Library Guides: e-Book Displays: Jewish American Heritage Month

Jewish American Heritage Month

It 's Jewish American Heritage Month! Each May, hundreds of organizations and Americans of all backgrounds join together to discover, explore, and celebrate the vibrant and varied American Jewish experience from the dawn of our nation to the present day. Notable Jewish Americans include Jonas Salk, who developed one of the first polio vaccines; Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who was a supreme court justice; and the filmmaker Steven Spielberg. There are many stories of extraordinary individuals who illustrate the epitome of what’s possible when someone is given the chance to dream, dare, and do. Learn more about each through two minute films.

Read: In addition to the e-books below and the exhibit in Ellis Library, this list is full of all types of books (children's, adults, nonfiction, etc.) related to the Jewish experience!

Watch: Check out this selection of films, shows, and documentaries that embrace the essence of Jewish experience in its many forms.

Listen: The landscape of Jewish podcasts are as diverse as the Jewish community—filled with humor and heritage, history and mystery, facts and famous figures, scholarship and celebration.

About

This LibGuide was created by Ashley Granger for ISLT9489: Cultural Heritage with Dr. Jason Alston.

E-books

Moses: A Human Life by Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg
ISBN: 9780300209624

Publication Date: 2016-11-22

No figure looms larger in Jewish culture than Moses, and few have stories more enigmatic. Moses's vexing personality, his uncertain origins, and his turbulent relations with his own people are acutely explored by Zornberg, who sees this story, told and retold, as crucial not only to the biblical past but also to the future of Jewish history.
Novelists of the Jewish Culture by Carl Rollyson (Editor)
ISBN: 9781429836944

Publication Date: 2012-05-30

Every article in this set was carefully selected by our editors to provide the best information available about the topic covered. The essays in Jewish Novelists discuss such influential writers as Saul Bellow, Primo Levi, Philip Roth and Elie Wiesel.
Early Yiddish Epic by Jerold Frakes (Translator, Editor)
ISBN: 9780815633556

Publication Date: 2014-07-07

Unlike most other ancient European, Near Eastern, and Mediterranean civilizations, Jewish culture surprisingly developed no early epic tradition. Among the few dozen extant early epics, there are several masterpieces, of which ten are translated into English in this volume.
Poets of Jewish Culture by Rosemary M. Canfield (Editor)
ISBN: 9781429836630

Publication Date: 2011-09-30

Every article in this set was carefully selected by our editors to provide the best information available about the topic covered. The essays in Poets of Jewish Culture discuss such influential poets as Allen Ginsberg, Philip Levine, Geturde Stein, and Adrienne Rich.
The Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion by Adele Berlin (Editor-In-Chief); Maxine Grossman (Editor-In-Chief)
ISBN: 9780199730049

Publication Date: 2011-03-14

The Dictionary covers more than three millennia of Jewish religious thought, custom, law, and practice, from traditional approaches to Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist, and post-denominational Judaism. Brief definitions and longer essays, all supplemented with bibliographies, enlighten readers about the major figures, folklore, and events in the history of Judaism throughout the world.

Jewish American Heritage Month PSA

E-books

Feeling Jewish: (A Book for Just About Anyone) by Devorah Baum
ISBN: 9780300212440

Publication Date: 2017-08-22

Self-hatred. Guilt. Resentment. Paranoia. Hysteria. Overbearing Mother-Love. In this witty, insightful, and poignant book, Devorah Baum delves into fiction, film, memoir, and psychoanalysis to present a dazzlingly original exploration of a series of feelings famously associated with modern Jews.
Jewish Art in America by Matthew Baigell
ISBN: 9780742546400

Publication Date: 2006-11-27

This book concentrates on exploring and examining Jewish subject matter employed by artists as they illustrated aspects of their religious and ethnic heritage and as they responded to major events over the decades.
Jewish Life and Culture in Germany After 1945 by Katrin Keßler (Editor); Sarah M. Ross (Editor); Barbara Staudinger (Editor); Lea Weik (Editor)
ISBN: 9783110750713

Publication Date: 2022-08-22

By analysing objects like prayer books, musical instruments, Torah scrolls, audio documents and prayer rooms, this volume shows how the post-war communities created new Jewish musical, architectural and artistic forms while abiding by the tradition.
The Rise and Fall of Jewish American Literature by Benjamin Schreier
ISBN: 9780812252576

Publication Date: 2020-10-16

In a polemic against what he sees as the unexamined foundations and stagnant state of the field, Schreier interrogates a series of professionally powerful assumptions about Jewish American literary history.
Concise Companion to the Jewish Religion by Louis Jacobs
ISBN: 9780192800886

Publication Date: 1999-09-09

This highly readable guide to Judaism contains a wealth of information on every aspect of Jewish belief and practice, both ancient and modern. From Maimonides to Methuselah, Kabbalah to Kibbutz, Louis Jacobs provides an invaluable source of information for anyone wanting to learn more about the rich and diverse heritage of the Jewish religion.
A Short History of Judaism and the Jewish People by Steven Leonard Jacobs
ISBN: 9781350236462

Publication Date: 2023-12-14

In this exciting addition to Bloomsbury's Short Histories series, Steven Leonard Jacobs critically yet concisely examines the history of Judaism and the Jewish people, drawing from maps, photographs and archives to illuminate the history of one of the world's oldest religions.

Notable Jewish Americans

Michael W. Twitty, author and educator

Emma Lazarus, author, poet, and activist

Judith Heumann, activist

Jack Keats, author

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Supreme Court Justice

E-books

The Joys of Jewish Preserving by Emily Paster
ISBN: 9781558328754

Publication Date: 2017-07-15

Jewish cooks, even casual ones, are proud of the history of preserved foods in Jewish life, from the time of living in a desert two millennia ago, to the era in which Jews lived in European ghettoes with no refrigeration during the last century. In a significant sense, the Jewish tradition of preserved foods is a symbol of the Jewish will to survive.
Understanding Judaism by Nel Yomtov
ISBN: 9781532114274

Publication Date: 2018-08-01

Understanding Judaism covers the history of Judaism and explores how the religion has evolved and expanded. Readers learn about the branches of Judaism, Jewish beliefs, and the influence Jews have had on the world. This title also discusses anti-Semitism Jews have faced, both today and during history.
Women of Valor by Karen E. H. Skinazi
ISBN: 9780813596020

Publication Date: 2018-09-07

Media portrayals of Orthodox Jewish women frequently depict powerless, silent individuals who are at best naive to live an Orthodox lifestyle, and who are at worst, coerced into it. Karen E. H. Skinazi delves beyond this stereotype in Women of Valor. She examines Orthodox women as they appear in memoirs, comics, novels, and movies, and speaks with the authors, filmmakers, and musicians who create these representations.
Israel Celebrates by Hizky Shoham
ISBN: 9789004343863

Publication Date: 2017-04-13

Israel Celebrates is about the intersection where Israeli inventiveness and Jewish tradition meet: the holidays. It employs the anthropological history of four Jewish holidays as celebrated in Israel in order to track the naturalization of Jewish rituals, myths, and symbols in Israeli culture.

Listen

Jewish operas. Volume 1
The golem (1962). Act II: Finale / Abraham Ellstein -- Chelm (1956). Scene 2 ; Scene 3 ; Scene 4 ; Scene 5 / Robert Strassburg -- The Dybbuk (1951). Lord of the Earth! (Act I) ; Wedding music ; Under the Earth's surface ; Prelude to act II ; Dance of the beggars ; The song of Israel / David Tamkin.
The Jewish soul
Eli, Eli : Israeli folk song / David Zehavi ; arr. Roy Friedman (2:45) -- Méditation hébraïque : for cello and piano / Ernest Bloch (6:29) -- Hassidic suite : for cello and piano / Joachim Stutschewsky (9:34) -- From Jewish life : for cello and piano / Ernest Bloch (9:07) -- Yizkor = In memoriam : for cello and piano / Oedoen Partos (10:22) -- Kaddish : for cello and piano / Mark Kopytman (14:50) -- Kol nidrei : op. 47 / Max Bruch ; arr. Günter Ribke (10:47).
Jewish rhapsody ; Hebrew suite ; Paraphrases on old Jewish folk songs / Juliusz Wolfsohn
Hungarian rhapsody no. 8 / Franz Liszt -- Jewish rhapsody / Juliusz Wolfsohn -- Hungarian rhapsody no. 7 / Franz Liszt -- Hebrew suite op. 8 / Juliusz Wolfsohn -- Hungarian rhapsody no. 3 / Franz Liszt -- Paraphrases on old Jewish folk songs / Juliusz Wolfsohn -- Hungarian rhapsody no. 13 / Franz Liszt.
From Jewish life
Kol nidrei, op. 47 / Max Bruch (9:31) -- Sonata for violoncello and piano / Ernest Bloch (13:44) -- Kinah / Joachim Stutschewshy (5:18) -- Dona, Dona / Traditional (1:49) -- Avreml, the pickpocket / Traditional (3:26) -- Meditation I, from Mass / Leonard Bernstein (4:08) -- Meditation II, from Mass / Leonard Bernstein -- Prayer, From Jewish life / Ernest Bloch (3:30) -- Supplication, From Jewish life / Ernest Bloch (2:11) -- Jewish song, From Jewish life / Ernest Bloch (2:13) -- Méditation hébraïque / Ernest Bloch (5:47) -- Chanukah oy Chanukah / Traditional (3:24) -- Nigun (improvisation from Baal Shem (3 pictures of Chassidic life) / Ernest Bloch (7:23).
A Jewish legacy / Leonard Bernstein
Israelite chorus (1:56) -- Invocation and trance : from Dybbuk (Patrick Gnage, baritone; Jason Smith, bass baritone) (3:52) -- Psalm 148 (Angelina Réaux, mezzo-soprano) (4:29) -- Reenah (1:41) -- Three wedding dances. The first waltz (canon) ; Cha-cha-cha ; Hora (3:00) -- Yevarechecha (Michael Sokol, baritone; Aaron Miller, organ) (1:41) -- Ḥalil (Bonita Boyd, flute; unidentified percussionist) (14:59) -- Simchu na (Miller) (2:38) -- Oif mayn kha'sne (Sokol) (5:14) -- Vayomer Elohim (Howard Stahl, cantor) (1:15) -- Yigdal (1:24) -- Four sabras. Ilana, the dreamer ; Idele, the chassidele ; Yosi, the jokester ; Dina, the tomboy who weeps alone (7:00) -- Silhouette : Galilee (Réaux) (2:08) -- Hashkiveinu (Hans Peter Blochwitz, tenor; Christopher Bowers-Broadbent, organ) (5:05).
Jewish string quartets
Études sur des thèmes liturgiques du comtat Venaissin, 1973 / Darius Milhaud (9:00) -- Two Hassidic moods, 1934 / Abraham Wolf Binder (12:00) -- String quartet no. 3 : In memoriam Holocaust, 1997 / Ruth Schonthal (19:00) -- Kol nidre, 1996 / John Zorn (6:20) -- String quartet in C minor, 1945 / Sholom Secunda (32:00).
Jewish soul : lively Jewish music at its best / Mike Tabor
The bandit's nigun -- Inner thoughts -- Nigun of the Ba'al Shem Tov -- V'somachto -- U'zu azoh -- The Sabbath, "L'cho dodi" -- Wedding processional -- The Sabbath, "M'Ain olam Habo" -- A varbrengen nigun -- Azamair b'shvochim -- Yom-bom-bom -- Farewell to the Sabbath nigun -- The "donkey" nigun -- Rachmono d'Onai -- Omar hashem l'Yaakov -- Vos darf mir sorgen? -- T'chias ha'maisim. Bonus tracks: Chassidic dance -- Baym rebins sude -- Melody from a burning bush (Chassidic melody)