Celebrate Jewish American Heritage Month with this staff-curated selection of titles spotlighting Jewish American authors, stories, and experiences.
Jason loves to sing-until a whisper runs through school questioning whether Jason can be both Black and Jewish. Lifted up by both his African and Jewish ancestors' music, Jason finds a way to sing with his whole spirit.
Parents celebrate baby's first grin to baby's first word, and all the milestones in between in this book featuring Ladino words, the language of the Sephardic Jewish community.
Sweet, Yiddish-sprinkled rhymes celebrate boundless love for a new baby--from the top of their keppie to the tips of their toes--set against joyful images of a Jewish family through generations.
Spanning over five hundred years, a novel telling the stories of four girls from different generations of a Jewish family, many of them forced to leave their country and start a new life.
Mia is still getting used to living with her mom and stepfather, and to the new role their Jewish identity plays in their home. Feeling out of place at home and at her Jewish day school, Mia finds herself thinking more and more about her Muscogee father, who lives with his new family in Oklahoma. Her mother doesn't want to talk about him, but Mia can't help but feel like she's missing a part of herself without him in her life. Soon, Mia makes a plan to use the gifts from her bat mitzvah to take a bus to Oklahoma--without telling her mom--to visit her dad and find the connection to her Muscogee side she knows is just as important as her Jewish side.
God gives humans gifts like happiness, health, and peace, but the wind soon scatters them across the earth, leading humans around the world to work together through kindness and action to repair the world. Inspired by the Jewish concept of Tikkun Olam.
Told against the background of the Jewish holidays, My Body Can is a positive affirmation that bodies of all shapes, sizes, and abilities are beautiful.
A peaceful celebration of the memories our loved ones leave with us when they pass. Grandpa died last November. Now, one year later on the anniversary of his death, a boy and his family light a special candle. It's not a birthday, Hanukkah, or Shabbat candle. It's a yahrzeit candle in remembrance of him, and it will burn all night and all day tomorrow until sunset. But why does it burn for so long? The boy and his family spend the next night and day remembering Grandpa and sharing stories with each other. From his stylish hats, to piano duets, and apple squares for dessert, warm memories of Grandpa shine like stars with them while the yahrzeit candle burns -- and continue to shine when it goes out.
A young girl with a Jewish mother and a South Asian father learns more about her family's history and embraces her multifaceted identity.
With the help of a magic button, Jewish Ava and Muslim Nadeem go back in time to ancient Morocco to help Prince Abdur Rahman escape to Spain and fulfill his destiny as the ruler of a country in which Jews and Muslims work together to make medieval Spain a center of science, mathematics, music, and poetry.
Rachel is not one for rules, but when a meet-and-greet with her favorite gymnast is at risk, she must be on her best behavior, especially at synagogue.
Too many Jews have been told: 'You don't look Jewish!' It begs the question, 'What does Jewish look like?' Well, there are over fifteen million Jews in the world, which means there are more than fifteen million ways to look and be Jewish. It can look like setting out menorahs on tribal land, adding kimchi to the seder plate, organizing for change, and living out loud. Shining a light on Paralympians and chefs, anthropologists and activists, dancers and dreamers, the individuals in these pages represent a range of identities. But they are threaded together by one unmistakable truth: their lives, work, and commitment to Jewish values have changed our world for the better.
Estee Ackerman loved Ping-Pong more than anything. But she also loved and honored the Jewish tradition of the Sabbath. At age eleven, she began to rise in the ranks of tournament players, making it all the way to the finals of the US National Table Tennis Championships. She only had one player left to beat to win a gold medal-- but the final match was set during Shabbat, and the judges said they couldn't change it. How could Estee choose between her passion and her faith? This is the true story of a girl's struggle between her love for her religion and her love of the game.
Mendel has famously bad luck, but his penchant for trouble may be the key to saving his remote Jewish village when the Cossacks invade.
Finn and Ezra don't have a lot in common--except, of course, that they're trapped in a bar mitzvah time loop, reliving their celebrations in the same New Jersey hotel over and over and over again. Not ideal, particularly when both kids were ready for their bar mitzvahs to end the moment they began. Ezra comes from a big family--four siblings, all seeming to get more attention than him, even on his bar mitzvah weekend. Finn is an only child who's tired of his parents' constant focus, even worse on his bar mitzvah weekend. They just want to get past it, just want to grow up. And now they're both stuck. Friday. Saturday. Sunday. No way out. Until Finn and Ezra meet and realize they're not alone.
After coming out as trans, fourteen-year-old A is forced to attend weekly Save Our Sons and Daughters meetings, where he uncovers the terrifying truth that the group is run by a demon feeding on their pain and is part of a larger, darker force preying on the world's vulnerable.
In Yehudi Mercado's full-color middle grade graphic memoir sequel to Chunky, Hudi and his imaginary friend, Chunky, head to Jewish summer camp, where the dynamic duo meet a new friend who can see Chunky, too, and get mixed up in a prank war.
When their neighbor, Ms. Ortega, cannot make her Sunday meal at the local senior center, stepsiblings Golda and Ezra offer to step in and get the job done.
A biography of the librarian who created National Jewish Book Week.
What a happy day! Zachary's baby sister will have her naming ceremony. In the temple! With his moms, the congregation, and all their friends! He's so excited he can barely contain it. On the walk from their home, they meet neighbor after neighbor who want to know the baby's name. But - not yet! - his mothers tell him. The tradition is to have a great reveal at the ceremony. So they invite each neighbor to come along. A colorful, diverse parade blooms along the route, until...At last it's time, and Zachary gets to reveal his sister's name...What is it? A truly joyful moment for everyone.
Of her two granddaughters, Grandma Yvette clearly prefers Ruby Taylor's perfect--and perfectly Jewish--cousin, Sarah. They do everything together, including bake cookies and have secret sleep overs that Ruby isn't invited to. Twelve-year-old Ruby suspects Grandma Yvette doesn't think she's Jewish enough. The Jewish religion is matrilineal, which means it's passed down from mother to child, and unlike Sarah, Ruby's mother isn't Jewish. But when Sarah starts acting out--trading in her skirts and cardigans for ripped jeans and stained t-shirts, getting in trouble at school--Ruby can't help but be somewhat pleased. Then Sarah suddenly takes things too far, and Ruby is convinced Sarah is possessed by a dybbuk, an evil spirit... that Ruby may or may not have accidentally released from Grandma Yvette's basement. Ruby is determined to save her cousin, but a dybbuk can only be expelled by a "pious Jew." If Ruby isn't Jewish enough for her own grandmother, how can she possibly be Jewish enough to fight a dybbuk?
When a fire breaks out at the Jewish Theological Seminary library, helping hands from across the community rally together to save the books and preserve the stories within the pages. Includes factual backmatter on the Jewish Theological Seminary fire of 1966.
Shavuot feels overlooked compared to other Jewish holidays, but discovers its true significance as the celebration of the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai and its unique traditions.
This modern and whimsical Jewish-themed board book series is the first of its kind to incorporate both Jewish traditions and Jewish culture, offering a truly representative and current depiction of Judaism. It's a Mitzvah! introduces readers to everyday good deeds, inspiring readers to bring kindness, connection, and peace to the world.
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. Faye and Shiloh are driven to New York City by their grandfather for a spring break filled with magical instruction. But at night, they find themselves transported to a strange parallel world, where groups of innocent people are facing appalling hatred and violence. Are Faye and Shiloh destined to defend them? How is that possible for a brainy, unpopular eleven-year-old and her vulnerable older brother? It will take all the strength they can draw from their Jewish and Japanese heritage to not only crack the mystery of this alternate world but to find the power in them to confront the troubles of their present.