Latest Jewishliterature Podcast Episodes

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Could we adjust Once We Were Home? a conversation with Jennifer Rosner

Nice Jewish Books - March 14, 2024 02:47 - 34 minutes ★★★★★ - 4 ratings
During the Holocaust, desperate Jewish parents placed their children with Christian families and in convents in the hope that the children would survive the war.  After the war, Jewish organizations went to reclaim these children to be raised in the Jewish community. But how did the children dea...

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Discovering the mysteries in Our Little Histories : a conversation with Janice Weizman

Nice Jewish Books - February 19, 2024 20:23 - 43 minutes ★★★★★ - 4 ratings
We start in a familiar place, in contemporary Chicago, where Jennifer, a museum curator, is asked to go to Belarus to create a living installation of Jewish life there before the Holocaust. She invites a distant cousin to participate, and she brings with her an old Yiddish literary magazine to u...

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Can a kid survive the turmoil of the 70s as well as his Bar Mitsvah? Adam Unrehearsed with Don Futterman

Nice Jewish Books - January 18, 2024 03:51 - 49 minutes ★★★★★ - 4 ratings
Adam is a twelve year old boy preparing for his bar mitzvah in Flushing New York in the early 1970. In many ways, he is a typical kid, trying to fit in at school, but also trying to find himself and find ways to stand out. But his year is off to a difficult start when his parents decide to move ...

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New Translations of Yiddish Literature

Nice Jewish Books - December 12, 2023 00:02 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 4 ratings
While the body of Yiddish literature is vast, many people still think of Tevye the milkman, trudging along with his lame horse and arguing with God. But the many new translations of Yiddish fiction show the breadth and depth of the settings, characters, and topics covered as well as the many dif...

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The Last Jewish Daughter of Kaifeng : a conversation with graphic novelist Fabrice Sapolsky

Nice Jewish Books - November 03, 2023 22:33 - 44 minutes ★★★★★ - 4 ratings
Leah is not your typical Chinese-Jewish owner of a kosher Chinese restaurant. She is also a woman on the run from Yuk-Wong, a drug lord determined to marry her against her will. And if that wasn't enough drama in her life, she is also the host/recipient of the Spirit of Water with all the power...

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Straddling Black & White: the travails of the Ethiopian Jews with author Kim Salzman

Nice Jewish Books - October 09, 2023 18:19 - 43 minutes ★★★★★ - 4 ratings
When people think of Operation Moses, they usually think of a plane full of Ethiopian Jews, the Beta Israel, arriving in Israel. But their journey started long before the plane ride and continued for years after arriving. Kim  Salzman follows a single family as they journey in three groups from ...

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Irena Klepfisz discusses Her Birth and Later Years with guest host Yermiyahu Ahron Taub

Nice Jewish Books - September 13, 2023 03:54 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 4 ratings
Lesbian, poet, activist, and Yiddishist Irena Klepfisz speaks about her lastest book, Her Birth and Later Years : New and Collected Poems, 1971-2021 with Yermiyahu Ahron Taub. Yermiyahu is a poet and Yiddishist in his own right. He and Irena have been friends for years. They speak about her proc...

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We are not Strangers: Friendship between the Jews & Japanese in WWII era Seattle, a conversation with Josh Tuininga

Nice Jewish Books - August 13, 2023 20:32 - 27 minutes ★★★★★ - 4 ratings
During World War 11, Japanese citizens were rounded up and sent to internment camps. When they were finally released, the vast majority had lost their homes and businesses. In the upcoming episode of Nice Jewish Books, I speak with Josh Tuininga about one of the rare exceptions to this appalling...

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On the Run in a House with Chicken-feet: a discussion Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott

Nice Jewish Books - July 12, 2023 01:33 - 34 minutes ★★★★★ - 4 ratings
If I told you that this episode was going to be about a house which ran around on chicken legs, you might assume that this should belong to an odd looking children’s book. But NO! This is a full-fledged intruiguing  adult adventure. When the Yaga siblings inherit their grandmother’s house, they ...

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Coming out in Florida ... Can love triumph? A discussion with Jacob Gelman about Butterflies in the Endzone

Nice Jewish Books - June 21, 2023 01:50 - 19 minutes ★★★★★ - 4 ratings
When Jamie's family moves from a liberal Jewish area of  San Francisco to a conservative area of Florida, he decides to go back into the closet. But when he meets Alex, the football star, sparks fly between them which un-nerves both of the teens. Can they work out their feelings for each other w...

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What are the Shadows We Carry? A conversation with Meryl Ain

Nice Jewish Books - June 08, 2023 04:46 - 32 minutes ★★★★★ - 4 ratings
Twins JoJo and Bronka are coming of age in the United States in the 1960s. Daughters of Orthodox Jewish parents, they both have dreams and ambitions; JoJo of becoming an actress and Bronka of becoming an journalist. But shadows follow them: their parents' holocaust experience, US politics, neo-N...

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Can this young Jewish Syrian woman find her way out of the Marriage Box? A conversation with Corie Adjmi

Nice Jewish Books - May 14, 2023 21:09 - 23 minutes ★★★★★ - 4 ratings
Casey is a teenager living in New Orleans, when her parents decide that she is getting into too much trouble. They move the family back to Brooklyn to be closer to their Orthodox Jewish Syrian community. But will she end up trapped in the Marriage Box? Join me for a conversation with author Cori...

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The Joys of Jewish sleepaway camp! Eric Glickman regales us with adventures a Camp Pock-a-Wockne

Nice Jewish Books - April 25, 2023 00:09 - 34 minutes ★★★★★ - 4 ratings
We may not be able to live in the past, but it is nice to visit it sometimes. Join me for a nostalgic journey back to Jewish sleep-away-camp with Eric Glickman as we talk about his graphic novel Camp Pock-a-wocknee : dynomite summer '77. Follow along with the transcript. Support the autho...

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Other Covenants, the ultimate "what ifs" of Jewish history and Jewish fan fiction

Nice Jewish Books - March 12, 2023 18:23 - 49 minutes ★★★★★ - 4 ratings
What if David and Goliath were actually lovers and con artists? What if the Scotts turned about to be God's chosen people? What if Ilan Ramon had been on the Columbia ground crew instead of in the shuttle? Andrea Lobel and Mark Shainblum collect an intriguing collection of "what ifs" in Jewish h...

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Speaking with AJL Fiction Award winner Omer Friedlander about the Man Who Sold Air in the Holy Land

Nice Jewish Books - February 17, 2023 06:19 - 32 minutes ★★★★★ - 4 ratings
Scheherazade telling stories to spellbound soldiers, Sephardic kids "borrow' and old confused man off the street to pose as their Holocaust surviving grandfather, and the son of a shoemaker who delights in climbing construction cranes ... these are just a few of the characters who appear in Omer...

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It's Always a Party with a Sephardi! from the Book of Life

Nice Jewish Books - January 15, 2023 23:05 - 1 hour ★★★★★ - 4 ratings
This episode of The Book of Life features Sarah Aroeste,a singer/songwriter of Ladino music and an author of board books featuring Sephardic culture and Ladino vocabulary andBridget Hodder,  a Sephardic author of middle grade and picture books. Follow along with the transcript. Support the a...

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A Deathbed Confession reveals My Mother's Secret. A conversation with Alina Adams

Nice Jewish Books - December 07, 2022 04:52 - 46 minutes ★★★★★ - 4 ratings
After her beloved father's death, Lena is stunned to learn that he was not her biological father. She had never felt as close to Regina, her Russian-born mother. But as Regina's story unfolds from her early life in Moscow to her early adulthood in Birobidzhan, the Jewish Autonomous Region, thei...

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The Surprisingly Modern Voice of Yiddish Author Fradl Shtok : a conversation with translators Jordan Finkin and Allison Schachter

Nice Jewish Books - November 15, 2022 00:42 - 26 minutes ★★★★★ - 4 ratings
In a Nice Jewish Books first – I won’t be speaking with the author of the book From the Jewish Provinces, Fradl Shtok, but rather her translators, Jordan Finkin and Allison Schachter. Fradl Shtok was born in the Austro-Hungarian empire and started her writing career there. She later moved to Ne...

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Almost Parallel Lives: The Thread Collectors by Shaunna Edwards and Alyson Goldman

Nice Jewish Books - October 17, 2022 23:20 - 39 minutes ★★★★★ - 4 ratings
In this historical novel based on both their families’ histories, I speak with author's Shaunna Edwards and Alyson Richman. In the novel, we follow two couples. Jacob and Lilly are a Jewish couple living in New York while Stella and William are both slaves in New Orleans. Both men are fighting f...

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Justice or Revenge? Can Shanna Tell Them Apart and Prevent Another Murder?

Nice Jewish Books - October 07, 2022 02:26 - 24 minutes ★★★★★ - 4 ratings
Journo (journalist) Shanna Regan was researching historical plaques for the town news magazine when she encounters fake plaques. Instead of praising a former residents, the plaques told of a person's malicious actions and a statement this if they don't repent, that they will never rest in peace....

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Aviva Rosner is singing the Human Blues

Nice Jewish Books - September 15, 2022 17:38 - 32 minutes ★★★★★ - 4 ratings
Aviva Rosner is a rock star, committed to speaking about truth of her life, even if, or especially if, it makes other people uncomfortable. She has a happy marriage, and loyal fans. What she doesn’t have is a baby. In Human Blues, by Elisa Albert, we follow her through 9 months of her cycles of ...

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What can poison do in a Gallery of Beauties? a conversation with Nina Wachsman

Nice Jewish Books - August 15, 2022 21:13 - 44 minutes ★★★★★ - 4 ratings
17th century Venice is fascinating time and place in history; especially for Jews. Join me for a conversation with Nina Wachsman about her latest book, A Gallery of Beauties. Her protagonist, Diana, daughter of the chief rabbi of Venice, must decide if she wants her life to remain centered in th...

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Finding your soul-mate, The Matchmaker's gift with Lynda Loigman

Nice Jewish Books - July 14, 2022 19:12 - 32 minutes ★★★★★ - 4 ratings
Sarah can't help being a match-maker; she sees a mystical light between people who are meant for each other. But can she stand up to the local male matchmakers who are angry at her for taking their business? And what is her granddaughter Abby to make of her journals? Join me for my talk with aut...

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How to Find Your Way in the Dark with Derek Miller

Nice Jewish Books - June 24, 2022 18:45 - 54 minutes ★★★★★ - 4 ratings
Join me for a wider ranging talk with Derek Miller about the mystery of Sheldon's father's death, Jewish life in rural America, and Yankee ingenuity. How to find your way in the Dark is the winner of the 2022 Association of Jewish Libraries' Jewish Fiction Award.   Follow along with the tra...

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A Play for the End of the World, by Jai Chakrabarti

Nice Jewish Books - June 12, 2022 17:55 - 31 minutes ★★★★★ - 4 ratings
What connects a Warsaw Holocaust era orphanage and a 1970's West Bengal village? It is a play, the Post Office, written by Rabindranath Tagore, and performed in both places. Jai Chakrabarti skillfully weaves together 1940s Warsaw and 1970s New York and India and discusses the role of the arts in...

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Love, Faith, and Talmud with Maggie Anton

Nice Jewish Books - May 09, 2022 20:48 - 43 minutes ★★★★★ - 4 ratings
After reading Chaim Potok's early works, author Maggie Anton wondered, "where were the women?" In her latest novel, The Choice: Love, Faith, and Talmud, Maggie imagines what life might have been like for women living in Potok's world. To find out more about Maggie Anton and her work, check out...

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Preventing the Chernobyl meltdown? or saving her family? Atomic Anna with Rachel Barenbaum

Nice Jewish Books - April 26, 2022 17:10 - 27 minutes ★★★★★ - 4 ratings
Mathemetician/nuclear physicist Anna, is briefly launched into the future when the Chernobyl nuclear power plant melts down. She sees her estranged daughter, Molly dying from a violent injury. Now Anna has to figure out a way to travel to the past to reconnect with her daughter and hopefully sav...

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Just who is stalking whom in Bruce Berger's latest book?

Nice Jewish Books - March 19, 2022 18:35 - 31 minutes ★★★★★ - 4 ratings
Kayla is a piano prodigy. From a very young age, she has struggled to balance her musical life with family tensions and mental illness. Not to mention the mysterious stalker. Join me for a wide-ranging talk with Bruce Berger about music, mental illness, and family dynamics. Read the transcript...

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Talking about Peculiarities with David Liss

Nice Jewish Books - February 09, 2022 01:01 - 35 minutes ★★★★★ - 4 ratings
It is the late1890's London and all is not well. A dense fog is creeping through the streets transforming people into other-worldly creatures and the "Elegents" walk the streets killing at will. Can a neer-do-well second son of a banker and a young Jewish woman solve these horrific mysteries and...

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Mirta Trupp and her persuasive Austen fan fiction

Nice Jewish Books - December 21, 2021 18:36 - 33 minutes ★★★★★ - 4 ratings
Mirta Trupp writes "Jewish Historical Fiction : For those who like a little Yiddishkeit with their Period Drama." I had a great conversation about her latest book, Celestial Persuasion, a Jane Austen fan fiction as well as a great stand-alone work. Read the transcript Check out her site, ht...

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