DVD
The Windermere Children
Based on a true story of the harrowing and ultimately life-affirming story of Holocaust children who were relocated and rehabilitated in the UK after World War II. It began with uncertainty and fear in the new land, however it eventually led to the triumph of hope and goodwill and life-long friendship and happiness that they all cherish. Includes PBS documentary.
Other new titles:
- A Jewish Founding Father: Alexander Hamilton’s Hidden Life (video lecture)
- Farewell to My Country
- Jewish Broadway: From Shtetl to Sondheim (video lecture)
- The Incredible Journey: Daniel
GRAPHIC NOVEL
When I Grow Up: The Lost Autobiographies of Six Yiddish Teenagers by Ken Krimstein
When I Grow Up is New Yorker cartoonist Ken Krimstein’s new graphic nonfiction book, based on six of hundreds of newly discovered, never-before-published autobiographies of Eastern European Jewish teens on the brink of WWII―found in 2017 hidden in a Lithuanian church cellar. These autobiographies, long thought destroyed by the Nazis, were written as entries for three competitions held in Eastern Europe in the 1930s, just before the horror of the Holocaust forever altered the lives of the young people who wrote them. In When I Grow Up, Krimstein shows us the stories of these six young men and women in riveting, almost cinematic narratives, full of humor, yearning, ambition, and all the angst of the teenage years. It’s as if half a dozen new Anne Frank stories have suddenly come to light, framed by the dramatic story of the documents’ rediscovery. Beautifully illustrated, heart-wrenching, and bursting with life, When I Grow Up reveals how the tragedy that is about to befall these young people could easily happen again, to any of us, if we don’t learn to listen to the voices from the past.
FICTION
Magical Meet Cute by Jean Meltzer
\Faye Kaplan used to be engaged. She also used to have a successful legal practice. But she much prefers her new life as a potter in Woodstock, New York. The only thing missing is the perfect guy. Not that she needs one. She’s definitely happy alone. That is, until she finds her town papered with anti-Semitic flyers after yet another failed singles event at the synagogue. Desperate for comfort, Faye drunkenly turns to the only thing guaranteed to soothe her—pottery. A golem protector is just what her town needs…and adding all the little details to make him her ideal man can’t hurt, right? When a seriously hot stranger mysteriously turns up the next day, Greg seems too good to be true—if you ignore the fact that Faye hit him with her bike. And that he subsequently lost his memory… But otherwise, the man checks Every. Single. Box. Causing Faye to wonder if Greg’s sudden and spicy appearance might be anything but a coincidence.
Other new titles:
- By Any Other Name by Jodi Picoult
- Next Stop by Benjamin Resnick
- Olive Days by Jessica Elisheva Emerson
- Scandal at the Alphorn Factory: New and Selected Short Fiction, 2024-1984 by Gary Barwin
- The Life Impossible by Matt Haig
- Trust Me by Scott Nadelson
- Wayfarers by Arnon Z. Shorr
NON-FICTION
Israel Alone by Bernard-Henri Lévy
Weaving in fifty years of experience with Israel, Bernard-Henri Lévy analyzes global responses to October 7, the new virulent waves of the oldest hatred in the world: anti-Semitism, why Israel is waging this existential war against barbarism alone, and what’s at stake for Israel and the world. Bernard-Henri Lévy’s Israel Alone is a passionate and outraged cri-de-coeur, about the loneliness of Israel and the tragedy of October 7, starting with Lévy’s eyewitness account the day after the pogroms. On October 8, 2024, Bernard-Henri Lévy flew to Israel to bear witness to the unprecedented invasion and massacre committed by Hamas. Israel Alone begins here and weaves in Lévy’s fifty years on the ground in Israel, from his first trip in 1967, his experiences writing on all the conflicts since, and his participation in various peace plans and contacts with all the Israeli leaders from Menachem Begin to Shimon Peres and from Ariel Sharon to Yitzak Shamir and Yitzak Rabin. From his unique philosophical and humanist perspective, Lévy analyzes the ultimate evil unleashed on Israel on October 7 and delves into how the Islamic Republic of Iran, Russia, radical Islamist groups, Turkey, and China have played roles and profited from this tragedy. The book addresses how October 7, though historic in scope, became, within weeks, a “detail” in the global consciousness amid a worldwide eruption of anti-Semitism, cloaked in anti-Zionism. Lévy deconstructs the arguments of those calling for a “cease-fire now” without the release of all hostages and of those who demand that October 7 be seen within a greater “context.” Lévy’s meditation on the soul of Zionism and Israel shows why this war is existential, not only for Israel but for the global West. And yet, despite the urgency and critical nature of this war, Israel takes it on alone. Lévy analyzes, today, why this is so and why Israel’s solitude is greater than ever.
Other new titles:
- Embracing Hope: On Freedom, Responsibility, and the Meaning of Life by Victor E. Frankl
- First Lady of Laughs: The Forgotten Story of Jean Carroll, America’s First Jewish Woman Stand-up Comedian by Grace Kessler Overbeke
- For Times Such as This: On Being Jewish Today by Elliot Cosgrove
- It Takes Two to Torah: An Orthodox Rabbi and Reform Journalist Discuss and Debate Their Way Through the Five Books of Moses by Abigail Pogrebin and Rabbi Dov Linzer
- No Road Leading Back: An Improbable Escape from the Nazis in a Place Called Ponar, and the Tangled Way We Tell the Story of the Holocaust by Chris Heath
- On Settler Colonialism: Ideology, Violence, and Justice by Adam Kirsch
- One Jewish State: The Last, Best Hope to Resolve the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict by David Friedman
- The Triumph of Life: A Narrative Theology of Judaism by Rabbi Irving Greenberg
YOUNG READER
When We Flew Away: A Novel of Anne Frank Before the Diary by Alice Hoffman
Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl has captivated and inspired readers for decades. Published posthumously by her bereaved father, Anne’s journal, written while she and her family were in hiding during World War II, has become one of the central texts of the Jewish experience during the Holocaust, as well as a work of literary genius. With the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, the Frank family’s life is turned inside out, blow by blow, restriction by restriction. Prejudice, loss, and terror run rampant, and Anne is forced to bear witness as ordinary people become monsters, and children and families are caught up in the inescapable tide of violence. In the midst of impossible danger, Anne, audacious and creative and fearless, discovers who she truly is. With a wisdom far beyond her years, she will become a writer who will go on to change the world as we know it. Critically acclaimed author Alice Hoffman weaves a lyrical and heart-wrenching story of the way the world closes in on the Frank family from the moment the Nazis invade the Netherlands until they are forced into hiding, bringing Anne to bold, vivid life. Based on extensive research and published in cooperation with the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, When We Flew Away is an extraordinary and moving tour de force.
Other new titles:
- Not Nothing by Gayle Forman
JUVENILE
I Like Your Chutzpah: And Other Yiddish Words You’ll Like by Suzy Altman
I Like Your Chutzpah is a casebound board book that showcases and defines popular Yiddish words through a playful lens that will validate Jewish readers and inform and entertain Jews and non-Jews alike!
Other new titles:
- Avital the Pirate by Pamela Moritz
- Balia the Klooper by Jennifer Tzivia MacLeod
- A Dragon for Hanukkah by Sarah Mlynowski
- Challah, Challah, for You and Me by Barbara Bietz and June Sobel
- Challah for Shabbat Tonight by Sara Holly Ackerman
- I Like Your Chutzpah: And Other Yiddish Words You’ll Like by Suzy Altman
- Mixed-up Moon Cakes by Christina Matula and Erica Lyons
- On a Chariot of Fire: The Story of India’s Bene Israel by Erica Lyons
- One Small Spark: A Tikkun Olam Story by Ruth Spiro
- Tali and the Toucan by Mira Z. Amiras
- Use Your Voice by Alice Tapper
