May 26, 2025 – May is Jewish American Heritage Month. Here is fiction – a graphic novel, a romance, and literary fiction – and nonfiction – histories, modern sociology, and a cookbook - by and about Jewish Americans, telling Jewish American stories.
Browse the books below, and put titles on hold in our catalog by clicking on their covers.
Fiction
"Morningside Heights" by Joshua Henkin (2021)
When Pru Steiner met and married Spence Robin – her dazzling young hotshot English professor at Columbia – she thought she knew what she was signing up for. But thirty years later, when Spence develops early-onset Alzheimer's, the peaceful (if ambivalent) life Pru has built for herself begins to crumble. Spence is no longer the Great Man she fell in love with, and as his needs become more pronounced, Pru finds herself short on money, overwhelmed by responsibility and, for the first time in decades, in need of companionship. Further complicating things is Arlo, Spence's son from an earlier marriage, who feels he has never lived up to his father's expectations, and who might be Spence's best hope. Moving and deeply-felt, "Morningside Heights" is a warm-hearted story about love in the face of illness, about the support networks that surround us, and about what a marriage means when your partner is no longer the person you fell in love with.
"Sadie on a Plate" by Amanda Elliot (2022)
A chef's journey to success leads to discovering the perfect recipe for love in this delicious romantic comedy. Sadie is a rising star in the trendy Seattle restaurant scene. Her dream is to create unique, modern, and mouthwatering takes on traditional Jewish recipes. But after a public breakup with her boss, a famous chef, she is sure her career is over – until she lands a coveted spot on the next season of her favorite TV show, "Chef Supreme." On the plane to New York, Sadie has sizzling chemistry with her seatmate, Luke, but tells him that she won't be able to contact him for the next six weeks. They prolong their night with a spontaneous, magical dinner before parting ways. Or so she thinks. When she turns up to set the next day, she makes a shocking discovery about who Luke is. If Sadie wants to save her career by winning "Chef Supreme," she's going to have to ignore the simmering heat between her and Luke. But how long can she do that before the pot boils over?
"Songs for the Brokenhearted" by Ayelet Tsabari (2024)
1950. Thousands of Yemeni Jews have immigrated to the newly founded Israel in search of a better life. In an overcrowded immigrant camp in Rosh Ha'ayin, Yaqub, a shy young man, happens upon Saida, a beautiful girl singing by the river. In the midst of chaos and uncertainty, they fall in love. But they weren't supposed to; Saida is married and has a child, and a married woman has no place befriending another man. 1995. Thirty-something Zohara, Saida's daughter, has been living in New York City – a city that feels much less complicated than Israel, where she grew up wishing her skin were lighter, her illiterate mother's Yemeni music quieter, and that the father who always favored her was alive. She hasn't looked back since leaving home, rarely in touch with her mother or sister, Lizzie, and missing out on her nephew Yoni's childhood. But when Lizzie calls to tell her their mother has died, she gets on a plane to Israel with no return ticket. Soon Zohara finds herself on an unexpected path that leads to shocking truths about her family, including dangers that lurk for impressionable young men and secrets that force her to question everything she thought she knew about her parents, her heritage, and her own future.
"The Matchmaker's Gift" by Lynda Cohen Loigman (2022)
Is finding true love a calling or a curse? Even as a child in 1910, Sara Glikman knows her gift: she is a maker of matches and a seeker of soulmates. But among the pushcart-crowded streets of New York's Lower East Side, Sara's vocation is dominated by devout older men – men who see a talented female matchmaker as a dangerous threat to their traditions and livelihood. After making matches in secret for more than a decade, Sara must fight to take her rightful place among her peers, and to demand the recognition she deserves. Two generations later, Sara's granddaughter, Abby, is a successful Manhattan divorce attorney, representing the city's wealthiest clients. When her beloved Grandma Sara dies, Abby inherits her collection of handwritten journals recording the details of Sara's matches. But among the faded volumes, Abby finds more questions than answers. Why did Abby's grandmother leave this library to her and what did she hope Abby would discover within its pages? Why does the work Abby once found so compelling suddenly feel inconsequential and flawed? Is Abby willing to sacrifice the career she's worked so hard for in order to keep her grandmother's mysterious promise to a stranger? And is there really such a thing as love at first sight?"
"We Are Not Strangers" by Josh Tuininga (2023)
Inspired by a true story, this graphic novel follows a Jewish immigrant's efforts to help his Japanese neighbors while they are incarcerated during World War II. Marco Calvo always knew his grandfather, affectionately called Papoo, was a good man. After all, he was named for him. A first-generation Jewish immigrant, Papoo was hardworking, smart, and caring. When Papoo peacefully passes away, Marco expected the funeral to be simple. However, he is caught off guard by something unusual. Among his close family and friends are mourners he doesn't recognize – Japanese American families – and no one is quite sure who they are or why they are at the service. How did these strangers know his grandfather so well?
Set in the multicultural Central District of Seattle during World War II and inspired by author Josh Tuininga's family experiences, "We Are Not Strangers" explores a unique situation of Japanese and Jewish Americans living side by side in a country at war. Following Marco's grandfather's perspective, we learn of his life as a Sephardic Jewish immigrant living in America and his struggles as he settles into an America gearing up its war efforts. Despite the war raging just outside US borders, Papoo befriends Sam Akiyama, a Japanese man who finds his world upended from President Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066. Determined to keep Sam's business afloat while he and his family are unjustly incarcerated, Papoo creates a plan that not only changes the lives of the Akiyamas but also of the entire Nihonmachi community. An evocative and beautifully illustrated historical fiction graphic novel revealing the truth of one man's extraordinary efforts, "We Are Not Strangers" converges two perspectives into a single portrait of a community's struggle with race, responsibility, and what it truly means to be an American.
"Kantika" by Elizabeth Graver (2024)
A kaleidoscopic portrait of one family's displacement across four countries, "Kantika" – 'song' in Ladino – follows the joys and losses of Rebecca Cohen, feisty daughter of the Sephardic elite of early 20th-century Istanbul. When the Cohens lose their wealth and are forced to move to Barcelona and start anew, Rebecca fashions a life and self from what comes her way – a failed marriage, the need to earn a living, but also passion, pleasure and motherhood. Moving from Spain to Cuba to New York for an arranged second marriage, she faces her greatest challenge – her disabled stepdaughter, Luna, whose feistiness equals her own and whose challenges pit new family against old. Exploring identity, place and exile, "Kantika" also reveals how the female body – in work, art and love – serves as a site of both suffering and joy.
Nonfiction
"Ethel Rosenberg: An American Tragedy" by Anne Sebba (2021)
New York Times bestselling author Anne Sebba's moving biography of Ethel Rosenberg, the wife and mother whose execution for espionage-related crimes defined the Cold War and horrified the world. In June 1953, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, a couple with two young sons, were led separately from their prison cells on Death Row and electrocuted moments apart. Both had been convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage for the Soviet Union, despite the fact that the US government was aware that the evidence against Ethel was shaky at best and based on the perjury of her own brother. This book is the first to focus on one half of that couple for more than thirty years, and much new evidence has surfaced since then. Ethel was a bright girl who might have fulfilled her personal dream of becoming an opera singer, but instead found herself struggling with the social mores of the 1950's. She longed to be a good wife and perfect mother to her two small boys, while battling the political paranoia of the McCarthy era, anti-Semitism, misogyny, and a mother who never valued her. Because of her profound love for and loyalty to her husband, she refused to incriminate him, despite government pressure on her to do so. Instead, she courageously faced the death penalty for a crime she hadn't committed, orphaning her two young sons. Seventy years after her trial, this is the first time Ethel's story has been told with the full use of the dramatic and tragic prison letters she exchanged with her husband, her lawyer and her psychotherapist over a three-year period, two of them in solitary confinement. Hers is the resonant story of what happens when a government motivated by fear tramples on the rights of its citizens.
"Squirrel Hill: The Tree of Life Synagogue Shooting and the Soul of a Neighborhood" by Mark Oppenheimer (2021)
Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh is one of the oldest Jewish neighborhoods in the country, known for its tight-knit community and the profusion of multi-generational families. 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.
"The Money Kings: The Epic Story of the Jewish Immigrants who Transformed Wall Street and Shaped Modern America" by Daniel Schulman (2023)
The saga of the German-Jewish immigrants – with now familiar names like Goldman and Sachs, Kuhn and Loeb, Lehman and Seligman – who built the modern American finance system and shaped the world economy. Joseph Seligman arrived in the United States in 1837, with the equivalent of $100 sewn into the lining of his pants. Then came Henry and Emanuel Lehman, who would open a general store in Montgomery, Alabama. Not far behind was Marcus Goldman, among the 'Forty-Eighters' fleeing a Germany that had relegated Jews to an underclass. These industrious immigrants would soon go from peddling trinkets and buying up shopkeepers' IOUs to forming the largest investment banks in the world, underwriting businesses like Sears, General Motors, and Macy's that have long defined the face of a nation. In "Money Kings," Daniel Schulman follows these dynasties through their earliest gambits; their major business deals and ascent to the deeply antisemitic upper class of the Gilded Age; the complexities of the Civil War, World War I, and the Zionist movement that tested their fractured identities; and their enduring effect on the many non-German Jewish immigrants who came spilling off steamships in New York Harbor in the early 1900s, including Schulman's grandparents. With the dynamic banker and philanthropist Jacob Schiff leading the way, "The Money Kings" is an engrossing tale about materialism and moralism, family successions and alliances, and the immigrants who dreamed America into being.
"Zabar's: A Family Story, with Recipes" by Lori Zabar (2022)
When Louis and Lilly Zabar rented a counter in a dairy store on 80th Street and Broadway in 1934 to sell smoked fish, they could not have imagined that five decades later their store would occupy half a city block and become a beloved, world-renowned mecca for quality food of all kinds. A passion for perfection, a keen business sense, cutthroat competitive instincts, and devotion to their customers led four generations of Zabars to create the Upper West Side shrine to the cheese, fish, meat, produce, baked goods, and prepared products that heralded the 20th-century revolution in food production and consumption. Lori Zabar – Louis's granddaughter – begins with her grandfather's escape from Ukraine in 1921, following a pogrom in which his father, a sister, and an uncle were killed, and his illegal entry into the United States from Canada. She describes Zabar's gradual expansion, Louis's untimely death in 1950, and the passing of the torch to Saul, Stanley, and partner Murray Klein, who raised competitive pricing to an art form and added top-tier houseware and appliances to Zabar's shelves. She paints a delectable portrait of Zabar's as it is today – the intoxicating aromas, the crowds, the devoted staff – and shares behind-the-scenes anecdotes of the long-time employees, family members, eccentric customers, and celebrity fans who have created a uniquely American institution that honors its immigrant roots, revels in its New York history, and is relentless in its devotion to the art and science of selling gourmet food.