocent people. "Knowing means remembrance," Yolen writes--as each poem becomes a memorial, a teaching, a warning for our and future generations. Her book concludes: "... no Jew truly escapes/that time, those places, /unscarred, unscathed./I have no numbers on my arms, /But I have studied the charts, /the cities, the deaths, /till I know them by heart."

Twelve Tribes: Promise and Peril in the New Israel


Ethan Michaeli - 2021
    Readers of Twelve Tribes will meet the aging revolutionaries who founded Israel’s kibbutz movement and the brilliant young people working for the country’s booming Big Tech companies. They will join thousands of ultra-Orthodox Haredim at a joyous memorial for a long-dead Romanian Rebbe at a cemetery in a suburb of Tel Aviv, and marvel at the life experience of Belaynesh Zevadia, who came to Israel from Ethiopia on her own, and decades later returned to her birth country as the ambassador from Israel. And they will be challenged, in turn, by portraits of Israeli Arabs navigating between the opportunities in a prosperous, democratic state and the discrimination they suffer as a vilified minority, as by conversations with Palestinians who are striving to build the institutions of a nascent state, and by the Israeli settlers who are seeking to establish a Jewish presence on the same land.Framed by Michaeli’s own experience as an American with family roots in Israel, Twelve Tribes will illuminate the complex dynamics within the country, a collective drama which has global consequences far beyond the ongoing conflict with the Palestinians. Through extensive research and access to all sectors of Israeli society, Michaeli reveals Israel as a land of paradoxical intersections and volatile, unlikely cohabitation—a place where all of the world’s struggles meet, and a microcosm for the challenges faced by all nations today.

Shine a Light


Rebecca Crowley - 2021
    Louis suburb she’s avoided since her mom died. Ellie quickly caves to her nephews’ pleas to direct the temple Hanukkah play—her mom’s pride and joy—and by the time she’s lighting the first candle in her menorah, she doubts she’ll ever escape her hometown. And then she spots the cute fireman who rescued her lighting his own menorah in the window next door.Firefighter Jonah Spellman may have dropped out of seminary, but he still has deep roots in his Jewish faith. Hoping to mend fences with his Rabbi father who can’t forgive his career change, Jonah agrees to direct the Hanukkah play, never expecting to clash with his beautiful, fire-starting new next-door neighbor.By day they spar—Ellie’s desperate to live up to her mom’s legacy while Jonah’s driven to impress his dad. But by night they return to their secret candle-lighting ritual. Will their love burn as brightly as the Hanukkah flames?