THE BOOK OF LIFE: August Throwback: Summer Coolness

9:07PM Jun 11, 2025

Speakers:

Heidi Rabinowitz

Lorie Ann Grover

Melissa Schorr

Scott Leader

Julie Sandorf

Keywords:

Jewish literature

podcasting

Melissa Shore

Reader Girls

Sababa band

Nextbook

interfaith dating

teen novels

MySpace

Jewish community

book recommendations

summer reading

podcast archive

Jewish culture

music and books.

This is The Book of Life, a show about Jewish kidlit, mostly. I'm Heidi Rabinowitz. In honor of my 20th year of podcasting on The Book of Life, I'm bringing you an episode from the archives. This episode is called Summer Coolness, and it was released in June 2007. The episode featured a now-defunct website called ReaderGirlz with a Z, and the website Nextbook that morphed into Tablet Magazine in 2009. There were also many mentions of MySpace. I interviewed Melissa Schorr, author of Goy Crazy, who, according to her website, seems to have mostly moved on from kidlit to journalism. I must say, her most recent book from 2017, Shame Nation: Choosing Kindness and Compassion in an Age of Cruelty and Trolling, looks extremely on point. And the episode featured the band Sababa, which happily is still in existence, and in fact, they've recently released their fourth album called When We Rise.

It's funny to think how much has changed and how much is still the same, including this podcast, which has changed format and focus, but we're still here. If you enjoy this blast from the past, please check out other episodes of The Book of Life from any time in the last two decades. Go to bookoflifepodcast.com and click on Archive in the sidebar, or just go to the episode list on your podcast player and keep on scrolling down, down, down.

[MUSIC, INTRO] Welcome to The Book of Life, a show about Jewish people and the books we read. I'm Heidi Estrin. The Book of Life is a podcast service of the Feldman Library at Congregation B'nai Israel in Boca Raton, Florida. Additional support comes from the Association of Jewish Libraries. In this June 2007 episode of our podcast, we look for books and music to bring to the pool. We'll learn about ReaderGirlz, a website that brings authors and teen girls together. We'll meet Melissa Schorr, author of the teen novel Goy Crazy, which will be featured in the ReaderGirlz July issue. We'll relax to the cool tunes of the new musical group Sababa. Finally, we'll hear about how the Nextbook website can help us decide what book to read next. Before we start, I want to thank everyone who sent in a greeting to celebrate the 18th episode of The Book of Life this May. Apparently the idea of shout outs proved popular, because we've got another one for you. Catherine Lavallée-Welch at the University of South Florida, would like to say hi to Véronique Mesguich and her friends at the library of the Léonard de VinciUniversity in Paris, France. Bonjour, Véronique! [MUSIC FADES OUT]

ReaderGirlz is an online magazine and web presence that brings teen girls together to read, chat, and meet authors who write about strong girls like themselves. We spoke to Lorie Ann Grover, one of the author divas who helped to create ReaderGirlz, about the website's mission and about their selection of the Jewish Book Goy Crazy by Melissa Schorr for their upcoming July issue. Check them out online at ReaderGirlz (with a Z) dot com, or at myspace.com/readergirlz. Lorie Ann, tell us about ReaderGirlz.

ReaderGirlz is an online book community that was formed to celebrate gutsy girls in life and lit.

What was the inspiration for creating ReaderGirlz?

It really began when Justina Chen Headley was on her book tour for Nothing But the Truth (And a Few White Lies), and she made a concerted effort to visit inner city schools that couldn't afford author visits. And when she saw the state of their libraries and was reminded that they didn't have an author come regularly to their school, she just really felt burdened. So the concept of ReaderGirlz came to her that she could reach those kids, she could reach everyone, regardless of economic status, and provide a full rich author book experience. She found three other authors who were philanthropically minded, that she knew would be interested in reaching out. And so she approached Dia Calhoun, Janet Lee Carey, and myself.

The folk wisdom is that girls read more than boys. Why do you feel that girls need the extra support of a program like ReaderGirlz?

We're all writing about girls, and so that was a natural fit for us. But when we actually started looking for other cultures, other races, other points of view, with strong, gutsy characters, they're not as prevalent as you think, so we thought that we could still provide support by finding these specific books and offering them up to girls.

How do you select the books that you feature?

We realized, how are we going to choose those books, and continue to write, and be that online presence? And so we came up with the idea of utilizing bloggers who are reading vast amounts, and so we've turned to them and formed a group called PosterGirlz, headed up by Little Willow. We gave them a suggestion of different topics for each month: compassion, tolerance, good body image, healthy minds. At the same time, we asked them to remember that we're looking for different races, we're looking for different points of view.

Your book for July 2007 is Goy Crazy by Melissa Schorr. How did you select this book?

We saw this debut author with this great wit, fabulous sense of humor, and writing from a Jewish perspective, and we just thought, this is the perfect fit. A great, gutsy character, Rachel was going to really reach out to a lot of girls, we thought, and so we were eager to try and get her.

What will you be doing to help readers get the most out of reading Goy Crazy?

Well, Melissa is creating an issue for us, and in that issue, she'll have discussion questions. There will be an author interview. She'll provide a playlist of music that can be heard while you're reading the book, or possibly getting together with girlfriends and moms and throwing a party. If you do throw a party, she'll provide decoration, ideas, food, drink, everything that springs out of her book. So it's a great theme. On MySpace, there will be a slideshow running of her book, as well as other recommended reads, including nonfiction work that would support or be connected in some way to Goy Crazy. Over at the group forum, she'll be available several times a week. We'll post from her discussion questions that she offered up in the interview. We'll post those and girls will begin to dialog with each other, and then she will log on and answer questions as well.

It sounds like you're using a lot of very exciting technology in ReaderGirlz. Can you tell us a little more about that?

Well, we have an independent website at ReaderGirlz.com and we did that to make the issue available to everyone, but our main presence is on MySpace, because a recent study showed that girls 12 to 17, 70% of them are on MySpace. So we felt like we needed to go where they were at, in order to be accessible. We've put up every screen possible, and we have four women, you know, on the lookout, watching to be sure that it's all safe, but the heart of everything is in that group forum. That's really where you hear the dialog going, and it's just been amazing, because we have girls and we have women of all ages. I don't know that I've seen this happening in other sites where these older women are dialoguing with younger women, and both sides are benefiting. You'll have one girl say, I am anorexic. I read this book, and I've gone to the doctor and gained 14 pounds. You have another girl saying, I feel just so much pressure about college. And then a professor weighs in, and she gives her advice: you know, you need to have fun now. And it's just amazing this give and take that's going on.

Lori Ann Grover, thanks so much for speaking with us!

Thank you for having me!

[MUSICAL STING] Melissa Schorr's debut teen novel is Goy Crazy, published by Hyperion in fall 2006. It's the story of a Jewish girl falling for a non Jewish boy, a goy, and the problems caused by this crazy crush. It's a light, witty read that addresses some serious issues. We spoke to Melissa by phone at her home in Massachusetts.

Melissa first, just in case some of our listeners don't know, can you explain the word goy?

Sure. The translation of the term literally just means nation or people, but the way we tend to use it nowadays is to just refer to anyone that isn't Jewish.

Were you worried at all that the title Goy Crazy would offend some readers or make them feel excluded?

Well, the reaction to the title has really been interesting. A couple of Jewish publications reviewed the book, and it was funny because they liked the book, but they sort of said, well, the title is dreadful, and we still find the word offensive. What people don't really realize if they haven't actually read it, is that my character, Rachel thinks about this, and it's actually an issue that's raised in the book. Her grandmother says to her, literally, "don't go with the goyim," which was something that my own grandmother said to me. But it brings Rachel to sort of try to struggle with that and understand, well, why is her grandmother using that word? And why is she talking about, you know, a person who's not Jewish, and yet she's friends with people who aren't Jewish? And sort of trying to grapple with that whole idea of, is it discriminatory to say, don't date someone outside of your faith? So it leads people to think about those issues a little more. And the other thing I wanted to point out, which I find really kind of ironic and crazy, is that all the disapproval I've gotten from the title has been from the Jewish community. Well, they're not the ones that should actually be offended by this. And actually, I haven't heard one word from anyone who's not Jewish, ever, who's mad that I used that word.

Tell us about the story of Goy Crazy.

A 15 year old girl named Rachel Lowenstein meets a boy named Luke Christiansen, a little obvious, not Jewish, and falls for him and wants to date him. And of course, she's worried that her family won't approve, so the story is basically her struggle trying to figure out what to do. I think this is a really important issue. It hasn't really been addressed in a lot of teenage novels, but this is really when teenagers start to think about these issues, when they start dating, and I think it's okay to raise an important issue in a humorous way.

What inspired you to write this story?

Well, as you might suspect, the story is definitely based very much my own life story. The ironic thing is that I sort of came full circle in my own life. As a young adult, I wrote an essay about why I love to date non Jewish men, and then turned around that month and met a Jewish man and ended up marrying him. Another reason I wrote this book was I have a lot of family members who were touched by interfaith dating, good friends and relatives who ended up in interfaith marriages, and what they tell me honestly is that it's really hard. I mean, you can make it work, but it's definitely that much harder. And so I looked at my own life, and I feel very fortunate that I ended up not going that route, but I know that on another path, I definitely could have ended up in that life too.

What do you hope readers will learn about interfaith dating from reading this book?

I think my main message would be to teenagers and to parents to realize that this is ultimately going to be the choice of the teenager. That means it is the responsibility of the parents to make it relevant and sort of guide them, but ultimately they're going to have to leave that decision up to them. I know a lot of people get nervous about saying it's okay to date people of different backgrounds because they fear that you could end up marrying them. But I think teenagers today know that the odds of them actually marrying someone that they dated in high school are really slim. So I think there is some value in dating people of different backgrounds. I think it's all about exploring the world and figuring out who you are.

The ReaderGirlz website is going to be featuring Goy Crazy in July. What sort of goodies will we see on the Goy Crazy edition of ReaderGirlz?

It's going to be tough to pull off in July, I have to admit. Because when the book came out in the fall, we did a lot of Christmas themed parties. So sort of, you know, interfaith holiday parties, we would do a Goy Crazy sandwich, which was white bread and mayo with pastrami, things like that. [LAUGHTER] You know, corned beef. So, and we did things like latkes and candy canes, and so I don't know how I'm going to suggest people try to do a sort of interfaith holiday party in the middle of the summer, but it might be hard to get your hands on, you know, Hanukkah gelt and candy canes at that time of the year, but that's the spirit of it.

Melissa Schorr, thanks so much for speaking with us.

Thank you for having me. I really enjoyed it.

[SABABA MUSIC] Long time Jewish musicians, Scott Leader, Steve Brodsky, and Robbi Sherwin had so much fun singing backup for Sam Glaser that they decided to form their own band. The result is Sababa, a mixture of powerful spirituality and smooth sound. We spoke to band member Scott Leader by phone at his home in Phoenix, Arizona. [END MUSIC]

Scott, what does the name Sababa mean?

Sababa is actually an Arabic word. But you know, a lot of Hebrew slang has come from Arabic and other languages, really. And so, loosely translated, it means "very cool." But to use more of in a feeling sense, like you wouldn't say, like, "that's a cool car," but you'd say, "I feel sababa because I'm driving this cool car." Andthere's some discussion that the word sababa is no longer cool anymore, that it's sort of like saying groovy, you know. But it sort of depends who you ask in Israel.

What are some of your musical influences?

Well, okay, me, personally, I am a huge Bruce Springsteen fan. And then, of course, you know, I grew up in the 80s too, so I really have to give credit to all the 80s music that no one wants to admit that they like, but they do. There's a little flavor of that kind of Van Halen and Def Leppard rock in my writing. And then, of course, Billy Joel is a huge influence for me. That's what really inspired me to learn how to play piano, and that led me on to the path that I'm on now. What's interesting is, I think Sababa's influences are very different, and that's what makes us have such a unique sound. Because Robbi, it was really that American folk music that inspired her, and Steve was more influenced by the rock of the 70s. You know, I wasn't really old enough to be influenced by that kind of music yet. So when you put it together, you can hear a song like Haporeis Sukkat Shalom. You can hear the Bruce Springsteen in that just pouring out. Or when you listen to a song like What We'll Bring, you can hear Robbi's folk style, that kind of Bob Dylan-y thing happening in there. So it's really neat mix of styles that somehow work very well together.

Is there any particular song on your album, Pray for the Peace, that stands out from the others for you?

Yeah, for sure. I would say there's a song called Lo Alecha. In all the songs that we've written together, it was an incredibly easy process where we sit down and in an hour, we'd have a song and we'd have three part harmony. But Lo Alecha was a challenge that somebody asked us, they said, hey, you know, you guys should write a song based on that text. "Yeah, cool. Let's do it!" Wound up being much harder than we anticipated, and when we were finished with it, I was not happy with it. And I thought, ugh, you know. However, after the album came out, it's sort of flip flop'd, and it's now one of my favorites. And then the second answer to that is a song called Ashrey. This was a song that originally was not on the album. We realized that, we thought maybe we were one song short on the CD, and so Steve brought this song, Ashrey to us, and I don't even know if he really liked it, but Robbi and I loved it. This was like the lightning recording session. We flew them in, we recorded it in about four hours, and everyone tells us it's their favorite on the album. And so it's sort of funny how that happened. You know, it almost didn't make it on there, and now everyone, including us, are like, yeah, that song's one of our favorites. So those two definitely stand out.

We've got very traditional Hebrew lyrics here, but a very American sound. What makes that work?

Wel l, I think that is what makes it work. You know, some of these words are thousands of years old. Every Jewish community has taken the modern music of the time and put the words to it. And I'll give you an example, people will say, Oh, the traditional High Holiday melody. And it's, you know, LA LA LA [SINGING].That is like the standard High Holiday melody for, I would say 90% of synagogues would use that melody. Maybe more. People say, Oh, that's traditional. And what they don't realize it's not traditional. That was a German drinking song in 1800 and what the Jews of the day did was, they took the pop music that was out there. And what was the pop music? It was the music that people sang in the pubs, and they put their own words to it. And of course, now, 200 years later, that's traditional. And so what we're doing now really isn't anything new. We're taking the style of the music of our time and putting our own culture to them. And that's what Jews have done in all places that they've lived throughout the diaspora.

Scott, many of our listeners are attending the Association of Jewish Libraries convention in Scottsdale, Arizona this summer. Can you give us any insight into Jewish life in that area?

Yeah, I can actually. Scottsdale is the Jewish part of Phoenix, so you'll find most of the synagogues there, the only kosher place that I'm aware of is there too. But Phoenix as a whole, most people don't realize we are the fifth largest city in the country. We have been for many years, the second fastest growing Jewish community in the country, behind Las Vegas. We have the highest rate of unaffiliated Jews anywhere. It's huge. It's like 60% or more. 65% of Jewish people in Phoenix are not affiliated with any synagogue, any JCC, any thing like that. My opinion, the reason for that has to do with, the city has grown so fast that the synagogues haven't been able to keep up. Some of the synagogues are sort of built in this old school method of doing things, but most of the population is a new generation. Most Jewish people here are from either New York or Los Angeles. They don't want to be part of the synagogue that reminds them of that lifestyle. So you'll find a lot of start up smaller synagogues in town that are really kind of shaking things up and are growing very fast. There's definitely potential here, but it's a lot of untapped potential. Just from the library standpoint, it's great that you're looking towards music. You know, there's no radio station that plays our music. The only way that people hear our music is when we go somewhere and perform it, or if they buy a CD. So it's really nice that libraries are focusing on books, but also on some of the other art, to make it available for people to listen to and sort of get exposed to this kind of world of Jewish modern rock folk music, because there's a lot of great stuff out there.

Scott, thank you!

Awesome. Thank you!

[SABABA MUSIC] To buy Sababa's CD, Pray for the Peace, or to book the band for a concert, visit sababamusic.com. [MUSIC FADES OUT]

Nextbook is a locus for Jewish literature, culture, and ideas. They commission books on Jewish themes, sponsor public lectures, and publish an online magazine at Nextbook.org that is chock full of book recommendations. We spoke to Julie Sandorf, Director of Nextbook, by phone at her office in New York City.

Julie, what exactly is Nextbook, and what does the name Nextbook mean?

Well, when Saul Bellow wrote a review of The Periodic Table by Primo Levi, he wrote in the review, "we are always looking for the book it is necessary to read next" and we thought that was just the most ideal quote, and we named Nextbook after that quote. Nextbook is a nonprofit philanthropic organization that promotes Jewish literature, arts, and culture in new ways.

How does Nextbook go beyond the web?

Several ways. One, we have a publishing partnership with Random House to publish the Jewish Encounters book series. We've published seven books so far. The first one was Robert Pinsky on the life of King David, the poet laureate of America, writing about the great biblical poet King, to our most recently published book which was Jonathan Wilson on the life of Marc Chagall. We have also created something called the One Book program. Really offers people an opportunity to use these books as launching pants for discussion and conversation. The third piece of how we do our work is our public programs. We have reading and discussion groups led by local scholars and libraries across the country. We just finished launching two day-long festivals of ideas in LA to talk about Jewish identity in the entertainment industry and in New York, "What's he doing here? Jesus and Jewish culture."

What is the coolest feature of the Nextbook website?

Ah, I think the whole thing is cool! But clearly our weekly podcasts have been extremely popular.

How can Nextbook help us find something good to read this summer?

Well, first of all, you've got to go on the website, Nextbook.org. You should look at the magazine section and go on our recommended reading pages, where you will find a list of 500 books covering fiction and nonfiction that Nextbook staff think are wonderful reads.

Are there any particular titles that you want to recommend to our listeners for summer reading?

Oh goodness. Well, these are not necessarily brand new books, but some of my favorite summer reading of past years were Jonathan Rosen's book called JoyComes in the Morning. Jeffrey Goldberg's book called Prisoners, the memoir on his experiences in the Israeli Army as a young American. And a brand new book is coming to the states from British writer named Charlotte Mendelson, called When We Were Bad, and it's about a northern London British family led by a very prominent woman rabbi, and it's a wonderful, great, breezy beach read. And I would second that with a book called Disobedience by Naomi Alderman, another British writer; chronicles a lot of those interesting tensions and issues of community in the Orthodox Jewish community in North London.

Julie Sandorf, thanks so much for speaking with us.

Oh, it's my pleasure.

[MUSIC, OUTRO] We would love to hear from you. Email BookofLifePodcast@gmail.com, post a comment on our website, or if your computer has a microphone, leave a two minute voice message by clicking on the MyChingo link on our website at JewishBooks.blogspot.com. You can also add your pin to our Frappr map to show us where you're listening from. The Book of Life is supported in part by the Association of Jewish Libraries, tending the Tree of Knowledge and promoting Jewish reading by supporting Judaic libraries and librarians. Visit them on the web at JewishLibraries.org. Our background music is provided by the Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band from Sacramento, California, whose CDs feature upbeat music from Ashkenazic and Sephardic traditions with Brazilian, Gypsy, and Celtic influences. Borrow their CDs at the Feldman Library or buy your own copies at FreilachMakers.com. To download episodes of The Book of Life podcast, visit us on the web at JewishBooks.blogspot.com. That's jewishbooks (one word), dot B, L O G S P O T dot com. Links to the books and CDs mentioned on the show are available on this website. You can also hear the latest episode by phone. Just call 916-313-3820. Thanks for listening and happy reading. [END MUSIC]