jewish learning

these are some resources for progressive, non-halakhic jewish learning, both for studying towards conversion and for broader jewish learning.

jewish time

torah

  • For the Love of God: The Bible as an Open Book, by Alicia Suskin Ostriker
  • Sexual Violence and Sacred Texts, edited by Amy Kalmanofsky
  • Torah Queeries: Weekly Commentaries on the Hebrew Bible
  • The Murmuring Deep: Reflections on the Biblical Unconscious, by Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg
  • Human Becoming, Between Biblical Lines, On Being, by Krista Tippet with Avivah Gottleib Zornberg
  • The Soul of the Stranger: Reading God and Torah from a Transgender Perspective, by Joy Ladin
  • Queering the Text: Biblical, Medieval, and Modern Jewish Stories, by Andrew Ramer
  • A Rainbow Thread: An Anthology of Queer Jewish Texts from the First Century to 1969, by Noam Sienna
  • The Illustrated Pirkei Avot, by Jessica Tamar Deutsch
  • Strong as Death is Love: The Song of Songs / Ruth / Esther / Jonah / Daniel, by Robert Alter
  • Yeshiva Shel Maala
  • Svara: A Traditionally Radical Yeshiva:
  • Trans Torah
  • Hadar Torah Online
  • Tim Tum, by Micah Bazant
  • Trans Talmud: Androgyns and Eunuchs in Rabbinic Literature, by Max Strassfeld
  • If the Psalms Aren’t Poetry, They’re Useless, by Alicia Ostriker and Peter O’Leary

jewish home practice and life

  • Guide to Jewish Practice, vols 1-3 (Everyday Living; Shabbat and Holidays, and Life Cycle), by David Teutsch
  • Saying Kaddish: How to Comfort the Dying, Bury the Dead, and Mourn as a Jew, by Anita Diamant
  • How to Run a Traditional Jewish Household, by Blu Greenberg
  • Book of Our Heritage, by Eliyahu Kitov
  • The Thirty-Nine Av Melachoth of Shabbath, by Baruch Chait
  • Whose Torah? A Concise Guide to Progressive Judaism, by Rebecca Alpert
  • Living a Jewish Life, by Anita Diamant
  • Choosing a Jewish Life: A Handbook for People Converting to Judaism and for Their Family and Friends, by Anita Diamant
  • The Jewish Wedding Now, by Anita Diamant
  • How to Be a Jewish Parent: A Practical Handbook for Family Life, by Anita Diamant

peoplehood: jewish history and community

  • Secret Jews: The Complex Identity of Crypto-Jews and Crypto-Judaism, by Juan Gutierrez and Marcos Beharano
  • On the Arab-Jew, Palestine, and Other Displacements: Selected Writings of Ella Shohat, by Ella Shohat
  • Jewish Voice for Peace-NYC: Conversations with Movement Elders
  • Translating Black Lives Matter to Yiddish, by Anthony Russell
  • Yiddish BLM Database
  • Sephardic Jews in America: A Diasporic History, by Aviva Ben-Ur
  • American Judaism: A History, by Jonathan Sarna
  • Black Jews in Africa and the Americas, by Turdor Parfitt
  • Reclaiming Judaism from Zionism: Stories of Personal Transformation, by Carlolyn Karcher
  • Judaisms: A Twenty-First Century Introduction to Jews and Jewish Identities, by Aaron Hahn Tapper
  • Black, White, and Jewish, by Rebecca Walker
  • In Every Tongue: The Racial and Ethic Diversity of the Jewish People, by Diane Tobin
  • How Jews Became White Folks and What That Says about Race in America, by Karen Brodkin Sacks
  • Medicine Stories: History, Culture, and the Politics of integrity, by Aurora Levins Morales
  • El Iluminado: A Graphic Novel, by Ilan Stavans
  • Return to Centro Historico:: A Mexican Jew Looks for His Roots, by Ilan Stavans
  • The Seventh Heaven: Travels through Jewish Latin America, by Ilan Stavans
  • The Colors of Jews: Racial Politics and Radical Diasporism, by Melanie Kaye/Kantrowitz
  • Thoughts From A Unicorn: 100% Black. 100% Jewish. 0% Safe., by MaNishtana
  • Legends of the Chinese Jews of Kaifeng, by Xu Xin
  • The Jews of Kaifeng, China: History, Culture, and Religion, by Xu Xin
  • The Last Jews of Cochin: Jewish Identity in Hindu India, by Nathan Katz
  • Rabbinic Tales fo Destruction: Gender, Sex, and Disability in the Ruins of Jerusalem, by Julia Watts Belser
  • Revolutionary Yiddishland: A History of Jewish Radicalism, by Alain Brossat
  • Like Bread on the Seder Plate: Jewish Lesbians and the Transformation of tradition, by Rebecca Alpert
  • Through the Door of Life: A Jewish Journey between Genders, by Joy Ladin
  • Dreams on an Insomniac: Jewish Feminist Essays, Speeches, and Diatribes, by Irena Klepfisz
  • Jewish Bodylore: Feminist and Queer Ethnographies of Folk Practices, by Amy Milligan
  • Choosing to be Chosen: Essays by Converts to Judaism, by Dena Nechama
  • Understanding Antisemitism, by Jews for Racial & Economic Justice
  • The Past Didn’t Go Anywhere, by April Rosenblum
  • Doykait, by Sol Brager

prayer & liturgy

jewish thought & spirituality

  • Finding a Home in Yourself, On Being by Krista Tippet with Joy Ladin
  • First Aid for Spiritual Seekers, On Being with Krista Tippet, with Amichai Lau-Lavie
  • Evolve: Groundbreaking Jewish Conversations
  • The Sabbath: It’s Meaning for Modern Man, by Abraham Joshua Heschel
  • What do Jews Believe; The Spiritual Foundations of Judaism, by David Ariel
  • A Book of Life: Embracing Judaism as a Spiritual Practice, by Michael Strassfeld
  • Radical Judaism: Rethinking God and Tradition, by Arthur Green
  • Ehyeh: A Kabbalah for Tomorrow, by Arthur Green
  • These Are the Words: A Vocabulary of Jewish Spiritual Life, by Arthur Green
  • The Passionate Torah: Sex and Judaism, by Danya Ruttenberg
  • Righteous Indignation: A Jewish Call for Justice, by David Ellenson
  • Suprised by God: How I learned to Stop Worrying and Love Religion, by Danya Ruttenberg
  • Everyday Holiness: The Jewish Spiritual Path of Mussar, by Alan Morinis
  • Magickal Judaism: Connecting Pagan & Jewish Practice, by Jennifer Hunter
  • Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays, by Abraham Joshua Heschel
  • I and Thou, by Martin Buber
  • A Responsible Life: The Spiritual Path of Mussar, by Ira Stone
  • Undertorah: An Earth-Based Kabbalah of Dreams, by Jill Hammer
  • Secular Judaism: Faith, Values and Spirituality, by Yaakov Malkin
  • Everything is God: The Radical Path of Nondual Judaism, by Jay Micahelson
  • Not in the Heavens: The Tradition of Jewish Secular Thoguht, by David Biale
  • Joseph Soloveitchik: Halakhic Man
  • Parting Ways: Jewishness and the Critique of Zionism, by Judith Butler
  • There is Nothing So Whole as a Broken Heart: Mending the World as Jewish Anarchists, by Cindy Milstein
  • Jewitches
  • The Golem and How He Came to Be, by Brian Cotnoir
  • House of Jacob/People Israel: A Trans Jewish Zine, by Rena Yehudah Newman
max zev

max zev