Mary Antin, The Promised Land (Penguin, 1997)

The iconic story of the transformation of an immigrant into an American compels student readers with its vivid images and language. Yet readers are usefully perplexed by its contradictory perspectives—celebratory and tragic, psychological and historical, secular and spiritual.

Tillie Olsen, Tell Me a Riddle (Dell, 1994 [1956])

In economical, deeply moving prose, Olsen's novella tugs on students' emotions as it conveys the meaning of Jewish humanism in personal, familial terms.

Debra L. Schultz, Going South: Jewish Women in the Civil Rights Movement (New York University Press, 2001)

Oral histories bring to life a generation of activists whose commitment to civil rights and Jewish values (though often underplayed and unacknowledged) inspire students.