Essential Reading: A Starter Library

A small shelf of well-chosen books gives a New Jew everything needed for the first year.

By The Editors

The Fundamentals · 3 minute read

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Summary. The New Jew’s starter library should include one comprehensive reference (Telushkin’s Jewish Literacy), one practical guide (Donin’s To Be a Jew), one beautiful introduction to ideas (Green’s Judaism’s Ten Best Ideas), one Chumash with traditional commentary (Koren Shalem or Steinsaltz), one siddur (Koren Sacks), and one Holocaust memoir (Wiesel’s Night). With these six books, the New Jew has the spine of Jewish learning, the daily practice, and the historical conscience all on one shelf.

Books crowd into the home of every New Jew, and there are seasons when the shelf becomes overwhelming. A starter library is a short list of essentials, deliberately small, that gives full coverage with minimal redundancy. The Field Guide’s recommended starter library is six books.

1. Ideas: Arthur Green, Judaism’s Ten Best Ideas

The Editor’s top recommendation. A short, beautiful introduction to ten central Jewish ideas — image of God, Torah, mitzvah, halachah, tikkun, Shabbat, kavvanah, simchah, teshuvah, chesed. Green writes from a Renewal/Reconstructionist place but the ideas are universal. The Editor recommends pairing it with Green’s Ehyeh: A Kabbalah for Tomorrow for the mystical introduction.

2. Reference: Joseph Telushkin, Jewish Literacy

The single most useful one-volume reference for the New Jew. Telushkin organizes 350+ short chapters covering Tanakh, history, holidays, theology, ethics, ritual, and contemporary issues. Each chapter is 2–5 pages and includes recommended further reading. And, every chapter is written as a stand-alone article, so the book may be read cover-to-cover, piecemeal, or as an easy reference volume. The revised edition (2008) is the current standard.

3. Practical: Hayim Halevy Donin, To Be a Jew

Donin (a Modern Orthodox rabbi) wrote the classic English-language guide to observance: kashrut, Shabbat, holidays, prayer, lifecycle. It is comprehensive, accessible, and trusted across the spectrum. Its companion, To Pray as a Jew, is the same author on the siddur.

4. Chumash: Koren Shalem Chumash with Rashi, Onkelos, and Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks

A Chumash is a Torah text with translation and commentary. The Koren Shalem edition includes Rashi (the indispensable medieval commentary), Onkelos (the Aramaic translation/paraphrase from the 1st–2nd century CE), and commentary by former Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks. The Steinsaltz Chumash and the ArtScroll Stone Chumash are also excellent. Read one parshah a week, matched to the synagogue cycle.

5. Siddur: The Koren Shalem Siddur

See the Where to Start section for full discussion. The Koren Shalem Siddur (preferably The Lobel Edition) is the Editor’s recommended first siddur for almost any New Jew. For this reason, The New Jew includes a full transliteration, including print-at-home insertion pages, for the Koren Shalem Siddur Lobel Edition. However, in the spirit of cross-denominationalism, and in acknowledgement of the publication’s beauty and unmatched accessibility to new learners, the Editor also recommends the standard siddur of most Reform congregations, Mishkan T’Filah. And likewise for the beauty of its publication, as well for the completeness of its instructions, the Editor further recommends The Weiss Edition (very specifically The Weiss Edition) of the standard siddur of most Chabad congregations, Siddur Tehillat Hashem.

6. Memoir: Elie Wiesel, Night

Wiesel’s Holocaust memoir is short, devastating, and indispensable. It is the historical conscience of contemporary Judaism in 120 pages. Read it before reading anything else on the Holocaust.

With these six books, the first year is well-equipped. The Books chapter and Books.xlsx of this Field Guide expand the library outward, by category and level.

Where Denominations Diverge

Telushkin and Donin are Modern Orthodox; Green writes from Renewal/Reconstructionist; Wiesel is “post-denominational”. The Koren Shalem is Orthodox; the Koren and Steinsaltz Chumashim are usable across the spectrum. For a Reform starter library, substitute Mishkan T’filah for the siddur. For a Conservative library, substitute Sim Shalom, and include Robert Goldenberg’s The Origins of Judaism.

Sources

Books cited above by full bibliographic record in the Books chapter.