These selections, many available for the first time, span nearly three centuries and examine themes such as the centrality of family life, the pain of uprooting from established communities, collision between tradition and assimilation, roles and relationships of men and women, and the toxicity of self-hatred.

Informed by sources ranging from biblical literature to historical events, oral traditions, classical poetics, the beat generation, and post-modern ironies, these works introduce a literature that, "though small on an absolute scale and little known, forces us to take a new critical perspective on Jewish American writing."