Books
Books recommended by JIMENA staff for readers, students, and educators exploring the history, literature, languages, and traditions of Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews. Browse children’s books, novels, history, Jewish languages, and Sephardic thought.
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A Boy from Baghdad
by Miriam HalahmyA middle grade historical novel for ages 8 and up about twelve year old Salman Shasha, who leaves Baghdad with his family in 1951 and struggles with a new name, refugee camp hardship, and his swimming dreams in Israel.
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A Cage Without Bars
by Anne DublinA historical novel for young readers about Joseph, a Jewish boy taken from his family after the expulsion from Spain and enslaved with other children on a sugar plantation off the coast of West Africa.
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A Ceiling Made of Eggshells
by Gail Carson LevineA middle grade novel about Loma, a Jewish girl in fifteenth century Spain who travels with her grandfather as he serves the royal court, set in the years leading up to the 1492 expulsion.
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A History of the Jews in Christian Spain
by Yitzhak BaerA classic history of Jewish communities in the Christian kingdoms of Spain from the Reconquest to the expulsion of 1492, covering their social, economic, and religious life.
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A History of the Jews of Arabia: From Ancient Times to Their Eclipse under Islam
by Gordon Darnell Newby
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A Hug From Afar: One family’s dramatic journey through three continents to escape the Holocaust
by Claire Barkey Flash
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A Jewish Childhood in the Muslim Mediterranean
by Edited by Lia BrozgalAn anthology of 34 autobiographical stories, curated by Leïla Sebbar and translated from French, in which Jewish writers recall childhoods in Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco in the mid twentieth century.
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A Mediterranean Society: The Jewish Communities of the Arab World as Portrayed in the Documents of the Cairo Geniza
by S.D. GoiteinA classic multivolume history of Jewish communities in the medieval Mediterranean, reconstructed from Cairo Geniza documents, covering trade, family life, community organization, and daily life.
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A Persian Passover
by Etan BasseriA picture book set in 1950s Iran, in which young Ezra rushes home with the family's matzo, ruins it in a puddle, and learns about community when a neighbor invites the family to her seder.
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A Persian Princess
by Barbara Diamond Goldin (Author), Steliyana Doneva (Illustrator)A Purim picture book for ages 5 to 10 in which Raya, too young for the school Purim play, learns from her grandmother about celebrating the holiday in Iran and stages a play of their own.
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A political and economic history of the Jews of Afghanistan
by Sara KoplikA history of Afghanistan's Jewish community from the nineteenth century through the mid twentieth century, examining trade, government policy, and the pressures that led to emigration.
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A Sephardic Passover Haggadah: With Translation and Commentary
by Marc D. AngelA Passover Haggadah following Sephardic tradition, with the Hebrew text, an English translation, and commentary by Rabbi Marc Angel drawing on Sephardic customs, teachings, and history.