Nice Jewish Books
Episodes
Blood of Birds by Jay Bailey
21 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The newly crowned King David was making all kinds of radical reform in his kingdom. High on the list was establishing six cities of refuge where men...
Accidental friends with Susan Josephs
13 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when two strangers are brought together by the same heartbreaking loss? Can friendship help heal the soul? After Rose's husband, Maury, a...
AJL Fiction Award Winners 2026
20 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Every year, the Association of Jewish Libraries Fiction Award committee scours the literary world for books with significant Jewish content. They look...
Alive and Beating / a conversation with Rebecca Wolf
19 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Six lives. One city. A phone call that will change everything. In Alive and Beating, Rebecca Wolf brings us to Jerusalem just days before Passover, wh...
Immortal Gifts : tales of a Jewish vampire with Katherine Villyard
16 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Nice Jewish Books… Sheryl Stahl sits down with author Katherine Villyard to discuss Immortal Gifts, a historical fantasy starring...
Will Hope Arrive in the Shape of Dog? a conversation with Yishay Ishi Ron
16 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Geller has hit rock bottom — homeless, addicted, and haunted by the horrors of war. His only goal is to forget. But when he rescues a dog from anoth...
Unfinished Acts of Wild Creation: a conversation with Sarah Yahm
12 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Louise isn't juggling balls or flames — she's juggling life: the emotional weight of being a daughter, a mother, a wife… and someone facing a term...
Fagin, the Jew; Fagin the Thief; Fagin the Man: a conversation with Allison Epstein
14 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When Allison Epstein first saw the musical Oliver!, one character stood out—Fagin. He was the only Jewish character she'd ever seen on stage. But wh...
Who Killed the Rabbi's Wife: a conversation with Saul Golubcow
27 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Step into the world of mystery, memory, and meaning with author Saul Golubcow. In this compelling interview, Golubcow discusses his gripping works, ...
2nd grader Mike learns his way around the American Playground: a conversation with Mike Shokrian
17 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Michel may not be the big man on campus, but he definitely rules his 2nd grade classroom in Tehran and all is well in his world. That is, until his f...
Small Moments Made Large in Displaced Persons : a conversation with Joan Leegan
26 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In March, Rena Citrin, chair of the Association of Jewish Libraries fiction award, told me (not quite in these words) to get my tush in gear and read...
Midwives' Escape: a conversation with Maggie Anton
15 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It's Passover! Time to slurp the soup, crunch the matzah, and make jokes about Moses never stopping to ask directions in the desert. It's also a great...
AJL Fiction Award Winners
19 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Every year, the Association of Jewish Libraries Fiction Award committee scours the book world for books with significant Jewish content. They look for...
The Second Journey : an adventurous blend of Jewish & Chinese folklore and wisdom / a conversation with Joel Bigman
12 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When the Buddhist monk Xuanzang returned to China from India, bringing back precious Buddhist texts, he thought his traveling days were over. But then...
Dangerous Golem? or Man of Her Dreams? A conversation about a Magical Meet Cute with Jean Meltzer
20 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
After her town is carpeted with antisemitic leaflets, ceramic artist Faye finds refuge in her studio and before she knows it, her hands have created t...
When all else fails ... call the Magic Maker / a conversation with Mickey Dubrow
13 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For 100 years the Rosenfelds have been trapped in a time bubble in their tenement apartment on the lower East Side of New York. They can only catch g...
Will living "With a Good Eye" bring Luna luck? a conversation with Gila Green
15 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Luna Levi may have graduated high school, but she is far from any kind of path to success. She works part time at a motel in Ottowa to help support he...
How Many Secrets are Behind the Boy with the Star Tattoo / a conversation with Talia Carner
05 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Sharon is surrounded by secrets. It is 1968 and she has been recruited to clandestinely bring Israel sailors, soldiers, and engineers to the French po...
The Main Character: a conversation with Jaclyn Goldis about secrets, lies, and murder!
16 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Genevra Ex is a best-selling mystery author with a major quirk. Instead of inventing new characters, she hires a real-life person to be the main char...
Jewish Emotional Support Books: a conversation with Heidi Rabinowitz and AJL conference attendees
31 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Heidi Rabinowitz and I both saw a cartoon from the New Yorker in which one spouse was trying to move a pile of tottering books off the other spouses n...
Jackpot Summer! a conversation with Elyssa Friedlander
13 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Whether you play the lottery or not, I think that all of us dream about what we would do if we won a major jackpot. This is what happened to three out...
What Will be Found in the Cave of Secrets: a Conversation with Lynne Golodner
10 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Eve is only looking for some shelter from the rain, but what she finds will change her work, her heart, and her life. In a small cave in the Scottish ...
The Hebrew Teacher: three novellas by Mara Arad
17 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Often we just want to connect with all the people around us and fix any problems we see. In the Hebrew Teacher, a collection of three novellas, people...
Two Girls: One Lives in Manhattan, the Other in a Parable. A discussion about To and Fro with Leah Hager Cohen
13 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
. Annamae lives in New York with her brother and linguist mother. She yearns for connection and feels that someone will show up to take her away to w...
RAS Award Winner: Early Jewish Cookbooks: Essays on Hungarian Jewish Gastronomical History
16 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Every year the Research, Archive, and Special libraries division of the Association of Jewish Libraries (otherwise known as RAS) gives awards for exce...
Could we adjust Once We Were Home? a conversation with Jennifer Rosner
14 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
During the Holocaust, desperate Jewish parents placed their children with Christian families and in convents in the hope that the children would survi...
Discovering the mysteries in Our Little Histories : a conversation with Janice Weizman
19 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Can a kid survive the turmoil of the 70s as well as his Bar Mitsvah? Adam Unrehearsed with Don Futterman
18 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
New Translations of Yiddish Literature
12 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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. B...
The Last Jewish Daughter of Kaifeng : a conversation with graphic novelist Fabrice Sapolsky
03 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Straddling Black & White: the travails of the Ethiopian Jews with author Kim Salzman
09 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 sta...
Irena Klepfisz discusses Her Birth and Later Years with guest host Yermiyahu Ahron Taub
13 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Lesbian, poet, activist, and Yiddishist Irena Klepfisz speaks about her lastest book, Her Birth and Later Years : New and Collected Poems, 1971-2021 w...
We are not Strangers: Friendship between the Jews & Japanese in WWII era Seattle, a conversation with Josh Tuininga
13 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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...
On the Run in a House with Chicken-feet: a discussion Thistlefoot by GennaRose Nethercott
12 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 loo...
Coming out in Florida ... Can love triumph? A discussion with Jacob Gelman about Butterflies in the Endzone
21 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
What are the Shadows We Carry? A conversation with Meryl Ain
08 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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; ...
Can this young Jewish Syrian woman find her way out of the Marriage Box? A conversation with Corie Adjmi
14 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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...
The Joys of Jewish sleepaway camp! Eric Glickman regales us with adventures a Camp Pock-a-Wockne
25 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 Eri...
Other Covenants, the ultimate "what ifs" of Jewish history and Jewish fan fiction
12 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Speaking with AJL Fiction Award winner Omer Friedlander about the Man Who Sold Air in the Holy Land
17 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Scheherazade telling stories to spellbound soldiers, Sephardic kids "borrow' and old confused man off the street to pose as their Holocaust surviving ...
It's Always a Party with a Sephardi! from the Book of Life
15 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 a...
A Deathbed Confession reveals My Mother's Secret. A conversation with Alina Adams
07 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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-...
The Surprisingly Modern Voice of Yiddish Author Fradl Shtok : a conversation with translators Jordan Finkin and Allison Schachter
15 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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, ...
Almost Parallel Lives: The Thread Collectors by Shaunna Edwards and Alyson Goldman
17 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 tw...
Justice or Revenge? Can Shanna Tell Them Apart and Prevent Another Murder?
07 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Journo (journalist) Shanna Regan was researching historical plaques for the town news magazine when she encounters fake plaques. Instead of praising a...
Aviva Rosner is singing the Human Blues
15 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
What can poison do in a Gallery of Beauties? a conversation with Nina Wachsman
15 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Finding your soul-mate, The Matchmaker's gift with Lynda Loigman
14 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 ma...
How to Find Your Way in the Dark with Derek Miller
24 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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....
A Play for the End of the World, by Jai Chakrabarti
12 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 p...
Love, Faith, and Talmud with Maggie Anton
09 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
After reading Chaim Potok's early works, author Maggie Anton wondered, "where were the women?" In her latest novel, The Choice: Love, Faith, and Talmu...
Preventing the Chernobyl meltdown? or saving her family? Atomic Anna with Rachel Barenbaum
26 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Mathemetician/nuclear physicist Anna, is briefly launched into the future when the Chernobyl nuclear power plant melts down. She sees her estranged da...
Just who is stalking whom in Bruce Berger's latest book?
19 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Talking about Peculiarities with David Liss
09 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Mirta Trupp and her persuasive Austen fan fiction
21 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Mirta Trupp writes "Jewish Historical Fiction : For those who like a little Yiddishkeit with their Period Drama." I had a great conversation about he...
Secrets with Rachel Beanland
07 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Can secrets bring a family together? or tear them apart? In Rachel Beanland's novel, Florence Adler Swims Forever, Florence's family must figure out ...
Interview with Talia Carner
04 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Talia Carner is a longtime global activist on women's economic and health issues, and also a longtime multi award winning writer. I learned so much af...
Mary Marks and Murder
13 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Mary Marks created the spunky, middle-aged, plump and curvy, quilting protagonist Martha Rose. Martha and her circle of quilting friends seem to bump ...