[MUSIC, INTRO] This is The Book of Life. I'm Heidi Rabinowitz. I'm here with the queen of Jewish romance, Jean Meltzer, to do a quick announcement. We will be bringing you a full episode with Jean this fall, but I didn't want to wait to let you know about her newest project. So here's five minutes with Jean so that we can learn all about Jewish Joy Con! [END MUSIC]
I'm Jean Meltzer. I'm an International best selling author of quirky Jewish rom coms. I like to joke that people call me the Queen of Jewish Romance, but the truth is, I like to think of myself as the Queen of Jewish Joy. About a year and a half ago, we started the Jewish Joy Book Club, which branched into the Jewish Joy Box. And now I'm very pleased that we are starting the world's first ever Jewish Joy Con, which is meant to be a groundbreaking three day event of the best of Jewish pop culture, creativity, and storytelling.
That's amazing! So when and where is this going to happen?
So we have chosen -- dun, dun, dun! -- Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It will be March 13th through the 15th at the Broward County Convention Center. We have room for up to 7000, technically, 7100 Yidn from all over the world, and we are going to bring in the best talent, authors. We're just going to have the best time. It's going to be celebrating who we are and celebrating the attributions of creativity in our world that has come from the Jewish community.
Give me a little background on how you decided that this had to happen.
True story, I never thought in my entire life I would be organizing a con. But, you know, I think October 7 changed a lot for Jews everywhere. I've always been an advocate, and I was part of the founders for The Artists Against Antisemitism, and I think we do a great job of trying to educate about antisemitism, but I've always believed that one of the ways we sort of deal with antisemitism is to focus on making Jews feel pride in their identity, so that when people come at us, we don't take it to heart, we can stand strong. And so for me, that's what Jewish Joy Con is about. We've had a rough two years. We should never forget that joy, the word like simcha and sasson, is mentioned over 400 times in our Torah. We are a joyous people. We are commanded to celebrate multiple times a year, and I am here to be the person who makes that happen, that I am giving people the space and the place to come and just bask in their authentic identity, whatever that looks like.
I love that so much. What can people expect at the con?
Well, if you've ever read my romances, you know that I am a little bit quirky and I think out of the box, so don't just think it's going to be authors or celebrities. We're talking matchmakers. We're talking tech giants. We're talking panels on everything from Jewitches to limmud rooms and learning sessions. I want you to be able to find your access point, whether that is you are going to go to a study session on Shabbat, or you're going to go to the marketplace on Shabbat. In our shuk area, we'll have 300 to 500 booths of everything from artisans to organizations to creatives. We always say Jewish joy is for every Jew, and even those who are Jewish adjacent, right? Converts, or people who have married into the Jewish family, or even people who have just grown up in a Jewish world, we get that a lot in our Jewish Joy community. There will be something for everyone.
The best part is we are still in the planning stage, so feel free to find me online, drop me a letter, send me an email. Like, I don't know, every Jewish celebrity there is, right? And so you can send me a name, and we'll do our best. Spread the word. Come, everyone is welcome. And we are going to take three days to just celebrate the absolute best of Jewish life in fun, fabulous ways.
So The Book of Life Podcast focuses on Jewish children's literature, and that's what I find particularly joyous. Are you going to have a children's literature component?
Absolutely! You cannot be Jewish without a strong family element. From Jewish orgs that work with children to a children's space, to spaces for teens and college students as well, it just really wouldn't be an event without being able to have, you know Bubbe there and the kids.
So how do people sign up?
Go to the JewishJoyCon.com. You can also check us out through our website to find all our other initiatives. Jewish-joy.com Give us your phone number and sign up for the newsletter, and we will make sure, as soon as tickets open, that you get that information, because we do expect this to go pretty fast. We want this to be the biggest and best party for Jewish heritage and culture, ever.
This is going to be so much fun, and I can't believe it's going to be in my backyard, because I am in South Florida, so that's amazing!
All right, well, you have to totally be there then!
Yes, I can't wait!
Awesome. I'll be dancing with you at our Matzah Ball!
Jean, thank you for creating this event and for all that you do to spread Jewish joy.
Thank you, and thank you for having me, Heidi. I really appreciate it.
All right. Well, we'll talk to you again in the fall. We'll have a full interview about this, and about your writing. So talk to you again soon.
Yeah, definitely, I can't wait.
[MUSIC, OUTRO] Say hi to Heidi at 561-206-2473, or bookoflifepodcast@gmail.com. Subscribe to my newsletter on Substack to join me in growing Jewish joy and shrinking antisemitic hate. Get show notes, transcripts, Jewish kidlit news, and occasional calls to action right in your inbox. Sign up for the newsletter at BookOfLifePodcast.substack.com. You can also find The Book of Life on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Want to read the books featured on the show? Buy them through bookshop.org/shop/bookoflife to support the podcast and independent bookstores at the same time. You can also help us out by becoming a monthly supporter through Patreon or making a one time donation to our home library, the Feldman Children's Library at Congregation B'nai Israel of Boca Raton, Florida. You'll find links for all of that and more at BookOfLifePodcast.com. Additional support comes from the Association of Jewish Libraries, the leading authority on Judaic librarianship, which also sponsors our sister podcast, Nice Jewish Books, a show about Jewish fiction for adults. Learn more about AJL at JewishLibraries.org. Our background music is provided by the Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band. Thanks for listening and happy reading. [END MUSIC]
