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

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. (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-Cohen Produced by Odelia Rubin Artwork by Dena Friedman Music by Dov Rosenblatt and Blue Dot Sessions

In Magical Meet Cute, Faye Kaplan is definitely happy alone. That is, until she finds her town papered with anti-Semitic flyers. Desperate for comfort, Faye drunkenly turns to her pottery. A golem protector is just what her town needs…and adding details to make him her ideal man can’t hurt, right? When a mysterious stranger turns up the next day, Greg seems too good to be true, causing Faye to wonder if his appearance might be anything but a coincidence. (Mira) Jean started her career in television where she won numerous awards including a Daytime Emmy. She spent five years in rabbinical school before her chronic illness forced her to withdraw. In this conversation, Jean reflects on “second wave” Jewish books and finding herself represented on the page, on Jewish magic (or being a “Jewitch”), and Jewish joy. Jean Meltzer’s Five Books: The Bible Once More with Chutzpah by Haley Neil Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston Love you a Latke by Amanda Elliot Magical Meet Cute by Jean Meltzer Books and Resources on Jewish Magic: Jewish Magic and Superstition Joshua Trachtenberg The Golem Redux by Elizabeth R. Baer The Golem and the Won­drous Deeds of the Mahar­al of Prague by Yudl Rosenberg The Golem by Gustav Meyrink Throwing Sheyd (Podcast) The Vigil (Movie) https://www.sefaria.org/ The Jewish Joy Community: https://www.facebook.com/p/The-Jewish-Joy-Book-Club-61555704527625/ https://www.instagram.com/thejewishjoybookclub/ https://thejewishjoybox.com/ Other Books Jean Mentioned: Marry Me by Midnight by Felicia Grossman 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-Cohen Produced by Odelia Rubin Artwork by Dena Friedman Music by Dov Rosenblatt

It is 1961 and the rural Dutch province of Overijssel is quiet. Living alone in her late mother’s country home, Isabel knows her life is as it should be—led by routine and discipline. But all is upended when her brother Louis brings his graceless new girlfriend Eva, leaving her at Isabel’s doorstep as a guest, to stay for the season. Mysterious, sophisticated, sensual, The Safekeep is “a brave and thrilling debut about facing up to the truth of history, and to one’s own desires” (The Guardian). (Simon and Schuster) Yael memorably reflects on the mouse that helped her to make friends, her gravitation toward magic, the book that convinced her not to get a nose job, and the nature of complicity, trauma and reconciliation. Yael van der Wouden’s Five Books: Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer The Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander and Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado The Artist by Lucy Steeds (to be released early 2025) The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden 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 Cohen Produced by Odelia Rubin Artwork by Dena Friedman Music by Dov Rosenblatt

Benjamin Resnick’s debut novel, Next Stop, is a work of speculative fiction that explores the precariousness of Jewish American life through the lens of one family. After a black hole consumes the State of Israel, similar strange events occur in cities around the world, ushering in a time of chaos as well as miracles. (Simon and Schuster) Benjamin Resnick is the rabbi of the Pelham Jewish Center in New York. Our wide ranging and thought-provoking conversation touches on the recurring appearance of false messiahs, Hebrew as the enduring language of Jews, and Jewish joy even in times of trauma. Benjamin’s Resnick’s Five Books: Maus by Art Speigelman The Tevye Stories by Sholem Aleichem A River Runs Through It by Norman Maclean Skinny Legs and All by Tom Robbins Next Stop by Benjamin Resnick Relevant Links: Satan in Goray by Isaac Bashevis Singer Cooking Pot on display at the Museum of the Jewish Heritage 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 Cohen Produced by Odelia Rubin Artwork by Dena Friedman Music by Dov Rosenblatt and Blue Dot Sessions

Join us December 3rd! Each episode will feature a candid conversation with a Jewish author about five books that are near and dear to them. We’ll hear about the books that helped form their identities, the books that changed their worldview, and we’ll get the inside scoop on a new book they’ve just published.