27 Jewish Books We’re Excited About in 2025

This novella is a darkly comic portrait of a Jewish family in today’s Poland, struggling to express their love for one another in the face of a past that cannot and will not be forgotten. Out Jan. 7, 2025.

A never-before-published novel from an iconic American writer revealing the historical Herod the Great as someone different than the Bible asks us to imagine. In this book, he is not the wicked ruler of the New Testament who is charged with the “slaughter of the innocents,” but the forerunner of Christ — a beloved king who enriched Jewish culture and brought prosperity and peace to Judea. Out Jan. 7, 2025.

There are two things Nina Jacobs is determined to do over the summer of 1986: avoid her mother’s depression-fueled rages, and lose her virginity before she starts college in the fall. Both are seemingly impossible, and it doesn’t help that Nina is Jewish, an outsider among the blue-eyed blondes who populate the world she longs to fit into. After she’s introduced to cocaine, everything takes a turn... will Nina finally get what she wants? But at what cost? Out Jan. 21, 2025.

A moving culinary memoir about the relationship between food and family — sustenance and survival — from a chef, award-winning journalist and daughter of a Holocaust survivor. Out Jan. 21, 2025.

Aleeza Ben Shalom, Jewish dating coach and Netflix "Jewish Matchmaking" star, guides readers through her perspective on dating with her blend of wisdom and humor. Helpful tools — including checklists, rules, reminders, tips, hacks and frequently asked questions — are included throughout. Out Jan. 21, 2025.

This imagined portrayal of 10 pivotal weeks in the life of Leon Trotsky, inspired by the Russian revolutionary’s exile in New York City in 1917, makes for excellent historical fiction. Out Jan. 28, 2025.

Despite billing itself as "not a memoir," this collection of essays by Lola Kirke (yes, Jemima Kirke's younger sister) is just that. Darkly funny and seemingly effortlessly cool, this book depicts a young Jewish woman growing up in a wild family, determined to sing her own song and find her own tune. Out Jan. 28, 2025.

A groundbreaking, action-packed and ultimately uplifting middle grade adventure that intertwines elements of Jewish mythology with an unflinching examination of the impacts of transphobia. Out Feb. 4, 2025.

This moving family saga — which is more than a little Jewish — is a love letter to marriage, Central Park and life itself. Out Feb. 4, 2025.

At a banquet hall, at the onset of war, Adam Weizmann’s bar mitzvah party turns into a glorious catastrophe. On the cusp of manhood — and the verge of a nervous breakdown — Adam has been bracing for his special day, mired in family neuroses and national dysfunction. In a chorus of voices, a fractious cast of well-wishers narrates Adam’s coming-of-age in Israel as he attempts to become a man and learn his own heart. Out Feb. 11, 2025.

If you watch "Saturday Night Live" every weekend, loved the film "Saturday Night" and want to learn even more about Lorne Michaels, this book is for you. Drawn from hundreds of interviews — with Michaels, his friends and SNL’s stars and writers — this biography is a deeply reported, entertaining account of a man singularly obsessed with the show that would define his life and have a profound impact on American culture. Out Feb. 18, 2025.

This laugh-out-loud second-chance romance is a fun, easy read. Ali Rubin is spontaneous and Jewish — she makes drunken bets with strangers to get matching tattoos and she makes shakshuka and latkes. (Rom-com main characters — they're just like us!) But when the handsome stranger shows up in her life as the groom for the event that's supposed to launch her wedding-planning career, she has to do her best to keep it together. Oh, get excited for the bar mitzvah and the Hanukkah party, too. Out Feb. 18, 2025.

Long before Oliver Twist stumbled onto the scene, Jacob Fagin was scratching out a life for himself in the dark alleys of 19th-century London. Born in the Jewish enclave of Stepney shortly after his father was executed as a thief, Jacob’s whole world is his open-minded mother, Leah. But Jacob’s prospects are forever altered when a light-fingered pickpocket takes Jacob under his wing and teaches him a trade that pays far better than the neighborhood boys could possibly dream. Out Feb. 25, 2025.

A swoon-worthy romance featuring a Jewish relationship therapist who falls for the wrong man... but finds the right one may have been under her nose all along. Out March 1, 2025.

In this memoir in essays, the author untangles what it means to be a girl, a woman, a lover, a partner, a daughter and a mother in a world all too ready to reduce us to stock characters. Look out for the explicit mentions of Jewish matriarchs and the fantastically titled essay "Tikkun Olam Ted," along with some other Jewy moments. Out March 4, 2025.

From the author of "We Were the Lucky Ones," this historical novel tells the story of Lili and Esti, two Jewish best friends who find themselves in occupied territory when Germany invades their home of Italy. They do their best to make it through the days, but when disaster strikes, Esti asks Lili to take her son, Theo, and go on the run, protecting him while Esti cannot. Hunter weaves a tale of friendship, motherhood and survival. Out March 4, 2025.

Originally serialized in the 1960s and '70s in New York–based Yiddish newspapers, this long-awaited English translation is a precious glimpse of a way of life that is no longer: the rich Yiddish culture of Poland and Lithuania that the Holocaust would eradicate. Out March 25, 2025.

In "Gursha," which loosely translates as “the act of feeding one another,” chef and restaurateur Beejhy Barhany shares the food and culture of Beta Israel, or Ethiopian Jews. Out April 1, 2025.

Centered around a neurotic but lovable cast of characters, this book tells a heartfelt and tender story that explores modern Jewish identity and the diaspora — an illuminating portrait of Jewish life in contemporary Germany. Out May 6, 2025.

This one is billed as "the 'Parent Trap' for adults" — literally, need we say more? (OK, OK, we'll say a bit more.) There's also dead dad grief, NYC vs. Maine vibes and lots of messy secrets and betrayals — and of course it's very Jewish in that subtle and delightful way Hannah Orenstein's books always are. Out May 13, 2025.

This vibrant and intoxicating queer Jewish coming-of-age debut, set in 1990s San Francisco, follows a young woman who finds herself torn between her fraught relationships with her childhood best friend and first love, and with an older lesbian she works for. Out June 17, 2025.

In this book — part memoir, part journalistic exploration, part history — award-winning Jewish journalist Julia Ioffe tells the story of modern Russia through the history of its women, from revolution to utopia to autocracy. Out June 17, 2025.

Maris Kreizman is a Jewish feminist cultural critic, and in her debut collection of essays, she opens up about her lived experiences in the United States, a country full of flaws, that made her realize it’s never too late to become radicalized. Out July 1, 2025.

On a late March morning in the spring of 1942, Elaine Buchman Yoneda awoke to a series of terrible choices: between her family and freedom, her country and conscience, and her son and daughter. You absolutely won't be able to put this one down. Out July 8, 2025.

Put together by Hey Alma contributor Rabbi Abby Stein, this anthology includes Jewish views on gender and sexuality from biblical, Talmudic, Midrashic, Rabbinic and Hasidic sources with contemporary and personal commentary. Out Sept. 2, 2025.

OK, there's barely anything available about this novel just yet (even the cover is still forthcoming) but Jason Diamond is a genius, so just trust us on this one. Here's what Maris Kreizman had to say about it: "Jason’s debut novel is so good... and exactly what I’d want to read from him, with lots of old Jewish men in Chicago doing dastardly deeds." Out Sept. 16, 2025.

We're cheating a little by sneaking this end-of-2024 release onto our list for 2025, but if you haven't already checked out the divine poems of Aurora Levins Morales — this one labeled "a prayer book for the streets," poems of devotion and protest — you're missing out. Out: Nov. 26, 2024.