Guide to Jewish Literature - July/August 2023

While the Nazis round up Polish Jews and herd them to concentration camps, four separate young Jews find ways to escape, adjust, and fight back. The force that drives them is an iron will to survive—against overwhelming odds—to find lost family, refuse to bow to antisemitic force, and to retaliate. Four survivors tell their stories of incredible success in a time rich with failure.  Their experiences lead to a new mindset: a breed of Jews who will eventually create a Jewish state dedicated to never letting another Holocaust stain history. These precious few greatly changed Jewish life.  

200 years in the making –  since Sir Walter Scott wrote Ivanhoe: What does Rebecca, perhaps the first positive Jewish character in European literature, do after fleeing England for her life? Yearning to work as a healer, rebelling against expectations of marriage and children, Rebecca studies at the medical school in Salerno. But political turmoil in the early 13th century brings unwelcome changes to the once tolerant Kingdom of Sicily. When a visiting rabbi from Egypt is falsely accused of murder, Rebecca must race against time to pursue justice.  

Tel Aviv, 1949: The search for a missing boy takes private detective Adam Lapid on a perilous journey toward a shocking truth. A thrilling historical mystery, book 1 of the popular Adam Lapid series. Recommended by the Jewish Book Council and loved by thousands of readers worldwide.

Days are bad in the Great Depression of the 1930s. But for little Willie Mittleman and the Mittleman clan in their Bronx, NY neighborhood, life is still good, proving that laughter and love will always be the lifesaving forces to rescue us from adversity and pain.  A big-hearted gem. Funny, touching and insightful.  For readers of all ages.  

Saga of Generations is a family story of Jewish people, some who escaped the horrific murderous ways of Russia taking place in 1818, going through generations over four continents, including the World War 1. This book includes love, lust, and heartache. Read and you will feel that each of these characters are part of your family.

An award-winning and riveting historical novel of four generations of an immigrant family. When matriarch Ida escapes a pogrom in Ukraine determined to save her family, she cannot foresee the struggles of her descendants. Through war, mental illness, secrets and betrayal, each generation’s actions impact the lives of the next, as love and loyalty is tested by secrets and betrayal. You will recognize these family members and grieve and rejoice with them. Readers cannot put the book down. Gift it for the holidays. Pick it for your book club and author will Zoom with you for a lively conversation. 

A Picture Book Making Hurt Events a Little Easier on Everyone. Bea is a curious little girl who wants to know about the boys on the wall at the doctor’s office. Her Mom reads the stories teaching pain help vocabulary to her while they wait.   

The year is 1937 in the first pages of this intriguing World War II novel, an important year for Henry Rebbenoff. He hopes to be hired as the new Cantor of Temple Beth Elohim in Charleston, South Carolina and he meets the lovely southern Jewish belle Ada Tobias. As war comes America’s shores, Cantor Henry must make decisions that will affect him and his family. Does he make the right choices? Journey over the years with Henry through this beautifully written novel.

A chapter of the Shoah, mostly unknown outside of Israel, this book portrays the deportation of Jews to Siberian Labor Camps in 1941, and the sickness and death they endured before a daring rescue by Youth Aliyah. That Joe Rosenbaum and over a thousand Jewish children endured such a three-year journey is a powerful reminder of the miraculous strength of the human will to survive. 

Drawing on Henrietta Szold’s letters and diary entries, and extensive research and historical sources of that time in Germany and Palestine, This Labyrinth of Darkness and Light is a powerful narrative and spellbinding rescue story, that brings to life one of the darkest and yet most inspirational chapters in Jewish history.

Kill Brothers is a pulse-pounding, cold case thriller that delivers page-turning twists and turns, weaving together historical fiction (World War II) and modern-day DNA analysis. Will NYPD’s Detective Mills murder investigation link him back to Greta Weber’s shocking secret of nearly a century before? From the 1920s Germany to 2018 in Brooklyn, Kill Brothers will keep readers racing through the pages until its mind-bending conclusion.  

“A masterpiece of love and survival” – James Carroll (Constantine’s Sword). “A gripping page-turner… as dramatic and powerful an account of the Holocaust era as a reader is likely to find.” Chris Leppek – Intermountain Jewish News. The Štaub family; Irene, Frici, and young son Oskar, citizens of Prešov, Slovakia, flee into the forbidding Tatra mountains in the winter of 1944. Young Osi finds the courage and resiliency to cope with physical and emotional challenges far beyond his years.  

Weinstein’s bestselling novel has charmed readers across the globe. Set in the picturesque Florida Keys, Charlotte finds herself torn between the love she thought she wanted and the one she knows she needs. As a hurricane passes through Islamorada, stunning revelations challenge Charlotte’s loyalties and she embarks on an emotional journey of friendship, love, and sacrifice—knowing that forgiveness is a gift, and the best-laid plans can change in a heartbeat. A tender, moving story of heartbreak and healing that asks the question: Which takes more courage—holding on or letting go?