100 books like Snow in Jerusalem

By Deborah Da Costa, Cornelius Van Wright (illustrator), Ying-Hwa Hu (illustrator)

Here are 100 books that Snow in Jerusalem fans have personally recommended if you like Snow in Jerusalem. Shepherd is a community of 10,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.

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Book cover of Yaffa and Fatima: Shalom, Salaam

Arthur A. Levine Author Of The Hanukkah Magic of Nate Gadol

From my list on Hanukkah picture books for trying times.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve had a long career, publishing books that have won the highest awards in the industry, including two books that won Caldecott Medals. I’m best known as the editor of the Harry Potter books. But my expertise in this area also comes from being a father, a reader, and the author of several books with Jewish and intersectional themes.

Arthur's book list on Hanukkah picture books for trying times

Arthur A. Levine Why did Arthur love this book?

My motivations for recommending this book are very similar to the ones that make me recommend the previous book. 

Beyond the rhetoric of the news, what can we reach for that is undeniably true during these holidays that fall during the darkest days of the year?

Hebrew and Arabic have words for “Peace” that are nearly identical. Can we start there on a path to mutual understanding? Fawzia Gilani-Williams imagines this possibility.

By Fawzia Gilani-Williams, Chiara Fedele (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Yaffa and Fatima as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 4, 5, 6, and 7.

What is this book about?

Two neighbors―one Jewish, one Muslim―have always been best friends. When they both fall on hard times, can they find a way to help each other? In Fawzia Gilani's retelling of this folktale―which has both Jewish and Arab origins―differences are not always causes for conflict and friendship can overcome any obstacle.


Book cover of Red and Green and Blue and White

Arthur A. Levine Author Of The Hanukkah Magic of Nate Gadol

From my list on Hanukkah picture books for trying times.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve had a long career, publishing books that have won the highest awards in the industry, including two books that won Caldecott Medals. I’m best known as the editor of the Harry Potter books. But my expertise in this area also comes from being a father, a reader, and the author of several books with Jewish and intersectional themes.

Arthur's book list on Hanukkah picture books for trying times

Arthur A. Levine Why did Arthur love this book?

This inspiring picture book is based on the true story of a little boy whose family is the target of an anti-semitic incident during Hanukkah. The community responds not with aggression but solidarity, with hundreds of homes displaying menorahs in their windows.

This book illustrates the idea that kindness and faith can turn one light into many, an echo of the Hanukkah miracle.

The art by Caldecott Medalist Paul Zelinksy is powerful and gorgeous. Inspirational!

By Lee Wind, Paul O. Zelinksy (illustrator),

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Red and Green and Blue and White as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 4, 5, 6, and 7.

What is this book about?

On a block dressed up in Red and Green
one house shone Blue and White.

It's a holiday season that both Isaac, whose family is Jewish, and Teresa, whose family is Christian, have looked forward to for months! They've been counting the days, playing in the snow, making cookies, drawing (Teresa) and writing poems (Isaac). They enjoy all the things they share, as well as the things that make them different.

But when Isaac's window is smashed in the middle of the night, it seems like maybe not everyone appreciates "difference."

Inspired by a true story, this is a tale…


Book cover of The Trees of the Dancing Goats

Arthur A. Levine Author Of The Hanukkah Magic of Nate Gadol

From my list on Hanukkah picture books for trying times.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve had a long career, publishing books that have won the highest awards in the industry, including two books that won Caldecott Medals. I’m best known as the editor of the Harry Potter books. But my expertise in this area also comes from being a father, a reader, and the author of several books with Jewish and intersectional themes.

Arthur's book list on Hanukkah picture books for trying times

Arthur A. Levine Why did Arthur love this book?

In this warm telling of a cherished memory, Polacco presents a Jewish girl celebrating Hanukkah who discovers that her Christian neighbors are too sick with Scarlet Fever to celebrate their holiday. So she resolves to help. 

Patricia Polacco’s storytelling voice has brought warmth and comfort to millions of readers. Combined with her signature art, full of expressive lines and bright color combinations, Polacco produces a story about community that feels like a warm embrace.

By Patricia Polacco,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Trees of the Dancing Goats as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Trisha loves the eight days of Hanukkah, when her mother stays home from work, her Babushka makes delicious potato latkes, and her Grampa carves wonderful animals out of wood as gifts for Trisha and her brother. In the middle of her family's preparation for the festival of lights, Trisha visits her closest neighbors, expecting to find them decorating their house for Christmas. Instead they are all bedridden with scarlet fever. Trisha's family is one of the few who has been spared from the epidemic. It is difficult for them to enjoy their Hanukkah feast when they know that their neighbors…


Book cover of Daddy Christmas and Hanukkah Mama

Arthur A. Levine Author Of The Hanukkah Magic of Nate Gadol

From my list on Hanukkah picture books for trying times.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve had a long career, publishing books that have won the highest awards in the industry, including two books that won Caldecott Medals. I’m best known as the editor of the Harry Potter books. But my expertise in this area also comes from being a father, a reader, and the author of several books with Jewish and intersectional themes.

Arthur's book list on Hanukkah picture books for trying times

Arthur A. Levine Why did Arthur love this book?

This interracial, bi-religious couple expresses the joy of sharing holiday traditions in a book that is a collaboration on text and art, as well as in spirit.

As one of the parents of an interfaith family, I’ve found it very rare to see a book that embraces this reality so vivaciously.

Alko and Qualls present a family that approaches the holidays in a more integrated manner than mine does, still the main message is one of exuberant celebration encouraging interfaith kids to embrace their dual heritage.

By Selina Alko,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Daddy Christmas and Hanukkah Mama as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it. This book is for kids age 5, 6, 7, and 8.

What is this book about?

A perfect gift for the holiday season, no matter what you celebrate!

I am a mix of two traditions.
From Daddy Christmas and Hanukkah Mama.
How lucky am I?

Holiday time at Sadie's house means golden gelt sparkling under the Christmas tree, candy canes hanging on eight menorah branches, voices uniting to sing carols about Macabees and the manger, and latkes on the mantel awaiting Santa's arrival.

Selina Alko's joyous celebration of blended families will make the perfect holiday gift for the many Americans who celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah.


Book cover of Jerusalem: One City, Three Faiths

Andrew Lawler Author Of Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World's Most Contested City

From my list on grasping the conflict over Jerusalem.

Why am I passionate about this?

Exploring what is hidden beneath our feet has been a long-time obsession of mine, a passion has taken me into subterranean Syrian tombs, Kurdish caves, Thai grave pits, and buried Assyrian palaces. Since I break things, I let others do the digging and I do the writing. I'm particularly drawn to places that can help explain why humans became the urban species we are today. What did they believe, think, eat, drink, and dream about? And I'll take a dusty and nearly vanished mudbrick Sumerian sanctuary in a remote Iraqi desert to a crowded Egyptian stone temple any day.

Andrew's book list on grasping the conflict over Jerusalem

Andrew Lawler Why did Andrew love this book?

It is impossible to grasp the hold that Jerusalem has on billions of people on the planet—Jewish, Christian, or Muslim—without understanding what Armstrong, a religious scholar but a popular writer, calls its sacred geography.

This is a great one-stop shop to appreciate the religious pull that the Holy City has had on so many for so many generations—and how that pull has launched bloody wars as well as dramatic innovations of faith.

By Karen Armstrong,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Jerusalem as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

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Book cover of Jerusalem: The Biography

Andrew Lawler Author Of Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World's Most Contested City

From my list on grasping the conflict over Jerusalem.

Why am I passionate about this?

Exploring what is hidden beneath our feet has been a long-time obsession of mine, a passion has taken me into subterranean Syrian tombs, Kurdish caves, Thai grave pits, and buried Assyrian palaces. Since I break things, I let others do the digging and I do the writing. I'm particularly drawn to places that can help explain why humans became the urban species we are today. What did they believe, think, eat, drink, and dream about? And I'll take a dusty and nearly vanished mudbrick Sumerian sanctuary in a remote Iraqi desert to a crowded Egyptian stone temple any day.

Andrew's book list on grasping the conflict over Jerusalem

Andrew Lawler Why did Andrew love this book?

This is the go-to history of Jerusalem, an easy read that makes the city’s vast past digestible. It won’t leave you feeling overwhelmed with dates and names.

This is a fine effort to tell a complicated story in a single volume, with the caveat that it lends more weight to the Jewish and Christian points of view, and less to Arab and Muslim perspectives. 

By Simon Sebag Montefiore,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Jerusalem as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A new, updated, revised edition of JERUSALEM: THE BIOGRAPHY, the wider history of the Middle East through the lens of the Holy City, covering from pre-history to 2020, from King David to Donald Trump.

The story of Jerusalem is the story of the world.

Jerusalem is the universal city, the capital of two peoples, the shrine of three faiths; it is the site of Judgement Day and the battlefield of today's clash of civilisations. How did this small, remote town become the Holy City, the 'centre of the world' and now the key to peace in the Middle East? Drawing…


Book cover of Nine Quarters of Jerusalem: A New Biography of the Old City

Andrew Lawler Author Of Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World's Most Contested City

From my list on grasping the conflict over Jerusalem.

Why am I passionate about this?

Exploring what is hidden beneath our feet has been a long-time obsession of mine, a passion has taken me into subterranean Syrian tombs, Kurdish caves, Thai grave pits, and buried Assyrian palaces. Since I break things, I let others do the digging and I do the writing. I'm particularly drawn to places that can help explain why humans became the urban species we are today. What did they believe, think, eat, drink, and dream about? And I'll take a dusty and nearly vanished mudbrick Sumerian sanctuary in a remote Iraqi desert to a crowded Egyptian stone temple any day.

Andrew's book list on grasping the conflict over Jerusalem

Andrew Lawler Why did Andrew love this book?

There are many sweeping histories of Jerusalem, but this book tells the intimate stories of people and places that often get short shrift.

Teller takes us into the Arab as well as Jewish worlds of the Old City, and he serves as a gentle guide in the passionate and fraught politics of a city that, as he writes, “wears its history like a teenager wears a school uniform – joyless.”

By Matthew Teller,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Nine Quarters of Jerusalem as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

'Original and illuminating ... what a good book this is' Jonathan Dimbleby

'A love letter to the people of the Old City' Jerusalem Post

In Jerusalem, what you see and what is true are two different things. Maps divide the walled Old City into four quarters, yet that division doesn't reflect the reality of mixed and diverse neighbourhoods. Beyond the crush and frenzy of its major religious sites, much of the Old City remains little known to visitors, its people overlooked and their stories untold. Nine Quarters of Jerusalem lets the communities of the Old City speak for themselves. Ranging…


Book cover of Nachman Krochmal: Guiding the Perplexed of the Modern Age

Joshua A. Fogel Author Of Maiden Voyage: The Senzaimaru and the Creation of Modern Sino-Japanese Relations

From my list on Jewish history.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a historian of China and Japan whose work has hewed close to the cultural interactions between Chinese and Japanese over recent centuries. I’m now working on the history of the Esperanto movement in China and Japan from the first years of the twentieth century through the early 1930s. The topic brings together my interests in Sino-Japanese historical relations, linguistic scholarship, and Jewish history (the creator of Esperanto was a Polish-Jewish eye doctor). Over the last couple of decades, I have become increasingly interested in Jewish history. I think by now I know what counts as good history, but I’m still an amateur in Jewish history. Nonetheless, these books all struck me as extraordinary.

Joshua's book list on Jewish history

Joshua A. Fogel Why did Joshua love this book?

I have been for years intrigued by the character of Nachman Krochmal, the Jewish Hegelian scholar of the eighteenth century who wrote in Hebrew, but I was never able to find a coherent analysis of the man, his works, and his times that made satisfying sense—until I read Harris’s study.

By Jay M. Harris,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Nachman Krochmal as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

"A well-organized and engaging read."
Religious Studies Review
The first in-depth look at...an important nineteenth century Jewish thinker and historian. Well-written [and] well- researched."
The Jerusalem Post Magazine
"A significant contribution to our understanding of the rise of modern Judaism in its East European manifestation."
Choice
Harris examines Nachman Krochmal's work, particularly as it aimed to guide Jews through the modern revolution in metaphysical and historical thinking, thus enabling them to commit themselves to Judaism without sacrificing intellectual integrity.


Book cover of Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World's Most Contested City

Graham Addison Author Of Raiders of the Hidden Ark: The story of the Parker expedition to Jerusalem

From my list on helping understand Jerusalem.

Why am I passionate about this?

I've always loved history and it was the subject I took my degree in. After a career in business I've come back to history. I have an interest in how Britain has shaped our world; it has influenced more parts of the world than any other nation, sometimes for the better, but often for the worse. Jerusalem is the most pivotal city in the world and Britain has played a role in its long history. One part of this history is what led me to tell the story of an incredible British-led expedition to Jerusalem at the start of the 20th century, which sought the Ark of the Covenant.

Graham's book list on helping understand Jerusalem

Graham Addison Why did Graham love this book?

Jerusalem has been conquered, destroyed, and plundered throughout its history. Successive conquerors have built on their predecessors, as a result much of Jerusalem’s history is hidden.

This book tells the tale of a century and a half of people digging below Jerusalem to find what is hidden. While many of those who dug were reputable others had ulterior motives seeking either to prove their religious beliefs or their group’s claim to the city or sometimes seeking treasure.

They have and are being used to change the city and this book tells the history of their work and its impact on the citizens of the city. It is a fascinating tale. 

By Andrew Lawler,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Under Jerusalem as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A spellbinding history of the hidden world below the Holy City—a saga of biblical treasures, intrepid explorers, and political upheaval
 
“A sweeping tale of archaeological exploits and their cultural and political consequences told with a historian’s penchant for detail and a journalist’s flair for narration.”
—Washington Post

In 1863, a French senator arrived in Jerusalem hoping to unearth relics dating to biblical times. Digging deep underground, he discovered an ancient grave that, he claimed, belonged to an Old Testament queen. News of his find ricocheted around the world, evoking awe and envy alike, and inspiring others to explore Jerusalem’s storied…


Book cover of O Jerusalem!: Day by Day and Minute by Minute the Historic Struggle for Jerusalem and the Birth of Israel

Andrew Lawler Author Of Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World's Most Contested City

From my list on grasping the conflict over Jerusalem.

Why am I passionate about this?

Exploring what is hidden beneath our feet has been a long-time obsession of mine, a passion has taken me into subterranean Syrian tombs, Kurdish caves, Thai grave pits, and buried Assyrian palaces. Since I break things, I let others do the digging and I do the writing. I'm particularly drawn to places that can help explain why humans became the urban species we are today. What did they believe, think, eat, drink, and dream about? And I'll take a dusty and nearly vanished mudbrick Sumerian sanctuary in a remote Iraqi desert to a crowded Egyptian stone temple any day.

Andrew's book list on grasping the conflict over Jerusalem

Andrew Lawler Why did Andrew love this book?

If you want a gripping account of one of Jerusalem’s most critical moments, read this nonfiction tale that is paced like an action novel.

Collins and LaPierre piece together a coherent story with compelling characters—British, Jewish, and Arab—drawn from Israel’s chaos and the war that followed. You find yourself perched on a parapet on the Old City's ancient wall with Jordanian fighters, or creeping through the darkened streets with an Israeli combat unit. This is Jerusalem history at its most personal, violent, and nitty gritty.

By Larry Collins, Dominique Lapierre,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked O Jerusalem! as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Now a major motion picture, this remarkable classic recounts, moment by moment, the spellbinding process that gave birth to the state of Israel.

Collins and Lapierre weave a brilliant tapestry of shattered hopes, fierce pride, and breathtaking valor as the Arabs, Jews, and British collide in their fight for control of Jerusalem. O Jerusalem! meticulously re-creates this historic struggle. Collins and Lapierre penetrate the battle from the inside, exploring each party's interests, intentions, and concessions as the city of all of their dreams teeters on the brink of destruction. From the Jewish fighters and their heroic commanders to the charismatic…


5 book lists we think you will like!

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