Bookishly Jewish

It’s November, which means it’s time to do one of my favorite – and hardest! – tasks of the year. When I assemble the Hanukkah gift guide, I try to ensure there are both new books and old favorites to select from. In addition, not every book will be Hanukkah themed. Some are just so powerful or fun that they make a wonderful gift. Narrowing it down to just four choices per category is rough, so please do feel free to browse on our other pages for additional recs or write in with a specific need!

Below, the books are presented with what I felt was the most relevant snippet from the publisher’s marketing blurb. I repeat – I DID NOT WRITE THESE DESCRIPTIONS – they are from the marketing blurbs.

A Dragon Called Spark by Lily Murray and illustrated by Kirsti Beautyman: Lonely in a new town during Hanukkah, Eva finds comfort in her imaginary dragon, Spark. As candles glow and friendships grow, miracles—big and small—bring light to the darkness in this heartwarming tale of courage, imagination, and connection. Amazon | Bookshop

Here is the World by Leslea Newman illustrated by Susan Gal: Beginning with the weekly observance of Shabbat, readers join a family through the holidays and the corresponding seasons. From sounding the shofar on Rosh Hashanah to lighting the menorah for Chanukah to rattling a grogger for Purim, and on through the Jewish year, the joy and significance of each holiday beautifully come to life. Amazon | Bookshop | BookishlyJewish review

The Eight Knights of Hanukkah by Leslie Kimmelman and illustrated by Galia Bernstein:The whole kingdom has gathered to celebrate Hanukkah–but a dastardly dragon keeps interrupting the festivities. Can the Eight Knights of Hanukkah set things right? Amazon | Bookshop

Hanukkah Pajamakkahs by Dara Henry illustrated by Olga and Aleksey Ivanov: A lively picture book celebrating holiday traditions, the patience of parenting, sibling relationships, and children’s fondness for pajamas, along with a fun, read-aloud, new book to help everyone celebrate the holiday together – in, or out, of pajamakkahs. Amazon | Bookshop

Need more picture books: Check out our picture books page!

Rebecca Reznik Reboots The Universe by Samara Shanker: When Becca discovers a (not) Hanukkah goblin that’s turned her bedroom upside down, literally, she and her best friends Naomi and Eitan once again find themselves facing down demons from Jewish lore. Amazon | Bookshop | BookishlyJewish Review

Let It Glow by Marissa Meyer and Joanne Levy: When Aviva Davis and Holly Martin meet at the holiday pageant tryouts for their local senior’s center, they think they must be seeing double. While they both knew they were adopted, they had no idea they had a biological sibling, let alone an identical twin! One thing the girls do have in common is their curiosity about how the other celebrates the holidays. What better way to discover the magic of the holidays than to experience them firsthand? The girls secretly trade lives, planning to stage a dramatic reveal to their families. Two virtual strangers swapping homes, holidays, and age-old traditions–what could possibly go wrong? Amazon | Bookshop | BookishlyJewish Review

Golem Crafters by Emi Watanabe Cohen: On the same day Faye’s brother comes home with a black eye, a package arrives from a relative they have never met. It’s a slab of clay: some weird kind of bar mitzvah present? The strange gift turns out to be an invitation to learn a craft that has been in their family for centuries. And it’s not pottery. Amazon | Bookshop | BookishlyJewish Review

A World Worth Saving by Kyle Lukoff: How is one trans kid who hasn’t even chosen a name supposed to save his friend, let alone the world? And is a world that seems hellbent on rejecting him even worth saving at all? Read to find out! Amazon | Bookshop

Not seeing what you need? Check out our Middle Grade page for more books!

The Ghosts of Rose Hill by R.M. Romero: A love letter to Latin American and Jewish diasporas, based on the author’s experiences working to maintain Jewish cemeteries in Eastern Europe. The Ghosts of Rose Hill is a tender and empowering read that you will devour in one sitting. Novel in Verse! Amazon | Bookshop | BookishlyJewish review

See You Yesterday by Rachel Lynn Solomon: Instead pf putting the publisher blurb here, I’m letting you know that I think this time loop romance is ridiculously underrated. Solomon’s books get a lot of love, but this one is my favorite and I wish more people would scream about it! Amazon | Bookshop | BookishlyJewish Review

Eight Dates and Eight Nights by Betsy Aldredge: New Yorker Hannah Levin is allergic to exactly two things, horses and tinsel. Unfortunately, she’s surrounded by both when she’s snowed in at her grandmother’s home in a small Texas town. Super lonely, missing latkes and reliable Wi-Fi, Hannah wanders into an old deli where she meets the only other Jewish teen around, Noah, who happens to be equal parts adorable and full of annoying, over the top festival of lights spirit that he’s determined to share with Hannah one itchy Hanukkah sweater at a time. Amazon | Bookshop | BookishlyJewish Review

For the Rest of Us: Edited by Dahlia Adler: From Lunar New Year to Solstice, Día de Los Muertos to Juneteenth, and all the incredible days in between, it’s clear that Americans don’t just have one holiday. Edited by the esteemed Dahlia Adler and authored by creators who have lived these festive experiences firsthand, this joyful collection of stories shows that there isn’t one way to experience a holiday. Amazon | Bookshop

Looking for more? We have an entire Young Adult page!

Latke’d and Loaded by Jessica Topper: Tzipora Solokoff was once half of America’s favorite sitcom twins. But while her sister became known as Hollywood star Kara Koff, Tzipi chose a quieter life off-camera. Now Kara’s secret elopement leaves Tzipi posing as her twin on the annual Matzo Baller Hanukkah cruise—smile, wave, fake it for one night. Easy enough…until she meets the man she thinks is her bodyguard. There is an entire series – co written with Amanda Usen – of these to check out!!! Amazon

Eight Ways To Say I Love You by Amanda Elliot: A spark of attraction burns brighter each year between childhood friends in this sweeping Hanukkah romance by USA Today bestselling author Amanda Elliot. Amazon | Bookshop

The Eight Heartbreak Of Hanukkah by Jean Meltzer: Evelyn Schwartz has the perfect Hanukkah planned: eight jam-packed days producing the live-action televised musical of A Christmas Carol. Who needs family when you’ve got long hours, impossible deadlines, and your dream job? That is, until an accident on set lands her in the medical bay with one of her chronic migraines, and she’s shocked to find her ex-husband, David Adler, filling in for the usual studio doctor. Amazon | Bookshop

Alice Rue Evades The Truth by Emily Zippys: In this sapphic homage to While You Were Sleeping, a down-on-her-luck receptionist is mistaken as the girlfriend of a comatose man and doesn’t have the heart to come clean to his devastated family—even when she starts falling for his sister. Yes, there are both Christmas and Hanukkah scenes. Amazon | Bookshop | BookishlyJewish review

Need more romance? Check out our adult fiction page.

Homebound by Portia Elan: In a dazzling ode to human inventiveness and the desire for meaning, four lives are entangled across time by one unfinished story, saved to a floppy disk in the 1980s and destined to ripple across the centuries. Amazon | Bookshop | BookishlyJewish review

The Griffin Sisters Greatest Hits by Jeniffer Weiner: Cassie and Zoe Grossberg were once inseparable sisters and pop sensations, but they haven’t spoken in two decades. After experiencing the dizzying highs of celebrity, they were driven apart one terrible night. Now in their forties, Zoe is a suburban New Jersey mom, while Cassie lives off-grid in Alaska. But Zoe’s teenage daughter, Cherry, is desperate to reunite them and uncover the truth behind their estrangement. As long-buried secrets surface, the sisters must confront past choices and decide if they are open to forgiveness. Amazon | Bookshop | BookishlyJewish review

A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys: A literary descendant of Ursula K. Le Guin, Ruthanna Emrys crafts a novel of extra-terrestrial diplomacy and urgent climate repair bursting with quiet, tenuous hope and an underlying warmth. A Half-Built Garden depicts a world worth building towards, a humanity worth saving from itself, and an alien community worth entering with open arms. It’s not the easiest future to build, but it’s one that just might be in reach. Amazon | Bookshop | BookishlyJewish review

Pomona Afton Can So Solve A Murder by Bellamy Rose: When Pomona Afton, Upper East Side hotel heiress, stumbles out of a gala and upon the scene of her grandmother’s murder, her first thought is that the society queen won’t be missed for her kind, cookie-baking ways. In fact, she was mean, greedy, and paranoid—so paranoid that she secretly slipped a clause into her will mandating that, should she die an unnatural death, all the family assets get frozen. And if the “unnatural death” isn’t explained? Those accounts stay frozen. Can Pomona Afton (who previously couldn’t solve a crossword in the bath on a hungover Sunday) actually solve this murder? Amazon | Bookshop

Need More: We have more! Check out or adult books page.

When We See You Again by Rachel Goldberg-Polin: In When We See You Again, Rachel pours her pain, love, and longing onto paper, giving voice to the broken among us, and reminding us that even when the world feels choked with darkness, light exists in a different way. How do we find it? Her own experience has been extreme, but at its essence, this is a universal story of trying to live with grief. It is a story of how we remember and how we persevere, of how we suffer and how we love. Amazon | Bookshop

The Final Solution To The Jewish Question by Dara Horn: Combining deep historical research, investigative reporting, and storytelling bravado, The Final Solution to the Jewish Question is both diagnosis and prescription. Horn explores and exposes the failures of Holocaust education, the long history of the antizionist movement, the compromises of the American Jewish “Golden Age,” and the organized plot to poison artificial intelligence with anti-Jewish propaganda, and weaves it all into an erudite, audacious, and convincing series of arguments that invites readers of every background and inclination to become curious about their blind spots and to absorb new and uncomfortable truths. From there, she proposes a dramatic solution rooted in a new understanding of freedom and responsibility, and clears a path toward a shared future. Amazon | Bookshop

MotherLand by Julia Ioffe: In Motherland, Ioffe turns modern Russian history on its head, telling it exclusively through the stories of its women. From her own physician great-grandmothers to Lenin’s lover, a feminist revolutionary; from the hundreds of thousands of Soviet girls who fought in World War II to the millions of single mothers who rebuilt and repopulated a devastated country; from the members of Pussy Riot to Yulia Navalnaya, the wife of opposition leader Alexey Navalny, Ioffe chronicles one of the most audacious social experiments in history and documents how it failed the very women it was meant to liberate—and how that failure paved the way for the revanche of Vladimir Putin. Amazon | Bookshop

How The Talmud Can Change Your Life by Liel Liebovitz: For numerous centuries, the Talmud―an extraordinary work of Jewish ethics, law, and tradition―has compelled readers to grapple with how to live a good life. Full of folk legends, bawdy tales, and rabbinical repartee, it is inspiring, demanding, confounding, and thousands of pages long. As Liel Leibovitz enthusiastically explores the Talmud, what has sometimes been misunderstood as a dusty and arcane volume becomes humanity’s first self-help book. How the Talmud Can Change Your Life contains sage advice on an unparalleled scope of topics, which includes communicating with your partner, dealing with grief, and being a friend. Amazon | Bookshop | BookishlyJewish review

Find more options on our nonfiction page!

Feeding The Women of the Talmud, Feeding Ourselves edited by Kenden Alfond: Retelling the stories of sixty-nine women in the Talmud and honoring them with vegan or plant-based recipes. Enjoy sixty-nine delicious, balanced recipes ideal for family meals, entertaining, and healthy snacks. Each recipe is accompanied by stunning photography and meditations on stories of women in the Talmud that draw new meaning from the text. Amazon | Bookshop

Jew-ish by Jake Cohen: When you think of Jewish food, a few classics come to mind: chicken soup with matzo balls, challah, maybe a babka if you’re feeling adventurous. But as food writer and nice Jewish boy Jake Cohen demonstrates in this stunning debut cookbook, Jewish food can be so much more. Amazon | Bookshop

Shabbat by Adeena Sussman: Woven throughout the recipes is a rich portrait of Shabbat in Israel, where it is practically a national holiday. Taking us inside the kitchens and traditions of local cooks who have shared their most beloved recipes, Shabbat brings to life Sussman’s adopted home country with transporting, slice-of-life storytelling. Deeply personal and brimming with life, Shabbat inspires us all to embrace the delights of Shabbat. Now more than ever, Shabbat cooking is what we all need. Amazon | Bookshop

Millenial Kosher by Chanie Apfelbaum: Chanie Apfelbaum, creator of world-renowned kosher food blog Busy In Brooklyn, makes her cookbook debut with a collection of modern, cultural, trendy, and bold dishes that reflect her passion for reinventing traditional foods with a Millennial vibe. Amazon

I am painfully aware that is hasn’t even been Halloween, yet alone Thanksgiving. I actually really adore Thanksgiving and wish it got more shelf time, both in terms of cute items that I can buy for home decor and books featuring it. However, those of us living in the U.S. appear to be permanently stuck with an all out Christmas palooza that starts in August and gets earlier every year. Which is why I should perhaps be forgiven for not immediately noticing that Merry Little Bookshop, by author team Ali Brady, is a Hanukkah romance.

The cover has much winter themed stuff, plus a very noticeable Christmas bell/ mistletoe thing going on, and “Merry” is usually a Christmas signal, but there is also a menorah and a dreidel woven in to the design. This should clue the reader in to the fact that it is a romance featuring characters celebrating Christmas and Hanukkah. However, I would forgive you if you missed all that. The opening pages, introducing a heroine named Shira Schwartz, should be enough to clue everyone in. Shira herself jokes about her name being the absolute most Jewish thing ever and has chosen to give everyone in the tiny town of Azalea where she is stuck living from Thanksgiving to Christmas her “Starbucks name”: Sarah.

If you have never had a Starbucks name, either due to the wonderful pronounce-ability of your name or your amazing Jewish pride, I salute you. But for many of us, it’s a familiar necessity of life when it would take twenty minutes to spell the whole thing out to a barista who really isn’t getting paid enough for the way they are valiantly trying to pronounce a guttural “ch”. It is not their fault, it just makes life easier. So, I totally get where Shira is coming from. It is bad enough that her boss (who sounds like a human resources disaster) has decided that her Jewishness means that Shira is the primer person to send to Azalea, a town that has likely never seen a Jew, to open a pop up bookstore in their Christmas market as a last minute favor to his finance bro friend from business school who is running the market. Never mid that Jewish people celebrate Thanksgiving too (see my comments above, about it being one of my favorites), or that Hanukkah happens to fall during that time. If Shira wants the promotion he’s been dangling over her for years, she needs to take this job.

The good news? The finance bro friend – Jonny- is Hot. And when he eventually learns about evil boss treating Shira, an actual person, as something that can be shipped off to a friend as a favor, he is horrified. But it takes us a long time to get there. Shira’s friends have been encouraging her to have a holiday fling to help cheer her up over the situation and she identifies Jonny as the best prospect. Except Jonny might be looking for something a little more real. Shenanigans ensue, including Shira fessing up to her real name and Jonny going the extra mile to show he appreciates her trusting him with the fact that she is Jewish. Both holidays are celebrated and there are also a couple of open door steamy scenes.

The pros – this is a very quick read. Took me the space of a couple of commutes. Shira’s friend group is the usual delightful zany bunch you expect from a romance and Jonny’s side provides the requisite cute kids and family. Hanukkah really is respected here, and while I note some reviews from non-Jewish readers having trouble relating to Shira, this Jew fully understood why she was a little hesitant to run around declaring her Jewishness in a random small town in Texas. The town really embraces Shira, and for book lovers the book shop storyline will feel very cozy, if a little overly optimistic. The cons? Like I mentioned, there’s a tiny bit of finance bro not looking into the repercussions of his decisions ick to get over, luckily that mostly seems to be the fault of Shira’s boss whom we are all allowed to hate. I also didn’t particularly love the sex scenes, but I never do when the focus is on penis size. I know many people feel differently and will love that. The major issue for me was how hard Shira kept pushing for sex when it was clear Jonny wanted to wait. I am fine with flings when both parties are in agreement, and I did find some of Jonny’s actions a bit misleading, but let’s face it. If the genders were reversed everyone would agree the repeated pushes for sex in the face of being told your partner wants to wait, are not OK.

Overall, Merry Little Bookshop was a a fun read celebrating both holidays which we could use more of this time of year. And don’t let anyone judge you for having a Starbuck’s name. But also feel free not to use one if you’re comfortable. Maybe one day I will too.

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There is something unique about coming back to the Bible after some time away. Especially as an adult. Suddenly, all the things that seemed so matter-of-fact because I read them every week in school, are now bizarre in the extreme. The story of Dinah and the massacre that follows is one of the more disturbing episodes, but it is not alone in its ability to perplex and offend the modern reader. The story of her mothers, the trickery of both her father and her brothers, and the feuds between generations of siblings all come off as eccentric at best. In The Red Tent, Anita Diamant sorts through these well known stories through the lens of their least well known characters – the women who are so rarely heard from in the Bible.

Diamant goes out of her way to say that this is a work of historical fiction, and that while she did extensive research on what communities of that place and time may have looked like, there is no textual or archaeological evidence for many of the narrative choices she made – most notably the use of a menstrual tent by Jaacob’s wives and proposing that Dinah actually consented to the marriage with Shechem. Indeed, menstrual tents were common at the time, but so was rape, so you can really argue either side. Which is why it is best to put preconceived notions aside and enter the narrative as one would any other work of fiction. The Torah is often deliberately vague, allowing readers to find their own comfort in it. Perhaps we can extend that license to our fiction too.

The concept of women having a dedicated time to rest felt more honest to me than the “you’re a princess, royalty hides itself” speeches that some Modern Day religious communities use to enforce strictures of female modesty and propriety. It would have been forward thinking for the traditions of the time to honor the female cycle in this way, rather than shaming the women. Similarly, The Red Tent celebrates the role of women in both household industry and child birthing while not shying away from the horrors of both situations. The awkward jealousies and sibling dynamics at play in a heavily intertwined polygamous situation were extremely relatable. What I found less compelling/convincing were the scenes where the women were clearly still worshiping idols rather than the God of Abraham. That’s my personal religious bias, your results can and will vary.

The Red Tent truly shines in its descriptions of the customs and domestic lives of women, not just in nomadic shepherding tribes but also in the comparatively highly civilized Egypt. It gives flesh to women who are often overlooked by the historical record. This is nowhere more evident than in the many birthing rooms where Dinah attends to women and demonstrates skill as a midwife and healer. Twice the reader sees how all of a woman’s power can be taken away by a single man, even when he has little to no standing in the community, simply because he has decided to become a problem for her.

Bible retellings are a particular joy of mine, and this one is superb in the depth of research that went into it as well as the courage and imagination it takes to completely alter a story that is so familiar to so many. It takes the story for away from the page snd into the realm of the personal, individual, heartbreaking choices we all make in the wake of tragedy. It celebrates women even while acknowledging the limitations of the culture and society in which they lived, and remains full of hope.

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Have you ever identified with a book, but then wondered if this made you a terrible person? You might completely understand how things got so off the rails for a particular character, you might empathize with them despite being horrified by their actions, but there is no way you can safely admit this at book club. That feeling of unnerving understanding? That’s Tova Mirvis’s novel We Would Never.

I myself have watched quite a few men and women experience messy divorces at all different stages of life, and can attest that a contentious separation – especially with custody involved – has the potential to change the entire family in ways nobody would previously think possible. In the case of Haley, one of several viewpoint characters, it is not the crippling financial cost of lawyers and court dates that causes her the most upheaval. Is it the possibility that her ex husband is weaponizing their child as a cudgel to continue controlling her.

As many will know, the courts favor the ‘status quo.’ It takes a lot to convince them that one parent can unilaterally move with the child from the location they were living before the divorce. Haley, and the reader, find this especially unjust since Haley had only agreed to move to this location because her soon-to-be-ex had told her that if she hated it after three years they would relocate. Instead, when they three year mark hit, he served her with divorce papers, became even more open about his disdain for her entire family and his wish to alienate her and their child from them, and used the court and custody systems as a means to harass her for not giving in to his demands. We are filled with righteous rage, until Jonah is shot in his home by unknown assailants. Sure we didn’t like the guy, but nobody would go so far as to kill him? Right?

What unfolds from this point is a sordid family saga told from numerous unreliable viewpoints. While it becomes pretty clear that Jonah is no prize, it becomes equally clear that the levels of co-dependence in Haley’s family are unhealthy. You can understand why someone – I won’t give it away – would think that murder was the simple solution to everything. An almost altruistic version of self sacrifice for the greater family good. But you also get the nagging feeling that pretty much everything about this situation is messed up. Which sums up the majority of drawn out custody battles. Luckily, most of them don’t end in homicide.

If you open We Would Never hoping for a thriller, even a psychological one, you will be disappointed. Except for the last few pages it moves too slowly for that. Similarly, it is not a whodunit. It is, instead, a detailed look into troubled family dynamics and how divorce can push already strained individuals to a breaking point.

Maybe you can admit to understanding the character motives in book club, because Mirvis spends a great deal of time letting us into their heads. It’s deeply unsettling and I imagine makes for great group discussion. So long as everybody in attendance gets along. I’d hate to see what happens if a divorced couple was present. Then again, usually only one spouse gets awarded the book club in the splitting of assets. I hope nobody would kill for it.

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One of the most frustrating pieces of feedback for a writer is that their main character is unlikable. Putting aside the entire topic of writers self inserting themselves into stories or over-empathizing with their characters even when they don’t resemble them, sometimes characters need to be unlikable in order for the plot to make any sense. Is it possible to like a book without liking any of the characters in it? In my view, yes, so long as those characters are interesting.

I intensely disliked Jessa Gidney, the main character of Jacqueline Friedland’s Counting Backwards from the very first page. I also really hated her husband Vance. I found him controlling and chauvinistic. If there was a wrong thing to say, there was an 80% chance that this guy was going to say it. Yet, I also felt kind of bad for him, because Jessa refused to treat him like an equal partner in their fertility journey. Warning – if you are adopted, or have adopted, you may find some of Jessa’s views on the topic repugnant, even though she and the narrative both try to justify her desire for a child of her own body and refusal to consider other options just as legitimate. (Possibly all this ineffective rigamarole was an effort to make her more likable, which frankly failed). It is not a healthy relationship. But it is necessary for the narrative.

You see, in addition to her own fertility journey, which will be familiar to many women, Jessa is a lawyer about to embark on a journey that pertains to women’s fertility everywhere. During a pro bono immigration case she discovers that women in a detention center are being sterilized without their knowledge or consent. Which is a horrifying discovery for anyone, but especially for a woman desperately trying to get pregnant herself. To further compound things, Jessa makes a discovery about her family’s past and their involvement in a famous Supreme Court case regarding sterilization and racial supremacy. And this discovery does very little to help her relationship with Vance, who is Jewish and an active podcaster helping to restore art stolen in WWII to its rightful owners. Let’s just say she has many motivations for taking on the immigration case, even though it is not her field of law.

While Jessa’s personal life slowly implodes, like we all expected it would, readers are also given a glimpse into the aforementioned supreme court case by reading diary entries from the woman involved – Carrie Buck. While these diaries may be fictitious, Carrie’s case is not, and she is perhaps the most likable character in the book. But also the least interesting because the government has taken away all her agency for most of her narrative. Her story is heartbreaking and infuriating, which is entirely the point. It makes us want to rail at a woman like Jessa, who has so may choices and options if she would just get up the courage to use them. Watching her learn to do so is rewarding, as is learning about how Carrie still finds a way to make some choices for herself that do indeed bring her peace if not restitution.

Counting Backwards is a powerful read. It’s OK that you want to yell at the characters sometimes and shake them. You don’t need to like these people to be interested in their stories, which are indeed worth knowing. I love the idea of a real life court case from the past being dramatized. I’d love to see more of that. No matter who the main characters are.

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The title sentence of this post might surprise some, given rising antisemitism and a history of years of persecution. That’s because they haven’t bothered to take the time to understand Jewish culture and tradition, which has always felt the status of “Jew” was to be celebrated and embraced no matter what hardships it may come with. Anything but pride in our existence is actually a largely Christian or secular view imposed upon Jews, and often the precursor or excuse given for the aforementioned antisemitism.

Another misguided outsider view imposed upon Jews? That we’re an all white culturally homogeneous group. People are shocked to learn that we have Jews in every color of the rainbow with diverse cultural practices and unique heritage and traditions. Below are some books that highlight famous Jews who have made important contributions to the world. While a few individuals repeat, the vast majority are unique across the books. Technically, most are written for children, but grown-ups will enjoy them too. Each book has a unique take on what it means to be Jewish, but they all agree on one thing – it’s good to be a Jew!

This book features a wide variety of women broken down into the categories of activists, entertainers, writers, artists, scientists, entrepreneurs, leaders, and justices. Most were born in the 1900’s or later and there were good cultural touch stones for young women today. The vibrant illustrations pair with shorts 1-2 page descriptions and the Jewish geography map in the back cracked me up. My personal favorite? Heddy Lamarr. People are always shocked this glamor icon is both Jewish and an inventor too!

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There is more text per woman, usually 3-6 pages, and accompanying drawings in blue/grey/black. I was extremely impressed by the artistry of these portraits. This particular volume is suitable for older children who might want to delve a bit more into the backstory of each famous woman but likely not suitable for the read-out-loud younger set.

Note: We received a copy of this book from the publisher

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Each biography contains a large illustration and 3-6 paragraphs of accompanying text. Plus a little shout out bubble for fun facts and Jewish lessons. Not only do the authors successfully defy expectations on the answer to the title question – they provide a really neat map and overview of various Jewish customs and cultural heritages that many, many adults would benefit from reading.

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It makes a beautiful gift, especially as the illustrations might just be my favorite of the bunch for how they interpret these women and their life stories. More importantly, it also reinterprets the word “chutzpah” which was not really a compliment when used by my elementary school teachers. As with all things in Judaism, any trait can be used for the good and finding the courage to stand up and do the right thing even when it is scary does take a lot of chutzpah.

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Note: We received an e copy of this book from the authors

There is a 1-2 explanation that is indeed suitable for reading out loud, along with an illustration. Middle schoolers can read it on their own.

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Note: We received an e copy of this book from the author

It features 59 Jewish women, and is intended for an older audience, roughly around bat mitzvah age. It can make for a good conversation starter with your tween.

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Want to have a really good time? One of the most frequently featured women in these books is Bruriah. I am pretty passionate about this particular topi,c and could go one for hours about the smear campaign lead by the patriarchy against her (but you’d be better served by reading The Mad Woman In the Rabbi’s Attic). I hugely enjoyed seeing how the different authors handled her story. There are a few others that appear in most of the books, and it is interesting to compare the entries.

Let us know which one was your favorite!

I grew up a religious Jew, including observing all the fasts related to the destruction of the Temple. I thought I had a firm grasp on the Jewish struggle with Rome and resulting exile. I was wrong. Partially, this is because as a girl I was not allowed to study Talmud in which many of these stories are contained, and partially it reflects the way oral history can lead to fragmentary transmission of knowledge. I knew a lot of the stories contained in Barry Staruss’s Jews Vs. Rome. What bowled me over was just how long everything took. In my head this was matter of maybe 10-50 years. Luckily, this information is in the subtitle – “two centuries of rebellion against the world’s mightiest empire” – and thus I was convinced to pick up the books and increase my knowledge.

Jews vs. Rome helpfully divides up the various skirmishes into three main rebellions, and framing them in this context makes it easier to remember what happened when. It also explains how this could have possibly taken so long. Along the way Strauss provides bits and pieces of global context that seek to explain why the Jews thought they stood a chance in the first place and bothered rebelling despite the heavy personal cost. I knew the religious religious explanation for this phenomenon, but then, as now, not all Jews were religious. So how could these rebellions go on and on and on? Did not the Jews realize it was futile? Indeed some Jews did not want to risk it and were on the side of Rome! Side note, lots of people are going to quibble over whether Herod was Jewish or not. I had some very conflicting feelings about the guy myself regardless of how we view his ancestry.

While I could go on about the topic of the various Jewish factions for some time, and have already identified further reading on the topic, I’ll leave it in favor of discussing my favorite portion of this book – The role of the Parthian Empire! You don’t hear about the Parthians as much as you do Rome and Greece and other ancient empires, but Rome clearly thought they were a force to be reckoned with and Strauss lays out several compelling reasons for why their presence could have goaded Rome’s Jews into rebellion. They may even have directly encouraged rebellion, and there is an entire conversion story relating to some Parthian nobles that is fascinating. Furthermore, it highlights something about Jews that still frightens leaders today as it frightened the ancient Pharaoh of Egypt. Jewish identity is not tied down neatly within the borders of any one map. It comes from within and our communities have loyalties to each other that cross state, country, and even empire lines. Other religions have managed this as well, but the Jews provide a particular striking example, and it made Rome fear them.

Less persuasive to me was Strauss’s efforts to rehabilitate the reputation of the historian Josephus. Possibly this is due to generations of Jews and Gentiles alike loathing the man as a traitor and a coward, but given my willingness to reconsider Herod, I think not. It was a valiant effort to contextualize a very complicated man, but anyone who stands outside the siege and sack of Jerusalem praising the Romans to the high heavens while his own wife is inside is just not salvageable to me. I understand why Josephus saved his own skin, but I wish he’d made different choices. I also wish we had a less biased and confusing source for much of this history. Luckily, today’s historians do not believe in embellishments and straight up lying the way the ones in Roman times did. Strauss spends a great deal of time unraveling the tall tales of Josephus and his fellow historians and parsing what might be true.

The story of two hundred years of subjugation and eventual exile due to continued demands for self rule and freedom is essential reading for people who seem to think all Jews originated in New Jersey of Eastern Europe. It is also informative for people who want to know about ancient siege warfare and siege mentality. Finally, Jews Vs. Rome gives a glimpse into a side of Rome that people tend to gloss over in their desire to speak of its advances. Particularly informative was the definition of Roman peace and how it differs from what a modern day person might mean when they use the term ‘peace.’ In fact, this “peace” is one of the first extremely well documented cases of Jews being used as a scapegoat for a leader who needs to shore up his own political power by enslaving and subjugating a minority as a show for citizens who can then think better of themselves in comparison to this Jewish “other.”

Out of that horrid stew comes Berenice and Titus’s doomed love story. It completely shocked me, and I’m sad I didn’t know it until now. I hated her. I hated him more. And yet I was secretly rooting for them to make it even though I knew what was coming, because in Berenice I saw the story of every attractive minority that is ultimately chewed up and spit out of the machine that seeks to convert and tame them for its own purposes even as it secretly reviles them. At least Berenice held the reigns of control for some time before she was sent packing. It’s more than many get.

Jews Vs. Rome is easy enough for the lay reader to read for pleasure. Strauss is clearly gifted in the descriptions of ancient battle techniques and political intrigue. The only points of confusion for me were the sheer number of people named Eleazer, Simon, Augustus or Titus. We can hardly blame the author for ancient naming conventions. Instead we can thank him for helping guide us through it all.

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I have never had a pet, but I have always wanted an animal familiar. If I had to guess, mine would likely be some sort of feline. I’d hope for a big cat, but likely would get more of a homebody. I myself am something of a house cat if we’re being honest. For Arden, the protagonist of Joanne Levy’s Middle Grade novel Bird Brain, a cat or dog as a pet would be ideal. Yet somehow, she ends up with a bird. And it isn’t even hers! She’s bird sitting Ludwig, an African Grey parrot, for her Uncle Eli while he’s away doing scientific research.

Arden tries to make the most of it by reasoning that a bird is better than no pet at all. Maybe if she takes extra special care of Ludwig maybe she can really have her own animal one day. Besides, Ludwig is a pretty good listener. As Arden struggles with a mean girl trying to kick her off the quiz bowl at school and her best friend not truly grasping what’s going on, Ludwig seems to not only listen to Arden but also to understand her.

Bird Brain deals with some important themes for middle schoolers, including bullying, peer pressure, and personal responsibility without feeling too preachy. In addition, Arden is from a single mother household. Plus there’s a lot to learn about birds and science presented in a fun way. It’s also short enough for more reluctant readers to manage on their own. One small warning though, it may lead your kids to reopen negotiations on obtaining a pet. Prepare yourselves.

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I am an author, which means I am supposed to have all the words, but this review is surprisingly hard to write. When I heard the news about Jane Yolen’s passing, I knew I had to post a review of one of her books. Indeed, I even had one in the queue just waiting to be reviewed. Yet somehow, when I sat down to write about Too Many Golems – written by Jane Yolen and illustrated by Maya Shleifer- the words just would not come. Yolen meant so much to so many. She’s an author I read as a kid without even knowing she was Jewish! How does one review her work?

I decided to look to the book itself for inspiration. Abi, a Rabbi’s son, seems to be forever in trouble. Even when he tries to do something right and practice his Hebrew he goes ahead and steals an ancient scroll from the Synagogue to practice with. He had no idea reading the words would conjure up Golems. He’s a good host though, so while his cat cowers, he promptly invites the horde of magical marauders in and somehow convinces them that the real fight is his battle with Hebrew.

So they stay and help him.

It’s pretty remarkable when you get down to it. The idea that not all battles are worn with swords and sometimes the hardest thing one will do involves facing challenges is ingeniously packaged into a book with Golems so as to entice readers who’d prefer reading about slaying a dragon or riding a spaceship. Abi does not falter before the scary Golems. He offers them beverages. Instead of fighting with them, he struggles day in and day out to become a better person. Improving his Hebrew, but also his overall behavior. The illustrations are deceptively simple – they resemble a child’s crayon drawings except a closer inspection reveals much more skill and sophistication than the typical child can muster. They reflect the practice and honed skill of the artist. Just like Abi is practicing and honing his skills.

What better way to celebrate a children’s book writer who clearly put in the work, publishing hundreds of books for young readers, than with a book whose protagonist does the same? There’s so much to learn here, and the least of it is about GOlems. May Jane Yolen’s memory be for a blessing, as I’m sure her books will continue to delight readers for years to come.

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There’s a long standing joke I have with a friend that ultimately points to the type of writer we each are. When visiting a museum, I am drawn to the portraits. The landscapes, and the abstracts, and the modernism really don’t do much for me. She, on the other hand, could stare at a Monet water lily for hours. Which fits with her ability to write the most atmospheric, lyrical stories to contrast with my character driven, high octane romances. We torture each other by each choosing a gallery. Given my particular proclivity towards anything with a human face in it, you’ll understand my love for John Singer Sargent paintings and the stories they spark in my head. He was, after all, the king of portrait painters. 

Jean Strouse’s Family Romance is not a Sargent biography. It does sketch out some of the particulars of the artists life, but only in so far as this is needed to explain his relationship with some of his most frequent subjects – the Wertheimer family. Indeed, we also have entire chapters devoted to the Wertheimer family itself, their work as art dealers, and the descendants of those seen in the portraits. 

Sargent was unique in his willingness to paint Jews. Indeed, he made several statements indicating he found them more interesting than some of his other subjects. He received quite a bit of critical flack for this, with some critics saying the portraits should not be hung in galleries, others leaving scathing antisemitic reviews, but time would show these portraits would be very successful in the long term. Indeed two of his most lauded works, A Vele Gonfie and Ena and Betty. Ena, the oldest Wertheimer daughter, had a particularly close relationship with Sargent and A Vele Gonfie was partly conceived due to her particular temperament and handsomeness. Sargent was know for painting his sitters as he saw them, unveiling their true personality, and in Ena he found a willing collaborator.

Don’t get your party hats out just yet, though. While Sargent was willing to paint Jews, and had friendly relations with many, his later works including the Triumph of Religion murals show he had some serious misunderstandings about Judaism and what would offend Jews. Indeed, even the Wertheimer family’s relationship to their own Judaism was complicated. I thoroughly enjoyed the chapters describing how the Wertheimer children had varying Jewish observance and the digression into wealthy Jewish families of the time and their trend towards assimilation. 

I read Family Romance via audiobook and the text was particularly suited to this format. I found the narration enjoyable and the subject matter easy to follow. Whatever format you select, it will increase your knowledge about the relationship between Jewish people and the art world.

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