Jonathan Greenblatt

Maus is a powerful and moving story that depicts the harrowing experiences of Vladek Spiegelman, a Jewish survivor of Hitler's Europe, and his son, a cartoonist who tries to come to terms with his father's terrifying story and History itself. The cartoon format is a remarkable feat of documentary detail and novelistic vividness that succeeds in shaking readers out of familiarity with the events described. Maus tells two powerful stories, one of survival and one of a strained father-son relationship against a backdrop of history. This is a new kind of literature that tells an ultimate survivor's tale.

An urgent wake-up call to all Americans: the alarming rise of anti-Semitism in the US. This book exposes the three-headed dragon that Jews now face - violent assault, ideological vilification, and political fascism - and explains what we can do to defeat it. Amplified by social media and a culture of conspiracy, anti-Semitism is migrating toward the mainstream, threatening us all. A powerful reminder to renew American and Jewish values in uncertain times.