Hostage by Eli Shara­bi, trans­lat­ed by Eylon Levy

“Despite the hell­ish con­di­tions they were in and the cru­el­ty they faced, Eli Shara­bi makes clear that it was the bonds between him and his fel­low cap­tives that helped him to sur­vive. Shara­bi was not par­tic­u­lar­ly reli­gious, but he and the oth­er hostages had Kid­dush every Fri­day night, since Eliya was obser­vant. Shara­bi found solace in prayers like the She­ma, along with oth­er Jew­ish rit­u­als.” ‑Jaime Herndon

When We See You Again by Rachel Goldberg-Polin

“She is not try­ing to con­vince read­ers that she is fine or will be fine; instead, she search­es Jew­ish texts and tra­di­tions and her own mem­o­ries for indi­ca­tions that one day she might be okay. At least until when she is reunit­ed with her son Hersh in The World to Come.” ‑Jaime Herndon

10/7: 100 Human Sto­ries by Lee Yaron

“Much like 9/11 is for Amer­i­cans, 10/7 has become short­hand for Jews around the world — short­hand for the sin­gle dead­liest day for Jews since the Shoah. How does one even start to chron­i­cle a day that saw over 1,200 peo­ple slaugh­tered, 251 kid­napped, and thou­sands more injured? How does one orga­nize a nar­ra­tive that describes the unex­pect­ed ter­ror attack from air, land, and sea?” ‑Jaime Herndon

If You’re Read­ing These Words: Last Let­ters from the Heroes of the Octo­ber 7th War by Shlo­mo Kavas and Rache­li Palant-Rozen

“You Read These Words by Shlo­mo Kavas and Rache­li Palant-Rozen, trans­lat­ed from Hebrew by Sara Daniel, has an ambi­tious premise: bring­ing the unmedi­at­ed voic­es of fall­en sol­diers in the form of the let­ters they left behind​“just in case” they did not come back from the bat­tle­field. Forty-nine let­ters are fea­tured in this col­lec­tion, rep­re­sent­ing bare­ly 5 per­cent of the sol­diers and mem­bers of the secu­ri­ty forces killed on Octo­ber 7 and the ensu­ing war.” ‑Vivan Cohen-Leisorek

Am Yis­rael Chai: Essays, Poems, and Prayers for Israel by Men­achem Creditor

“Am Yis­rael Chai is a poet­ry anthol­o­gy that was born in response to Octo­ber 7. The poems dif­fer in style, tone, and pol­i­tics, but they all emerge from the same well­spring of sor­row. This remark­able book pro­vides the read­er with a cap­sule of one of the Jew­ish community’s defin­ing moments of reck­on­ing in the twen­­ty-first cen­tu­ry.” ‑Ariel­la Carmell

A Prayer of Six Wings by Owen Lewis

“At the heart of Owen Lewis’s new poet­ry col­lec­tion, A Prayer of Six Wings, is the dilem­ma faced by Jews around the world today: how do we live our lives in the face of the ongo­ing cri­sis in the Mid­dle East, with all of its ram­i­fi­ca­tions, includ­ing the way it’s fuel­ing anti­semitism? For Lewis, the dilem­ma is exac­er­bat­ed by the con­cern he feels for his daugh­ter and her fam­i­ly, who live in Tel Aviv.” ‑Stew­art Florsheim

The Future Is Peace: A Shared Jour­ney Across the Holy Land by Aziz Abu Sarah and Maoz Inon

“The the­sis of the book is that though the authors expe­ri­enced tragedy due to the ongo­ing con­flict, they still believe that there is a place for learn­ing, dia­logue, growth, and, one day, peace. When Abu Sarah was younger, his broth­er was killed by Israeli forces after being beat­en in prison for throw­ing rocks. Moaz’s par­ents were killed on Octo­ber 7th by Hamas. For some, these loss­es might engen­der fear or hatred of the oth­er. Yet, for Abu Sarah and Inon, they do the oppo­site. The book explains how it was their shared pain that brought them togeth­er, first in friend­ship and then in activism.” ‑Marc Katz

The Gates of Gaza: A Sto­ry of Betray­al, Sur­vival and Hope on Israel’s Bor­der­lands by Amir Tibon

“Rather than try­ing to tell every sto­ry from Octo­ber 7th, he talks about his family’s ordeal on that day. And rather than telling the com­plete his­to­ry that led up to the attack, the book chron­i­cles the sto­ry of Israel through Tibon’s home com­mu­ni­ty, Kib­butz Nahal Oz, and how the kibbutz’s loca­tion, at the bor­der of Gaza, shaped who they were and are.” ‑Marc Katz

Rup­tured: Jew­ish Women in Aus­tralia Reflect on Life Post-Octo­ber 7 by Lee Kof­man and Tamar Paluch

“More than eight thou­sand miles sep­a­rate Israel from Aus­tralia, but the events of Octo­ber 7, 2023 cre­at­ed a new real­i­ty for Jews liv­ing on the island con­ti­nent. This is cap­tured in a col­lec­tion of thir­­ty-six essays by as many dif­fer­ent Aus­tralian women, each of whom reflects on how her own small world— her fam­i­ly and friend­ships, her work and pro­fes­sion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties, and her rela­tion­ship to Israel and/​or Judaism — changed in the after­math of the attacks.” ‑Vivian Cohen-Leisorek

Israel Alone by Bernard-Hen­ri Lévy

“In this slim vol­ume, French philoso­pher, writer, and film­mak­er Bernard-Hen­ri Lévy decon­structs Octo­ber 7th, 2023, the day the gates of hell opened and every­thing changed. Between Octo­ber 6th and Octo­ber 8th fell a dark­ness that has yet to lift.” ‑Gila Wertheimer

Octo­ber 7: The Wars Over Words and Deeds by Asaf Romirowsky and Don­na Robin­son Divine

“Octo­ber 7: The Wars Over Words and Deeds asks impor­tant ques­tions that will chal­lenge read­ers of all polit­i­cal lean­ings to think for them­selves.” ‑Marc Katz

While Israel Slept: How Hamas Sur­prised the Most Pow­er­ful Mil­i­tary in the Mid­dle East by Yaakov Katz and Amir Bohbot

“Ever since Octo­ber 7, 2023, a ques­tion has been asked time and again: How could this have hap­pened? While Israel Slept: How Hamas Sur­prised the Most Pow­er­ful Mil­i­tary in the Mid­dle East by jour­nal­ist Yaakov Katz and jour­nal­ist and pro­fes­sor Amir Bohbot explores this issue in depth. It’s not just a look at that day and its after­math, though — it’s also an exam­i­na­tion of how Hamas devel­oped and gained pow­er, its fund­ing streams, and the road to com­pla­cen­cy that Israel trav­eled until that Octo­ber day.” ‑Jaime Herndon

To Phrase A Prayer for Peace by Don­na Spruijt-Metz

“To Phrase a Prayer for Peace is a tes­ta­ment to poet­ry’s capac­i­ty to hold con­tra­dic­tion with­out res­o­lu­tion, to bear wit­ness with­out claim­ing false author­i­ty, and to call on the divine, and the mys­ti­cal, in the midst of human bro­ken­ness. It offers no solu­tions to the intractable con­flicts it address­es, but pro­vides some­thing per­haps more valu­able: a mod­el for how to remain human in the face of inhu­man­i­ty, how to main­tain hope with­out deny­ing despair, and how to pray when prayer feels impos­si­ble.” ‑Joan­na Chen

The Holy and the Bro­ken: A Cry for Israeli-Pales­t­in­ian Peace from a Land That Must Be Shared by Ittay Flescher

“On near­ly every page, Ittay walks patient­ly with his read­ers, intro­duc­ing them to the sto­ries, peo­ple, and nar­ra­tives that make up the con­flict. In doing so, he leaves read­ers with a bet­ter appre­ci­a­tion of what is tru­ly at stake when vio­lence breaks out in Israel or Gaza.” ‑Marc Katz

One Day in Octo­ber: Forty Heroes, Forty Sto­ries by Yair Agmon and Oriya Mevorach

“One Day in Octo­ber allows us to reflect on the pow­er of good­ness to dis­pel dark­ness. It pro­vides hope and assures us that evil can­not pre­vail.” ‑Jonathan Fass

The Think­ing Heart: On Israel and Pales­tine by David Gross­man, trans­lat­ed by Jes­si­ca Cohen

“In a time of numb­ness and despair, this book is here to remind us of an Israel of empa­thy, ratio­nal­ism, and human­i­ty. Grossman’s sub­jects range from the evic­tion of Pales­tin­ian fam­i­lies in East Jerusalem, to the still-loom­ing threat to democ­ra­cy posed by the assault on the judi­cia­ry and the Supreme Court, to the mar­gin­al­iza­tion of Israel’s Arab cit­i­zens and Ara­bic itself, to the hor­rif­ic trau­ma of Octo­ber 7th, the Gaza war, and the uncer­tain future that lies ahead.” ‑Ranen Omer-Sherman

The Heroes of Octo­ber 7th: Hero­ic Sto­ries for Chil­dren by Hadas­sa Ben Ari

“But it is impor­tant to recall that that day, and those which fol­lowed, were also times of hero­ism, brav­ery, and courage. Chil­dren around the world who are learn­ing about this recent his­to­ry must be made aware of that fact and take com­fort in know­ing that this was so. It was a time when many reached deep into their souls and found the abil­i­ty to help oth­ers.” ‑Michal Hoschan­der Malen