• The Best Books for Hanukkah - Fear No Evil by Natan Sharansky
  • The Best Books for Hanukkah - The Ruined House by Ruby Namdar
  • The Best Books for Hanukkah - The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson
  • The Best Books for Hanukkah - Pumpkinflowers: A Soldier's Story of a Forgotten War by Matti Friedman
  • The Best Books for Hanukkah - The Frozen Rabbi by Steve Stern

The Best Books for Hanukkah, recommended by Dara Horn

Hanukkah means ‘a dedication’ and the celebration of the Jewish holiday towards the end of every year commemorates the success of the Jewish revolt against the Seleucid Empire and the re-consecration of the Temple of Jerusalem in the second century BCE. Here, award-winning novelist Dara Horn recommends books that speak to the powerful themes of Hanukkah and explains why Jewish people are encouraged to light menorahs publicly around the world.

  • The best books on Jewish Vienna - Tante Jolesch or the Decline of the West in Anecdotes by Friedrich Torberg & Maria Poglitsch Bauer (translator)
  • The best books on Jewish Vienna - The Road into the Open by Arthur Schnitzler & Roger Byers (translator)
  • The best books on Jewish Vienna - The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth
  • The best books on Jewish Vienna - The World of Yesterday by Stefan Zweig & Anthea Bell (translator)
  • The best books on Jewish Vienna - Last Waltz in Vienna by George Clare

The best books on Jewish Vienna, recommended by Brigid Grauman

In the late 19th and early 20th century, Vienna had a vibrant intellectual and cultural life, embraced and at times led by key figures in its large Jewish community. All that would disappear with the rise of anti-Semitism and the Anschluss. Many Jews fled or committed suicide. Others were deported to concentration camps. After the war some went back, but Vienna would never be the same. Here Brigid Grauman, whose father’s family were assimilated Jews from Vienna, recommends books that evoke that poignant, tragic period that ended with World War II.