One very special work of art--a Chaim Soutine painting--connects the lives and fates of two different women, generations apart, in a novel that moves from World War II Vienna to contemporary Los Angeles.

Helping her popular next-door neighbor Gayil set up what she thinks are harmless pranks, 12-year-old Orthodox Jewish girl Shaindy must figure out how to stop them before she becomes the next target when the pranks escalate and turn malicious.

A nameless Israeli historian narrates a report describing how his career as an expert on and tour guide at Nazi concentration camps caused him to become desensitized to the horrific details of the Holocaust, eventually causing him to lose his mental equilibrium as he confronts the distressing ways in which Holocaust memorials are used and abused in the modern world, the indifference of the young, the perpetuation of violence through trauma and revenge,...

Young schoolteacher Andrée Geulen secretly defies the Nazis in Belgium who are forcing Jews to wear a yellow Star of David. Andrée is not Jewish, but she feels a maternal connection to her students, who are living in constant fear, and decides to take action. But what can one woman do against an entire army? Ida Sterno is a Jewish woman who works with the Committee for the Defense of Jews in Belgium, a resistance group tasked with hiding children...

In Berlin, at the time when the world changed, Hanni Kohn knows she must send her twelve-year-old daughter away to save her from the Nazi regime. She finds her way to a renowned rabbi, but it's his daughter, Ettie, who offers hope of salvation when she creates a mystical Jewish creature, a rare and unusual golem, who is sworn to protect Lea. Once Ava is brought to life, she and Lea and Ettie become eternally entwined, their paths fated to cross, their...

Despite her grandmother's wise words about how moving to a new place can be both bitter and sweet, Hannah feels only bitterness as she tries to get used to her new house. But when she sees the new home in the soft light of the Shabbat candles and a new friend reaches out with a special gift, Hannah begins to realize that sweetness can come from unexpected places. Includes author's note about Jewish traditions.

In 1975, Shaltiel Feigenberg, a Jewish writer from Brooklyn, endures a nightmarish abduction by Arab and Italian captors by sharing poignant stories from his childhood years spent hiding from the Nazis.

By 14 he had written five novels and penned a diary about the Nazi occupation of Prague. By 16 he had produced more than 170 drawings and paintings, edited an underground magazine in the Theresienstadt Ghetto, written numerous short stories and had walked to the gas chamber at Auschwitz. But this is a story of celebration as well as tragedy, a testament to how a boy's wonder and creative expression represent the best of what makes us human.