Podcast
The Five Books: Jewish Authors on the Books That Shaped Them
Hosted by Tali Rosenblatt Cohen · EN
The Five Books celebrates the role of books in our lives. Each week we’ll talk with a Jewish author about five books in five categories.
We’ll hear about: two Jewish books that have impacted the author’s Jewish identity; one book (not necessarily Jewish) that they think everyone should read - a book that changed their worldview. We’ll get a peek into what book they're reading now, and we’ll hear the inside scoop on the new book they’ve just published.
The Five Books creates a space for all listeners to explore what it means to live, write, and read as a Jewish American today.
31episodes
Episodes
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Sam Sussman on Bob Dylan and Being his Mother’s Son
Nov 1100:51:45Tap to summarizeSam Sussman’s autobiographical novel Boy From North Country begins with the quest to determine whether Bob Dylan is in fact his father, but gives way to the deeper story of his love for his mother in her final days. In many ways it’s a testament to her having accomplished in its truest form what I think mothers all hope for, which is that their love travels forward and in some way inoculates their children against future pain. In this episode, Sam reflects on his unconventional Jewish upbringing in upstate New York, where Judaism lived in literature and in the spiritual teachings passed down by his mother. He shares how My Name Is Asher Lev gave him a vision of a future for himself where art was central and how A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz helped him sustain a relationship with his mother after her death, redefining for him the bond between the living and the dead. Sam Sussman is originally from the Hudson Valley, and he has lived in Jerusalem, Berlin, and England. He graduated with a B.A from Swarthmore and M.Phil from Oxford, and has taught writing and literature seminars around the world. His writing has been recognized by BAFTA and published in Harper’s Magazine. Boy from the North Country is his first novel. It debuted as a USA Today bestseller and was picked by our partners at the Jewish Book Council as the next Nu Reads selection, their new bi-monthly subscription series spotlighting remarkable Jewish literature. Sam Sussman’s Five Books: 1. My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok 2. A Tale of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz 3. In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust 4. Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst 5. Boy From the North Country by Sam Sussman Other Books Mentioned: - Tales of the Hasidim by Martin Buber - Existentialism is a Humanism by Jean-Paul Sartre Other Episodes featuring Autofiction & Memoir: Nicole Graev Lipson on the Attention, Intention, and Complexity of Mothers Bonny Reichert on Food, Fear, and Finding Beauty Gila Pfeffer on Finding Meaning and Humor in the Darkest Times 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 at 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.
Transcribe →Tova Mirvis on Community, Belonging, and Forgiveness
Feb 11, 202500:50:06Tap to summarizeWe Would Never is a riveting literary page-turner that maps the extremes to which a family will go in order to protect their own.No one appears more surprised than Hailey Gelman when she comes under suspicion for the murder of her soon-to-be ex-husband Jonah. Hailey—nicknamed Sunshine by her mother for her bright outlook and ever-present smile—has always tried to do what is expected of her and is regarded as the family peacemaker. But is anyone, including Hailey, who she has always seemed to be?Inspired by a true story, We Would Never is a gripping mystery, an intimate family drama, and a provocative exploration of loyalty, betrayal, and the blurred line between protecting and forsaking the ones we love most.Tova Mirvis is the author of the memoir The Book of Separation as well as four novels, We Would Never, Visible City, The Outside World, and The Ladies Auxiliary, which was a national bestseller. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe Magazine and Real Simple, and her fiction has been broadcast on NPR. She lives in Newton, Massachusetts with her family. Our conversation explores the fine line between what it means to be an insider vs an outsider, the way the past retains a pull on the present, and the stretchiness of moral boundaries. Throughout, Tova reflects on the ways in which venturing beyond our comfort zones can be both enriching and destabilizing. Tova Mirvis’ Five Books: All-of-a-Kind Family, Sidney Taylor My Name is Asher Lev, Chaim Potok The Postcard, Anne Berest Songs For the Brokenhearted, Ayelet Tsabari We Would Never, Tova Mirvis Find us on Instagram @fivebookspod 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/celebrateThe Five Books is fiscally sponsored by FJC, a 501c3 public charity. Hosted by Tali Rosenblatt CohenProduced by Odelia RubinArtwork by Dena FriedmanMusic by Dov Rosenblatt and Blue Dot Sessions.
Transcribe →Bonny Reichert on Food, Fear, and Finding Beauty
Feb 4, 202500:43:59Tap to summarizeBonny Reichert avoided everything to do with the Holocaust. The journalist had grown up hearing stories about her father’s near-starvation and ultimate survival in Auschwitz-Birkenau, but she never imagined she would be able to face this epic legacy head-on.Then a chance encounter with a perfect bowl of borscht in Warsaw set Bonny on a journey to unearth her culinary lineage, and she began to dig for the roots of her food obsession, dish by dish. Stepping into the kitchen to connect her past with her future, the author recounts the defining moments of her life in a poignant tale of scarcity and plenty.How to Share an Egg is a journey of deep flavors and surprising contrasts. By turns sweet, salty, sour, and bitter, this is one woman’s search to find her voice as a writer, chef, mother, and daughter. Do the tiny dramas of her own life matter in comparison to everything her father has seen and done? This moving exploration of heritage, inheritance, and self-discovery sets out to find the answer.Bonny Reichert is a National Magazine Award-winning journalist. She has been an editor at Today’s Parent and Chatelaine, and a columnist and regular contributor to The Globe and Mail. When she turned forty, she had a now-or-never feeling in her bones and quit her job to enroll in culinary school. After that, she began to explore her relationship with food on the page, seeing her childhood in the restaurant business and her background as the daughter of a Holocaust survivor in a new light. Bonny was born in Edmonton, Alberta, and lives in Toronto with her husband and little dog, Bruno. Her three almost-adult children come and go. She holds a master of fine art in creative nonfiction and teaches writing at the University of Toronto’s School of Continuing Studies. How to Share an Egg is her first book.In our conversation, Bonny remembers how she protected her Holocaust survivor father from the antisemitism she experienced as a child. She shares how she found the strength to tell both her father’s story and her own, and on the foods that have meant the most to her. Bonny Reichert's Five Books: Forever by Judy Blume Portnoy’s Complaint by Philip Roth The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion Still Life With Remorse by Maira Kalman How to Share an Egg by Bonny Reichert Find us on Instagram @fivebookspod 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/celebrateThe Five Books is fiscally sponsored by FJC, a 501c3 public charity. Hosted by Tali Rosenblatt CohenProduced by Odelia RubinArtwork by Dena FriedmanMusic by Dov Rosenblatt and Blue Dot Sessions.
Transcribe →Jessica Elisheva Emerson on Belief, Identity, and Women’s Desire
Jan 28, 202500:43:57Tap to summarizeOlive Days is a novel about Rina Kirsch, a young mother and Modern Orthodox Jew in Los Angeles. But a contradiction burns at her center: Rina is an atheist. She is also stymied in her life and marriage.Hoping to reinvigorate their relationship, Rina’s husband convinces her to partake in a night of wife swapping with other Orthodox couples. Rather than preserve her marriage, however, the swap plunges Rina down a heady path that begins with a rekindled passion for painting and culminates in an intoxicating affair with Will, her married art teacher. Rina must decide if it’s worth sacrificing everything she’s ever known to fully inhabit the uncharted landscape unfolding before her, one where her needs take precedence. (Counterpoint Press)Jessica earned her MFA in creative writing from Antioch University Los Angeles and her BA in journalism from USC. She lives with her husband and children in the Sonoran Desert.In our conversation, Jessica will expound on the complexities of belief, identity and women’s desire. Jessica delves into how her own atheism sits alongside her Jewish practice, and why she thinks of herself as a pessimist who finds joy in life. Jessica Elisheva Emerson’s Five Books: My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok The History of Love by Nicole Krauss Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi Plainsong by Kent Haruf Olive Days by Jessica Elisheva Emerson Find us on Instagram @fivebookspod 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/celebrateThe Five Books is fiscally sponsored by FJC, a 501c3 public charity. Hosted by Tali Rosenblatt CohenProduced by Odelia RubinArtwork by Dena FriedmanMusic by Dov Rosenblatt and Blue Dot Sessions.
Transcribe →Elyssa Friedland on Being a First Generation American and Why Representation in Books Matters
Jan 21, 202500:37:48Tap to summarizeAfter the Jacobson siblings win a life-changing fortune in the lottery, they assume their messy lives will transform into sleek, storybook perfection–but they couldn’t be more wrong. The Jacobson children reunite when their newly widowed father puts their Jersey Shore beach house on the market. Packing up childhood memories isn’t easy, especially when each sibling is facing drama in their own life. When Noah sees an ad for a Powerball drawing, he and his sisters, Laura and Sophie, go in on tickets while their brother Matthew passes. All hell breaks loose when one of the tickets is a winner and three of the four Jacobsons become overnight millionaires. It’s not long before the Jacobsons start to realize that they’ll never feel rich unless they can pull their family back together. (Penguin Random House)Jackpot Summer was a USA Today bestseller, a Skimm Reads Pick and one of She Reads Most Anticipated Contemporary Fiction 2024.Elyssa Friedland is the acclaimed author of Last Summer at the Golden Hotel, The Floating Feldmans, The Intermission and Love and Miss Communication. Elyssa is a graduate of Yale University and Columbia Law School and currently teaches novel writing at Yale. She lives with her husband and three children in New York City. Elyssa reflects on how exotic American-born parents felt to her as a kid, and how 10/7 led to some last minute changes to Jackpot Summer. Elyssa Friedland’s Five Books: Marjorie Morningstar by Herman Wouk Night by Elie Wiesel The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar The Measure by Nikki Erlick Jackpot Summer by Elyssa Friedland Find us on Instagram @fivebookspod 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/celebrateThe Five Books is fiscally sponsored by FJC, a 501c3 public charity. Hosted by Tali Rosenblatt CohenProduced by Odelia RubinArtwork by Dena FriedmanMusic by Dov Rosenblatt and Blue Dot Sessions.
Transcribe →Gila Pfeffer on Finding Meaning and Humor in the Darkest Times
Jan 14, 202500:45:24Tap to summarizeBy the time she was thirty, Gila Pfeffer was the oldest living member of her family, having lost her mother to breast cancer and her father to colon cancer. A simple blood test confirmed she carried the BRCA1 gene—which put her at high risk of developing cancer herself. Determined to break the cycle of early death in her family, Gila decides to undergo an elective double mastectomy.This memoir follows her journey as she becomes a reluctant expert on how to sit shiva, grows up, falls in love, and enters motherhood, before her life is derailed yet again. Her double mastectomy reveals cancer already growing in one breast.Drenched in Gila’s dark humor, Nearly Departed is a story about thriving against the odds, committing to what’s important, and leaving a better legacy than the one you inherited. (The Experiment).Gila Pfeffer is a Jewish American writer and humorist. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, McSweeney’s, Today.com, and elsewhere. Gila’s monthly “Feel It on the First” campaign reminds women to prioritize their breast health. She splits her time between New York City and London.In this intimate conversation, Gila reflects on why she’s grateful for her “big mouth,” and her impulse to find meaning - and humor - in even the most painful experiences. Gila Pfeffer’s Five Books: God Knows by Joseph Heller Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden Nearly Departed: Adventures in Loss, Cancer, and Other Inconveniences by Gila Pfeffer Other Resources: The Life of Viktor Frankl The Choice by Dr. Edith Eva Eger Find us on Instagram @fivebookspod 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/celebrateThe Five Books is fiscally sponsored by FJC, a 501c3 public charity. Hosted by Tali Rosenblatt CohenProduced by Odelia RubinArtwork by Dena FriedmanMusic by Dov Rosenblatt and Blue Dot Sessions
Transcribe →Samantha Greene Woodruff on Blacklists and being a 'Christmas Tree Jew'
Jan 7, 202500:43:21Tap to summarizeThe Trade Off is the story of a brilliant and ambitious young woman striving to find her place amid the promise and tumult of 1920s Wall Street. Bea Abramovitz has a gift for math and numbers, and for finding patterns within the stock market. But in the 1920s, in a Lower East Side tenement, opportunities for (Jewish) women on Wall Street don't just come knocking. It's easier for her golden-boy twin brother, Jake, who longs to reclaim all their parents lost after fleeing the pogroms in Russia to come to America. Well intentioned but undisciplined, Jake has a charm that can carry him only so far on Wall Street. So Bea devises a plan to be the brains behind her brother, acting as broker. As Jake's reputation, his heedless ego, and the family fortune soar, Bea foresees catastrophe: an impending crash that could destroy everything if she doesn't finally take control. (Lake Union)Samantha Greene Woodruff has an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business and spent fifteen years at Viacom’s Nickelodeon before leaving to parent her two young children. Her first novel, The Lobotomist’s Wife was a #1 Amazon bestseller and Amazon First Reads Pick. The Trade Off is her second novel. Samantha expounds upon her love of Christmas, what it meant to step into her Jewish identity post 10/7, and her conflicted feelings toward wealth. Samantha Greene Woodruff’s Five Books: The Diary of Anne Frank Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl and The Whispers by Ashley Audrain The Trade Off by Samantha Greene Woodruff The Five Books has the advisory and promotional support of The Jewish Book Council.The Five Books is fiscally sponsored by FJC, a 501c3 public charity. Hosted by Tali Rosenblatt-CohenProduced by Odelia RubinArtwork by Dena FriedmanMusic by Dov Rosenblatt and Blue Dot Sessions
Transcribe →Yehuda Kurtzer on Grappling with History and Memory
Dec 31, 202400:55:05Tap to summarizeThe New Jewish Canon is both text and textbook, a rich collection of major Jewish ideas from the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. With over eighty excerpts from key primary source texts and insightful corresponding essays by leading scholars, on topics of history and memory, Jewish politics and the public square, religion and religiosity, and identities and communities, The New Jewish Canon promises to start conversations from the seminar room to the dinner table. (Academic Studies Pres)Dr. Yehuda Kurtzer is president of the Shalom Hartman Institute. Yehuda is a leading thinker on the essential questions facing contemporary Jewish life. He is the author of Shuva: The Future of the Jewish Past, the co-editor of The New Jewish Canon, the host of the Identity/Crisis podcast. He writes, teaches, and lectures widely about contemporary Jewish life. Yehuda is trained as a scholar of ancient Judaism and rabbinics with a doctorate in Jewish Studies from Harvard University and previously served as a member of the faculty at Brandeis University, where he held the inaugural Chair in Jewish Communal Innovation.In this wide ranging conversation Yehuda will reflect on his unusual upbringing as the child of a diplomat with a front row seat to Middle East politics, on falling in love with second century rabbinic Judaism and early Christianity, and his optimistic take on a new path forward for Israel and the Middle East. Yehuda Kurtzer’s Five Books: As a Driven Leaf, by Milton Steinberg Zakhor, by Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi In The Land of Israel, by Amos Oz The Safekeep, by Yael van der Wouden The New Jewish Canon, edited by Yehuda Kurtzer and Claire E. Sufrin The Five Books has the advisory and promotional support of The Jewish Book Council. The Five Books is fiscally sponsored by FJC, a 501c3 public charity. Hosted by Tali Rosenblatt-CohenProduced by Odelia RubinArtwork by Dena FriedmanMusic by Dov Rosenblatt and Blue Dot Sessions
Transcribe →Zibby Owens on the Healing Power of the Written Word
Dec 24, 202400:43:57Tap to summarizeOn Being Jewish Now is an intimate and hopeful collection of 75 meaningful, smart, funny, sad, emotional, and inspiring essays from today’s authors and advocates about what it means to be Jewish, how life has changed since the attacks on October 7th, 2023, and the unique culture that brings this group together. Contributors include Mark Feuerstein, Jill Zarin, Steve Leder, Joanna Rakoff, Amy Ephron, Lisa Barr, Annabelle Gurwitch, Daphne Merkin, Bradley Tusk, Sharon Brous, Jenny Mollen, Nicola Kraus, Caroline Leavitt, and many others. (Zibby Books)Zibby Owens is the bestselling author of Blank: A Novel, Bookends: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Literature, Princess Charming, and the forthcoming novel Overheard. She is the editor of three anthologies: On Being Jewish Now, Moms Don’t Have Time To: A Quarantine Anthology and Moms Don’t Have Time To Have Kids: A Timeless Anthology. Zibby is the founder and CEO of Zibby Media, which includes the Zibby Books boutique publishing house, Zibby’s Bookshop, an independent bookstore in Santa Monica, CA, the award-winning daily podcast Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books, which she hosts, Zibby’s Book Club, and Zibby Retreats for book lovers. Zibby shares what draws her to books and writing, and what compels her to speak up for Jewish authors.Zibby Owens' Five Books: Night by Elie Wiesel 10/7 by Lee Yaron Drinking: A Love Story by Caroline Knapp Here One Moment, by Liane Moriarty On Being Jewish Now, edited by Zibby Owens Other Books & Resources: Slow Motion by Dani Shapiro On Being Jewish Now Substack The Five Books has the advisory and promotional support of The Jewish Book Council. November 24 to December 24 is Jewish Book Month! Celebrate with Jewish Book Council. https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/events/celebrate The Five Books is fiscally sponsored by FJC, a 501c3 public charity. Hosted by Tali Rosenblatt-CohenProduced by Odelia RubinArtwork by Dena FriedmanMusic by Dov Rosenblatt and Blue Dot Sessions
Transcribe →Francine Klagsbrun on Embracing and Reshaping Tradition
Dec 17, 202401:01:46Tap to summarizeHenrietta 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. (Jewish Lives Series, Yale University Press).Francine Klagsbrun has also 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. Charming and wry, Francine 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 Szold’s legacy. 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 The Five Books has the advisory and promotional support of The Jewish Book Council. November 24 to December 24 is Jewish Book Month! Celebrate with Jewish Book Council. https://www.jewishbookcouncil.org/events/celebrate The Five Books is fiscally sponsored by FJC, a 501c3 public charity. Hosted by Tali Rosenblatt-CohenProduced by Odelia RubinArtwork by Dena FriedmanMusic by Dov Rosenblatt and Blue Dot Sessions
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