Guide to Jewish Literature - Sept/Oct 2026

This critically acclaimed bestseller presents the captivating story of Clara Prinz, a remarkable woman forced to leave her native Berlin in 1939. As Clara traveled alone on a voyage into the unknown, she turned to memories of her adolescence during La Belle Époque – the Beautiful Era filled with optimism and cultural transformation at the dawn of the twentieth century. Through Clara’s chance encounters with notable personalities of the period, Clara’s Secret weaves an unforgettable tapestry of personal and historic events. Clara’s Secret is ultimately a compelling story of the advancement of humankind and the survival of its decline.

A ‘neurospicy’ young woman, Cece, filled with wanderlust, visits the mystical city of Sefat; the Catskills in their heyday; and settles in Los Angeles, her beloved hometown. Alas, she meets and marries a New York ‘big city’ young man, and believes their marriage is doomed when each of their three therapists mysteriously dies, one after another! A spiritual and romantic odyssey of the ever-wondering, ever-wandering Jew.  A great book club read! See website for upcoming events!

Was It Just a Matter of Luck? offers a deeply moving Holocaust memoir that lingers long after the final page—and stands as a pioneering act of remembrance. With quiet power and unwavering clarity, Ray Kaner recounts her journey through Nazi-occupied Europe, illuminating the fragile line between fate and survival. Long before formal Holocaust archives and large-scale testimony projects, Kaner was already helping preserve survivor voices in the United States. Her story is both intimate and historic—a call to remember, to honor, and to ensure these truths are never lost.

A sweeping historical novel narrated by a violin crafted in 1779 in Offenbach, Germany. As the instrument passes through the hands of Jewish and non-Jewish musicians, it bears witness to more than two centuries of Jewish life across Central and Eastern Europe, from synagogues and shtetls to cabarets, pogroms, the Holocaust, and the post-Communist revival. Inspired by real historical figures and Yale Strom’s decades of ethnographic research, this unforgettable novel celebrates the enduring power of music, memory, resilience, and the human spirit.

In 1930s Germany, four cousins as close as siblings share the experiences of the young, including first loves, marriages, and children. However, over their seemingly ordinary lives hangs one critical truth—they’re Jewish—putting them increasingly at risk. When World War II breaks out, the four are unable or unwilling to leave. Will these cousins be able to avoid the deportations and concentration camps that have claimed their fellow Jews? Danger is their constant companion, and it will take hope and more to survive. “Richly compelling Holocaust account, centered on the power of hope.” – Booklife by Publishers Weekly

2026 International Book Awards Finalist. “My Father’s Shadow is a nuanced, page-turning read, a rich account of Israel at a turbulent time in its history, and a heartfelt, courageous journey through the past”. CANREADS Book Review. Heartbreaking one moment, funny the next, in this memoir Sara mines her father’s life and work, piecing together a fuller truth about the past. Her journalist father, a Holocaust survivor, fearlessly exposed the Israeli mafia and other aspects of Israel’s shadow. Drawing on her training as a psychologist, Sara views the past with the clarity of hindsight, refusing to let emotion cloud her investigation.

Whet your appetite as you delve into Verbal Snacks. In sets of three, these stories emerge with a play on words. Each installment visits episodes in a variety of characters’ lives, eliciting a memory or shedding new light on the past of others. Indulge—enjoy a taste of what short stories provide—comfort and a walk down your own memory lane.

From the opening vignette in which a photograph is a silent witness to history to the powerful coda “Miracles,” a novella set against the vibrant panorama of the Yiddish theater in America, the fifteen memorable narratives in The Girls of Jerusalem and Other Stories span continents and eras as they chronicle love and loss, piety and heresy, mysticism and rationality to reinterpret ancient tropes of exile, dislocation, and profound change, revealing a new understanding of Jewish history and memory. “Luminous tales of exile and loss that bequeath new life” Kirkus Reviews (starred review). A best book of the year selection.

Operation Texas is a page-turning thriller that unveils the clandestine effort on behalf of Lyndon Baines Johnson to secure visas for Polish Jews on the eve on the Nazi invasion. Multi-lingual, Jewish, Texas-born Rosalind Fisher is handed the nearly impossible job of easing the visas through the US Embassy in Warsaw while also dealing with German spies. She must ensure the safety of LBJ’s good friend, Jim Novy, also Jewish, as he travels through Poland visiting family. Reviews say Anita “has struck gold again” after her novel, Helen by Anita Mishook.

Felice and Ira Zaslow’s love story spanned almost four decades, from the beaches of Far Rockaway to a comfortable suburban existence on the south shore of Long Island. Then came the morning of September 11, 2001. Through the days, weeks, and months that followed, Felice had to find her way through unfathomable trauma, on a path she had to forge herself, seeking guidance and role models along the way. This remarkable and inspiring memoir puts a very personal face on a national tragedy, facing down the darkness by looking for the light that is always present.

Freya the Deer shimmers with lyrical prose, following neurodivergent Freya Rubenstein (animal lover, vegan, spiritual seeker) to a college in the woods. There she discovers obsessive love and an ethical quandary when her soulmate veers toward radical violence. “A socially-conscious fairytale, Richman’s poignant and sometimes heartbreaking coming-of-age novel is a testament to the limitless boundaries of love.” – Zeeva Bukai, author of The Anatomy of Exile.

Book Four in the Gilded City Series: Threadbare, In the Hands of Women, Over There. 1924 in the Catskills sizzled with chaos. The region’s turbulent history during that era could easily have erased any trace of the Borscht Belt’s grand hotels. Prohibition fueled bootleggers and whiskey stills—Dutch Schultz ran an underground distillery in nearby Ulster County. Meanwhile, the Ku Klux Klan stormed north after WWI, targeting Jewish immigrants they viewed as threats to the American way of life. Amid the turmoil, the Isaacson family stood their ground, fiercely defending their land, livelihoods, and each other.

Spanning forty years, this collection moves between England and Israel – which figures in eight of the seventeen stories. There are people who go, people who stay, people who leave and people who protest. In other stories: a woman in a dressmaker’s studio is trapped in a room of mirrors – confronted by six silent versions of herself. In another, the narrator is haunted by her grandmother – who inspired her to write, even that which should not be told. With characters caught between cultures and causes, the tales explore the everyday and the extraordinary: families, beliefs, loss – and the shadows of history.

England, 1413. Jews have been banned for over a century. When her brother dies, Gracia Sabot is left utterly alone in a country where she has no right to exist — and accused of a crime that guarantees her death. To survive, she must erase herself entirely. Remember Me Not — a gripping historical novel about identity and survival.

What is the purpose of creation? How do I break free of this solitude? What is there to love? These are a few of the questions examined in this volume. We live in a time empty of wisdom.  Seeking wisdom, this book turns to the teachings and traditions of Judaism, as well as others.  These questions shape a life by enabling us to live a meaningful life. To each question, the author offers a reflection but not an answer.

An ancient Jewish ritual offers a fresh prescription for modern life. Physician and award-winning author Beth Ricanati blends science, story, and tradition to reveal seven simple practices that reduce stress, deepen connection, and cultivate well-being. The Braided Prescription is an inspiring guide to finding more meaning, health, and joy through the power of everyday ritual.

Sophia longs to be a doctor, but rejected by Moscow Medical School for being a Jewish woman, she resolves to study in America. Crossing the Baltic Sea, she meets charismatic Russian Revolutionary Dov Feldman. Reaching London, she discovers her brother has left and she’s alone. She works in a sweatshop, assists midwife Ettie Gutenberg. Shocked by the deaths of immigrant mothers, Sophia is determined to study medicine, but how can she pay the fees? Deeply attracted to Dov, when he invites her to an anarchist gathering, it will change Sophia’s life forever.

Available from Bookshop.org and Amazon. Visit Sue at  www.suestern.com

Meet the extraordinary rabbis whose wisdom, courage, and faith have shaped Jewish history for generations. From Rashi and the Chofetz Chaim to Rabbi Jonathan Sacks and many more, Stories of the Rabbis invites young readers and families to discover the inspiring lives, teachings, and lasting legacies of Judaism’s most influential leaders through beautiful illustrations and engaging storytelling. 

Janelle Logan’s spiritual life is upended when her beloved yoga guru is accused of sexual assault. Key to her healing—along with close friends and lots of meditation—is an exploration with a visiting cousin of her long-abandoned Jewish roots. Booklife/Publishers Weekly, which calls the novel “a breezy enjoyment,” says, “Together, the women uncover religious revelations about their Jewish ancestry that prompt them to realize one must acknowledge the past to allow the future to come to fruition.” A great book club read for Jewish women who love yoga!

Knowing racial prejudice blocked her from traditional classical stages, soprano Anne Brown saw George Gershwin’s plan for an all-Black opera as an unmissable opportunity. Gershwin’s Bess chronicles Anne’s family, friendships, school years, Juilliard studies, romances, and the creation of Gershwin’s quintessential American opera, Porgy and Bess. It explores what the opera meant to Black artists at the time and its mixed critical reception. Set amid the historical events from the late 1920s to mid-1930s, Gershwin’s Bess also highlights how Gershwin’s own experience as a Jewish American outsider influenced his empathy for marginalized stories and guided his musical compositions.