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.
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Données mises à jour le 02/11/2026
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Doreen Carvajal on the Stories Hidden in a Painting
mardi 27 octobre 2026 • Durée 54:22
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
Helene Wecker on Using the Fantastic to Write a Human Story
mardi 13 octobre 2026 • Durée 51:38
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.
Jordan Salama on Rescuing his Family's “Historia Antigua”
mardi 29 septembre 2026 • Durée 52:03
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 Award in 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
Francine Klagsbrun on Embracing and Reshaping Tradition [REBROADCAST]
mardi 15 septembre 2026 • Durée 59:47
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
Dara Horn on Reclaiming the Jewish Question
mardi 1 septembre 2026 • Durée 53:40
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
Rebekah Lowin on Crafting Jewish Joy
mardi 18 août 2026 • Durée 45:47
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 on Making Meaning, One Ritual at a Time
mardi 4 août 2026 • Durée 52:12
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
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
Rachel Goldberg-Polin on Surviving Grief
mardi 21 juillet 2026 • Durée 01:02:40
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 Frankl and 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 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
Portia Elan on the Future We Choose
mardi 7 juillet 2026 • Durée 51:00
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 Divine and 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 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
Dahlia Adler on Writing a Spicy Modern Orthodox Romance
mardi 23 juin 2026 • Durée 50:16
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.
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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