Books as Bridges: Jewish American Heritage Month in the Classroom

Educators of all backgrounds are invited to come learn, connect, and read to usher in Jewish American Heritage Month 2026! We’ll hear from a panel of local Jewish authors, teachers, and librarians about how to use literature as a bridge to understanding Jewish life and culture. Walk away with a Jewish American Heritage book list, new connections to local authors, and lesson inspiration for May. Plus, the Museum will be open late just for teachers and other school staff to explore DC’s Jewish history, educator resources, school group visits, and other offerings for educators.

Meet the Panelists 

Anna E. Jordan’s (she/her) debut middle-grade novel, SHIRA AND ESTHER’S DOUBLEDREAM DEBUT (Chronicle Books, 2023), was named a Best Book of 2023 byBank Street, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and Tablet Magazine and was a 2025 New Jersey Librarian Association-nominated book for the Garden State Teen Book Awards Fiction Grades 6-8. Anna has an MFA from the Writing for Children and Young Adults program at Vermont College of Fine Arts and was the recipient of the 2013 PEN New England Susan P. Bloom Children’s Book Discovery Award. Anna teaches fifth grade in the DC Public Schools. Her cat, Rothko, is a world-renowned mouser.

Susan Kusel is a librarian, professional researcher and author. She has worked as a synagogue librarian, a public librarian, and a children’s bookstore buyer and bookseller She is currently the librarian at B’nai Israel Congregation in Rockville, MD. She was a member of the 2015 Caldecott Medal committee, and a former chair of the Sydney Taylor Book Award committee. She won the Sydney Taylor Book Award in for her debut picture book The Passover Guest. She loves to cross stitch, ride her bike and bake challah.

Abby White began to write as a child in Shaker Heights, OH, and never managed to put down her pen. Her debut novel, D.J. Rosenblum Becomes the G.O.A.T., won the 2026 Sydney Taylor Book Award for young adult literature. She studied creative writing and American studies at Columbia University and earned her MFA from the University of Nevada, Reno at Lake Tahoe. Abby loves books, baking, LeBron James, and elephants—so much that she’s willing to break an alliteration for them. Today, she lives in Washington, DC, with an extraordinary community of friends.

Image: Photograph by Lloyd Wolf, gift of the photographer. Capital Jewish Museum Collections.