Who are we and where is home? Author Yariv Inbar investigates through the mental tightrope of espionage.HUC-JIR

Aryeh Ben David plumbs the diaries of the epochal thinker Rav Kook. He finds the imperative of love.HUC-JIR

Author Mari Lowe explores adolescence through the lens of the Orthodox experience – both unique and common to all.HUC-JIR

Deborah Dash Moore transports us to midcentury New York and the photographer who captured its people from street level.HUC-JIR

Shai Held puts love at the center of Judaism, and explains why it may surprise you.HUC-JIR

Jeremy Brown’s Eleventh Plague captures Jewish responses to pandemics from across the millennia.HUC-JIR

Julia Watts-Belser reveals disability as an engine for human creativity and spiritual depth - for everyone.HUC-JIR

Richard Ho celebrates the Chinese and Jewish New Years – in the same family under the same lunar cycle.HUC-JIR

Rabbi Yonatan Neril frames the ecological crisis in spiritual terms.HUC-JIR

Dr. Paul Zeitz explores solutions to our greatest challenges, from our inner selves to the world around us.HUC-JIR

John Inazu dissects disagreement to find opportunities for social trust, faith and democratic flourishing.HUC-JIR

Rabbi Hirshel Jaffe invites us on his journey of healing and human solidarity.HUC-JIR

Reform Judaism’s pioneering decision to mandate study in Jerusalem.HUC-JIR

Hélèn Jawhara Piñer uncovers the Jewish secrets of a 13th-century Arab-language cookbook.HUC-JIR

Stephen Mills shares his story of sexual abuse and reminds us of our still-unfulfilled obligations of protection and justice.Stephen Mills is the author of Chosen: A Memoir of Stolen Boyhood, a winner of the National Jewish Book Award. He's also the co-author of Next of Kin: My Conversations with Chimpanzees, a Los Angeles Times Best Book of the Ye…

The best of all worlds: Jewish and Italian food from award winning cook and author Benedetta Guetta.Benedetta Jasmine Guetta is an Italian food writer and photographer. She was born in Milan, but she lives in Santa Monica, California. In 2009, she cofounded a website called Labna, the only Jewish/Kosher cooking blog in Italy, specializing in Italia…

Kiryas Joel, a chartered municipality in New York State functions as a religious community and American village.Nomi M. Stolzenberg holds the Nathan and Lilly Shapell Chair at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law. She is a legal scholar whose research spans a range of interdisciplinary interests, including law and religion, law…

Jessica Marglin: The Citizen Who Didn’t BelongJessica Marglin discusses the 19th-century Italian Jew, whose estate became a test of the nascent idea of “citizenship.”Jessica Marglin is Professor of Religion, Law, and History, and the Ruth Ziegler Early Career Chair in Jewish Studies at the University of Southern California. She earned her PhD from …

Dr. Sivan Zakai uncovers the world of children’s opinions and insights about Israel, in peace and in crisis.Sivan Zakai, Ph.D., is the Sara S. Lee Associate Professor of Jewish Education at HUC-JIR/Los Angeles. A thought leader in Jewish and Israel education, Dr. Zakai is the director of the Children’s Learning About Israel Project and co-director …

Rabbi Debra J. Robbins offers insight and practice to bring the Psalms into our lives.Rabbi Debra J. Robbins is a member of the clergy team at Temple Emanu-El in Dallas, Texas, focusing on teaching, pastoral care, and spiritual practice. She was ordained in 1991 at the Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, and is a graduate of the Univ…

Couple Haim and Claire Rechnitzer compose and recompose Hebrew poetry in English.Rabbi Dr. Haim O. Rechnitzer is a Professor of Jewish Thought at HUC-JIR in Cincinnati, Ohio, and a poet. He earned his doctorate from the Department of Jewish Thought at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and his rabbinical ordination from HUC-JIR (Jerusalem) in 2003…

Host Joshua Holo speaks with HUC-JIR educator, Jeremy Leigh about his experiences on the ground in Jerusalem during the Israel-Hamas War.Jeremy Leigh teaches Israel Studies and Modern Jewish History at HUC-JIR’s Taube Family Campus in Jerusalem. He is the coordinator of the Richard J. Scheuer Israel Seminar for the Year-In-Israel Program, as well a…

Author Rabbi Michael Strassfeld encourages us to reorganize our thinking about—and reengage our lives with—Judaism.Rabbi Michael Strassfeld has served the Jewish community for over five decades, in numerous capacities, including as an educator, writer, editor, rabbi, and community leader.He is the author of Judaism Disrupted, which is being publish…

Host Joshua Holo speaks with HUC-JIR educator, Michael Marmur about his experiences on the ground in Jerusalem during the Israel-Hamas War.Michael Marmur is Associate Professor of Jewish Theology at HUC-JIR/Jerusalem. Until July 2018 he served as the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Provost at HUC-JIR, having previously been Dean of the Jerusalem cam…

Author Joseph Skloot reveals the revolutionary power of early printed Hebrew books.Joseph A. Skloot, Ph.D. is the Rabbi Aaron D. Panken Assistant Professor of Modern Jewish Intellectual History at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion/New York. He is a historian of Jewish culture and religious thought in the early modern and modern peri…

Host Joshua Holo speaks with HUC-JIR educator, Michal Muszkat-Barkan, Ph.D. about her experiences on the ground in Jerusalem during the Israel-Hamas War.Michal Muszkat-Barkan, Ph.D., is a Professor of Jewish Education in the Parallel Track. She is the Director of the Department of Education and Professional Development at HUC-JIR/Jerusalem. Her fie…

Rabbi Barbara Symons challenges Reform Judaism to engage with often-neglected Prophetic books.HUC-JIR

Host Joshua Holo speaks with HUC-JIR educator, Rabbi Talia Avnon-Benveniste about her experiences on the ground in Jerusalem during the Israel-Hamas War.Rabbi Avnon-Benveniste is Director of the Israel Rabbinical Program at HUC-JIR’s Taube Family Campus in Jerusalem. She was ordained after completing the Israel Rabbinical Program in 2009, and retur…

Dr. David Mendelsson, Senior Lecturer in Israel Studies and Modern Jewish History at HUC-JIR’s Taube campus in Jerusalem, is an educator, historian, and author who sheds light on his experiences since October 7th as a father, mentor, and Israeli. Witnessing everything from shifts in both the literal and learning landscapes to moments inspired by Je…

Rabbi Zoë Klein roots her new creations in the millennial tradition of Jewish Storytelling.Rabbi Zoë Klein serves Temple Isaiah in Los Angeles, California where she brings her unique blend of innovation and tradition. At Temple Isaiah since 2000, she has served as Associate Rabbi, Senior Rabbi and Director of Adult Education and Engagement. A Conne…

Stella Levi recounts her remarkable life on Isle of Rhodes, caught between the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries.One Hundred Saturdays: Stella Levi and the Search for a Lost World, National Jewish Book Awards for Holocaust Memoir and Sephardic CultureMichael Frank’s essays, articles, and short stories have appeared in The New York Times, The W…

Jay Michaelson brings to life the charlatan and heretical Jewish leader Jacob Frank.The Heresy of Jacob Frank: From Jew­ish Mes­sian­ism to Eso­teric Myth - Winner, National Jewish Book Award for Scholarship.Rabbi Dr. Jay Michaelson is an affiliated assistant professor at Chicago Theological Seminary and a visiting scholar at the Center for LGBTQ a…

Tracing medieval women’s Biblical culture and how it differed from… the Bible.Bib­li­cal Women and Jew­ish Dai­ly Life in the Mid­dle Ages, winner of the 2022 JBC Award for Women’s Studies.Prof. Elisheva Baumgarten holds the Prof. Yitzhak Becker Chair for Jewish Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She teaches in the Department of Jewish …

Author Susan Wider discusses genre-bending artist Charlotte Salomon's work and how it survived the Shoah to capture a life and time.It’s My Whole Life: Charlotte Salomon: An Artist in Hiding during World War II, winner of the 2022 National Jewish Book Award for Young Adult LiteratureSusan Wider is the author of It’s My Whole Life: Charlotte Salomon…

Author Sacha Lamb discusses their YA romp from the shtetl to the New World, and the supernatural odd couple at its heart.When The Angels Left The Old Country, YA category National Jewish Book Awards finalist.Sacha Lamb is a 2018 Lambda Literary Fellow in young adult fiction, and graduated in Library and Information Science and History from Simmons …

Author Ashley Goldberg imagines the human and communal cost of sexual abuse in the Jewish community.Abomination, Winner of the 2022 National Jewish Book Award for Debut FictionAshley Goldberg is a writer from Melbourne, Australia. His stories have appeared in New Australian Fiction 2021, Meanjin, Chiron Review and Award Winning Australian Writing a…

Sarah Imhoff introduces us to Jessie Sampter who broke the Zionist mold.The Lives of Jessie Sampter: Queer, Dis­abled, Zionist - National Jewish Book Award Finalist in Women's StudiesImhoff is Jay and Jeanie Schottenstein Chair in Jewish Studies and Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies and the Borns Jewish Studies Program at I…

Author Laura Hobson Faure on how French Jews accepted, negotiated and even rejected American Jewish aid after the Holocaust.A “Jewish Marshall Plan”: the American Jewish Presence in Post-Holocaust France, winner of the National Jewish Book Award in Writing Based on Archival Material. Laura Hobson Faure is a professor at the Panthéon-Sorbonne Univer…

Author Dani Shapiro teases out the kaleidoscopic layers of Jewishness, loss, secrets and discoveries in her award-winning novel, Signal Fires.Signal Fires, winner of the National Jewish Book Award for Fiction. Dani Shapiro is the author of eleven books, and the host and creator of the hit podcast Family Secrets. Her most recent novel, Signal Fires,…

Author Lisa Brahin shares her family’s riveting story of escape from the pogroms.Lisa Brahin is an accomplished Jewish genealogist, researcher and writer. Inspired as a young girl by Alex Haley’s ROOTS, she spent many summers audio taping the stories of her grandmother’s traumatic childhood during the 1917-1921 anti-Jewish pogroms in Ukraine. Those…

Journalist Oren Kessler dives into the enduring legacy of the Arab Revolt of 1936.Oren Kessler is a journalist and political analyst based in Tel Aviv. He has served as deputy director for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, research fellow at the Henry Jackson Society in London, Arab affairs correspondent for The J…

Roslyn Bernstein’s novel follows a young woman’s voyage of discovery in 1961 Israel.Roslyn Bernstein is the author of several books, including Boardwalk Stories, a collection of 14 fictional tales set from 1950 to 1970, and Engaging Art: Essays and Interviews from Around the Globe, a collection of 60 of her online avant-garde art pieces. She is als…

Author Hen Mazzig dives into the varieties and challenges of Jewishness diversity, while also capturing our shared experience, identity and story.Hen Mazzig is an award winning Israeli author, a writer, and a speaker who has inspired thousands around the world with his story for over a decade. He was named as one of the Algemeiner’s top 100 people …

Author Oren Schneider was raised by his grandfather, Alex, who survived Buchenwald and built a life in Israel, against all the odds.Oren Schneider was born in Israel, a third generation to holocaust survivors and seventh generation to farmers from the Galilee. He is an entrepreneur and business owner who enjoys music, cooking, travel, people and es…

Congressional observer Ira Shapiro revisits his past critiques of Congress.Ira Shapiro’s forty-five-year Washington career has focused on American politics and international trade. Shapiro served twelve years in senior staff positions in the U.S. Senate, working for a series of distinguished senators: Jacob Javits, Gaylord Nelson, Abraham Ribicoff,…

Author Jai Chakrabarti explores unexpected avenues to discovering family and identity in his new short story collection.Jai Chakrabarti is the author of the novel A Play for the End of the World (Knopf), which won the National Jewish Book Award for debut fiction, was the Association of Jewish Libraries Honor Book, and was long-listed for the PEN/Fa…

Host Josh Holo and author Dara Horn have a lively and thought-provoking discussion about her controversial new book.Dara Horn is the award-winning author of five novels and the essay collection People Love Dead Jews, and the creator and host of the podcast Adventures with Dead Jews. One of Granta magazine’s Best Young American Novelists and a three…

Lilith Magazine Editor Susan Weidman Schneider shares a groundbreaking Jewish feminist short story collection spanning 40 Years.Susan Weidman Schneider, one of Lilith’s founding mothers, has been editor in chief since the magazine launched. Her writing about Jewish women’s philanthropy, the Jewish stake in abortion rights, the persistence of gender…

Young author Suzette Sheft retells her grandmother’s story of survival during the Holocaust.Suzette Sheft is a 16-year-old student at the Horace Mann School in New York City. She lives in Manhattan with her mother, twin brother, and two dogs. In her free time, she enjoys writing, reading, running, volunteering, and spending time with her family. Sh…

Dr. Rotem Rozental dives into the treasure of the Jewish National Fund’s pre-state photographic archive.Rotem Rozental, Ph.D, is the Executive Director of the Los Angeles Center of Photography. Between 2016-2022, she served as Chief Curator at American Jewish University, where she was also Assistant Dean of the Whizin Center for Continuing Educatio…