Perfect Passover Reads

In the spring of 1959, The Diary of Anne Frank has just come to the silver screen to great acclaim, and a young woman named Margie Franklin is working in Philadelphia as a secretary at a Jewish law firm. On the surface she lives a quiet life, but Margie has a secret: a life she once lived, a past and a religion she has denied, and a family and a country she left behind.

What better time than Passover to reread (or read if you haven’t yet) Anne Frank’s musings and meditations on life hiding in the secret annex during World War II. An important reminder of the many real lives taken so tragically by the Holocaust.

On June 19, 1953, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were executed for conspiring to commit espionage. The day Ethel was first arrested in 1950, she left her two young sons with a neighbor, and she never came home to them again. This story reimagines the life of that neighbor, and the life of Ethel and Julius, an ordinary-seeming Jewish couple who became the only Americans put to death for spying during the Cold War.

This cookbook not only is filled with interesting recipes for matzo but also has a helpful introduction that talks about the seder and essentials for your Passover pantry. I love the many varied and inventive possibilities for matzo, which all look and sound delicious. We’re trying the Caesar Salad with Matzo Ball Croutons, the Pear and Cherry Matzo Kugel, and the Chocolate-Cherry Torte at our seder this year, and these are only a few that enticed my friend and me who are doing the seder dinner cooking.