On Her Own by Lihi Lapid, trans­lat­ed by Son­dra Silverston

Moses: A Human Life by Avi­vah Got­tlieb Zornberg

“Moses: A Human Life chal­lenges read­ers to see Moses in an orig­i­nal and thought-pro­­vok­ing way — not as a leader or a prophet, but as a man whose dis­abil­i­ties and con­flicts make him unique­ly qual­i­fied to speak for God and to achieve God’s pur­pose.” ‑Maron L. Waxman

The Mid­wives’ Escape: From Egypt to Jeri­cho by Mag­gie Anton

“In her lat­est work of his­tor­i­cal fic­tion, The Mid­wives’ Escape, she pro­vides a new telling of the Exo­dus sto­ry… Anton has done her research among schol­ars, includ­ing the debate over what route the Israelites took and how long they stayed at each camp.” ‑Mag­gie Anton

The Nov­el of Fer­rara by Gior­gio Bas­sani, trans­lat­ed by Jamie McKendrick

“The city had a small but vibrant Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty and among its ear­ly twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry denizens was Gior­gio Bas­sani, who would put Fer­rara on the map of the lit­er­ary imag­i­na­tion.” ‑Mar­tin Green

The Passover Hag­gadah: A Biog­ra­phy by Vanes­sa L. Ochs

“For any­one inter­est­ed in the emer­gence and com­plex evo­lu­tion of the Hag­gadah, this biog­ra­phy offers a trove of infor­ma­tion in engag­ing and invit­ing lan­guage.” ‑Maron L. Waxman

A Place of Exo­dus: Home, Mem­o­ry, and Texas by David Biespiel

“Grow­ing up in Mey­er­land, the his­toric Jew­ish sec­tion of Hous­ton, David Biespiel had a thor­ough Jew­ish upbring­ing, includ­ing Hebrew school, Shab­bos ser­vices, a Jew­ish fra­ter­ni­ty, fundrais­ing for Israel, and much more.” ‑David Biespiel

The Telling: How Judais­m’s Essen­tial Book Reveals the Mean­ing of Life by Mark Gerson

“Through a series of well-writ­ten, ser­mon­ic vignettes, Ger­son delves into the major themes and mes­sages with­in the hag­gadah, while simul­ta­ne­ous­ly pro­duc­ing an invalu­able resource for all those who crave new mate­r­i­al for their fam­i­ly cel­e­bra­tions.” ‑Marc Katz

The Dis­si­dent by Paul Goldberg

“Through­out the book, Gold­berg illus­trates the ways in which Jew­ish mem­o­ry threat­ens the Sovi­et order, chal­leng­ing the State’s vaunt­ed self-image, its claim to hav­ing cre­at­ed a so-called com­mu­nist par­adise.” ‑Don­ald Weber

We Are Not Strangers by Josh Tuininga

“In this inno­v­a­tive graph­ic nov­el set in Seat­tle dur­ing World War II, Josh Tuininga depicts the friend­ship between Mar­co Cal­vo, a Sephardic Jew­ish Amer­i­can, and his neigh­bor Sam Akiya­ma, a Japan­ese Amer­i­can.” ‑Emi­ly Schneider

On All Oth­er Nights: A Passover Cel­e­bra­tion in 14 Sto­ries edit­ed by Chris Baron, Joshua S. Levy, and Nao­mi Milliner

“There are fif­teen steps in a tra­di­tion­al Passover seder, and each sto­ry in the col­lec­tion con­tains a twist on one of them. In a short intro­duc­tion to each sto­ry, the step of the seder and a def­i­n­i­tion for it are list­ed. There are also ques­tions to get read­ers think­ing about the seder and the hol­i­day as a whole, ques­tions that per­tain to top­ics like sym­bol­ism in the meal, fam­i­ly tra­di­tions, and prompts for fur­ther dis­cus­sion and reflec­tion.” ‑Jamie Herndon

“Por­tal to Passover: A Con­ver­sa­tion with Dara Horn” by Emi­ly Schneider

“I want­ed to cap­ture some of the diver­si­ty of seder expe­ri­ences, but also the ways in which this sto­ry res­onates at dif­fer­ent points in Jew­ish his­to­ry, points where it becomes lit­er­al.” ‑Dara Horn

Work­i­tu’s Passover  by Maayan Ben Hagai and Zaha­va Goshen, illus­trat­ed by Eden Spivak

“Instead of try­ing to remove every par­ti­cle of chametz from the home, the Beta Israel smash dish­es and then cre­ate new ones out of the remain­ing dust mixed with new clay. In Workitu’s Passover, the tit­u­lar young girl is ambiva­lent about this prac­tice but, through the sup­port of a strong female rel­a­tive, she learns how destruc­tion of old objects can cre­ate space for the new.” ‑Emi­ly Schneider

Ellis Island Passover by Maris­sa Moss

“Maris­sa Moss’s pic­ture book about this home-cen­tered fes­ti­val begins with a girl’s admis­sion of frus­tra­tion with some aspects of the hol­i­day, and then describes how one old­er rel­a­tive renews the child’s feel­ings of iden­ti­fi­ca­tion with an exo­dus to free­dom by telling her about his long-ago past.” ‑Emi­ly Schneider

Fear No Pharaoh: Amer­i­can Jews, the Civ­il War, and the Fight to End Slav­ery by Richard Kreitner

“Mak­ing resource­ful use of the enor­mous body of schol­ar­ship that already exists on this sub­ject, Kre­it­ner sheds light on how vexed Jews were by the ques­tion of slav­ery and, at the same time, how ful­ly engaged they were in the strug­gle to come to terms with it.” ‑Michael Hoberman

One Lit­tle Goat: A Passover Cat­a­stro­phe by Dara Horn, illus­trat­ed by Theo Ellsworth

“An immer­sive voy­age through Jew­ish his­to­ry ensues. Caught in a kind of time warp with a wise goat as his guide, the son inter­acts with a range of peo­ple and places from the past.” ‑Emi­ly Schneider

Iosi, the Remorse­ful Spy by Miri­am Lewin and Hora­cio Lutzky, trans­lat­ed by Frances Riddle

“Iosi, the Remorse­ful Spy unearths an unset­tling true sto­ry: that of José​“Iosi” Pérez, an Argen­tine intel­li­gence agent assigned to infil­trate the country’s Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty.” ‑Jes­si­ca Ruetter

I’ll Be Right Here by Amy Bloom

“Amy Bloom writes with warmth, humor, and love for this dis­parate group, who are a true fam­i­ly if not in actu­al fact. A high­light of their lives togeth­er is an inter­faith Passover seder, which pro­vides a love­ly mod­el of comi­ty and togeth­er­ness.” ‑Mar­tin Green

“Pesach: The Most Under­rat­ed Hol­i­day” by Mark Gerson

“The ques­tions that the Hag­gadah enables us to ask go to the heart of who we are and who we might want to be. This is true for us in our capac­i­ty as indi­vid­u­als, Jews, par­ents, com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers, and even Amer­i­cans.” ‑Mark Gerson