Upcoming Books

Upcoming Books

Unapologetically Jewish: A Guide to Speaking Up For Your People by Lizzy Savetsky (Radius Book Group, Diversion Books)

Unapologetically Jewish by Lizzy Savetsky is a rallying cry and field manual for anyone ready to stop staying silent. Drawing from her transformation from fashion influencer to one of the most visible Jewish advocates in the world, Savetsky delivers an empowering, action-oriented roadmap for speaking up in an era of rising antisemitism and cultural intimidation.

Blending personal experience with battle-tested strategy, the book shows readers how to build confidence, communicate effectively, use storytelling as a weapon, withstand backlash, and turn fear into purpose. Rather than focusing on politics alone, Unapologetically Jewish is ultimately about identity, resilience, courage, and taking meaningful action within your own sphere of influence.

With a massive social media platform, extensive national media presence, and deep connections across the Jewish, political, and influencer worlds, Savetsky is uniquely positioned to mobilize a large, passionate audience hungry for guidance, empowerment, and community.

On the Street of the Hidden Shops: One City Block, Two Thousand Years, & a Walk Through The Layered Lives of Rome by Elizabeth Rodini (University of Chicago Press)

Cutting through the heart of Rome is Via delle Botteghe Oscure, a time-worn street named for the mysterious “shops” said to run beneath it. History lies thick here, a museum atop a convent atop ancient ruins; layered in are the traces of artisans and poets, pilgrims and saints, a Fascist deportation, a communist coffee bar, a political assassination, and shopkeepers, too. These stories all rest upon a single city block, the same place where, in 13 BCE, the triumphal Roman general Lucius Cornelius Balbus built a monumental theater complex in his own honor.

Elizabeth Rodini’s On the Street of the Hidden Shops digs deep into this corner of the city, uncovering a set of surprising, often poignant narratives that range across two thousand years. For as the walls of Balbus’s compound decayed and the neighborhood was rebuilt, this block would come to shelter Romans from all walks of life: the daughters of local prostitutes, an earnest young man in search of a bride, an entrepreneur determined to preserve the city’s colorful dialect, a Jewish family recently liberated from the nearby Ghetto, a band of idealistic archaeologists unearthing a long-forgotten past, as well as a gifted baker, a medieval donkey, and a Renaissance ghost. Their stories survive in archives and artifacts, but also in the enduring power of rumor and legend.

On the Street of the Hidden Shops invites us on a captivating journey to one place across many centuries. Its tight urban focus reveals a Rome most visitors miss, while uncovering some of the many Romes that have been largely lost to history.

To Bigotry No Sanction: George Washington and the Origins of American Religious Liberty by Jonathan Sarna (University of Chicago Press)

This book reveals how a short exchange between President George Washington and the Jewish community of Newport articulated a theory of religious liberty grounded in inherent natural rights rather than toleration—years before the First Amendment was ratified. By tracing the origins, language, and long afterlife of Washington’s letter, the book reframes American religious freedom as a lived constitutional principle forged through minority claims, not merely legal text. Discussions of America’s religious origins are often framed almost exclusively through Christianity, yet this letter suggests that even the nation’s most important founder rejected such a narrow understanding. Over time, the letter took on sacred proportions not only for Jews but for anyone who cared about religious liberty. In today’s climate, where debates about religion and America are increasingly shaped by Christian nationalism, the letter stands as a foundational proof text for pluralism.