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Naomi Ragen is an American-born Israeli novelist whose fiction explores Jewish life, faith, and history. Born in Brooklyn, New York, she earned her degree at Brooklyn College and moved to Israel in 1971, where she has lived in Jerusalem ever since. Her books, which have been widely translated, are popular with Jewish and general readers alike. Her novels often take readers inside the Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox worlds, with a particular interest in the lives of women. In books such as Jephte’s Daughter, Sotah, and The Sacrifice of Tamar, she portrays devout communities in Jerusalem and New York with affection and honesty, examining the tension between religious tradition and individual conscience. Her characters wrestle with family loyalty, communal expectations, and the cost of silence, while the strength of their faith and bonds is shown with equal care. Ragen also draws on Jewish history. The Ghost of Hannah Mendes follows a family of Portuguese Jews who were forced to hide their faith, and later novels such as The Saturday Wife and The Covenant address contemporary American Jewish life and the realities of modern Israel. Across her work run recurring themes of identity, continuity, courage, and moral responsibility.

JewishBooks.com humbly presents our take on ubiquitous Bestseller Lists with our very own Top Eighteen List of bestselling novels currently in-print and available for your kind consideration. Based on actual bestseller charts, publishing industry data, library recommendations, miscellaneous Jewish Studies reading lists—and the like—we've blended a list of widely popular and critically acclaimed titles just to get you started. Once you've finished with all of these, you're free to go. There will be a quiz.

Pam Jenoff is the New York Times bestselling author of historical novels centered on the Second World War and the Holocaust. Her fiction gives voice to Jewish survivors, rescuers, and resisters, and to the quieter, often overlooked stories of women in wartime Europe. Her work draws on a distinctive background. She earned degrees from George Washington University, the University of Cambridge, and the University of Pennsylvania Law School. She served as a special assistant to the Secretary of the Army at the Pentagon, and she later worked for the U.S. Consulate in Kraków, Poland, on Jewish communal and heritage issues. That experience shaped her debut, The Kommandant’s Girl, and her many novels set in occupied Poland and beyond. Her books return to themes central to Jewish memory: hiding and rescue, the fragile bonds of family and chosen family, the moral complexity of survival, and the long aftermath of loss. The Winter Guest follows Polish sisters sheltering a Jewish American soldier. The Orphan’s Tale centers on a Jewish infant, a circus troupe, and the women who protect him. The Woman with the Blue Star tells of Jews hiding in the Kraków sewers. The Lost Girls of Paris traces women of the Allied resistance. Jenoff lives near Philadelphia with her family and teaches law at Rutgers Law School.

"I am not a Jewish writer; I am a writer who is a Jew." —Philip Roth, 1963

The Harold U. Ribalow Prize is Hadassah Magazine's annual literary award, given to an author who has written an outstanding work of fiction on a Jewish theme. Since its founding in 1983, it has recognized novels and story collections that explore Jewish life, history, and imagination. The prize honors the late Harold U. Ribalow, a writer, editor, and anthologist known for his devotion to Jewish literature and his eagerness to champion new voices. He founded and edited Hadoar, long the only Hebrew-language weekly published outside Israel. His friends and family established the prize in his memory and placed its endowment with Hadassah Magazine. The first Ribalow Prize was awarded in 1983 to Chaim Grade for Rabbis and Wives. Winners are chosen by an independent panel of judges. Over the decades, the prize has honored both celebrated and emerging writers, including Jonathan Safran Foer, Nathan Englander, Howard Jacobson, Edith Pearlman, Helene Wecker, Molly Antopol, and Jim Shepard. Each year's winner is celebrated at a ceremony in New York. For more than four decades, the Ribalow Prize has reflected Hadassah Magazine's belief that good fiction is an aspect of truth and that the Jewish story is worth telling well.

The Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature honors emerging writers whose work explores and transmits the Jewish experience, and it alternates between fiction and nonfiction each year. Established in 2006 by the family of philanthropist Sami Rohr in honor of his 80th birthday, it was created to celebrate his lifelong love of Jewish learning and great books, and at its inception its $100,000 award was the largest literary prize in North America. In fiction years, the prize recognizes novelists and story writers at the early stage of their careers who show both exceptional talent and the promise of a lasting contribution to Jewish literature. The prize has been awarded annually since 2007. Once administered by the Jewish Book Council, the prize is now given in association with the National Library of Israel.