Inspired by her own grand­par­ents’ flight from East­ern Europe to Amer­i­ca, Doreen Rap­pa­port illu­mi­nates how 13 Jew­ish Amer­i­cans fought adver­si­ty to make impor­tant con­tri­bu­tions to Amer­i­can soci­ety and the world. Defin­ing moments in the lives of 13 promi­nent Jew­ish Amer­i­cans, from the first Jew­ish immi­gra­tion in the 1600’s to con­tem­po­rary fig­ures, are includ­ed in his­tor­i­cal order. The con­cise and well-researched nar­ra­tions focus on an impor­tant, life-influ­enc­ing moment in each person’s life. Many of the his­tor­i­cal fig­ures will be unknown to young read­ers and can lead them to seek more infor­ma­tion. Each selec­tion gives just enough back­ground infor­ma­tion about the times to put the person’s life into a con­text. The sub­jects cho­sen are bal­anced between male and female and are diverse in their occu­pa­tions. Whether they were speak­ing for women’s rights like Ernes­tine Rose and Pauline New­man or invent­ing some­thing like Jacob Davis or Jonas Salk, each per­son shares the com­mon trait of per­sis­tence, often against adver­si­ty. The book is attrac­tive­ly designed with full page water­col­or illus­tra­tions by Cor­nelius Van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu, cap­tur­ing the defin­ing dra­mat­ic moment in each person’s life. The for­mat and live­ly text make the book a good choice for a read-aloud in reli­gious school class­rooms to be fol­lowed up with more in-depth study of Amer­i­can Jew­ish his­to­ry. Fur­ther books and web sites are includ­ed and the selec­tions will make for more inter­est­ing read­ing about impor­tant Jew­ish fig­ures. For ages 7 – 10.