Authors The Best Jewish Authors  

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1.7k votes 310 voters 10.2k views 50 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.

1
41 10
Maimonides is listed (or ranked) 1 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Maimonides Commentary on the Mishna, Treatise on Poisons and Their Antidotes

2
72 35
Franz Kafka is listed (or ranked) 2 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Franz Kafka The Metamorphosis, The Trial, The Castle

3
53 25
Philip Roth is listed (or ranked) 3 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Philip Roth Exit Ghost, American Pastoral, The Human Stain

4
49 22
Marcel Proust is listed (or ranked) 4 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Marcel Proust In Search of Lost Time, The Prisoner, The Fugitive

5
39 16
Isaac Bashevis Singer is listed (or ranked) 5 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Isaac Bashevis Singer The Magician of Lublin, A Day of Pleasure

6
50 25
Sigmund Freud is listed (or ranked) 6 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Sigmund Freud The Interpretation of Dreams, The Ego and the Id, Civilization and Its Discontents

7
52 27
Elie Wiesel is listed (or ranked) 7 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Elie Wiesel Night, Dawn, The Oath

8
45 24
Arthur Miller is listed (or ranked) 8 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Arthur Miller The Crucible, The Misfits, Death of a Salesman

9
35 16
Saul Bellow is listed (or ranked) 9 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Saul Bellow The Adventures of Augie March, Henderson the Rain King, Herzog

10
30 13
Leon Uris is listed (or ranked) 10 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Leon Uris Exodus, Mila 18, QB VII

11
25 9
Bernard Malamud is listed (or ranked) 11 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Bernard Malamud The Natural, The Fixer

12
32 15
Joseph Heller is listed (or ranked) 12 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Joseph Heller Catch-22, Something Happened

13
30 14
Chaim Potok is listed (or ranked) 13 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Chaim Potok The Chosen, The Gift of Asher Lev

14
25 10
Neil Simon is listed (or ranked) 14 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Neil Simon The Good Doctor, Biloxi Blues, Lost in Yonkers

15
34 18
Shel Silverstein is listed (or ranked) 15 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Shel Silverstein Where the Sidewalk Ends, A Light In the Attic, The Giving Tree

16
50 32
Anne Frank is listed (or ranked) 16 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Anne Frank The Diary of a Young Girl

17
23 10
Arthur Koestler is listed (or ranked) 17 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Arthur Koestler Darkness at Noon, The Thirteenth Tribe

18
23 11
Isaac Babel is listed (or ranked) 18 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Isaac Babel Konarmiia, The Odessa Tales, You Must Know Everything

19
6 0
Osip Mandelstam is listed (or ranked) 19 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Matthias Freise added Osip Mandelstam Topůrko pro kata, Voyage en Arménie, Moscow & Voronezh notebooks

20
20 9
Tom Stoppard is listed (or ranked) 20 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Tom Stoppard Empire of the Sun, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, Shakespeare in Love

21
12 2
Clarice Lispector is listed (or ranked) 21 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
LeonardoLima added Clarice Lispector The Hour of the Star, The Passion According to G.H., Un apprentissage

22
23 13
Maurice Sendak is listed (or ranked) 22 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Maurice Sendak Where the Wild Things Are, In the Night Kitchen, Outside Over There

23
15 6
Max Nordau is listed (or ranked) 23 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Mollevangsvagen added Max Nordau A question of honor, Degeneration

24
20 11
Lillian Hellman is listed (or ranked) 24 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Lillian Hellman The Children's Hour, Watch on the Rhine, The Chase

25
31 22
Ayn Rand is listed (or ranked) 25 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
pfment added Ayn Rand Atlas Shrugged, The Fountainhead, The Fountainhead

26
18 12
Shlomo Sand is listed (or ranked) 26 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Mollevangsvagen added Shlomo Sand The Invention of the Jewish People, The Invention of the Land of Israel

27
22 16
Michael Chabon is listed (or ranked) 27 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Michael Chabon Wonder Boys, Summerland, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

28
5 0
Joseph Roth is listed (or ranked) 28 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Matthias Freise added Joseph Roth Radetzky March, Juden auf Wanderschaft, Hotel Savoy

29
11 6
Władysław Szpilman is listed (or ranked) 29 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Władysław Szpilman The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945

30
5 0
Georges Perec is listed (or ranked) 30 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
EnricoValtellina added Georges Perec A Man Asleep, The Man Who Sleeps, Série noire

31
13 9
Mordecai Richler is listed (or ranked) 31 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
NicoleSimmonsMaron added Mordecai Richler Fun with Dick and Jane, Fun with Dick and Jane, Room at the Top

32
11 7
Irène Némirovsky is listed (or ranked) 32 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Irène Némirovsky Fire In the Blood

33
11 7
Bruno Schulz is listed (or ranked) 33 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Bruno Schulz Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass, The Street of Crocodiles

34
23 20
Norman Finkelstein is listed (or ranked) 34 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Mollevangsvagen added Norman Finkelstein The Politics of Anti-Semitism, Beyond Chutzpah, The Holocaust Industry

35
43 41
Karl Marx is listed (or ranked) 35 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Karl Marx The Communist Manifesto, Das Kapital

36
10 7
Ephraim Kishon is listed (or ranked) 36 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
sk8erhorse added Ephraim Kishon The Fox in the Chicken Coop, Sallah, Blaumilch Canal

37
10 7
Howard Jacobson is listed (or ranked) 37 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Howard Jacobson Coming from Behind, In the Land of Oz

38
9 6
Henry Roth is listed (or ranked) 38 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Henry Roth From Bondage, A Diving Rock on the Hudson, Shifting Landscape

39
8 5
Peter Shaffer is listed (or ranked) 39 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Peter Shaffer Five Finger Exercise, Amadeus, Equus

40
3 0
Louis wolfson is listed (or ranked) 40 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
EnricoValtellina added Louis wolfson

41
12 11
Tony Kushner is listed (or ranked) 41 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Tony Kushner A Meditation from Angels in America, Thinking about the Longstanding Problems of Virtue and Happiness: Essays, a Play

42
11 10
Judith Viorst is listed (or ranked) 42 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Judith Viorst Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good

43
8 7
Harry Kemelman is listed (or ranked) 43 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Harry Kemelman Friday the Rabbi Slept Late, The Nine Mile Walk

44
6 5
Barney's Version is listed (or ranked) 44 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
NicoleSimmonsMaron added Barney's Version

45
6 5
Else Ury is listed (or ranked) 45 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
sk8erhorse added Else Ury Babys erstes geschichtenbuch für die kleinen von 2-5 jahren, Professors Zwillinge, Nesthäkchen. Sammelband 1-3

46
6 5
Yona Sabar is listed (or ranked) 46 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Yona Sabar My Father’s Paradise: A Son’s Search for His Jewish Past in Kurdish Iraq

47
7 8
Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravit... is listed (or ranked) 47 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
NicoleSimmonsMaron added Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz

48
9 11
Alain de Botton is listed (or ranked) 48 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Alain de Botton Essays in Love, My Last Five Girlfriends, How Proust Can Change Your Life

49
7 9
Jacob Weisberg is listed (or ranked) 49 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Jacob Weisberg In Defense of Government: The Fall and Rise of Public Trust, In an Uncertain World

50
16 21
Nora Ephron is listed (or ranked) 50 on the list The Best Jewish Authors
Nora Ephron Wallflower at the Orgy, Crazy Salad: Some Things About Women, I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman