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Margot: a Novel
Jillian Cantor
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.
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The Diary of a Young Girl
Anne Frank
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.
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The Hours Count
Jillian Cantor
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.
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Matzo
Michele Streit Heilbrun
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.
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Featured Book
The Lost Letter
Jillian Cantor
Passover in my family has always been a time to get together with friends and family, enjoy dinner and each other’s company, and reflect on our Jewish history. So when Read it Forward asked me to put together a Passover reads list, I started thinking about books about Jewish history, family, and of course, the seder itself.
My own novels fit into this category: Margot, which reimagines Anne Frank’s sister in post-war America and The Hours Count, which reimagines the years leading up to Ethel Rosenberg’s execution from the point of view of a fictional neighbor. And my novel, The Lost Letter, can definitely be pre-ordered for Passover! It’s the story of a mysterious love letter that connects generations of Jewish families, spanning decades and continents.
These are some other great Jewish-themed books that would make perfect Passover reads.
Featured Image: photovs/Twenty20