Looking for a Jewish book to read with your family or on your own? Check out this list of
books featuring diverse characters, inter-cultural friendships, and stories about important Jewish values
like learning from
each other, welcoming others, and respecting
differences.
Related: Resources For Talking With Children About Race and Racism
Books For Babies
Everything looks new when seen from a child’s perspective, including menorahs, dreidels, and latkes.
But family togetherness is something everyone understands.
Join this Sephardic family as they gather together to light candles, drink wine and grape juice, eat
challah, and wish one another a Buen Shabat!
Follow along with a little boy as he celebrates Shabbat with his large, diverse, family.
Babies adore looking at faces -- whether they’re smiling or frowning, all expressions are
captivating. This book offers up some Hebrew while also presenting a variety of fascinating baby faces.
Your little one will want to “read” these faces again and again!
In this child’s household, Shabbat is different from the rest of the week -- slower, quieter, more
peaceful. Most of all, everyone has more time to spend with one another. That’s what makes
Saturdays so special.
The children in this book sign words for things people do on Shabbat, such as eat challah, drink wine or
grape juice, sing Shabbat songs, and (of course!) read books. Shabbat Shalom!
The book overflows with clear, colorful images of faces of all ages and ethnicities dancing the hora at a
wedding, hugging a Torah, eating matzah, blowing a shofar, lighting a menorah, hula hooping, and playing
musical instruments. Yemenite, Asian, African American, and Caucasian faces giggle, smile, frown, and
celebrate joyous moments on the playful pages of this gentle rhyming book.
Picture Books
Jillian is wary of spending any time with Bubbe, her new stepdad’s mom. What will her Noni and Gram think? But Bubbe’s matzo ball soup sparks an idea to bring everyone together, and Jillian learns there’s always room for more family.
Sophie has two Grandmas from two different cultures, and they each make their own kind of chicken soup --
and each soup is delicious! The more Sophie learns about those soups, the more she realizes how similar
they actually are -- on many levels.
Everyone in Goldie Simcha’s apartment building knows it’s Friday night when they smell her
delicious Shabbat cholent. But one Friday night, Goldie doesn’t feel well enough to cook. Her
neighbors step up to create a very special Shabbat potluck for the entire building to enjoy together.
Honey takes care of her garden every day -- even though she's going to be moving away soon. Laurel, her
neighbor next door, knows she's going to miss her. But Honey explains to her that friendship, like
her garden, has a way of growing -- despite time and distance.
Mrs. Goldman takes care of everyone in the neighborhood, including her young neighbor, Sophia. When Mrs.
Goldman gets sick, Sophia creates a special “get well” present with a very personal touch.
It’s a beautiful day in Maya’s neighborhood -- and her neighbors have sunny-day activities
planned. But it’s Shemini Atzeret, and that means Jews the world over will pray for rain. Maya is
worried -- will this ruin the day for her friends.
When Ezra Jack Keats was growing up, he knew what it was like to feel different and left out. So when he
created his famous picture book, A Snowy Day, he had an idea about how to write and draw his main
character, Peter.
Instead of latkes, this family celebrates Hanukkah with tasty Indian dosas. To her brother's chagrin, little
Sadie won't stop climbing on everything both at home and at the Indian grocery store, even while preparing
the dosas. As the family puts the finishing touches on their holiday preparations, they accidentally get
locked out of the house. Sadie and her climbing skills just may be exactly what is needed to save the day.
Yaffa and Fatima are dear friends, despite coming from different backgrounds. When times get tough, how
will they look after each other? This rendition of a classic Jewish folktale is an inspiring look at how
friendship perseveres.
Plucky Yuvi, a little Jewish girl living in Ethiopia, dreams of a place where candy grows on trees. Based
on a true story, this book tells of Yuvi’s extraordinary journey to Israel with her grandmother --
a passage from famine and fear to oranges and freedom.
Middle Grade Books For Tweens and Teens
Tara Feinstein’s decision to celebrate her bat mitzvah is making her life really complicated. What
would her beloved Nanaji say? Does she really believe in God? And why is her best friend Ben-o acting so
weird around her?
As the only black girl at Hebrew school, Imani’s less than curious about her adoptive family’s
Jewish history, and more than a little curious about her own. How can she find out about her birth family
without hurting her mom’s feelings?
10-year-old Ruthie and her family are Jewish-Cuban immigrants who emigrate to the United States when Castro
comes to power. Soon afterwards, a car accident leaves Ruthie in a body cast for a year. Ruthie’s
fears that she will never walk again, her good friend’s awkwardness with her illness, and
Ruthie’s struggles to keep her own spirits up add depth and complexity to this beautifully written
book, which is based on the author’s childhood and gives a fascinating glimpse into the world of
Jewish-Cuban immigrant life in 1960s New York.
Gustave’s family has made it to America, but life isn’t as easy as he thought it would be. His
accent and clothes are weird, and everyone disapproves of his friendship with Seppie. Should he stick by
her, or do what it takes to fit in?
Baseball is a great escape, but can it solve your problems? Nine year-old Joey Sexton has to grow up fast
– his African American dad is gone, his Jewish mother just died, and now he has been sent to live
with his mother’s family in Brooklyn. Joey’s zayde (grandfather) acts as though Joey
can’t do anything right. Sure, Joey can play a mean game of baseball, but is that enough to impress
the person whose affection he wants most?
Sahay and Rahel are all alone, traveling through strange and dangerous territory in Ethiopia, trying to
reach Jerusalem.
When her mom gets a big promotion, Meskerem must leave her beloved home and start school in a new town far
away. As if that’s not bad enough, now she’s the only kid of color in the entire fifth grade!
Will she ever fit in and make friends?
When her beloved grandmother, Nana, dies and leaves her a Star of David necklace, Caroline becomes curious
about her Jewish identity. She thinks she might want a Bat Mitzvah like her best friend Rachel, but what
is a Bat Mitzvah anyway, and what will her non-Jewish dad think?
Sixth grader, Sonia Nadhamuni, is half-Jewish and half-South Asian. When her father loses his job, she is
forced to switch from a private, alternative school that she loves, to the local public school. Sonia
struggles to understand herself and her Jewish identity, particularly in her relationships with Alisha
(an African American aspiring writer) and Kate (a popular cheerleader).
For Grown-Ups
An intimate memoir in essays by an award-winning Israeli writer who travels the world, from New York to
India, searching for love, belonging, and an escape from grief following the death of her father when she
was a young girl. With fierce, emotional prose, Tsabari crafts a beautiful meditation about the lengths
we will travel to try to escape our grief, the universal search to find a place where we belong, and the
sense of home we eventually find within ourselves. Description from the author's
website.
Color Me In is a coming of age story about Nevaeh, a white passing, biracial, Jewish 15-year-old,
who learns how to own her privilege as she searches for her place within her two very different worlds
and prepares for a belated bat mitzvah. Description from the author's website.
The Color of Love explores the idea of yerusha, which means "inheritance"
in Yiddish. At turns heart-wrenching and heartwarming, this is a story about what you inherit from your
family--identity, disease, melanin, hate, and most powerful of all, love. With honesty, insight, and
warmth, Marra B. Gad has written an inspirational, moving chronicle proving that when all else is
stripped away, love is where we return, and love is always our greatest inheritance. Summary excerpt
from Goodreads.com.
A culinary historian travels the routes of his ancestors in the Old South, immersing himself in a complex
weaving of food history and politics, genealogy and genetics, and discovers on the way surprising truths
about family, identity, and the destiny of the Southern table. Description from the author's website
One day, the far-away world comes to Mauritius, and Raj meets David, a Jew exiled from his home in Europe
and imprisoned in the camp where Raj's father works. David becomes the friend that he has always
longed for, a brother to replace those he has lost. Raj knows that he must help David to escape. As they
flee through sub-tropical landscapes and devastating storms, the boys battle hunger and malaria - and
forge a friendship only death can destroy. The Last Brother is a powerful, poetic novel
that sheds new light on a little-explored aspect of 20th-century history. Description via Google
Books.
More
7 Books for
Babies and Toddlers That Celebrate Diversity
How to Raise Anti-Racist
Jewish Kids via kveller.com
What's
Jewish About Respecting Differences?
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June 11, 2020