What to Read
if you want to learn more about Israel?
Here is a categorized list of books to get you started.
Disclaimer: I have read many, but not all, of them, though I'm working on it.
The pictures link to their pages on Amazon.
HISTORY
Jerusalem: The Biography by Simon Sebag Montefiore
Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn by Daniel Gordis
Return to Zion: The History of Modern Israel by Eric Gartman
Israel: A History by Martin Gilbert
A Voice Called: Stories of Jewish Heroism by Yossi Katz
The Heights of Courage by Avigdor Kahalani (about the Yom Kippur War in the Golan Heights)
The Letters of Yonatan (Jonathan) Netanyahu by Benjamin and Iddo Netanyahu
Six Days of War – June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East by Michael Oren
1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War by Benny Morris
Palestine Betrayed - Efraim Karsh
Spies of No Country by Matti Friedman
The October 7th War: Israel's Battle for Security in Gaza by Seth Frantzman
Mossad – The Greatest Missions of the Israeli Secret Service by Nissim Mishal and Michael Bar-Zohar
Our Man in Damascus - Eli Cohen by Elie Ben-Hanan
One Palestine, Complete by Tom Segev (about the British Mandate period)
O Jerusalem! by Dominique Lapierre and Larry Collins
From Time Immemorial - Joan Peters
HOLOCAUST
Out of the Depths by Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau
Night by Elie Wiesel
Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
SOCIETY
Israel 201 by Joel Chasnoff & Benji Lovitt
#IsraeliJudaism by Shmuel Rosner and Camil Fuchs
Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth by Noa Tishby
Uncomfortable Conversations with a Jew by Emmanuel Acho and Noa Tishby
How To Fight Anti-Semitism by Bari Weiss
POLITICS
The Zionist Ideas: Visions for the Jewish Homeland? Then, Now, Tomorrow by Gil Troy
The Prime Ministers by Yehuda Avner
The Case for Israel by Alan Dershowitz
My Promised Land by Ari Shavit
The War of Return: How Western Indulgence of the Palestinian Dream
has Obstructed the Path to Peace by Adi Schwartz and Einat Wilf
Dancing Arabs by Sayed Kashua
Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor by Yossi Klein Halevi
Winning the War of Words: Essays on Israel and Zionism by Einat Wilf
Saving Israel: How the Jewish People Can Win a War That May Never End by Daniel Gordis
Lioness: Golda Meir and the Nation of Israel by Francine Klagsbrun
Catch 67: The Left, The Right, and the Legacy of the Six-Day War by Micah Goodman
No Room for Small Dreams: Courage, Imagination and the Making of Modern Israel by Shimon Peres
Like Dreamers: The Story of the Israeli Paratroopers Who Reunited Jerusalem and Divided a Nation by Yossi Klein Halevi
The Arab Predicament by Fouad Ajami
CULINARY
Jerusalem by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi
Simple by Yotam Ottolenghi
Zahav by Michael Solomonov
Israeli Soul by Michael Solomonov
The New Book of Israeli Food by Janna Gur
Breaking Breads by Uri Scheft
The Foods of Israel Today by Joan Nathan
Sababa by Adeena Sussman
Balaboosta by Einat Admony
Shuk by Einat Admony and Janna Gur
Shaya: An Odyssey of Food, My Journey Back to Israel
The Palomar Cookbook by Assaf Granit, Uri Navon and Tomer Amedi
Divine Food: Israeli and Palestinian Food Culture and Recipes by David Haliva
Shabbat: Recipes and Rituals from My Table to Yours by Adeena Sussman
TECHNOLOGY
Isresilience: What Israelis Can Teach the World by Michael Dickson and Naomi L. Baum
Start Up Nation by Saul Singer and Dan Senor
Thou Shalt Innovate: How Israeli Ingenuity Repairs the World by Avi Jorisch
Let There Be Water: Israel's Solution for a Water-Starved World by Seth Siegel
Chutzpah: Why Israel Is a Hub of Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Inbal Arieli
Israel's Edge: The Story of The IDF's Most Elite Unit - Talpiot by Jason Gewirtz
Israel: The Start-up Nation for Medical Innovation by Rob Norman
The Weapon Wizards: How Israel Became a High-Tech Military Superpower by Yaakov Katz and Amir Bohbot
RELIGION
In his own category: Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks. Rabbi Sacks is the former Chief Rabbi of Britain and for me is perhaps the premier Jewish philosopher, writer and ethicist of our time. Really anything by him is a treasure. He has tons of stuff up on his website, notably about leadership and ethics, and you can sign up for his weekly email there as well: http://rabbisacks.org/
Some of my favorite books of his include:
Radical Then, Radical Now
To Heal a Fractured World: The Ethics of Responsibility
Celebrating Life: Finding Happiness in Unexpected Places
Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times
Everything Else:
The Accidental Zionist - What a Priest, a Pornographer and a Wrestler Named Chainsaw taught me about being Jewish, saving the world and why Israel matters to both by Rabbi Ian Pear
Judaism's 10 Best Ideas: A Brief Guide for Seekers by Rabbi Art Green
Pirkei Avot: Ethics of our Ancestors (lots of options for this)
Walking the Bible by Bruce Feiler
Abraham by Bruce Feiler
Jewish Meditation by Aryeh Kaplan
Judaism's Great Debates: Timeless Controversies from Abraham to Herzl by Rabbi Barry L. Schwartz
The JPS B'nai Mitzvah Torah Commentary by Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin (see the dedication page)
The JPS Birthright Torah Commentary (JPS Study Bible) by Rabbi Eli Garfinkel (see the dedication page)
The Israel Bible - focused on the land of Israel, the people of Israel and the relationship between them
Who Wrote the Bible by Richard Elliott Friedman (for those interested in the documentary hypothesis)
Israeli Judaism: Portrait of a Cultural Revolution by Shmuel Rosner and Camil Fuchs
What I Wish They Would Have Taught Me In Sunday School About Science, The Bible and God by Philip Singerman
Justice for All: How the Jewish Bible Revolutionized Ethics by Jeremiah Unterman
LIterature
In general, anything by Amos Oz, Etgar Keret, David Grossman, Shai Agnon, Meir Shalev and A.B. Yehoshua
That being said, here are a few good lists:
https://forward.com/life/399070/if-you-want-to-understand-israel-read-its-literature/
https://www.israel21c.org/11-must-read-israeli-books-for-your-summer-reading-list/
Plus, I love the historical fiction books by both Daniel Silva and Jon Land.
If you are coming to Israel, here are a few good books to help sites come alive:
The Source by James Michener
Exodus by Leon Uris
The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman
The Rock: A Tale of Seventh-Century Jerusalem by Kanan Makiya
Rebel Daughter by Lori Banov Kaufmann
A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz
Day After Night by Anita Diamant
The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem by Sarit Yishai-Levi
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