Jewish American Heritage Month Library Materials

Below you will find a list of suggested films and books American Jewish Committee (AJC) put together for use during Jewish American Heritage Month. This list is by no means exhaustive, but we hope it will help you highlight materials for your communities.

Films:

American Jewish Culture

• A Serious Man (2009)
• Annie Hall (1977)
• Avalon (1990)
• Crossing Delancey (1988)
• Everything is Illuminated (2005)
• Funny Girl (1968)
• Goodbye, Columbus (1969)
• Hester Street (1975)
• The Chosen (1981)
• The Frisco Kid (1979)
• The Jazz Singer (1927, 1950, 1980)
• The Producers (1967, 2005)
• You’re So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah (2023)

Antisemitism in America

• Gentleman’s Agreement (1947)
• School Ties (1992)
• The Plot Against America (2020)

Documentaries

• Shared Legacies: The African American Jewish Civil Rights Alliance (2020)
• The Jewish Americans (2008)
• Viral: Antisemitism in Four Mutations (2020)

Books:

Non-Fiction

• Joyce Antler, You Never Call! You Never Write! A History of the Jewish Mother (2007)
• David Baddiel, Jews Don’t Count (2021) 
• Neil Baldwin, Henry Ford and the Jews: The Mass Production of Hate (2001)
• Hasia Diner, The Jews of the United States, 1654 to 2000 (2004)
• Sylvia Barack Fishman, Double or Nothing?: Jewish Families and Mixed Marriage (2004)
• Sylvia Barack Fishman, Follow My Footprints: Changing Images of Women in American Jewish Fiction (1992)
• Manfred Gerstenfeld and Steven Bayme, eds., American Jewry’s Comfort Level (2010)
• Melissa Fay Greene, The Temple Bombing (1996)
• Dara Horn, People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present (2022)
• Irving Howe, World of Our Fathers: The Journey of the East European Jews to America and the Life They Found and Made (2001)
• Jerome Karabel, The Chosen: The Hidden History of Admission and Exclusion at Harvard, Yale, and Princeton (2006)
• Albert Lee, Henry Ford and the Jews (1980)
• Deborah Dash Moore, At Home in America: Second Generation New York Jews (1981)
• Pamela Nadell, America's Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today (2019)
• Jonathan Sarna, American Judaism: A History (2004)
• Emily Tamkin, Bad Jews: A History of American Jewish Politics and Identities (2022)
• Michael W. Twitty, Kosher­soul: The Faith and Food Jour­ney of an African Amer­i­can Jew (2022)
• Sydney Stahl Weinberg, The World of Our Mothers: The Lives of Jewish Immigrant Women (2011)
• Steven Weisman, The Chosen Wars: How Judaism Became an American Religion (2019)
• Beth Wenger, The Jew­ish Amer­i­cans: Three Cen­turies of Jew­ish Voic­es in America (2007)
• David Zurawik, The Jews of Prime Time (2003)

Memoirs

• Mary Antin, The Promised Land (1912)
• James McBride, The Color of Water (1995)
• Tova Mirvis, The Book of Separation (2017)

Fiction

• Saul Bellow, Mr. Sammler’s Planet (1970)
• Abraham Cahan, Yekl and the Imported Bridegroom and Other Stories of Yiddish New York (1896)
• Michael Chabon, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (2012)
• Michael Chabon, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union (2007)
• Nathan Englander, Kaddish.com (2019)
• Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything is Illuminated (2022)
• Allegra Goodman, Kaaterskill Falls (1998)
• Dara Horn, The World to Come (2006)
• Tova Mirvis, Ladies Auxiliary (2000)
• Tova Mirvis, The Outside World (2004)
• Cynthia Ozick, The Shawl (1989)
• Grace Paley, The Collected Stories (1994)
• Chaim Potok, The Chosen (1969)
• Henry Roth, Call It Sleep (1934)
• Philip Roth, Goodbye Columbus (1994)
• Philip Roth, The Plot Against America (2005)
• Isaac Bashevis Singer, Lost in America (1981)
• Herman Wouk, Marjorie Morningstar (1955)
• Anzia Yezierska, Bread Givers (1925)

Books for Children:

• Preschool
  • Caroline Kusin Pritchard and Ariel Landy (Illustrator), Gitty and Kvetch (2021)
  • Sheryl Haft and Jill Weber (Illustrator), Goodnight Bubbala (2019)
  • Julie Merberg and Julie Wilson (Illustrator), My First Book of Famous Jews (2022)
  • Julie Merberg and Beck Feiner (Illustrator), My First Jewish Baby Book (2018)
• Lower School
  • Ruth Behar and Devon Holzwarth, Tia Fortuna’s New Home: A Jewish Cuban Journey (2022)
  • Nancy Churnin and Yevgenia Nayberg (Illustrator), A Queen to the Rescue: The Story of Henrietta Szold, Founder of Hadassah (2021)
  • Barbara Cohen, Molly’s Pilgrim (1983)
  • Debbie Levy, I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Mark (2016)
  • Sue Macy, The Book Rescuer (2019)
  • Michele Markel, Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers Strike of 1909 (2013)
  • Yona Zeldis McDonough, The Doll Shop Downstairs (2011)
  • Sheldon Oberman, The Always Prayer Shawl (1993)
  • Patricia Polacco, Mrs. Katz and Tush (1992)
  • Patricia Polacco, The Keeping Quilt (1988)
  • Sydney Taylor, All-of-a-Kind Family Series (1951)
  • Jane Breskin Zalben, Beni's Family Treasury: Stories for the Jewish Holidays (1998)
• Middle School
  • Nora Raleigh Baskin, The Truth About My Bat Mitzvah (2009)
  • Judy Blume, Starring Sally J. Friedman As Herself (1977)
  • Natasha Díaz, Color Me In (2019)
  • Veera Hiranandani, The Whole Story of Half a Girl (2012)
  • Chaim Potok, The Chosen (1969)
  • Susan Ross, Searching for Lottie (2019)