Basic Home Library

 

Interested in Jewish civilization? Here are my suggestions for the essential books you should own and have in your home library. 

TORAH – FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES

Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary - Edited by David Lieber and Jules Harlow

Conservative.  Combines tradition with modernity

Next, try...

Commentary on the Torah by Richard Elliott Friedman and The Five Books of Moses by Robert Alter

 

PRAYER BOOK

Classic ArtScroll Siddur

By Rabbi Nosson Scherman and Rabbi Meir Zlotowitz

Right-wing Orthodox. Clear directions in English on what to do during prayer

When you're ready to move on, switch to all-Hebrew Siddur Koren (lots of versions), and for a superior English translation, change to the classic Phillip Birnbaum

JUDAISM EXPLAINED

Basic Judaism by Milton Steinberg 

Reform/Non-denominational. The concise 1965 classic.

And when you are ready to move on, Louis Jacobs, We Have Reason to Believe.

 

JEWISH HISTORY

The Story of the Jews: Finding the Words 1000 BC-1492 AD by Simon Schama

The Story of the Jews Volume Two: Belonging: 1492-1900 by Simon Schama

This is not a chronology, it is literature

RULES AND RITUAL

A Guide to Jewish Religious Practice by Isaac Klein 

Traditional/ConservoDox

THEOLOGY

Jewish Law as Rebellion by Nathan Lopes Cardozo

Orthodoxy, like I wish it was 

HOLOCAUST

Final Solution: The Fate of the Jews 1933-1949

by David Cesarani

Accessible and comprehensive

ARAB-ISRAEL CONFLICT

One State, Two States

by Benny Morris

Short and to the point

Read also

Catch-67: The Left, the Right, and the Legacy of the Six-Day War 

by Micah Goodman & Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor by

Yossi Klein Halevi