Sunday, May 25th 2025   |

Books

Dara Horn’s gonzo, time-traveling children’s Passover book wants people to love living Jews

By ANDREW SILOW-CARROLL

(JTA) — “All of my books are the same book,” said Dara Horn, the author of seven novels and the 2021 essay collection, “People Love Dead Jews,” which may be the most talked-about Jewish book of the...

Teen novel about women vampires wins a top prize for Jewish children’s books

By PENNY SCHWARTZ

(JTA) — By day, sisters Molly and Clara appear to be modern-day New Yorkers, living in an indie cinema that was once home to a Yiddish theater. At night, they transform into estries — owl-like women vampires...

Lee Yaron’s account of Oct. 7 attacks named Jewish book of the year

By ANDREW SILOW-CARROLL

(JTA) — Israeli journalist Lee Yaron’s account of the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel and their aftermath was named the book of the year at the 74th National Jewish Book Awards, making her the youngest author ever...

This year’s High Holiday kids’ books are a celebration of Jewish diversity

By PENNY SCHWARTZ

(JTA) — The enduring traditions of the High Holiday season take shape across time and place in the latest crop of children’s books about Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot. 

This year’s books transport readers back to...

Ta-Nehisi Coates’ new book compares Israel’s treatment of Palestinians to the Jim Crow South

By BEN SALES

(JTA) — Ta-Nehisi Coates, the public intellectual whose writing has sparked national conversations about reparations and race in the United States, has written a book indicting Israel for its mistreatment of Palestinians and occupation of their territory.

...

How a 1929 massacre of Jews in Hebron foreshadowed Oct. 7

By ANDREW SILOW-CARROLL

(JTA) — Before Oct. 7, there was Aug. 24. 

 On that date in 1929, “3,000 Muslim men armed with swords, axes, and daggers marched through the Jewish quarter of Hebron,” writes Yardena Schwartz. Before the day was...

Albany Book Festival cancels panel with Jewish moderator, citing ‘impasse’ over her Zionism

By JACKIE HAJDENBERG

(JTA) — An authors’ panel at an Albany book festival Saturday has been canceled after organizers said two panelists refused to share a stage with the “Zionist” moderator.

Elisa Albert, who is Jewish, was set to moderate...

How Gabrielle Zevin’s ‘Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow’ became an unlikely lightning rod in literary fights over the Israel-Hamas war

By ANDREW LAPIN

(JTA) — “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow,” Gabrielle Zevin’s novel about video game designers, has dominated the bestseller list for two years and was recently chosen as one of the New York Times’ best 100 books of...

Legal scholar Noah Feldman on the 10 Commandments, Christian nationalism and the Jewish future of church and state

By ANDREW SILOW-CARROLL

(JTA) — One week after Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry signed legislation requiring that the Ten Commandments be displayed in every public classroom in the state, nine families — including three Jewish families — filed suit in federal...

Pulitzer Prize finalist tells story of the little-known Jewish lawyer who tried to keep Emma Goldman out of jail

By ANDREW SILOW-CARROLL

(JTA) — In his 2012 book, “Pox,” historian Michael Willrich looked at the politics of vaccination during the last great waves of smallpox in the United States. That’s when he discovered the case files of Harry Weinberger...