The Five Books: Jewish Authors on the Books That Shaped Them

Doreen Carvajal speaks with us about how her family forged a secret relationship with Judaism over 600 years, after they were forced to convert to Catholicism during the Inquisition. Her latest book, The Girl in Blue, is an account of the Cahen d’Anvers, an aristocratic Jewish family whose portraits were painted by Renoir and whose lives were upended by the Holocaust. We discuss how she sees telling the story of the The Cahen d’Anvers family as honoring her own family’s legacy, the illusion that wealth and status can protect against persecution, and her childhood’s similarities to Scout’s in To Kill a Mockingbird.

Doreen Carvajal is a journalist and author who worked for more than twenty years at the International Herald Tribune and The New York Times, reporting from Europe on culture, media, and international affairs. Her first book, The Forgetting River, traced her search for her Catholic family’s hidden Sephardic Jewish roots in southern Spain. Doreen lives outside Paris in impressionist country in a stone farmhouse.

The Girl in Blue is a work of narrative nonfiction about one of France’s wealthiest Jewish dynasties: The Cahen d’Anvers family. Drawing on newly uncovered documents, newspaper accounts, and archival records, Doreen Carvajal brings to life the intertwined journeys of this woman and a painting.

Doreen Carvajal’s Five Books:

1. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

2. The Garden of the Finzi-Continis by Giorgio Bassani3. Dora Bruder by Patrick Modiano4. Sido by Colette

5. The Girl in Blue by Doreen Carvajal

Also Mentioned:

•

Irène Cahen d’Anvers (Little Irene) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1880

•

Pink and Blue (The Cahen D'Anvers Girls) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1881

•

Une Soirée by Jean Béraud, 1878

•

The Forgetting River by Doreen Carvajal

•

Hineni

Other Episodes You Might Enjoy:

•

Georgia Hunter on Discovering her Family’s Jewish History

•

Samantha Ellis on Becoming a Keeper of Her Ancestral Language

•

Elizabeth Graver On Lost Worlds and New Doorways

•

Jordan Salama On Rescuing his Family's “Historia Antigua”

The Five Books is a podcast that celebrates the role of books in Jewish culture. Through author interviews, we delve into Jewish identity and discover each author’s favorite novels. Join us every week for new Jewish book recommendations! Some of our episodes have included conversations with Rabbi Sharon Brous, Sam Sussman, Rabbi Angela Buchdahl and Allegra Goodman.

⁠⁠⁠Sign up for our newsletter⁠⁠⁠ to get new episode reminders, authors’ five book picks, and more delivered straight to your inbox.

Find us on at ⁠www.fivebookspod.org, on Instagram⁠@fivebookspod ⁠or on Facebook at The Five Books Podcast.

For feedback or author recommendations please email us at ⁠team@fivebookspod.org⁠

The Five Books has the advisory and promotional support of the Jewish Book Council. Jewish Book Council is a nonprofit dedicated to amplifying and celebrating Jewish literature and supporting authors and readers. Stay up to date on the latest in Jewish literature!⁠https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/events/celebrate⁠

The Five Books is fiscally sponsored by FJC, a 501c3 public charity.

As an Amazon Associate, The Five Books earns from qualifying purchases. Any commissions we receive help support our nonprofit mission and are reinvested in producing the podcast and related programming.

Hosted by Tali Rosenblatt Cohen

Produced by Odelia Rubin

Editorial and website support by Aimee Fogel

Artwork by Elad Lifshitz of the Dov Abramson Studio

Music by Dov Rosenblatt and Blue Dot Sessions

In this conversation, we’ll talk about how Helene transformed her family’s history into myth, how her childhood as a Jewish, nerdy sci-fi fan and her experience of passing and hiding in plain sight made it into the character of Chava, the golem, and we’ll discuss why writing historical fantasy gave her the opening to explore the big questions of what it means to be human.

Helene Wecker was in the midst of an MFA program, writing a realistic collection of short stories about the legacy of immigration and her relationship with her Arab-American husband, when a friend challenged her to use the fantastic and to tell a larger story. That was how Helene Wecker’s first novel, The Golem and the Jinni, was born. The novel was awarded the Mythopoeic Award for Adult Literature, the VCU Cabell Award for First Novel, and the Harold U. Ribalow Prize, and was nominated for a Nebula Award and a World Fantasy Award.

Helene Wecker’s work has appeared in literary journals such as Joyland and Catamaran, as well as the fantasy anthology The Djinn Falls in Love and Other Stories. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and children.

Helene Wecker’s Five Books:

1. The Bible, Book of Exodus

2. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon

3. Orbital by Samantha Harvey

4. That's Funny, You Don't Look Buddhist by Sylvia Boorstein

5. The Gates of Midnight by Helene Wecker

Other Episodes You Might Enjoy:

•

Portia Elan on the Future We Choose

•

Toby Lloyd on Biblical Horror and being a Jewish Atheist

•

Jeremy Dauber on Jewish Literature, Pop Culture, and What The Horror Genre Reveals About America

•

Allison Epstein on Taking on One of Literature’s Most Notoriously Antisemitic Characters

Also Mentioned:

•

Are You There God, it’s me Margaret by Judy Blume

•

"The Golem" by Naomi Kritzer (from the collection Comrade Grandmother and other stories)

We’re thrilled to share that The Five Books has been nominated for a Signal Award in Religion and Spirituality!

This nomination is a testament to our team’s hard work and our listener’s support. We’d be so grateful if you’d take a moment to vote for us! Thank you!

The Five Books is a podcast that celebrates the role of books in Jewish culture. Through author interviews, we delve into Jewish identity and discover each author’s favorite novels. Join us every week for new Jewish book recommendations! Some of our episodes have included conversations with Rabbi Sharon Brous, Sam Sussman, Rabbi Angela Buchdahl and Allegra Goodman.

⁠⁠⁠Sign up for our newsletter⁠⁠⁠ to get new episode reminders, authors’ five book picks, and more delivered straight to your inbox.

Find us on at ⁠www.fivebookspod.org, on Instagram⁠@fivebookspod ⁠or on Facebook at The Five Books Podcast.

For feedback or author recommendations please email us at ⁠team@fivebookspod.org⁠

The Five Books has the advisory and promotional support of the Jewish Book Council. Jewish Book Council is a nonprofit dedicated to amplifying and celebrating Jewish literature and supporting authors and readers. Stay up to date on the latest in Jewish literature!⁠https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/events/celebrate⁠

The Five Books is fiscally sponsored by FJC, a 501c3 public charity.

As an Amazon Associate, The Five Books earns from qualifying purchases. Any commissions we receive help support our nonprofit mission and are reinvested in producing the podcast and related programming.

Hosted by Tali Rosenblatt Cohen

Produced by Odelia Rubin

Editorial and website support by Aimee Fogel

Artwork by Elad Lifshitz of the Dov Abramson Studio

Music by Dov Rosenblatt and Blue Dot Sessions

Thank you to Emma Simon for her help with this episode.

One Thanksgiving, when Jordan Salama was home from school, he noticed a thick binder in his grandfather's basement labeled “Historia Antigua”, which means ancient history in Spanish. Stuffed with photographs and documents, Jordan found that his grandfather had recorded hundreds of years of their family's history, covering movements and migrations between the Ottoman Empire and Argentina. This discovery sent Jordan on a quest to Argentina to discover the story of his great-grandfather, who had been a traveling salesman in the Andes in the early 20th century. The resulting book, Stranger in the Desert, was a finalist for the 2026 Sami Rohr Prize for Jewish Literature.

In this episode, we discuss Jordan’s process of ‘climbing out of a linguistic hole’ by learning his family’s languages, the interconnected identities of Jews, Christians, and Muslims from the Ottoman Empire in Argentina, and how he teaches others to use the tools of journalism to discover their own family histories.

Jordan Salama is an author and a contributing writer at The New Yorker. He has written about migration, culture, and the environment in the Americas. His first book, Every Day the River Changes, about a journey down Colombia’s Río Magdalena, and the people who live along its banks, was named one of the best books of 2021 by Kirkus Reviews, and a top new travel book by the New York Times.

Jordan Salama’s Five Books:

1. Even This I Get To Experience by Norman Lear

2.In an Antique Land by Amitav Ghosh

3. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

4. Larga Distancia by Tali Goldman (Spanish Language)

5. Stranger in the Desert by Jordan Salama

Other Episodes You Might Enjoy:

•

Elizabeth Graver on Lost Worlds and New Doorways

•

Samantha Ellis on Becoming a Keeper of Her Ancestral Language

•

Rachel Cockerell on The Zionist Dream that Sailed to Galveston

Also Mentioned:

•

Out of Egypt by Andre Aciman

•

Tarantula by Eduardo Halfon

•

Verklempt Magazine

•

Jordan Salama’s articles in the New Yorker

We’re thrilled to share that The Five Books has been named a finalist for a Signal Awardin the category of Religion and Spirituality for our episode with Zeeva Bukai.

This recognition is a testament to our incredible team’s hard work and to our listeners’ support.

We’d be so grateful if you would take a moment to vote for us! Thank you!

Vote now

The Five Books is a podcast that celebrates the role of books in Jewish culture. Through author interviews, we delve into Jewish identity and discover each author’s favorite novels. Join us every week for new Jewish book recommendations! Some of our episodes have included conversations with Rabbi Sharon Brous, Sam Sussman, Rabbi Angela Buchdahl and Allegra Goodman.

⁠⁠⁠Sign up for our newsletter⁠⁠⁠ to get new episode reminders, authors’ five book picks, and more delivered straight to your inbox.

Find us on at ⁠www.fivebookspod.org, on Instagram⁠@fivebookspod ⁠or on Facebook at The Five Books Podcast.

For feedback or author recommendations please email us at ⁠team@fivebookspod.org⁠

The Five Books has the advisory and promotional support of the Jewish Book Council. Jewish Book Council is a nonprofit dedicated to amplifying and celebrating Jewish literature and supporting authors and readers. Stay up to date on the latest in Jewish literature!⁠https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/events/celebrate⁠

The Five Books is fiscally sponsored by FJC, a 501c3 public charity.

As an Amazon Associate, The Five Books earns from qualifying purchases. Any commissions we receive help support our nonprofit mission and are reinvested in producing the podcast and related programming.

Hosted by Tali Rosenblatt Cohen

Produced by Odelia Rubin

Editorial and website support by Aimee Fogel

Artwork by Elad Lifshitz of the Dov Abramson Studio

Music by Dov Rosenblatt and Blue Dot Sessions

Charming and wry, nonagenarian Francine Klagsbrun reflects on her unlikely Jewish education as a girl in the 1930s and 40s, on the seeds of her feminist activism, and on why she is grateful to have reinvigorated Henrietta Szold’s legacy.

Francine Klagsbrun has had a tremendous impact on the story of American Jewish women. Born in 1931, she has been a passionate advocate for women in Jewish religious life. Francine is the author of more than a dozen books, including Lioness: Golda Meir and the Nation of Israel, which won the National Jewish Book Award in 2017.

She has been a columnist for New York Jewish Week and Moment, is a contributing editor to Lilith, and is on the editorial board of Hadassah Magazine. Her writings have appeared in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, Newsweek, Ms.magazine, and other national publications.

Her latest book, Henrietta Szold: Hadassah and the Zionist Dream, reveals the complex life and work of Henrietta Szold, renowned as the founder of Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America. She later moved to Mandate Palestine to help shape education, health, and social services there. The pinnacle of her career came in her seventies, when she took on the task of directing the Youth Aliyah program, which rescued thousands of young people from the Nazis and resettled them in Palestine.Using Szold’s copious letters, diaries, and essays, along with other archival documents, Francine Klagsbrun reveals Szold as a multi-faceted human being whose impact on women’s lives as well as on education and health systems still resonates. This book is part of the Jewish Lives Series, from Yale University Press. This episode was one of our very first episodes, broadcast initially in December 2024.

Francine Klagsbrun’s Five Books:

•

The Bible

•

Marjorie Morningstar, by Herman Wouk

•

The Plot Against America, by Philip Roth

•

The Propagandist, by Cécile Desprairies

•

Henrietta Szold: Hadassah and the Zionist Dream, by Francine Klagsbrun

Thank you to Francine Klagsbrun and Dr. Sarah Klagsbrun for sharing personal photos which are on our social media pages: @fivebookspod on Instagram and The Five Books on Facebook.

The Five Books is a podcast that celebrates the role of books in Jewish culture. Through author interviews, we delve into Jewish identity and discover each author’s favorite novels. Join us every week for new Jewish book recommendations! Some of our episodes have included conversations with Rabbi Sharon Brous, Sam Sussman, Rabbi Angela Buchdahl and Allegra Goodman.

⁠⁠⁠Sign up for our newsletter⁠⁠⁠ to get new episode reminders, authors’ five book picks, and more delivered straight to your inbox.

For feedback or author recommendations please email us at ⁠team@fivebookspod.org⁠

The Five Books has the advisory and promotional support of the Jewish Book Council. Jewish Book Council is a nonprofit dedicated to amplifying and celebrating Jewish literature and supporting authors and readers. Stay up to date on the latest in Jewish literature!⁠https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/events/celebrate⁠

The Five Books is fiscally sponsored by FJC, a 501c3 public charity.

As an Amazon Associate, The Five Books earns from qualifying purchases. Any commissions we receive help support our nonprofit mission and are reinvested in producing the podcast and related programming.

Hosted by Tali Rosenblatt Cohen

Produced by Odelia Rubin

Editorial and website support by Aimee Fogel

Artwork by Elad Lifshitz of the Dov Abramson Studio

Music by Dov Rosenblatt and Blue Dot Sessions

After publishing her essay collection People Love Dead Jews, Dara Horn found her inbox flooded with messages from readers about their own experiences of anti-semitism. She realized that her readers wanted her to come up with an answer to all the problems she had raised. Her response is in her latest book, The Final Solution to the Jewish Question: A Love Story for the Living. In this conversation, Dara explains why reading Yiddish works are critical to understanding the Holocaust. We also discuss the internalized antisemitism that both she and Sarah Hurwitz explore in their latest works, what she’s learned from Natan Sharansky, and how we should teach about Judaism as an anti-tyrannical movement.

Dara Horn is the award-winning author of seven books, including the novels The World to Come, All Other Nights, the graphic novel One Little Goat and the essay collection People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present. Dara Horn is also the recipient of three National Jewish Book Awards, among many other honors.

Regular listeners might notice that this is Dara’s second time on the show! We were delighted to talk to Dara about her book One Little Goat last April. If you haven’t yet heard it, you can go back to Dara’s first episode on the show and hear her talk about Tevye the Dairyman by Sholom Aleichem and Mr. Mani by A B Yehoshua.

Dara Horn’s Five Books:

1.A book that inspired, informed, or is in conversation with your latest work:

As a Jew by Sarah Hurwitz2. A book you changed your mind about – one you once loved, misunderstood, or now see differently:

See Under: Love by David Grossman

3. A line or passage from a book that you think about often or that changed your worldview:

From Natan Sharansky's memoir Fear No Evil, "No one else can humiliate me. I can only humiliate myself."

4. The book you're reading now:

Arrow in the Blue by Arthur Koestler

5. Your latest book:

The Final Solution to the Jewish Question: A Love Story for the Living

Other Episodes You Might Enjoy:

•

Dara Horn on Being the Lorax at Her Seder Table

•

Sarah Hurwitz on Reclaiming Our Jewish Story

•

Matti Friedman on the Stories that Built a People

•

Sharon Brous on Working to Mend Our Broken Hearts and World

Also Mentioned:

•

Anti-Judaism by David Nirenberg

•

Gentleman’s Agreement (film)

•

Postwar Stories: How Books Made Judaism American by Rachel Gordan

•

“The Golden Age of American Jews is Ending” by Franklin Foer

•

The Last Consolation Vanished by Zalmen Gradowski

•

Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler

•

Thieves in the Night by Arthur Koestler

•

Blood Libel: On the Trail of an Antisemitic Myth by Magda Teter

•

The Tell Institute

The Five Books is a podcast that celebrates the role of books in Jewish culture. Through author interviews, we delve into Jewish identity and discover each author’s favorite novels. Join us every week for new Jewish book recommendations! Some of our episodes have included conversations with Rabbi Sharon Brous, Sam Sussman, Rabbi Angela Buchdahl and Allegra Goodman.

⁠⁠⁠Sign up for our newsletter⁠⁠⁠ to get new episode reminders, authors’ five book picks, and more delivered straight to your inbox.

Find us on at ⁠www.fivebookspod.org, on Instagram⁠@fivebookspod ⁠or on Facebook at The Five Books Podcast.

For feedback or author recommendations please email us at ⁠team@fivebookspod.org⁠

The Five Books has the advisory and promotional support of the Jewish Book Council. Jewish Book Council is a nonprofit dedicated to amplifying and celebrating Jewish literature and supporting authors and readers. Stay up to date on the latest in Jewish literature!⁠https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/events/celebrate⁠

The Five Books is fiscally sponsored by FJC, a 501c3 public charity.

As an Amazon Associate, The Five Books earns from qualifying purchases. Any commissions we receive help support our nonprofit mission and are reinvested in producing the podcast and related programming.

Hosted by Tali Rosenblatt Cohen

Produced by Odelia Rubin

Editorial and website support by Aimee Fogel

Artwork by Elad Lifshitz of the Dov Abramson Studio

Music by Dov Rosenblatt and Blue Dot Sessions

With the Jewish holiday season fast approaching, many of us are thinking about holiday hosting. Rebekah Lowin has you covered: a challah recipe, an apple themed tablescape, an etrog mold dupe, and a Yom Kippur break-fast recovery packet for your guests. In this episode, Rebekah tells us about she became the Jewish Martha Stewart, reflecting on both her time working at Martha Stewart Living, and growing up in an artistic Jewish home, where her grandfather built a wooden sukkah that her family still uses and her Broadway actress mother sewed its draperies. She also talks about what it was like growing up without a Jewish community, and the unexpected impact of reading the children’s book Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins.

Rebekah hopes her new book of recipes, rituals, and traditions, A Year of Jewish Joy, will help those living without tight-knit communities feel welcomed back into Judaism.

Rebekah Lowin is a writer and content creator known for her whimsical, design-forward approach to Jewish holiday cooking, décor, craft projects, and storytelling. Since launching her blog in 2019, she's partnered with dozens of national brands including Crate & Barrel, HGTV.com, and Food Network Magazine, bringing Jewish holiday ideas into mainstream media. Combining creative inspiration and cultural depth with a playful editorial sensibility, her work aims to make traditions feel fresh, accessible, and joyful for a new generation of Jewish readers.

Rebekah Lowin’s Five Books:

1. ⁠Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins by Eric Kimmel and Trina Schart Hyman⁠

2. ⁠The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel ⁠

3. ⁠The Wisdom of Anxiety by Sheryl Paul⁠

4. ⁠A Time to Gather by Bruce Feiler⁠

5. ⁠A Year of Jewish Joy by Rebekah Lowin⁠

Other Episodes You Might Enjoy:

⁠Bruce Feiler on Making Meaning, One Ritual at a Time⁠

⁠Adeena Sussman on Flavor as a Jewish Language⁠

⁠Samantha Ellis on Becoming a Keeper of Her Ancestral Language⁠

⁠Bonny Reichert on Food, Fear, and Finding Beauty⁠

The Five Books is a podcast that celebrates the role of books in Jewish culture. Through author interviews, we delve into Jewish identity and discover each author’s favorite novels. Join us every week for new Jewish book recommendations! Some of our episodes have included conversations with Rabbi Sharon Brous, Sam Sussman, Rabbi Angela Buchdahl and Allegra Goodman.

⁠⁠⁠⁠Sign up for our newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠ to get new episode reminders, authors’ five book picks, and more delivered straight to your inbox.

Find us on at ⁠ ⁠www.fivebookspod.org⁠, on Instagram⁠ ⁠@fivebookspod ⁠⁠or on Facebook at The Five Books Podcast.

For feedback or author recommendations please email us at ⁠team@fivebookspod.org⁠

The Five Books has the advisory and promotional support of the Jewish Book Council. Jewish Book Council is a nonprofit dedicated to amplifying and celebrating Jewish literature and supporting authors and readers. Stay up to date on the latest in Jewish literature!⁠ ⁠https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/events/celebrate⁠⁠

The Five Books is fiscally sponsored by FJC, a 501c3 public charity.

Hosted by Tali Rosenblatt Cohen

Produced by Odelia Rubin

Editorial and website support by Aimee Fogel

Artwork by Elad Lifshitz of the Dov Abramson Studio

Music by Dov Rosenblatt and Blue Dot Sessions

Bruce Feiler speaks to us about the relationship between storytelling and ritual — and why both are essential tools for navigating change, creating meaning and building connection. We also discuss the moments when life takes a difficult turn (“lifequakes” as Bruce calls them), his journey walking the Bible and how it stems from his “rootedness” as a Southern Jew, and the ongoing tension between innovation and tradition at the heart of Jewish life.

Bruce is the author of seven New York Times bestsellers, including Life Is In The Transitions, The Secrets Of Happy Families, and Council Of Dads. He is also the author of several nonfiction books about the bible, including Abraham, Where God Was Born, America’s Prophet, and The First Love Story. His book Walking the Bible describes his 10,000 mile journey retracing the Five Books of Moses, which spent a year and a half on the New York Times bestseller list and has been translated into fifteen languages. His three TED Talks have been viewed more than five million times; and he teaches the Webby Award-winning TED Course How To Master Life Transitions.

In this episode, we discuss his latest book, A Time To Gather: How Ritual Created the World--and How It Can Save Us.

Bruce Feiler’s Five Books:

1. Lech L’cha, Genesis

2. Understanding Genesis by Nahum Sarna

3. The Storytelling Animal by Jonathan Gottschall

4. When We See You Again by Rachel Goldberg-Polin

5. A Time To Gather: How Ritual Created the World--and How It Can Save Us by Bruce Feiler

Other Episodes You Might Enjoy:

•

Nicholas Lemann on Being Jewish in the Shadow of the American South

•

Jeremy Dauber on Jewish Literature, Pop Culture, and What The Horror Genre Reveals About America

•

Toby Lloyd on Biblical Horror and being a Jewish Atheist

•

Ilana Kurshan on Books as Blueprints for Life

Also Mentioned:

•

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

•

Mayyim Hayyim

•

OneTable

•

https://ritualwell.org/

•

Yiddish tkhines

The Five Books is a podcast that celebrates the role of books in Jewish culture. Through author interviews, we delve into Jewish identity and discover each author’s favorite novels. Join us every week for new Jewish book recommendations! Some of our episodes have included conversations with Rabbi Sharon Brous, Sam Sussman, Rabbi Angela Buchdahl and Allegra Goodman.

⁠⁠⁠Sign up for our newsletter⁠⁠⁠ to get new episode reminders, authors’ five book picks, and more delivered straight to your inbox.

Find us on at ⁠www.fivebookspod.org, on Instagram⁠@fivebookspod ⁠or on Facebook at The Five Books Podcast.

For feedback or author recommendations please email us at ⁠team@fivebookspod.org⁠

The Five Books has the advisory and promotional support of the Jewish Book Council. Jewish Book Council is a nonprofit dedicated to amplifying and celebrating Jewish literature and supporting authors and readers. Stay up to date on the latest in Jewish literature!⁠https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/events/celebrate⁠

The Five Books is fiscally sponsored by FJC, a 501c3 public charity.

Hosted by Tali Rosenblatt Cohen

Produced by Odelia Rubin

Editorial and website support by Aimee Fogel

Artwork by Elad Lifshitz of the Dov Abramson Studio

Music by Dov Rosenblatt and Blue Dot Sessions

As this episode is released in the days before Tisha B'Av, the saddest day on the Jewish calendar, it feels especially fitting to sit with a conversation about grief, faith, and what it means to keep living after unimaginable loss. Tisha B'Av commemorates the destruction of both Temples in ancient Jerusalem, along with many other tragedies throughout Jewish history, and has become a day of collective mourning. Rachel Goldberg-Polin's story reminds us that Jewish grief is painfully present.

Rachel speaks to us about the books that shaped her faith, and the ones that offer reprieve and consolation. We also discuss reading Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning after her son Hersh’s death, grief in the poetry of Robert Frost, and Rachel’s hope of finding Shabbat again.

On the morning of October 7th, 2023, Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s beloved twenty-three-year-old son, Hersh, was stolen from a music festival billed as a celebration of unity and love—and, in that moment, her life was forever separated into The Before and The After. Over the next eleven months, she and her husband, Jon, would work tirelessly—in public and behind the scenes—to secure the hostages’ release, to breathe some humanity into the situation while they were experiencing relentless emotional and psychological torment. The power of her raw and fervent pleas soon made her the face of the hostage crisis. And when Hersh and five other captives were executed after surviving 328 days of violence and cruelty, she would also become the face of its ultimate cost.

Rachel’s memoir When We See You Again feels less like a book and more like a soul portal. It is a modern lamentation: it leads us deeper into the holiness of the universe, into its cruelty and its tenderness, into the unbearable weight of love and loss.

Rachel Goldberg-Polin’s Five Books:

•

⁠Bible Stories for Jewish Children by Ruth Samuels

•

⁠Jewish Literacy by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin

•

Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankland Zen Shorts by Jon J Muth

•

Table for Two by Amor Towles and The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller

•

When We See You Again by Rachel Goldberg-Polin

Other Episodes You Might Enjoy:

•

Sam Sussman on Bob Dylan and Being his Mother’s Son

•

Rabbi Yitz Greenberg on Re-envisioning the Jewish Future

•

Gila Pfeffer on Finding Meaning and Humor in the Darkest Times

Also Mentioned:

• Kol Dodi Dofek by Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik
• Stopping by Woods by Robert Frost
• A Servant to Servants by Robert Frost

The Five Books is a podcast that celebrates the role of books in Jewish culture. Through author interviews, we delve into Jewish identity and discover each author’s favorite novels. Join us every week for new Jewish book recommendations! Some of our episodes have included conversations with Rabbi Sharon Brous, Sam Sussman, Rabbi Angela Buchdahl and Allegra Goodman.

⁠⁠⁠Sign up for our newsletter⁠⁠⁠ to get new episode reminders, authors’ five book picks, and more delivered straight to your inbox.

Find us on Instagram⁠@fivebookspod ⁠or on Facebook at The Five Books Podcast.

For feedback or author recommendations please email us at ⁠team@fivebookspod.org⁠

For transcripts and more find us online at⁠www.fivebookspod.org ⁠

The Five Books has the advisory and promotional support of the Jewish Book Council. Jewish Book Council is a nonprofit dedicated to amplifying and celebrating Jewish literature and supporting authors and readers. Stay up to date on the latest in Jewish literature!⁠https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/events/celebrate⁠

The Five Books is fiscally sponsored by FJC, a 501c3 public charity.

Hosted by Tali Rosenblatt Cohen

Produced by Odelia Rubin

Editorial and website support by Amelia Merrill

Artwork by Elad Lifshitz of the Dov Abramson Studio

Music by Dov Rosenblatt and Blue Dot Sessions

Portia Elan tells us about her journey to become a Jew by choice after attending Friday night services and feeling that she had “come home.” We also discuss her fascination with the AIDS quilt as a child, and the beauty in finding queer elders in her synagogue. Portia also reflects on how she understands tikkun olam: rooted in how we care for others and in our responsibility to the balance of entire ecosystems.

Portia Elan studied history at Stanford University and earned an MFA from the University of Victoria before returning to California, where she has worked as a waitress, bookseller, teacher, and public librarian. She is a former Lambda Literary Fellow and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her wife and an abundance of cats. Homebound, Portia’s debut novel, is a clear-eyed, hopeful work of speculative fiction about humanity’s future and capacity for love.

Homebound is a GMA Book Club pick and the latest selection for Nu Reads, the curated, bi-monthly book subscription service from Jewish Book Council.

Homebound Portia Elan’s Five Books:

•

Surprised by God by Danya Ruttenberg

•

The History of Love by Nicole Krauss

•

Cannery Row by John Steinbeck

•

The Encore by Juliet Izon

•

HOMEBOUND by Portia Elan

Other Episodes You Might Enjoy:

•

Alicia Jo Rabins on Composing a Life of Meaning

•

Yael van der Wouden on Rage, Desire, and Magic

•

Rabbi Sharon Brous on Finding Her Place in the Jewish Community

Other Books Mentioned:

•

The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel

•

When the Emperor Was Divineand The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka

The Five Books is a podcast that celebrates the role of books in Jewish culture. Through author interviews, we delve into Jewish identity and discover each author’s favorite novels. Join us every week for new Jewish book recommendations! Some of our episodes have included conversations with Rabbi Sharon Brous, Sam Sussman, Rabbi Angela Buchdahl and Allegra Goodman.

⁠⁠⁠Sign up for our newsletter⁠⁠⁠ to get new episode reminders, authors’ five book picks, and more delivered straight to your inbox.

Find us on Instagram⁠@fivebookspod ⁠or on Facebook at The Five Books Podcast.

For feedback or author recommendations please email us at ⁠team@fivebookspod.org⁠

For transcripts and more find us online at⁠www.fivebookspod.org ⁠

The Five Books has the advisory and promotional support of the Jewish Book Council. Jewish Book Council is a nonprofit dedicated to amplifying and celebrating Jewish literature and supporting authors and readers. Stay up to date on the latest in Jewish literature!⁠https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/events/celebrate⁠

The Five Books is fiscally sponsored by FJC, a 501c3 public charity.

Hosted by Tali Rosenblatt Cohen

Produced by Odelia Rubin

Editorial and website support by Amelia Merrill

Artwork by Elad Lifshitz of the Dov Abramson Studio

Music by Dov Rosenblatt and Blue Dot Sessions

In this conversation, Dahlia Adler discusses the emotional and cultural terrain of love, identity, and storytelling within and beyond the Modern Orthodox world. We explore the particular pressures and expectations around romance in a community where shared values, observance, and belief are foundational. Dahlia also reflects on her unexpected journey to understanding her own bisexual identity as a result of writing a sapphic romance. And we explore her deep love of flawed characters - from Biblical women, to her own protagonists and her commitment to rendering them with empathy, context and moral complexity.

Dahlia Adler is an award-winning author of romance novels for both teens and adults, a prolific YA anthologist, and the founder of the website LGBTQReads. Her novels include the Kids' Indie Next picks Cool for the Summer, Home Field Advantage, and Going Bicoastal, a Sydney Taylor Honor book. She lives in the New York City suburbs with her family.

Dahlia’s latest novel, Soon By You, is a rom-com set in the Modern Orthodox community on the Upper West Side.

Dahlia Adler’s Five Books:

1.Alan and Naomi by Myron Levoy

2. Playing with Matches by Suri Rosen

3. Biblical Images: Men and Women of the Bible by Adin Steinsaltz

4. Sisters of Fortune by Esther Chehebar

5. Soon By You by Dahlia Adler

Other Media Mentioned:

- LGBTQReads

- Unorthodox Love by Heidi Shertok

Other Episodes You Might Enjoy:

•

Esther Chehebar on Marriage, Sisterhood, and the Weight of Tradition

•

Jean Meltzer on ‘Jewitches’ and Jewish Joy

•

Jessica Elisheva Emerson on Belief, Identity, and Women’s Desire

•

Jennifer Weiner on “Women’s Fiction”

The Five Books is a podcast that celebrates the role of books in Jewish culture. Through author interviews, we delve into Jewish identity and discover each author’s favorite novels. Join us every week for new Jewish book recommendations! Some of our episodes have included conversations with Rabbi Sharon Brous, Sam Sussman, Rabbi Angela Buchdahl and Allegra Goodman.

⁠⁠⁠Sign up for our newsletter⁠⁠⁠ to get new episode reminders, authors’ five book picks, and more delivered straight to your inbox.

Find us on Instagram⁠@fivebookspod ⁠or on Facebook at The Five Books Podcast.

For feedback or author recommendations please email us at ⁠team@fivebookspod.org⁠

For transcripts and more find us online at⁠www.fivebookspod.org ⁠

The Five Books has the advisory and promotional support of the Jewish Book Council. Jewish Book Council is a nonprofit dedicated to amplifying and celebrating Jewish literature and supporting authors and readers. Stay up to date on the latest in Jewish literature!⁠https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/events/celebrate⁠

The Five Books is fiscally sponsored by FJC, a 501c3 public charity.

Hosted by Tali Rosenblatt Cohen

Produced by Odelia Rubin

Editorial and website support by Amelia Merrill

Artwork by Elad Lifshitz of the Dov Abramson Studio

Music by Dov Rosenblatt and Blue Dot Sessions

Is two Jews, three opinions a good thing? In this episode, Laurie Frankel discusses the very Jewish capacity of holding space for many different ideas and views, and how this capacity might be exactly what we need in this moment. We’ll also discuss the power and devastation of Cythnia Ozick’s short story “The Shawl,” its contribution to the conversation around trauma, and how a difficult-to-believe premise followed by realism (like that in Naomi Alderman’s The Power) is one of Laurie’s favorite structures for fiction.

Laurie Frankel is the New York Times bestselling, award-winning author of six novels. Her writing has also appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Washington Post, Poets & Writers, Publisher’s Weekly, People Magazine, Lit Hub, The Sydney Morning Herald, and more. She is the recipient of the Washington State Book Award and the Endeavor Award. A proponent of transgender rights, she wrote about her child’s transition in an essay in the New York Times titled, “From He to She in First Grade.” Her novel This Is How It Always Is, also about a transgender child, was a Reese’s Book Club Pick and was listed as one of the best books of 2017 by People Magazine, Bustle, and more.

Laurie’s latest novel isEnormous Wings. At seventy-seven, Pepper Mills is too old to be a stranger in a strange land. She didn’t choose the Vista View Retirement Community of Austin, Texas—that would be her three grown children—but when she grudgingly moves in, she not only makes new friends, she falls in love. Then the exhaustion, vomiting, and confusion start. She fears it’s cancer, dementia, a stroke. But a raft of tests later, the news is even more shocking: She’s pregnant. As word gets out, everyone wants a piece of her: the press and paparazzi, activists and medical researchers, belly-rubbers and rubber-neckers all descending on Vista View while Pepper struggles to determine her next move. Soon she has some hard decisions to make—and some she’s not allowed to make.

Laurie Frankel’s Five Books:

1. The Shawl and Rosa, interconnected short stories by Cynthia Ozick

2. Angels in America, a play by Tony Kushner

3. The Power by Naomi Alderman

4. The Beheading Game by Rebecca Lehmann

5. Enormous Wings by Laurie Frankel

Other Episodes You Might Enjoy:

•

Fran Fabriczki on “Homelooseness” and a Love Letter to Los Angeles

•

Judith Viorst on Happiness, Agency, and the Art of Aging

•

Kitty Zeldis on Passing and the Relief of Being “Kitty”

•

Gayle Forman on the Innate Goodness of Young People

The Five Books is a podcast that celebrates the role of books in Jewish culture. Through author interviews, we delve into Jewish identity and discover each author’s favorite novels. Join us every week for new Jewish book recommendations! Some of our episodes have included conversations with Rabbi Sharon Brous, Sam Sussman, Rabbi Angela Buchdahl and Allegra Goodman.

⁠⁠⁠Sign up for our newsletter⁠⁠⁠ to get new episode reminders, authors’ five book picks, and more delivered straight to your inbox.

Find us on Instagram⁠@fivebookspod ⁠or on Facebook at The Five Books Podcast.

For feedback or author recommendations please email us at ⁠team@fivebookspod.org⁠

For transcripts and more find us online at⁠www.fivebookspod.org ⁠

The Five Books has the advisory and promotional support of the Jewish Book Council. Jewish Book Council is a nonprofit dedicated to amplifying and celebrating Jewish literature and supporting authors and readers. Stay up to date on the latest in Jewish literature!⁠https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/events/celebrate⁠

The Five Books is fiscally sponsored by FJC, a 501c3 public charity.

Hosted by Tali Rosenblatt Cohen

Produced by Odelia Rubin

Editorial and website support by Amelia Merrill

Artwork by Elad Lifshitz of the Dov Abramson Studio

Music by Dov Rosenblatt and Blue Dot Sessions

In recognition of Jewish Heritage Month, this episode features a conversation with Nicholas Lemann, whose work and life story open up questions about American and Jewish identity. Nicholas discusses his assimilated Louisianan/ German-Jewish upbringing and his lifelong quest for connection with Judaism. What does it mean to be both Jewish and have ancestors who benefitted from slavery? We’ll also discuss what Tolstoy’s Russia has in common with the New Orleans of Nicholas’ childhood, and his appreciation for reading the Torah in all its moral complexity.

Nicholas was born and raised in New Orleans and has been a magazine writer since he was a teenager. He has worked at the Washington Monthly, Texas Monthly, the Washington Post, The Atlantic Monthly, and has been a staff writer at the New Yorker since 1999. He is a professor and dean emeritus at the Columbia Journalism school, and in 2023 was appointed to Columbia’s Task Force on Antisemitism.

Nicholas is also the author of many books of nonfiction including The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America, The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracy, and Transaction Man: The Rise of the Deal and the Decline of the American Dream. His latest book is Returning: A Search for Home Across Three Centuries. delves deeply into his family’s German-Jewish-Lousianan story. From their arrival in Louisiana in the 1830s as peddlers from Germany, to their becoming plantation owners and department store owners after the Civil War, to their emergence in the aristocratic world of New Orleans, where they could never quite belong.

Nicholas Lemann’s Five Books:

1. My Son the Nut by Allan Sherman(album)

2. How Judaism Became a Religion by Leora Batnitzky

3. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

4. The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth

5. Returning: A Search for Home Across Three Centuries by Nicholas Lemann

Other Episodes You Might Enjoy:

•

Rachel Cockerell on the Zionist Dream that Sailed to Galveston

•

Matti Friedman on the Stories that Built a People

•

Elizabeth Graver on Lost Worlds and New Doorways

•

Francine Klagsbrun on Embracing and Reshaping Tradition

The Five Books is a podcast that celebrates the role of books in Jewish culture. Through author interviews, we delve into Jewish identity and discover each author’s favorite novels. Join us every week for new Jewish book recommendations! Some of our episodes have included conversations with Rabbi Sharon Brous, Sam Sussman, Rabbi Angela Buchdahl and Allegra Goodman.

⁠⁠⁠Sign up for our newsletter⁠⁠⁠ to get new episode reminders, authors’ five book picks, and more delivered straight to your inbox.

Find us on Instagram⁠@fivebookspod ⁠or on Facebook at The Five Books Podcast.

For feedback or author recommendations please email us at ⁠team@fivebookspod.org⁠

For transcripts and more find us online at⁠www.fivebookspod.org ⁠

The Five Books has the advisory and promotional support of the Jewish Book Council. Jewish Book Council is a nonprofit dedicated to amplifying and celebrating Jewish literature and supporting authors and readers. Stay up to date on the latest in Jewish literature!⁠https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/events/celebrate⁠

The Five Books is fiscally sponsored by FJC, a 501c3 public charity.

Hosted by Tali Rosenblatt Cohen

Produced by Odelia Rubin

Editorial and website support by Amelia Merrill

Artwork by Elad Lifshitz of the Dov Abramson Studio

Music by Dov Rosenblatt and Blue Dot Sessions

In this conversation, Fran Fabriczki discusses coming of age between Hungary and Los Angeles and her experiences with cultural richness and antisemitism between the two countries. We also discuss “homelooseness” in The Nearest Thing to Life by James Wood, and JD Salinger’s relationship with Jewishness through his short story “Down at the Dinghy.”

Fran Fabriczki was born in Budapest. She has lived in Los Angeles and currently lives in London. She studied English at the University of Cambridge and worked in publishing for several years before becoming a novelist. She graduated from the University of East Anglia’s Creative Writing MA in 2022. Porcupines is her debut novel.

In Porcupines, Sonia is a Hungarian immigrant who is raising her daughter, Mila on her own in sunny Los Angeles. Her days are a blur of not-quite-illegal business activities, dodging PTA moms, and baking birthday cakes laced with rum—minor mistakes that nevertheless continually remind her of everything she doesn’t understand about America and parenthood. Mila, meanwhile, is juggling violin and swimming lessons and navigating the treacherous social politics of school with the help of a less-than-helpful guidebook on how to be cool in the sixth grade—all the while trying to get her secretive mother to share something, anything, about her past. Moving between Budapest before the fall of the Berlin Wall; Washington, DC, in the tense years of the Cold War; and the bright sunshine of early aughts Los Angeles, Porcupines is an irresistible novel about mothers and daughters, secrecy and loneliness, belonging and reinvention—and what happens when the truth can’t be held back any longer.

Fran Fabriczki's Five Books:

•

The Devil’s Arithmetic by Jane Yolen

•

“Down at the Dinghy” from Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger

•

The Nearest Thing to Life by James Wood

•

Going Home by Tom Lamont

•

Porcupines by Fran Fabriczki

Other Episodes You Might Enjoy:

•

Allegra Goodman on “This is Not About Us”

•

Sasha Vasilyuk on the Silences of the Soviet-Jewish Past

•

Jessica Berger Gross on Cultural Judaism and Creative Resistance

The Five Books is a podcast that celebrates the role of books in Jewish culture. Through author interviews, we delve into Jewish identity and discover each author’s favorite novels. Join us every week for new Jewish book recommendations! Some of our episodes have included conversations with Rabbi Sharon Brous, Sam Sussman, Rabbi Angela Buchdahl and Allegra Goodman.

⁠⁠⁠Sign up for our newsletter⁠⁠⁠ to get new episode reminders, authors’ five book picks, and more delivered straight to your inbox.

Find us on Instagram⁠@fivebookspod ⁠or on Facebook at The Five Books Podcast.

For feedback or author recommendations please email us at ⁠team@fivebookspod.org⁠

For transcripts and more find us online at⁠www.fivebookspod.org ⁠

The Five Books has the advisory and promotional support of the Jewish Book Council. Jewish Book Council is a nonprofit dedicated to amplifying and celebrating Jewish literature and supporting authors and readers. Stay up to date on the latest in Jewish literature!⁠https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/events/celebrate⁠

The Five Books is fiscally sponsored by FJC, a 501c3 public charity.

Hosted by Tali Rosenblatt Cohen

Produced by Odelia Rubin

Editorial and website support by Amelia Merrill

Artwork by Elad Lifshitz of the Dov Abramson Studio

Music by Dov Rosenblatt and Blue Dot Sessions

In this conversation, Adeena Sussman discusses how reading an (age-inappropriate) short story by Isaac Bashevis Singer one Shabbat afternoon changed the way she thought about writing and storytelling. We’ll also hear about her deep attachment to Tel Aviv’s Carmel Market, and how discovering Claudia Roden’s writing about Middle Eastern food expanded her sense of Jewish food.

Adeena Sussman is the author of the New York Times best selling cookbook Shabbat: Recipes and Rituals From My Table To Yours, and Sababa, which was named a Best Fall 2019 cookbook by The New York Times, Bon Appetit, and Food & Wine. Her latest cookbook, Zariz, focuses on quick and easy Tel Aviv-inspired recipes. Adeena is also the co-author of 15 other cookbooks, including the Cravings series with Chrissy Teigen, which were New York Times Best-sellers. Adeena lives, cooks and writes in Tel Aviv, where she lives in the shadow of that city’s Carmel Market with her husband, Jay Shofet.

Adeena Sussman's Five Books:

1. Short Friday and Other Stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer

2.Call It Sleep by Henry Roth

3. Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden

4. Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

5. Zariz: 100 Easy, Breezy, Tel Aviv-y Recipes by Adeena Sussman

Other Media Mentioned:

- The New York Times Cookbook by Craig Claiborne

- Spice and Spirit: The Complete Kosher Jewish Cookbook by Tzuvia Emmer and Tzipora Reitman

- “How To Live Life Like Erez Komarovsky: The Hell-Raising, Iconoclastic Israeli Bread Baker” by Taffy Brodesser Akner

Other Episodes Featuring Jewish Food:

•

Bonny Reichert on Food, Fear, and Finding Beauty

•

Jake Cohen on the Magic of Gathering Around the Table

•

Samantha Ellis on Becoming a Keeper of Her Ancestral Language

The Five Books is a podcast that celebrates the role of books in Jewish culture. Through author interviews, we delve into Jewish identity and discover each author’s favorite novels. Join us every week for new Jewish book recommendations! Some of our episodes have included conversations with Rabbi Sharon Brous, Sam Sussman, Rabbi Angela Buchdahl and Allegra Goodman.

⁠⁠⁠Sign up for our newsletter⁠⁠⁠ to get new episode reminders, authors’ five book picks, and more delivered straight to your inbox.

Find us on Instagram⁠@fivebookspod ⁠or on Facebook at The Five Books Podcast.

For feedback or author recommendations please email us at ⁠team@fivebookspod.org⁠

For transcripts and more find us online at⁠www.fivebookspod.org ⁠

The Five Books has the advisory and promotional support of the Jewish Book Council. Jewish Book Council is a nonprofit dedicated to amplifying and celebrating Jewish literature and supporting authors and readers. Stay up to date on the latest in Jewish literature!⁠https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/events/celebrate⁠

The Five Books is fiscally sponsored by FJC, a 501c3 public charity.

Hosted by Tali Rosenblatt Cohen

Produced by Odelia Rubin

Editorial and website support by Amelia Merrill

Artwork by Elad Lifshitz of the Dov Abramson Studio

Music by Dov Rosenblatt and Blue Dot Sessions

A special thank you to Dr. Ruby Gelman

In this episode, Alicia Jo Rabins traces the “red hot glow” of the moments that shaped her, both spiritual and artistic, and how they led her to a life rooted in music, text, and ritual. She’ll tell us how a chavruta (study partnership) with an Orthodox student while at Barnard College paved the way for her to transform her academic study into song in Girls in Trouble. As she details the pendulum swings in her religious and spiritual practices, we discuss the ways in which small moments – watching orthodox women wait for the electric doors to open on Shabbat, watching Titanic – have helped her to build a life and tradition wholly her own.

Alicia Jo Rabins is a writer, musician, composer, performer, and Torah teacher. When We’re Born We Forget Everything follows her journey as a modern Jewish woman to owning ancient teachings and finding her own meanings in them, refracted through feminist interpretations of the lives of Biblical women.

Alicia has published two award winning poetry collections, a collection of short personal essays called Even God Has Bad Parenting Days, and a children’s picture book called Hallelujah: The Story of Leonard Cohen. Alicia is the creator and performer of Girls in Trouble, an indie-folk song cycle about the complicated lives of Biblical women. It has an accompanying curriculum and is now being made into an indie web series! She is also the creator of A Kaddish for Bernie Madoff, which began as a one-woman chamber-rock opera and was adapted into an award-winning independent feature film.

Alicia Jo Rabins’ Five Books:

1.Pirkei Avot

2. Reading the Women of the Bible by Tikva Frymer-Kensky

3. Japanese Death Poems

4. Mother's Milk: Essays on Child-Rearing, the Household, and the Making of Jewish Culture by Deena Aranoff

5. When We’re Born We Forget Everything by Alicia Jo Rabins

Alicia’s Music Played in this Episode:

- Alicia Jo Rabins, “Blackberry Spring”, Sugar Shack

- Girls in Trouble, “Open the Ground”, Open the Ground

- Girls in Trouble, “River So Wide”, Open the Ground

Other Books Mentioned:

- Slow Productivity by Cal Newport

Other Episodes on Jewish Feminism:

- Francine Klagsbrun on Embracing and Reshaping Tradition

- Ilana Kurshan on Books as Blueprints for Life

- Nicole Graev Lipson on the Attention, Intention, and Complexity of Mothers- Jennifer Wiener on “Women’s Fiction”

- Jessica Elisheva Emerson on Belief, Identity, and Women’s Desire

The Five Books is a podcast that celebrates the role of books in Jewish culture. Through author interviews, we delve into Jewish identity and discover each author’s favorite novels. Join us every week for new Jewish book recommendations! Some of our episodes have included conversations with Rabbi Sharon Brous, Sam Sussman, Rabbi Angela Buchdahl and Allegra Goodman.

⁠⁠⁠Sign up for our newsletter⁠⁠⁠ to get new episode reminders, authors’ five book picks, and more delivered straight to your inbox.

Find us on Instagram⁠@fivebookspod ⁠or on Facebook at The Five Books Podcast.

For feedback or author recommendations please email us at ⁠team@fivebookspod.org⁠

For transcripts and more find us online at⁠www.fivebookspod.org ⁠

The Five Books has the advisory and promotional support of the Jewish Book Council. Jewish Book Council is a nonprofit dedicated to amplifying and celebrating Jewish literature and supporting authors and readers. Stay up to date on the latest in Jewish literature!⁠https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/events/celebrate⁠

The Five Books is fiscally sponsored by FJC, a 501c3 public charity.

Hosted by Tali Rosenblatt Cohen

Produced by Odelia Rubin

Editorial and website support by Amelia Merrill

Artwork by Elad Lifshitz of the Dov Abramson Studio

Music by Dov Rosenblatt and Blue Dot Sessions.

In this conversation, Matti Friedman reflects on the power of foundation stories to shape how we understand ourselves and where we come from – from Noah’s Ark, to the origins of the Bible, to Hannah Senesh and the other parachutists who landed in Nazi Europe during World War II. We also talk about what happens when we look more closely at these myths and encounter the flawed, human figures behind them - and why that often deepens, rather than diminishes, our admiration for their courage. Along the way, we also discuss Matti’s particular perspective as a Western-born journalist living in Israel, Michel Houellebecq’s Submission, and the gift of reading poetry in uncertain times.

Matti’s latest book, Out of the Sky: Heroism and Rebirth in Nazi Europe, has been awarded the Natan Notable Book award for Winter 2026 and was released last week.

In Out of the Sky, Matti Friedman unravels one of the strangest episodes of World War II: In 1944, a team of young women and men who had escaped the Holocaust made the inconceivable choice to parachute back into Nazi-occupied Europe under the cover of a British military operation.

Matti Friedman is the author of five works of nonfiction that have been translated into more than a dozen languages, each of which has appeared on numerous ‘best books of the year’ lists and have been awarded prizes and accolades including the Sami Rohr Prize, the ALA’s Sophie Brody Medal, and the Canadian Jewish Book Award, and more. Matti is a former Associated Press correspondent, his work has appeared in the New York Times, Smithsonian Magazine, the Atlantic, and elsewhere. He currently writes from Israel for The Free Press.

Matti Friedman's Five Books:

1. The Bible - Parshat Noach, the Story of Noah

2. Who Wrote the Bible? by Richard Friedman

3.https://amzn.to/49OBtquSubmission by Michel Houellebecq

4.https://amzn.to/49GZiSBHebrew poetry by Yehuda Amichai and Lea Goldberg

5.https://amzn.to/4qxbzP9Out of the Sky: Heroism and Rebirth in Nazi Europe by Matti Friedman

Other Media Mentioned:

HHhH by Laurent Binet

Eli Eli, recorded by Ofra Haza and the Hatikva Neighbourhood Workshop Theatre

Stay tuned at the end of the episode for a reflection on Philip Roth’s Operation Shylock with designer and friend of the podcast Dov Abramson.

Other Episode You Might Enjoy:

•

Sarah Hurwitz on Reclaiming Our Jewish Story

•

Rabbi Yitz Greenberg on Re-envisioning the Jewish Future

•

Dara Horn on Being the Lorax at Her Seder Table

•

Ilana Kurshan on Books as Blueprints for Life

The Five Books is a podcast that celebrates the role of books in Jewish culture. Through author interviews, we delve into Jewish identity and discover each author’s favorite novels. Join us every week for new Jewish book recommendations! Some of our episodes have included conversations with Rabbi Angela Buchdahl (Senior Rabbi at Central Synagogue, and author of Heart of a Stranger) Yael Van Der Wouden (author of The Safekeep), and Dara Horn (author of People Love Dead Jews.)

⁠⁠⁠Sign up for our newsletter⁠⁠⁠ to get new episode reminders, authors’ five book picks, and more delivered straight to your inbox.

Find us on Instagram⁠@fivebookspod ⁠or on Facebook at The Five Books Podcast.

For feedback or author recommendations please email us at ⁠team@fivebookspod.org⁠

For transcripts and more find us online at⁠www.fivebookspod.org ⁠

The Five Books has the advisory and promotional support of the Jewish Book Council. Jewish Book Council is a nonprofit dedicated to amplifying and celebrating Jewish literature and supporting authors and readers. Stay up to date on the latest in Jewish literature!⁠https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/events/celebrate⁠

The Five Books is fiscally sponsored by FJC, a 501c3 public charity.

Hosted by Tali Rosenblatt Cohen

Produced by Odelia Rubin

Editorial and website support by Amelia Merrill

Artwork by Elad Lifshitz of the Dov Abramson Studio

Music by Dov Rosenblatt and Blue Dot Sessions

Thank you to Rob Mank

Thank you to Felicia Herman and David Ben-Ur for their generous support.

In this episode, Zeeva Bukai discusses her two novels, Anatomy of Exile and The World Between, both published in the past year and woven with threads of her family history. She traces a legacy of dislocation: her grandmother’s reunion with her husband after years in a Siberian work camp, her father’s escape from Syria at age 13 with his younger brothers, and her own life between Israel and the U.S. Zeeva also reflects on her deep connection to Nicole Kraus’ Great House and the “architecture” of memory, and shares a striking moment teaching Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis to a class of orthodox high school students.

The Anatomy of Exile was chosen as the winner of the 2025 National Jewish Book Award for Debut Fiction. Zeeva’s latest book, The World Between was released just a few weeks ago.

Zeeva Bukai’s stories have appeared in Carve Magazine, The Master’s Review, Mcsweeney’s Quarterly Concern, and elsewhere. Her honors include a fellowship at the New York Center for Fiction, residencies at Hedgebrook Writers Colony, and Byrdcliff AIR program in Woodstock NY. She is the recipient of the The Master’s Review fall fiction prize, the Curt Johnson Prose Award, and the Lilith Fiction Award.

Zeeva Bukai’s Five Books:

1. The Endless Steppe by Esther Hautzig

2. Great House by Nicole Kraus

3. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

4. Your Presence is Mandatory by Sasha Vasiliyuk

5. Anatomy of Exile and The World Between by Zeeva Bukai

Other Episodes with Authors who Teach:

- Elizabeth Graver on Lost Worlds and new Doorways

- Jeremy Dauber on What the Horror Genre Reveals About America

- Toby Lloyd on Biblical Horror and being a Jewish Atheist

- Mary Morris on Hidden Histories and Jewish Identities

The Five Books is a podcast that celebrates the role of books in Jewish culture. Through author interviews, we delve into Jewish identity and discover each author’s favorite novels. Join us every week for new Jewish book recommendations! Some of our episodes have included conversations with Rabbi Sharon Brous (Senior Rabbi at IKAR, and author of The Amen Effect), Yael Van Der Wouden (author of The Safekeep), and Dara Horn (author of People Love Dead Jews.)

⁠⁠⁠Sign up for our newsletter⁠⁠⁠ to get new episode reminders, authors’ five book picks, and more delivered straight to your inbox.

Find us on Instagram⁠@fivebookspod ⁠or on Facebook at The Five Books Podcast.

For feedback or author recommendations please email us at ⁠team@fivebookspod.org⁠

For transcripts and more find us online at⁠www.fivebookspod.org ⁠

The Five Books has the advisory and promotional support of the Jewish Book Council. Jewish Book Council is a nonprofit dedicated to amplifying and celebrating Jewish literature and supporting authors and readers. Stay up to date on the latest in Jewish literature!⁠https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/events/celebrate⁠

The Five Books is fiscally sponsored by FJC, a 501c3 public charity.

Hosted by Tali Rosenblatt Cohen

Produced by Odelia Rubin

Editorial and website support by Amelia Merrill

Artwork by Elad Lifshitz of the Dov Abramson Studio

Music by Dov Rosenblatt and Blue Dot Sessions.

Rob Kutner is an Emmy, Peabody, Grammy, and TCA-winning writer for late-night TV including The Daily Show and TBS’ Conan. He is the author of the humor books including Apocalypse How (Running Press, 2008) and the kids’ comedy-horror graphic novel Snot Goblins and Other Tasteless Tales (First Second, 2023). He has written material for the Oscars, Emmys, and two White House Correspondents Dinners, and was named a “SuperJew” by Time Out New York. He is also the host of the new Mama’s Boys: a podcast on what it means to be a Jewish man today.

Rob Kutner’s irreverent book on Jewish history, The Jews: 5000 Years and Counting covers every major moment in Jewish history from Adam and Eve to Tuesday’s rerun of Seinfeld. This book will make you laugh, it might inadvertently make you learn, and it might just be a balm for our times that you didn’t know you needed.

In our conversation, Rob will tell us about how going to a Christian school reinforced his own Judaism, how he made sure that the diversity of stories were included in his Jewish history, and his story about ordering a lulav and etrog to the Daily Show office.

Rob Kutner’s Five Books:

1. The Big Book of Jewish Humor by Moshe Waldoks and William Novak

2. As a Driven Leaf by Milton Steinberg

3. Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo

4. Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake

5. The Jews by Rob Kutner

Find us on Instagram @fivebookspod

For feedback or author recommendations please email us at team@fivebookspod.org

Find us online at http://www.fivebookspod.org

The Five Books has the advisory and promotional support of the Jewish Book Council. Jewish Book Council is a nonprofit dedicated to amplifying and celebrating Jewish literature and supporting authors and readers. Stay up to date on the latest in Jewish literature! https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/events/celebrate

The Five Books is fiscally sponsored by FJC, a 501c3 public charity.

Hosted by Tali Rosenblatt Cohen

Produced by Odelia Rubin

Editorial and website support from Amelia Merrill

Music by Dov Rosenblatt and Blue Dot Sessions

Art by Elad Lifshitz of Dov Abramson Studio

Allegra Goodman tells us how This Is Not About Us grew like a family tree from her New Yorker short story “Apple Cake,” as she continued writing about the Rubinstein family for over a decade. We discuss how her perspective - and the world - has changed since she wrote The Family Markowitz in her 20s, and how Keats’ concept of negative capability has shaped her writing. We also hear about a book that she found very dull until a bad cold taught her patience.

Allegra Goodman is a writer of extraordinary range and precision. Across novels and stories, she’s written about faith, ambition, family, science, history, and the quiet negotiations of everyday life, always with clarity, wit, and deep compassion for her characters. Allegra’s many books include among them Sam, a Jenna’s Book Club pick, Paradise Park, Kaaterskill Falls (a National Book Award finalist), and Isola (a Reese’s Book Club Pick.)

Her latest novel of interconnected short stories, This Is Not About Us, brings all of that together. It follows the Rubinstein family over many years, through moments that feel small until they suddenly don’t.

Allegra Goodman’s Five Books:

1. A book that is in conversation with your latest work:

The Family Markowitz

2. A Book You Changed Your Mind About:

The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James

3. A passage from a book that has stayed with you or has changed how you think about things:

A famous passage from one of John Keats' letters about Negative Capability

4.⁠The Book You’re Reading Now:

Dickens the Enchanter: Inside the Explosive Imagination of the Great Storyteller by Peter Conrad

5. The Author’s Latest Work:

This Is Not About Us by Allegra Goodman

Allegra’s First Appearance on The Five Books can be found here: Allegra Goodman on Making the Exotic Familiar, and Finding the Modern in Ancient Worlds

This episode was recorded live in front of an audience in a joint event for subscribers to Nu Reads, a project from Jewish Book Council that brings remarkable Jewish literature straight to your door. This is Not About Us by Allegra Goodman is the Nu Reads pick for February. Learn more at https://www.nureads.org/

The Five Books is a partner organization of Jewish Book Council, a nonprofit dedicated to amplifying and celebrating Jewish literature and supporting authors and readers.

The Five Books is a podcast that celebrates the role of books in Jewish culture. Through author interviews, we delve into Jewish identity and discover each author’s favorite novels. Join us every week for new Jewish book recommendations! Some of our episodes have included conversations with Rabbi Sharon Brous (Senior Rabbi at IKAR, and author of The Amen Effect), Yael Van Der Wouden (author of The Safekeep), and Dara Horn (author of People Love Dead Jews.)

⁠⁠⁠Sign up for our newsletter⁠⁠⁠ to get new episode reminders, authors’ five book picks, and more delivered straight to your inbox.

Find us on Instagram⁠@fivebookspod ⁠or on Facebook at The Five Books Podcast.

For feedback or author recommendations please email us at ⁠team@fivebookspod.org⁠

For transcripts and more find us online at⁠www.fivebookspod.org ⁠

Support our work lifting up Jewish books and Jewish authors!Donate Here

The Five Books is fiscally sponsored by FJC, a 501c3 public charity.

Hosted by Tali Rosenblatt Cohen

Produced by Odelia Rubin

Live Event Production support by the incredible team at Nu Reads/ Jewish Book Council: Jamie Betesh Carter, Evie Saphire-Bernstein, Miri Pomerantz Dauber and Naomi Firestone-Teeter

Editorial and website support by Amelia Merrill

Artwork by Elad Lifshitz of the Dov Abramson Studio

Music by Dov Rosenblatt and Blue Dot Sessions.

In this conversation, Jason Diamond unpacks what it means to be an American, Jewish, or Jewish-American author. We also discuss family secrets, Jewish gangsters, the humor and alienation of Franz Kafka, and how Art Spiegelman’s Maus taught Jason to accept his family’s silences.

Jason’s debut novel, Kaplan’s Plot, follows Elijah Mendes, who returns to Chicago after his tech business collapses and discovers that his family owns a Jewish cemetery, where a man he’s never heard of — his great-uncle Solomon Kaplan — is buried. As Elijah begins to untangle his family’s past, the novel moves between his present-day relationship with his mother, Eve, who is dying of cancer, and the earlier story of his grandfather, Yitz Kaplan. That past narrative traces Yitz and his brother Sol from a pogrom in Odessa to their arrival in America alone, and follows the brothers’ complicated bond as Yitz rises to become a Jewish gangster in 1920s Chicago.

Jason Diamond has written for The New York Times, The New Yorker, Esquire, Harper's Bazaar, The Wall Street Journal, McSweeny's, NPR, and many other outlets. He is the author of The Sprawl, and the memoir, Searching For John Hughes. He is the co-author (with Nicolas Heller) of New York Nico's Guide to NYC.

Jason Diamond’s Five Books:

1. Maus by Art Spiegelman

2.Amerika by Franz Kafka

3. Be Here Now by Ram Dass

4. The Gods of New York by Jonathan Mahler and Effingers by Gabriele Tergit

5. Kaplan’s Plot by Jason Diamond

Stay tuned at the end of the episode for a bonus book selection by literary insider, Erika Dreifus. ErikaDreifus.com

Other Others who Chose Art Spiegelman’s Maus:

•

Benjamin Resnick on the Enduring Precariousness of Jewish Life

•

Georgia Hunter on Discovering her Family’s Jewish History

The Five Books is a podcast that celebrates the role of books in Jewish culture. Through author interviews, we delve into Jewish identity and discover each author’s favorite novels. Join us every week for new Jewish book recommendations! Some of our episodes have included conversations with Rabbi Sharon Brous (Senior Rabbi at IKAR, and author of The Amen Effect), Yael Van Der Wouden (author of The Safekeep), and Dara Horn (author of People Love Dead Jews.)

⁠⁠Sign up for our newsletter⁠⁠ to get new episode reminders, authors’ five book picks, and more delivered straight to your inbox.

Find us on Instagram @fivebookspodor on Facebook at The Five Books Podcast.

For feedback or author recommendations please email us at team@fivebookspod.org

For transcripts and more find us online at http://www.fivebookspod.org

The Five Books has the advisory and promotional support of the Jewish Book Council. Jewish Book Council is a nonprofit dedicated to amplifying and celebrating Jewish literature and supporting authors and readers. Stay up to date on the latest in Jewish literature! https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/events/celebrate

The Five Books is fiscally sponsored by FJC, a 501c3 public charity.

Hosted by Tali Rosenblatt Cohen

Produced by Odelia Rubin

Editorial and website support by Amelia Merrill

Artwork by Elad Lifshitz of the Dov Abramson Studio

Music by Dov Rosenblatt and Blue Dot Sessions.