At the end of last year, at my best friend’s urging, I set real New Year’s resolutions for the first time in my life. These were small, actually achievable goals. No vague “exercise more” or “be healthy.” Instead, it was things like “take a solo vacation” (check, planned for next month), or “learn how to change a flat tire on my bike” (should probably watch a Youtube on that before my next ride).
One of my goals was to do more Jewish learning, and so far — mea culpa! — I have made no progress.
The idea came from a rabbinical student I met last summer at the Aspen Ideas Festival who, after hearing what I do for work, asked where I get my Jewish content. What do you mean? I asked. It’s my job! I talk to rabbis and Jewish politicians and activists everyday. I spend hours tracking what’s happening in the Middle East. Isn’t this Jewish learning?
In talking to her, I realized that what I miss in my daily conversations about antisemitism and Israel and Jew-ish current events is the deeper religious and spiritual stuff at the core of Judaism. I love my job, and I feel grateful to be able to write about issues that matter to me. But doing so isn’t a substitute for thinking about the Torah portion (what book are we in now?) or picking up a book by a rabbi or asking big questions about life and faith and why it all matters.
With that in mind, I decided to crowd-source some Jewish reading material. It’s that time of year when Jews start to say, “Oh my God, can you believe it’s almost the High Holidays?” So maybe it’s the knowledge that Yom Kippur is coming and I’ll have to account for all the ways I’ve erred, but I’m feeling energized, and ready to enter 5786 with intentionality (and some new books on my Goodreads).
I reached out to friends, mentors, and my Instagram followers to ask for Jewish book recommendations. A lot of people have asked what was recommended to me. In no particular order, here’s the list. Books I’ve read are in bold.
Let me know what books you love, or what else I should add to the list. And if you want to be my hevruta on any of these books — bring it on.
Jeremiah, Binyamin Lau
When the Angels Left the Old Country, Sacha Lamb
To Heal a Fractured World, Jonathan Sacks
If All the Seas Were Ink, Ilana Kurshan
A Letter in the Scroll, Jonathan Sacks
This Is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared, Alan Lew
Everyday Holiness, Alan Morinis
I and Thou, Martin Buber
My Jewish Year, Abigail Pogrebin
The Amen Effect, Sharon Brous
Dancing on Tisha b’Av, Lev Raphael
The Choice, Edith Eva Eger
Future Tense, Jonathan Sacks
Judaism’s Ten Best Ideas, Art Green
Here All Along, Sarah Hurwitz
Letters to a Buddhist Jew, Akiva Tatz and David Gottlieb
Be a Blessing, Esther Jungreis
Beyond the Synagogue, Rachel B. Gross
Emunah with Love and Chicken Soup, Sara Rigler
Spinning Silver, Naomi Novik
The Golem & the Jinni, Helene Wecker
By Any Other Name, Jodi Picoult
The World to Come, Dara Horn
Tablets Shattered, Joshua Leifer
Sisters at Sinai, Jill Hammer
Putting God Second, Donniel Hartman
Lessons in Leadership, Jonathan Sacks
Judaism Is About Love, Shai Held
The Jew in the Lotus, Rodger Kamenetz
New Jewish Canon, Yehuda Kurtzer and Claire Sufrin
You Shall Be as Gods, Erich Fromm
The Torah of Leadership, Erica Brown
Sacred Fragments, Neil Gilman
Living a Life That Matters, Harold Kushner
The Treasury of Unearned Gifts, Chaim Kramer
Triumph of Life, Yitz Greenberg
The Sweetness of Forgetting, Kristin Harmel
The Sabbath, Heschel
PS: Last year I wrote an essay in Hey Alma about my Jewish mother-daughter book club. Check it out.
A sign at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington.
We have very similar taste in Jewish literature <3 Great selections!