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.
Buy BookChildren’s & Young Adult Books
The Story of the Baba Sali
by Sarah FeldbrandA children's biography of Rabbi Yisrael Abuhatzeira, the Baba Sali, the revered Moroccan kabbalist who later lived in Netivot, Israel, told through stories of his piety and kindness.
Buy BookHistory & Nonfiction
The Sultan's Communists: Moroccan Jews and the Politics of Belonging
by Alma Rachel HeckmanA history of Moroccan Jews who joined the Communist Party from the 1930s through the 1960s, tracing their role in anticolonial and nationalist politics and their fate after Moroccan independence.
Buy BookFiction & Literature
The Weight of Ink
by Rachel KadishA novel alternating between 1660s London, where Ester Velasquez, a Portuguese Jewish orphan from Amsterdam, scribes for a blind rabbi, and the present day, as historians uncover her hidden letters.
Buy BookFiction & Literature
The White Islands / Las Islas Blancas
by Marjorie AgosínA bilingual Spanish and English poetry collection by Chilean Jewish writer Marjorie Agosín that meditates on exile, memory, and Sephardic heritage through imagery of Mediterranean islands such as Rhodes.
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The Woman Who Defied Kings: The Life and Times of Dona Gracia Nasi
by Andrée Aelion BrooksA biography of Doña Gracia Nasi, the sixteenth century Portuguese converso businesswoman who fled the Inquisition, ran a vast trading enterprise, rescued fellow conversos, and led Jewish life in Ottoman Constantinople.
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The Women of Israel: Characters and Sketches from the Holy Scriptures and Jewish History
by Grace AguilarA nineteenth century work by the English Sephardic writer Grace Aguilar offering character sketches of women from the Hebrew Bible and later Jewish history, written to inspire Jewish women of her time.
Buy BookChildren’s & Young Adult Books
The Wooden Sword: A Jewish Folktale from Afghanistan
by Carol Liddiment and Ann Redisch StamplerA picture book retelling of an Afghan Jewish folktale in which a disguised shah tests a poor man's faith, who replaces a sword with a wooden one when ordered to carry out an execution.
Buy BookMemoirs & Biographies
The Wrong Kind of Jew: A Mizrahi Manifesto
by Hen MazzigPart memoir, part manifesto,The Wrong Kind of Jew catalogues the Jewish population of the Middle East and North Africa, their history, and the voices who fail to meet the expectations of both the Jewish and non-Jewish world—yet are better for it.
Buy BookHistory & Nonfiction
The Yemenites: Two Thousand Years of Jewish Culture
by Ester Muchawsky-SchnapperAn illustrated Israel Museum volume on the material culture of Yemenite Jews, presenting their costume, jewelry, ritual objects, manuscripts, and daily life alongside essays on two thousand years of community history.
Buy BookFiction & Literature
This Is Not a Cholent
by Sarah Sassoon; illustrated by Viviana GarofoliIn this picture book, Amira and her Nana enter a cholent contest in Australia with their Iraqi Jewish t'bit, a slow cooked Shabbat stew of stuffed chicken, rice, and spices, gently showing that Jewish food is more than Ashkenazi food.
Buy BookHistory & Nonfiction
Threads of Silk: The Story of Bukharian Jewry
by David YeroushalmiCatalogue associated with the 2013 Beit Hatfutsot exhibition on Bukharan Jews of Central Asia, presenting their history, family and religious life, textiles, dress, and jewelry, and their ties to Zion.
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Tía Fortuna’s New Home: A Jewish Cuban Journey
by Ruth Behar (Author), Devon Holzwarth (Illustrator)A picture book in which Estrella helps her great aunt Fortuna move from her Miami Beach home, learning about the family's Sephardic journey from Spain to Turkey to Cuba and the key she carries.