JWA Book Talks

JWA Book Talks provide opportunities to come together virtually to explore literature by and/or about Jewish women in conversation with JWA's CEO Judith Rosenbaum. The following are video recordings of past events.

Visit the events page for current and upcoming talks. Presented in partnership with JewishLIVE.

Temim Fruchter

Sarah Biskowitz, manager of the Rising Voices Fellowship at the Jewish Women's Archive, talks with Temim Fruchter about her novel, City of Laughter, the tale of a young queer woman stuck in a thicket of generational secrets who returns to her family’s origins, where ancestral clues begin to reveal a lineage both haunted and shaped by desire. September 26, 2024.

Maya Arad

Judith Rosenbaum, CEO of the Jewish Women's Archive, talks with Maya Arad about her book, The Hebrew Teacher, a collection of three novellas that probe the demise of idealism and the generation gap that her heroines must confront. September 19, 2024.

 

Sarah Seltzer

Judith Rosenbaum, CEO of the Jewish Women's Archive, talks with Sarah Seltzer about her book, The Singer Sisters, a novel that moves between ’60s folk clubs and ’90s music festivals, chronicling the ups and downs of stardom while asking what women artists must sacrifice for success. September 12, 2024.

Zilka Joseph

Judith Rosenbaum, CEO of the Jewish Women's Archive, talks with Zilka Joseph about her book, Sweet Malida: Memories of a Bene Israel Woman, a moving, multi-layered, and informative collection of poems and short prose inspired by the ancient Bene Israel community of India, to which the poet herself belongs. September 5, 2024.

Fran Malino and Yaëlle Azagury

Jenny Sartori, Editor of the Encyclopedia of Jewish Women at the Jewish Women's Archive, talks with Fran Malino and Yaëlle Azagury, editors and translators of "Mazaltob: A Novel," by Blanche Bendahan. June 27, 2024.

Rebecca Clarren

Judith Rosenbaum, CEO of the Jewish Women's Archive, talks with Rebecca Clarren on her book, The Cost of Free Land: Jews, Lakota, and an American Inheritance, exploring the intertwined stories of her family and the Lakota and the devastating cycle of loss of Indigenous land, culture, and resources that continues today. June 20, 2024.

Mimi Zieman

Judith Rosenbaum, CEO of the Jewish Women's Archive, talks with Dr. Mimi Zieman about her memoir, Tap Dancing on Everest: A Young Doctor’s Unlikely Adventure, exploring adventure, family history, feminist self-discovery, and the risks we take to become our truest selves. June 6, 2024.

Jewish Women in Poetry with Maya Bernstein, Merle Feld, and Aurora Levins Morales

Judith Rosenbaum, CEO of the Jewish Women's Archive, talks with poets Maya Bernstein, Merle Feld, and Aurora Levins Morales about their poetry, the language of Jewish tradition and liturgy, writing from embodiment, and more. May 2, 2024. 

Rachel Shteir

Betsy More, Director of Programs at the Jewish Women's Archive, talks with Rachel Shteir about her biography Betty Friedan: Magnificent Disrupter. March 28, 2024.

Tahneer Oksman and Nancy K. Miller

Judith Rosenbaum, CEO of the Jewish Women's Archive, talks with Professors Tahneer Oksman and Nancy K. Miller about their anthology Feminists Reclaim Mentorship and the obstacles and urgency to forming meaningful mentoring relationships. March 21, 2024.

Rabbi Sharon Brous

Judith Rosenbaum, CEO of the Jewish Women's Archive, talks with Rabbi Sharon Brous about The Amen Effect: Ancient Wisdom to Mend Our Broken Hearts and World. March 14, 2024.

Emily Bowen Cohen

Judith Rosenbaum, CEO of the Jewish Women's Archive, talks with Emily Bowen Cohen about Two Tribes, her debut graphic novel inspired by her own life experience being part of two vibrant tribes: she is Jewish and a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. March 7, 2024.

Susan Kahn

Judith Rosenbaum, CEO of the Jewish Women's Archive, talks with Susan M. Kahn about "Canine Pioneer: The Extraordinary Life of Rudolphina Menzel." January 25, 2024.

Julia Watts Belser

 

Judith Plaskow talks with Rabbi Julia Watts Belser about her book, Loving Our Own Bones: Disability Wisdom and the Spiritual Subversiveness of Knowing Ourselves Whole, which reimagines disability in the Bible and contemporary culture. January 18, 2024.

Jennifer Rosner

 

Jenny Sartori, Editor of the Encyclopedia of Jewish Women and Chief Communications Officer of the Jewish Women's Archive, talks with Jennifer Rosner about her novel Once We Were Home, based on the true stories of Jewish children stolen during World War II, which raises questions of complicity and responsibility as it confronts what it really means to find home. January 11, 2024.

Marjorie Ingall

Judith Rosenbaum, CEO of the Jewish Women's Archive, talks with Marjorie Ingall about her book, Sorry, Sorry, Sorry: The Case for Good Apologies, October 19, 2023.

Mattie Kahn

Sarah Biskowitz, Manager of the Rising Voices Fellowship of the Jewish Women's Archive, talks with Mattie Kahn about her book, Young and Restless: The Girls Who Sparked America’s Revolutions. October 5, 2023.

Elizabeth Graver

Judith Rosenbaum, CEO of the Jewish Women's Archive, talks with Elizabeth Graver about her novel, Kantika, a Sephardic multigenerational saga that moves from Istanbul to Barcelona, Havana, and New York. September 21, 2023.

Susan Rubin Suleiman

Judith Rosenbaum, CEO of the Jewish Women's Archive, talks with Susan Rubin Suleiman about her book, Daughter of History: Traces of an Immigrant Girlhood. September 7, 2023.

Ann Bookman, Irena Klepfisz, and Joy Ladin

 

Judith Rosenbaum, CEO of the Jewish Women's Archive, talks with Ann Bookman on Bloodlines, Irena Klepfisz on Her Birth and Later Years: New and Collected Poems, 1971-2021, and Joy Ladin on Shekhinah Speaks. March 30, 2023.

Loolwa Khazzoom

 

Judith Rosenbaum, CEO of the Jewish Women's Archive, talks with Loolwa Khazzoom about her anthology, The Flying Camel: Essays on Identity by Women of North African and Middle Eastern Jewish Heritage. March 23, 2023.

Cindy Kaplan

 

Judith Rosenbaum, CEO of the Jewish Women's Archive, talks with Cindy Kaplan about her book, Freefall: One Mother's Journey Raising a Child with Special Needs. March 16, 2023.

Nell McShane Wulfhart

Betsy More, Director of Programs at the Jewish Women's Archive, talks with Nell McShane Wulfhart about her book, The Great Stewardess Rebellion: How Women Launched a Workplace Revolution at 30,000 Feet, and special guest Sonia Pressman Fuentes, on March 9, 2023.

Elana Sztokman

Judith Rosenbaum, CEO of the Jewish Women's Archive, talks with Dr. Elana Maryles Sztokman about her book, When Rabbis Abuse: Power, Gender, and Status in the Dynamics of Sexual Abuse in Jewish Culture. December 15, 2022.

Alicia Jo Rabins

Humorous, self-reflective, and comforting, Alicia Jo Rabins' musings on parenting in Even God Had Bad Parenting Days can help any caregiver see beyond day-to-day living with young children to recapture a sense of wonder at the process of raising small humans, on December 1, 2022.

Michael Frank

One Hundred Saturdays shares the remarkable story of Stella Levi, whose conversations with writer Michael Frank bring to life the world of Jewish Rhodes, the deportation to Auschwitz that extinguished most of her community, and the resilience of the woman who lived to tell the tale. November 17, 2022.

Liana Finck

Liana Finck turns her keen eye to the Old Testament in Let There Be Light: The Real Story of Her Creation, reimagining the story of Genesis with God as a woman, Abraham as a resident of New York City, and Rebekah as a robot, among many other delightful twists on November 3, 2022.

Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg

On Repentance and Repair: Making Amends in an Unapologetic World, Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg draws on Maimonides and other Jewish texts to offer a crucial new lens on repentance, atonement, forgiveness, and repair from harm—from personal transgressions to our culture’s most painful and unresolved issues on September 22, 2022.

 

Co-sponsored by the National Council of Jewish Women, Sacred Spaces, and SRE Network.

Letty Cottin Pogrebin

Author and activist Letty Cottin Pogrebin exposes lies and cover-ups woven by dozens of members of her extended family in her deeply engaging, astonishingly candid memoir Shanda: A Memoir of Shame and Secrecy on September 15, 2022 at at Temple Beth Zion in Brookline, MA.

Dahlia Lithwick

In Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save America, Dahlia Lithwick, one of the nation’s foremost legal commentators, tells the gripping and heroic story of the women lawyers who fought the racism, sexism, and xenophobia of Donald Trump’s presidency on September 9, 2022.

Sam Cohen

Sam Cohen, author of Sarahland, which brilliantly and often hilariously explores the ways in which traditional stories have failed us, both demanding and providing new origin stories for its cast of Sarahs, new ways to love the planet and those inhabiting it, and new possibilities for life itself on August 11, 2022.

Courtney Zoffness

Courtney Zoffness, author of Spilt Milk: Memoirs, which considers what we inherit from generations past―biologically, culturally, spiritually―and what we pass on to our children on August 4, 2022.

Siona Benjamin

Siona Benjamin, contributor to Growing Up Jewish in India: From the Bene Israel to the Art of Siona Benjamin, about the Jewish communities of India, and illustrator of the children’s book I Am Hava, a story about the world’s most famous Jewish song—as told by the song herself on July 28, 2022.

Rachel Barenbaum

Rachel Barenbaum, author of Atomic Anna, an epic adventure as three generations of women work together and travel through time to prevent the Chernobyl disaster and right the wrongs of their past on July 22, 2022.

Cindy Rizzo

Cindy Rizzo, author of The Papercutter (The Split, #1), a blend of fantasy, romance, and Jewish imagination that imagines a world where a deeply polarized and ungovernable United States of America has separated into two nations—the God Fearing States and the United Progressive Regions on May 19, 2022.

Julie Klam

Julie Klam, author of The Almost Legendary Morris Sisters, the fascinating and funny true story—part memoir and part confessional—of one writer's journey into her family's past, the truths she brings to light, and what she learns about herself along the way on May 13, 2022.

Riva Lehrer

Riva Lehrer, author of Golem Girl: A Memoir, the vividly told, gloriously illustrated memoir of an artist born with disabilities who searches for freedom and connection in a society afraid of strange bodies on May 6, 2022.

Emily Barth Isler and Aimee Lucido

Popular middle-grade authors Emily Barth Isler and Aimee Lucido discuss the possibilities and pitfalls opened up by writing for a young audience on February 17, 2022.

Haviva Ner-David

Haviva Ner-David, author of Hope Valley, the story of a Jewish-Israeli and Palestinian-Israeli who form the unlikeliest of friendships, and Dreaming Against the Current, the journey from Orthodox Jewish feminist activist to post-denominational inter-spiritual rabbi/minister on February 10, 2022.

Ariella Elovic

Ariella Elovic, author of Cheeky: A Head to Toe Memoir, a graphic memoir that asks how can the author learn not to see herself as a never-finished DIY project, but to accept and even love the physical attributes society taught her to hide on February 3, 2022.

Helene Wecker

Helene Wecker, author of The Hidden Palace: A Novel of the Golem and the Jinni, an enthralling historical epic, set in New York City and the Middle East, following the explorations of mythical creatures on January 27, 2022.

Vanessa Zoltan

Vanessa Zoltan, host of the podcast Harry Potter and the Sacred Text and author of Praying with Jane Eyre: Reflections on Reading as a Sacred Practice, in which she brings a Jewish text-study approach to her favorite novel, Jane Eyre on October 21, 2021.

Judy Bolton-Fasman

Judy Bolton-Fasman, author of Asylum: A Memoir of Family Secrets, which recounts the search for answers to the mysteries embedded in the lives of her Cuban-born mother, Matilde Alboukrek Bolton and her elusive, Yale-educated father, K. Harold Bolton on October 14, 2021.

Alexandra Dunietz & Lizzie Skurnick

Lizzie Skurnick, reissuer of the All-of-a-Kind Family series, and Alexandra Dunietz, coauthor (with June Cummins z”l”) of From Sarah to Sydney: The Woman Behind All-of-a-Kind Family, the biography of groundbreaking author Sydney Taylor on October 7, 2021.

Rachel Sharona Lewis

Rachel Sharona Lewis, author of The Rabbi Who Prayed with Fire, the tale of a queer female rabbi whose synagogue bursts into flames on July 12, 2021.

Rachel Beanland

Rachel Beanland, author of "Florence Adler Swims Forever", a summer story of three generations grappling with a shocking tragedy, heartbreak, romance, and the weight of family secrets on August 5, 2021.

Gabrielle Glaser

Gabrielle Glaser, author of American Baby, which examines the dark truth about postwar adoption in the US on July 30, 2021.

Annelise Heinz

Annelise Heinz, author of Mahjong, an exploration of how the Chinese game helped shape American modernity, Chinese American heritage, and Jewish American women's culture on July 22, 2021. This QBT was made possible with generous support from Olivia Cohen-Cutler.

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, author of The Disordered Cosmos, a journey into the world of particle physics that is vibrant, buoyantly non-traditional, and grounded in Black feminist traditions on July 15, 2021.

Tovah Feldshuh

Tovah Feldshuh, actress, singer, and author of the newly released memoir Lilyville: Mother, Daughter, and Other Roles I've Played, talks to JWA about her roles on May 27, 2021.

Brandy Colbert

Brandy Colbert, author of Little & Lion, talks to JWA about Jewish and multiracial identity on April 29, 2021.

Joy Ladin, Shara McCallum, and Lesléa Newman

In a special roundtable book talk for National Poetry Month, Joy Ladin, Shara McCallum, and Lesléa Newman speak to JWA on April 22, 2021.

Jessica Cohen

Jessica Cohen, translator of Ronit Matalon’s And the Bride Closed the Door, talks about the art and politics of literary translation on April 15, 2021.

Judy Batalion

Judy Batalion, author of The Light of Days talks about the untold histories of Jewish women resistance fighters during the Holocaust on April 8, 2021.

Jodi Eichler-Levine and Arielle Tonkin

Jodi Eichler-Levine, author of Painted Pomegranates and Needlepoint Rabbis talks about the history of Jewish crafting and is joined by guest artist Arielle Tonkin for a DIY weaving exercise on February 11, 2021.

Talia Lavin

Talia Lavin, author of Culture Warlords, talks to JWA about fighting fascism in America on February 4, 2021.

Jonathan Sarna

Jonathan Sarna, editor of Cosella Wayne: Or, Will and Destiny by Cora Wilburn, discusses the first Jewish-American novel by a woman on January 27, 2021. Part of the Stroum Jewish Jewish Community Center Arts + Ideas: Book Fest in Your Living Room Series presented in Partnership with the Jewish Book Council and Jewish Women’s Archive.

Carol Isaacs

Carol Isaacs, author and illustrator of The Wolf of Baghdad, talks about illustration and her families roots with JWA on January 21, 2021.

Janice Kaplan

Janice Kaplan, author of The Genius of Women, talks to JWA about undercelebrated women geniuses on December 17, 2020.

Myra Strober

Myra Strober, author of Sharing the Work, talks to JWA about fight for family-friendly work policies on December 10, 2020.

Maira Kalman

Maira Kalman, illustrator of The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, talks to JWA about Gertrude Stein's most famous work on December 3, 2020.

Mimi Lemay

Mimi Lemay, author of What We Will Become, talks to JWA about raising a transgender child on November 19, 2020.

Laura Leibman

Laura Leibman, author of The Art of the Jewish Family, talks to JWA about artifacts from Jewish American life in the 1700s and 1800s on November 12, 2020.

Bess Kalb

Bess Kalb, author of Nobody Will Tell You This But Me, talks to JWA about memorializing her grandmother with humor on September 24, 2020.

Laura Lippman

Laura Lippman, author of My Life as a Villainess, talks to JWA about her memoir on September 10, 2020.

Esther Amini

Esther Amini, author of Concealed, talks to JWA about being the child of two worlds on September 3, 2020.

Jennifer Rosner

Jennifer Rosner, author of The Yellow Bird Sings, talks to JWA about Holocaust fiction on July 30, 2020.

Dr. Chavi Eve Karkowsky

Dr. Chavi Eve Karkowsky, author of High Risk, talks to JWA about maternal-fetal medicine on July 23, 2020.

Natasha Díaz

Natasha Díaz, author of Color Me In, talks to JWA about multiracial and Jewish identity on July 16, 2020.

Lizzie Skurnick

Lizzie Skurnick, editor of Pretty Bitches, talks to JWA about the names used to demean women on July 9, 2020.

Rachel Zucker

Rachel Zucker, author of SoundMachine, talks to JWA about crafting poetry on May 21, 2020.

Anna Solomon

Anna Solomon, author of The Book of V, talks to JWA about rewriting the story of Purim on May 14, 2020.

Rabbi Laura Geller

Rabbi Laura Geller, author of Getting Good at Getting Older, talks to JWA about aging on May 7, 2020.

Abby Stein

Abby Stein, LGBTQ activist and author of Becoming Eve, talks to JWA about writing a memoir about coming out as transgender and leaving the Hasidic community on April 30, 2020.

Sarah Hurwitz

Sarah Hurwitz, author of Here All Along and former speechwriter for Michelle and Barack Obama talks to JWA on April 23, 2020.

Alicia Jo Rabins

Writer, musician, composer, performer, and Torah teacher, Alicia Jo Rabins explores poetry, music, Passover, and social distancing in this interview/performance on April 12, 2020.

Esther Safran Foer

Esther Safran Foer, author of I Want You to Know We're Still Here, discusses uncovering family secrets and chronicling them in her first memoir, on April 2, 2020.

Rachel Barenbaum

Rachel Barenbaum discusses her process for writing A Bend in The Stars, on March 25, 2020.

Rachel Kadish and Tova Mirvis

Authors Rachel Kadish and Tova Mirvis discuss the importance of writing and literature in a time of crisis, on March 19, 2020.

Online History Course: Jewish Women's Protest in the U.S.

From film screenings to author events to panel discussions, JWA sponsors a wide variety of events!

JWA Book Talks were established with help from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of NEH.

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How to cite this page

Jewish Women's Archive. "JWA Book Talks." (Viewed on December 2, 2024) <https://jwa.org/programs/bookclub/jwa-book-talks>.