His. Name. Was. The. Hat.  Austeria, 2025

A memoir essay, published as a stand-alone book, about the people and places I encountered when I lived in London’s Notting Hill/Westbourne Grove neighborhood in my early 20s — foremost among them was a larger than life character known as The Hat (or The Hat of Chicago, or Dan the Hat, or Dan MacKenzie.) who carried a sword stick and always wore a fedora — and claimed to have been a one-time gangster, smuggler, and scam artist who worked for Al Capone and served time on Alcatraz… but did he really.…?

Jewish Cemeteries and Sustainable Protection – The ESJF Handbook of Sustainable Heritage Tourism

ESJF — online book. Published August 10, 2020 on the ISSUU platform.

I wrote the second part of the book, on Jewish cemeteries and tourism, starting at page 65.

 

Letters from Europe (and Elsewhere). Austeria, 2008

A collection of essays — “letters” — by Ruth, regularly published in the magazine The New Leader, from 1997-2007. Letters from places ranging from Budapest, Paris, Sarajevo, and Warsaw, to tiny villages in Italy, and “on the road” elsewhere…..

 

 

 

National Geographic Jewish heritage Travel: A Guide to Eastern Europe. Washington: National Geographic, 2007

Fourth edition of my (literally) trail-blazing travel guide first published in 1992.

 

 

Virtually Jewish: Reinventing Jewish Culture in Europe. University of California Press, 2002

Ruth coined the term “Virtually Jewish” to describe the way the so-called “Jewish space” in Europe is often filled by non-Jews: klezmer music, culture festivals, museums, tourism, and kitsch as well as serious and sensitive study and involvement.

“This thoughtful narrative is rich in documentation and provocative in the issues it poses.” — Publishers Weekly

 

 

I wrote the text for this photographic memoir by the photographer/filmmaker Amalie R. Rothshchild.

 

Upon the Doorposts of Thy House: Jewish Life in East-Central Europe, Yesterday and Today. John Wiley  Sons, 1994