HaSifriyah/Library

HaSifriyah
The Jewish Community Library

HaSifriyah is a warm and inviting place for members to meet and relax. Our collection of over three thousand titles contains books, music and videos covering all aspects of Jewish thought – religion, philosophy, fiction, biography, history and more – for children, teens and adults. Most materials are available for checkout by Temple members. If HaSifriyah is not staffed during your visit, please sign out your items on the check-out sheet located on the circulation desk.

Please contact Paula Breger at Library@TempleEmanu-El.org with any questions about HaSifriyah or its programs.

Browse or search our catalog,
ask questions, and place holds.

HaSifriyah is a Bookshop.org Affiliate!

HaSifriyah is now an affiliate of Bookshop.org, an online bookstore with a mission to financially support local, independent bookstores. HaSifriyah will earn a commission from all sales of books purchased after visiting our storefront—with matching commissions paid to independent bookstores. Check it out for links to author series and reading group titles, books for Chanukah, and more! (Please delete any saved Temple Amazon Associate links; we are no longer affiliated with that program.)

Temple Emanu-El Book Club

The library sponsors our Temple Book Club, which meets several times per year to discuss both fiction and nonfiction titles of Jewish interest. Please join us whether or not you have had a chance to read the book—or whether or not you like it.

Becoming Eve, by Abby Chava Stein

Sunday, April 30, 2023
10:00 am
HaSifriyah (masks required)

Book group dates for 2023–2024
Sundays @ 10:00 am
October 15, November 12, December 17, January 28, March 3, and April 7

Previous book group discussions:

March 2023
January 2023
December 2022
November 2022
February 2022
December 2021
October 2021
September 2021
July 2021
April 2021
January/February 2021
December 2020
January 2020
November 2019
October 2019
March 2019
January 2019
December 2018
September 2018
April 2018
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
November 2017
April 2017
February 2017
December 2016
October 2016

Koshersoul, Michael Twitty
The Thread Collectors, Shaunna J. Edwards and Alyson Richman
The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem, Sarit Yishai-Levi
People Love Dead Jews, Dara Horn
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, Isabel Wilkerson
House on Endless Waters, Emuna Elon
Last Summer at the Golden Hotel, Elyssa Friedland
City of a Thousand Gates, Rebecca Sacks
Florence Adler Swims Forever, Rachel Beanland
Address Unknown, Kathrine Kressmann Taylor
What We Will Become, Mimi Lemay
A Bend in the Stars, Rachel Barenbaum
Waking Lions, Ayelet Gundar-Goshen
The Women in the Castle, Jessica Shattuck
Judas, Amos Oz.
Those Who Save Us, Jenna Blum
Dinner at the Center of the Earth, Nathan Englander
Letters to My Palestinian Neighbor, Yossi Klein Halevi
The Weight of Ink, Rachel Kadish
Nine Folds Make a Paper Swan, Ruth Gilligan
"Hayuta's Engagement Party," Savyon Liebrecht, and "The Name," Aharon Megged
Among the Reeds, Dr. Tammy Bottner
Homesick, Eshkol Nevo
Fugitive Pieces, Anne Michaels
The Finkler Question, Howard Jacobson
Saving Sophie, Ronald Balson
The Boston Girl, Anita Diamant
A Guide for the Perplexed, Dara Horn

Online Literary Resources

The following organizations frequently host Jewish-themed online events that may be of interest to the Temple community:

American Jewish University Maven
Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center
Yiddish Book Center
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research

The Jewish Journal Los Angeles) also maintains an updated list of events of interest to Jewish audiences.

Antiracism Resources

The killing of George Floyd and the protests it has sparked remind us of the importance of educating ourselves on issues of racism and white privilege in America. Here are several compilations of resources (websites, books, articles, television, film, organizations):

Talking About Race (National Museum of African American History & Culture)
Schomburg Center Black Liberation Reading List (Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture)
An Anti-Racism Reading Guide for Bookish Allies (We Are Bookish)
Readings on Racism, White Supremacy, and Police Violence in America (LitHub)
Anti-racism resources
A Fiction Antiracism Reading List (Publishers Weekly)
KidLIt Rally 4 Black Lives: Antiracist Resources for Children, Families, and Educators (The Brown Bookshelf)

As we expand our reading, consider exploring these “20 Books by Black Jewish Authors,” compiled by the online publication Alma.

The Association of Jewish Libraries' Love Your Neighbor Booklist #7: The Black Jewish Experience includes books for young readers. The Sesame Street/CNN Town Hall Coming Together: Standing Up To Racism is available for children and families.

Publishers Weekly has assembled a list of Black-owned bookstores you can support.

Grief Resources

HaSifriyah, working with the Chesed Committee, has created a grief resource area for families who have suffered a loss or are caring for a sick loved one. This area contains books, videos, and articles (for both adults and children) that might be useful in such difficult times. The resource area is located above the magazines in the main room of the library. If you need any assistance, or have any suggestions for additional resources, please contact Paula Breger at library@TempleEmanu-El.org.

Recent Acquisitions in HaSifriyah

Nonfiction
The Book Smugglers: Partisans, Poets, and the Race to Save Jewish Treasures from the Nazis, by David E. Fishman
The First Love Story: A Journey Through the Tangled Lives of Adam and Eve, by Bruce Feiler
In Jerusalem: Three Generations of an Israeli Family and a Palestinian Family, by Lis Harris
Man’s Search for Meaning, by Viktor E. Frankl
The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve, by Stephen Greenblatt

Fiction
Heretics, by Leonardo Padura
Jewish Stories from the Old World to the New, KCRW FM (CD story collection)
The Women in the Castle, by Jessica Shattuck

Children’s Books
Apple Days: A Rosh Hashanah Story, by Allison Sarnoff Soffer
Sadie, Ori, and Nuggles Go to Camp, by Jamie Korngold
Sara Finds a Mitzva, by Rebeka Simhaee
The Shabbat Box, by Lesley Simpson
A Watermelon in the Sukkah, by Sylvia Rouss and Shannan Rouss

Book Sign Out

If the library desk is not staffed, please check out books by filling out the sheet on the circulation desk. If you are borrowing a title on Shabbat and prefer not to write, please contact the office on Monday or send an email to library@templeemanu-el.org so that we can keep our catalog up to date.

Interested in English translations of the Tanakh, Talmud, and other Jewish writings? Visit the Sefaria library at www.sefaria.org/texts. Sefaria is a nonprofit organization assembling a free library of Jewish texts, in Hebrew and in translation.

Check out www.JewishFiction.net, an online journal which publishes contemporary Jewish fiction either written in, or translated into, English. The current issue contains twenty-four works originally written in Italian, Hungarian, Russian, Spanish, Hebrew, and English, including three stories set during Rosh Hashanah. JewishFiction.net is a great resource for learning about new authors and the variety of Jewish world cultures.