Jews In Space, Nonfiction

Space Torah: Astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman's Cosmic Mitzvah by Rachelle Burk, Craig Orback (Illustrator)

As a child, Jeff's head was often in the clouds. As an astronaut, he journeyed far beyond them. On his final mission, Jeff brought a miniature Torah into orbit for an out-of-this-world Shabbat celebration! In Space Torah , a picture book biography of astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman, young readers learn of Jeff's path to becoming an astronaut and see the many ways in which he connected his love of Judaism and his love of outer space. From bringing his Bar Mitzvah prayer book on one mission to spinning a dreidel in mid-air on another, Jeff shows young readers the joy of being Jewish . . . in space!

As we come across books that are described as having Jewish main characters, we add them to this database. The creators of the Jewish Genre Reading Challenge have not read all (or even most) of the books in this database. We have gathered information from many sources and not all may be accurate. Inclusion of a book in our database does not imply endorsement or approval. There is always the possibility that antisemitism may be present in a book, either written into a character's experience or through malicious or ignorant caricature or stereotypical portrayal of Jewish characters and culture. Please take care of yourselves as you read.

Please let us know if you encounter a book in this database that does not have a Jewish main character, if you have corrections or additions for a book's genre categories, or if you have any other concerns about the inclusion of a particular book in this database.