Books

antisemitism

• We Need to Talk About Antisemitism

  Rabbi Diana Fersko, 2023

  A rabbi lays out what antisemitism actually looks like right now instead of arguing about what to call it.

• People Love Dead Jews

  Dara Horn, 2021

  Horn goes looking for why people love dead Jews more than living ones, and the answer stings.

• Jews Don't Count

  David Baddiel, 2021

  Baddiel's argument is short and simple: antisemitism keeps getting left off the list, and he counts the ways.

• How to Fight Anti-Semitism

  Bari Weiss, 2019

  Weiss names the antisemitism on the left and the right without picking a favorite villain.

• Antisemitism: Here and Now

  Deborah Lipstadt, 2019

  The scholar who built her career studying Holocaust denial turns to the antisemitism happening right now.

craft

• The Comedy Bible

  Judy Carter, 2001

  The how-to book behind a lot of the joke structure we steal on purpose.

history

• The Romance of a People

  Howard Fast, 1941

  Old school and a little dated, and still the book that got a lot of us asking more questions.

• The Story of the Jews

  Simon Schama, 2013

  A five thousand year history that Schama somehow keeps readable one volume at a time.

humor

• The Yiddish Policemen's Union

  Michael Chabon, 2007

  A noir novel set in a Jewish Alaska that never existed, and somehow still true to the culture.

• The Joys of Yiddish

  Leo Rosten, 1968

  The original Yiddish word dictionary with jokes attached, half reference book and half stand-up bit.

ideas

• Jewish Priorities: Sixty-Five Proposals for the Future of Our People

  David Hazony, 2023

  Sixty five short proposals instead of one big theory, which is the point.

• Jewish Wisdom for Business Success

  Levi Brackman, 2008

  Torah and Talmud read as a business book, and it mostly works.

• Uncomfortable Conversations with a Jew

  Emmanuel Acho and Noa Tishby, 2024

  A Black Christian and an Israeli actress ask each other the questions people are usually too polite to ask.

israel

• Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth

  Noa Tishby, 2021

  The Israel primer we hand to someone who asks a genuine question and doesn't want a lecture.

• Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn

  Daniel Gordis, 2016

  The one-volume version of how Israel got built, minus the shouting.

• Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor

  Yossi Klein Halevi, 2018

  Written as actual letters to an imagined neighbor, which makes the argument land differently than an op-ed.

• My Promised Land

  Ari Shavit, 2013

  Shavit interviews his way through Israel's contradictions instead of picking a side and staying there.

religion

• Judaism For Dummies

  Rabbi Ted Falcon, 2001

  Yes, it's a Dummies book. It's also a genuinely useful crash course, so it's on the shelf.

• Kabbalah For Dummies

  Arthur Kurzweil, 2006

  Same deal as the Judaism one: the title undersells it, the content actually delivers.

• The Rabbi's Brain: Mystics, Moderns and the Science of Jewish Thinking

  Andrew Newberg and David Halpern, 2018

  Two doctors ask what's actually happening in a rabbi's head during prayer, with the brain scans to show it.

• Jewish Literacy

  Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, 1991

  The book we hand someone who wants the basics of Jewish history, religion, and culture in one place.

• Living a Jewish Life

  Anita Diamant

  A practical guide to actually living Jewishly, not just believing it.

• Here All Along

  Sarah Hurwitz, 2019

  A White House speechwriter who knew almost nothing about Judaism goes looking, and reports back.