Writers

The Best Jewish Authors 

Ranker Books
Updated September 18, 2019 4.9k votes 555 voters 16.8k views 65 items

List Rules Jewish authors and writers. Vote up the best authors who are Jewish.

Some of history’s most influential and beloved novels and other writings were written by Jewish authors. Who wasn’t impacted by The Diary of a Young Girl, Amadeus, The Pianist, The Giving Tree, Where the Wild Things Are, The Chosen, or The Crucible? Who are the best Jewish authors? Vote up the best authors below to see how they rank.
 
The Jewish authors on this list have written some of the most beloved works of all time, telling stories we love to read to our children, stories that make us grateful for the ones we love, and stories that compel us to see the world through more compassionate eyes and motivate us to be the best versions of ourselves. Some of their stories are simply engaging and fun to read as well.
 
This list has been ranked by the community and features the best Jewish authors of all time including, Anne Frank, Franz Kafka, Karl Marx, Joseph Heller, Arthur Miller, Shel Silverstein, Philip Roth, Saul Bellow, Michael Chabon, and Tom Stoppard. Vote up the best Jewish writers below and see where the authors you think are the best rank.
list ordered by
1
Herman Wouk is listed (or ranked) 1 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
fwiener added The Winds of War, The Caine Mutiny, The Winds of War
2
Joseph Heller is listed (or ranked) 2 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Catch-22, Something Happened
3
Leon Uris is listed (or ranked) 3 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Exodus, Mila 18, QB VII
4
Arthur Miller is listed (or ranked) 4 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
The Crucible, The Misfits, Death of a Salesman
5
Ayn Rand is listed (or ranked) 5 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
pfment added Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, The Fountainhead
6
Franz Kafka is listed (or ranked) 6 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
The Metamorphosis, The Trial, The Castle
7
Neil Simon is listed (or ranked) 7 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
The Good Doctor, Biloxi Blues, Lost in Yonkers
8
J. D. Salinger is listed (or ranked) 8 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
ZacharyHagen-Smith added The Catcher in the Rye, Franny and Zooey, Nine Stories
9
Sholem Aleichem is listed (or ranked) 9 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
MoonshadowRachel added Fiddler on the Roof, Wandering Stars, Hunakkah Lights
10
Władysław Szpilman is listed (or ranked) 10 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945
11
Maurice Sendak is listed (or ranked) 11 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Where the Wild Things Are, In the Night Kitchen, Outside Over There
12
Anne Frank is listed (or ranked) 12 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
The Diary of a Young Girl
13
Lillian Hellman is listed (or ranked) 13 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
The Children's Hour, Watch on the Rhine, The Chase
14
Marcel Proust is listed (or ranked) 14 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
In Search of Lost Time, The Prisoner, The Fugitive
15
Gloria Steinem is listed (or ranked) 15 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
MoonshadowRachel added Wonder Woman : Featuring over Five Decades of Great Covers, Outrageous acts and everyday rebellions, Revolution from within
16
Bernard Malamud is listed (or ranked) 16 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
The Natural, The Fixer
17
Philip Roth is listed (or ranked) 17 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Exit Ghost, American Pastoral, The Human Stain
18
Peter Shaffer is listed (or ranked) 18 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Five Finger Exercise, Amadeus, Equus
19
Maimonides is listed (or ranked) 19 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Maimonides Commentary on the Mishna, Treatise on Poisons and Their Antidotes
20
Isaac Bashevis Singer is listed (or ranked) 20 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
The Magician of Lublin, A Day of Pleasure
21
Primo Levi is listed (or ranked) 21 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Paul Watchman Dawson added The Periodic Table, The Drowned and the Saved, If Not Now
22
Judith Viorst is listed (or ranked) 22 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good
23
Saul Bellow is listed (or ranked) 23 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
The Adventures of Augie March, Henderson the Rain King, Herzog
24
Chaim Potok is listed (or ranked) 24 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
The Chosen, The Gift of Asher Lev
25
Nora Ephron is listed (or ranked) 25 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Wallflower at the Orgy, Crazy Salad: Some Things About Women, I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman