[MUSIC, INTRO] This is The Book of Life, a show about Jewish kidlit, mostly. I'm Heidi Rabinowitz. For Hanukkah 2024, I got you a Jewish book advocacy kit. Let me explain: My local public library invited me to give an online talk in honor of Jewish Book Month. And as I thought about what to say, I remembered great advice from my friend, author Liza Wiemer about the small, simple things that anyone can do to support Jewish literature... and bingo, I had my topic.
Here is an edited recording of that talk that I gave, with practical, actionable tips ,and suggestions for Jewish books you will love. If you'd like to see my slideshow, you can watch the same talk on YouTube. I'll put a link to the video in the show notes, along with a very useful presentation handout.
For even more books you'll love, check out my annual unofficial Sydney Taylor Book Award shortlist to see what I think is the best Jewish kidlit of 2024 at BookOfLifePodcast.com.
Happy Hanukkah! Happy New Year! And happy reading!
My presentation is called "Cheering On Jewish Books," because I want to cheer for Jewish books! I'm excited about them, and I want you to be too.
First, let's define what we mean by a Jewish book. It can mean different things to different people. So obviously, the most famous foundational Jewish book is the Torah, the Five Books of Moses, as well as other religious texts like the Talmud. But a Jewish book doesn't have to be religious. After all, Judaism is an ethnoreligion. It is a culture that has its own religion. So a Jewish book might be a book by a Jewish author, that may or may not have Jewish content. A book with Jewish characters or set in a Jewish community would be a Jewish book. A book that takes place during a Jewish holiday or a life cycle event like a bar mitzvah or a wedding. It might be very overt in its Jewish representation, or it might be more casual and minimal. It might even be so subtle that it could go unnoticed by some readers; for instance, a book in which a character has a Jewish name, but that's the only Jewish representation.
I want to take a moment to point out that Judaism does not proselytize, and that promoting Jewish books does not have to mean promoting religious texts. As we've seen, there are many, many ways for a book to be Jewish. The First Amendment of the US Constitution establishes the separation of church and state, and that means that government funded institutions like schools and libraries must not engage in religious practices or serve religious groups unequally. But this does not mean that they have to ignore the existence of religion. It just means that they should not host religious rituals. They should not engage in proselytizing or indoctrination. But activities that inform and educate about religion are welcome. So public libraries are free to include religious materials in their collections, and public schools are free to teach comparative religion classes, for example. When I promote Jewish books to readers of all backgrounds, I'm not trying to convert anybody.
But why do I want people to read Jewish books? Well, if you are Jewish, reading these books makes you feel good. Seeing yourself represented in literature is very validating. It makes you feel seen. It makes you feel that you belong and you're part of the community. If you're not Jewish, reading these books will be interesting for you. You'll learn new things. You'll understand your Jewish neighbors better. You take a walk in other people's shoes and empathize with their experiences. Reading outside your own culture expands your imagination, your whole knowledge of the world. It strengthens the connections that make our society whole.
But as LeVar Burton used to say on Reading Rainbow, you don't have to take my word for it! A groundbreaking article published in 1990 in a professional journal by Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop, Professor Emerita at Ohio State University, established the idea of "mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors," and this metaphor is now widely used in the book world among publishers, librarians and educators.
A mirror book reflects your own experience or culture back to you and helps you feel seen. A window book gives you a peek into another culture, and a sliding glass door can both reflect and let you step through to imagine yourself in another's shoes. Some of the very best books are sliding glass door books.
Now I apologize for the downer, but I have to take a moment to acknowledge the antisemitism crisis, because this is part of my motivation for sharing Jewish books. Antisemitic incidents are way up, and this was true before the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and Israel's subsequent military response. I am definitely not here to discuss the war and its relationship to both antisemitism and Islamophobia. I'm sure we each have our own opinions on that situation. But suffice it to say, antisemitism is a huge problem these days, so it is more important than ever to support the Jewish community, and my way of doing this is through books. In the face of antisemitism, mirror books are more important than ever. The validation that Jewish people receive from seeing ourselves in print, especially seeing stories that depict Jewish joy, is not just a feel good thing; it gives us hope in dark times. And in the face of antisemitism, Jewish window books and sliding glass door books build bridges with non-Jewish neighbors and encourage empathy. And that's not just nice: it's necessary for safety and for justice. So if you agree, I hope that you will want to share Jewish books with the world too.
But how? How do we share the books? Let us turn now to some practical tips that make it easy to advocate for Jewish literature.
And basically supporting any genre of books means showing that there is a demand for them so that authors will be encouraged to keep writing, publishers will be encouraged to keep producing, booksellers and libraries will be encouraged to keep stocking these books. So when I promote Jewish books, from a psychological perspective, I want individual readers to feel seen and to learn and grow, but at the same time from a market perspective, I want to increase the demand for Jewish books.
A super simple way to support Jewish literature is to borrow Jewish books from the library, buy them from the bookstore: online bookstores, bricks and mortar bookstores. This lets the library or the bookstore know that their community wants Jewish books and encourages them to stock more Jewish books. Sales of Jewish books, whether to customers or to libraries, shows the publishers that Jewish books are in demand and that there's a market for them, so they should publish more of them.
You could go to a library or bookseller's website and rate and review Jewish books, and this will bring more attention from other readers, and that may increase the borrowing or the buying of these titles.
You can suggest Jewish titles you want the library to add to their collection, or ask your local indie bookstore to order Jewish titles for you.
You can ask both libraries and bookstores to create displays and host events for Jewish Book Month in November ... or actually, technically, the 30 days leading up to Hanukkah. And in Jewish American Heritage Month in May. And this reminds local institutions that Jewish communities expect their allyship.
And you can share Jewish book news with librarians and booksellers in your community, and I'll talk in a little while about how to get that news.
Now this is a suggestion form from the Palm Beach County Public Library, and I think most libraries have forms like this, that you can fill out to suggest a title. So if there's a Jewish book that you can't find in the catalog, but you think it's a great one, and everybody should be reading it, go ahead and tell your library about it, and they could order it. Also, at my public library, Palm Beach County, there is a way for you to give stars and even write reviews of books in the catalog, which will encourage more people to read those books. So you can do that at most libraries. And in fact, you can do that not only at libraries.
So let's talk a little about online advocacy. You can advocate for Jewish books without even getting up off your sofa. So like I was saying, you can rate and review books on your library website. But also you can do this, of course, at Amazon, at Barnes and Noble's website, at Bookshop.org, GoodReads, any book related website.
And there's a lot you can do on social media. You can write your own reviews or just post casual comments about how you like to book.
You can follow Jewish book advocates, like the Association of Jewish Libraries or the Jewish Book Council, individual Jewish authors. You can like and comment on posts; and the more interaction a post gets, the more the algorithms boost them. So even just something as simple as clicking Like is doing some good in the world.
And you can attend online Jewish Book events like author presentations and book clubs, and like this talk I'm giving right now... so you're doing it already, good job!
Sometimes you want to get off the sofa and go out into the world to interact with people in real life. So here are some ways you can support Jewish books out there in the world.
You can give Jewish books as gifts for any age.
If you've read a Jewish book and you're all done with it, you can donate it to a Little Free Library so somebody else can read it.
You can go to live Jewish events, live in-person author talks at bookstores or Jewish community centers. You can take your kids to events hosted in the community by PJ Library, the nonprofit that gives out free Jewish kids' books by mail.
If you have a book club, you can suggest Jewish titles, or you can join or form a specifically Jewish book club.
And you can simply recommend Jewish books you've enjoyed to your friends and family. Advocacy can be that simple, and word of mouth is very powerful, so just telling somebody about a Jewish book you liked does a lot of good.
So I've talked a lot about sharing Jewish book news as an easy form of advocacy. But where do you hear this Jewish Book news? Well, I'm going to give you a handout that has lots of links to help you with this, but just real quickly:
You can listen to podcasts, go to websites that review books, award announcements... (I'm going to talk a little bit more about that.)
Follow book influencers. Sign up for author newsletters. And just your social media feed... My social media feed is full of news about Jewish books because of the people that I follow and the organizations that I that I click Like and follow.
So let's talk about book awards. There are many prizes for Jewish literature, both for adult and children's books, and this makes it easy to find the best new books every year. In the handout, I'm going to give you links where you can stay in the loop about all of these. I just want to shout out the Sydney Taylor Book Award from the Association of Jewish Libraries. Years ago, I was the chair of that book award committee, so I'm still a big advocate for it. It is the only award that specifically focuses on Jewish children's literature, from picture books through middle grade to young adult books.
I also want to mention influencers. So as I said, I podcast about Jewish books. There are many people who blog about Jewish books, bookstagrammers who cover Jewish books on Instagram. One of my favorite influencers is this delightful Jewish teenager who goes by the name of E Train, and he is a passionate advocate for children's literacy. He covers all kinds of books, but Jewish books are prominent in his lineup. So check out E Train Talks online. You will love him.
So let's talk about some books that you are going to want to read. First, we're going to talk about adult books. I'm a children's librarian. I mostly read kids' books for my own entertainmentm, so I asked my friends at the Association of Jewish Libraries to recommend some favorite adult books, and these are a few of their choices.
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride. Just have to point out that it has won multiple prizes from both Jewish and non-Jewish organizations. If you put all the stickers on the cover, you probably wouldn't even be able to see the title.
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, has a video game angle. It's reminiscent of Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. It's definitely on my to be read pile.
And I also want to point out Thistlefoot by GemmaRose Nethercott, a modern fantasy fairy tale about the descendants of Baba Yaga, the famous witch from Russian folklore. The author is a folklorist and a puppeteer. I saw her at the Association of Jewish Libraries conference, and she is such a character, I can't wait to read this one.
And I also want to point out a romcom, Thank You for Sharing by Rachel Runya Katz, a really cute romcom starring two Jews of Color as the couple.
I want to jump down here to People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present by Dara Horn; what a provocative title. It's a collection of essays exploring the weird twists and turns that antisemitism takes, but written with heart and humor. And I also loved her short podcast series based on the book. It was called Adventures with Dead Jews. What a title, right?
Another book that uses humor to deal with a difficult subject is Jews Don't Count by David Baddiel, a British comedian, and this book exposes the weird way in which the equity, diversity and inclusion movement often excludes Jews.
And I do want to mention The Amen Effect: Ancient Wisdom to Mend Our Broken Hearts and World by Rabbi Sharon Brous. This book is going to make you cry, but in a good way.
Okay, here's my area: this is children's books, and we've got here middle grade and young adult books, mostly middle grade. So I'm going to talk about some of my favorites, and I've podcasted about many of these.
Benji Zeb is a Ravenous Werewolf by Deke Moulton. I interviewed her for the November two part series on my podcast. Her other book is called Don't Want to Be Your Monster. That's the vampire one. Betsy Bird, who is a very famous book reviewer at the Fuse #8 blog, she said about this book, "This isn't just A werewolf book for kids, it is THE werewolf book for kids." So there you go.
Across So Many Seas by Ruth Behar is a multigenerational story about a Sephardic Jewish family, from the Inquisition to modern times. I interviewed her on the podcast as well, this spring in 2024.
Not Nothing by Gayle Forman is a contemporary story about healing from trauma. It makes me want to stand up and sing. It is so good. And it's about rising to the occasion of your life. Just beautiful. It has Holocaust elements, but it's not a holocaust book per se. And I interviewed her in October.
If you would like a Jewish Narnia style story, try Tale of the Flying Forest by RM Romero. It is a portal fantasy with an adventure quest based on Jewish folklore.
Finn and Ezra's Bar Mitzvah Time Loop, by Joshua S. Levy, fascinatingly, has two very different Jewish kids, one Orthodox, one pretty secular, trapped together in a time loop during their bar mitzvah weekend. I interviewed Josh about his other book, The Jake show. He has many books, but another one of his books, last year.
And Golemcrafters by Japanese American Jewish author Emi Watanabe Cohen, part 2 of my Creature Double Feature podcast series in November 2024, and it's got the best explanation I've ever read for what antisemitism feels like, psychologically on the receiving end.
Two Tribes by Emily Bowen Cohen is a graphic novel based on her own life as a Jewish member of the Muskogee Creek Nation.
The Miracle Seed, by Martin Lemelman, who is a local author here in South Florida. This is a graphic novel where he magically makes the revival of the extinct Judean date palm in Israel into a fascinating adventure.
A Boy from Baghdad by Miriam Halahmy is a historical novel about Iraqi Jews finding refuge from persecution in Iraq by relocating to Israel.
Now here are the YA, the young adult books, I wanted to mention. How to Excavate a Heart by Jake Maia Arlow is a sweet, adorable romcom between two Jewish girls.
Yes, No, Maybe So was co-authored by a Jewish author and a Muslim author, Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed. It's got a Jewish boy and a Muslim girl who fall for each other while doing political canvassing.
And my new favorite is Night Owls by A.R. Vishny, part romance, part fantasy, about two Jewish sisters who are estries, owl-shifting Jewish vampires, and they run an art house cinema in Greenwich Village. So much fun.
One Small Spark by Ruth Spiro is about tikkun olam, the mitzvah of repairing the world. It directly addresses the reader to inspire action, and this would make a great graduation gift for any age level.
Moses and the Runaway Lamb by Jacqueline Jules shows Moses more realistically with dark skin, and it also nicely lets us see Moses outside of Passover. So that's kind of cool.
This is My Shabbat by Chris Barash features a blind boy enjoying a peaceful Shabbat with his family, and it includes Jews of color. So that's a nice touch.
The Tower of Life by Chana Stiefel joins many wonderful picture book biographies being published these days, and this is the most positive Holocaust book I've ever read, about how survivor Yaffa Eliach created a display at the Holocaust Memorial Museum that brought her town back to life.
Eve and Adam and Their Very First Day by Leslie Kimmelman has gorgeous pictures and cleverly shows the creativity that the first humans would have had to use to get through life in the Garden of Eden.
Hanukkah Upside Down by Elissa Brent Weissman compares the holiday experience of Jewish cousins in New York and New Zealand. And this is probably the only existing Jewish kids book with Jewish New Zealander representation.
Two New Years is another compare and contrast book. This is by Richard Ho and it's about a Chinese Jewish family celebrating both Rosh Hashanah and Lunar New Year. Oh, by the way, I did podcast about Hanukkah Upside Down last Hanukkah in 2023 and last Rosh Hashanah in 2023 I podcasted about Two New Years. I probably should have added to this slide, a book that came out this year in 2024, another Chinese Jewish book called Mixed-Up Mooncakes, which is about both Sukkot and the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Sharing Shalom by Daniel Sharkan is a beautiful contemporary story of allyship in the face of antisemitism. And what I particularly liked, that most books don't seem to do, not only does it show the antisemitism and then the community rallying to push back, it establishes why she loves her Jewish identity before that, so that you understand what the antisemitism is threatening.
The Greatest by Veera Hiranandani. She is a Jewish Indian American author. This is a tribute to a beloved grandfather in a Jewish family.
A Feather, a Pebble, a Shell by Miri Leshem-Pelly is a reflection on how kids feel at one with nature, and is also an ode to the natural landscape of the land of Israel.
And finally, The Very Best Sukkah is a story from Uganda by Shoshana Nambi. She's the first female rabbi from the Jewish community of Uganda, and this is about her own childhood experience of celebrating the holiday of Sukkot.
Phew! That's a lot of books! So, there you go. There are more great Jewish books where those came from. If you go to TinyURL.com/CheeringJewishBooks, you will find links to so much information. You'll find all of those books listed and all of those tips for how you can support Jewish books. So I hope you will take that information and run with it! Thank you so much for listening, everybody!
[MUSIC, DEDICATION] I'm Joni Sussman. I am the outgoing publisher at KarBen Publishing. I will soon be on the Book of Life podcast, and I want to dedicate it to the Association of Jewish Libraries, which does wonderful things for kids.
I'm Fran Greenman-Schmitz, and I am the incoming publisher at KarBen Publishing.
[MUSIC, OUTRO] Say hi to Heidi at 561-206-2473 or bookoflifepodcast@gmail.com Check out our Book of Life podcast Facebook page, or our Facebook discussion group Jewish Kidlit Mavens. We are occasionally on Twitter too @bookoflifepod. 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. Additional support comes from the Association of Jewish Libraries, which also sponsors our sister podcast, Nice Jewish Books, a show about Jewish fiction for adults. You'll find links for all of that and more at BookofLifePodcast.com Our background music is provided by the Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band. Thanks for listening and happy reading!
[MUSIC, PROMO] For 100 years, the Rosenfelds have been trapped in a time bubble in their tenement apartment on the Lower East Side of New York. They can only catch glimpses of the outside world, which has no idea that they are there until one day, Esther Luna, who works in the building, which has now been turned into the Tenement Museum, sees a girl in the window who smiles and waves at her. After exploring every reasonable explanation, Esther turns to Rabbi Meyer Poppers, a Jewish magician. While he finds the source of the curse holding them there, figuring out how to lift it is another matter entirely, and lifting it without killing the Rosenfelds will be even trickier. Join me for a conversation with Mickey Dubrow, author of The Magic Maker. Find us at JewishLibraries.org/NiceJewishBooks.
