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-time winner of the National Jewish Book Award, among other honors, Horn received her doctorate in Yiddish and Hebrew literature from Harvard University, and has taught these subjects at Sarah Lawrence College, Yeshiva University, and Harvard. She has lectured at hundreds of venues across North America, Israel and Australia. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and four children.

Photo credit by: Michael B. Priest

People Love Dead Jews: Provocative Book Title or Troubling Truth?

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/Faulkner Award. He is also the author of the story collection A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness (Knopf, Feb 2023). His short fiction has appeared in One Story, Electric Literature, A Public Space, Conjunctions, Gulf Coast, Michigan Quarterly Review, and elsewhere and has been anthologized in The O. Henry Prize Stories, The Best American Short Stories, and awarded a Pushcart Prize and also performed on Selected Shorts by Symphony Space. His nonfiction has been published in The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Writer’s Digest, Berfrois, and LitHub. He was an Emerging Writer Fellow with A Public Space and received an MFA in Creative Writing from Brooklyn College and is a trained computer scientist. Born in Kolkata, India, he now lives in New York with his family.

Finding your family (and yourself)

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 Jerusalem Post, and an editor and translator at Haaretz English edition.
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Raised in Rochester, New York, and Tel Aviv, he holds a BA in history from the University of Toronto and an MA in diplomacy and conflict studies from Reichman University (IDC Herzliya).
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Kessler’s work has appeared in media outlets including Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and Politico.

Palestine 1936 is his first book.

The Crucible of Conflict: Setting the Terms for Israel/Palestine to This Day

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 University-Paris 1, where she holds the chair of Modern Jewish history and is a member of the Center for Social History (UMR 8058). Her research focuses on the intersections between French and American Jewish life, during and after the Holocaust.  She is the author of A “Jewish Marshall Plan”: the American Jewish Presence in Post-Holocaust France (Indiana University Press, 2022) which won a National Jewish Book award, and Rescue: The Story of Kindertransport to France and America (forthcoming, Yale University Press). She also co-edited L’Œuvre de Secours aux Enfants et les populations juives au XXème siècle. Prévenir et Guérir dans un siècle de violences (Armand Colin, 2014) and Enfants en guerre. « Sans famille » dans les conflits du XXème siècle ( éditions CNRS).

Laura Hobson Faure: A "Jewish Marshall Plan"

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 Fiction

Ashley Goldberg is a writer from Melbourne, Australia. His stories have appeared in New Australian Fiction 2021, Meanjin, Chiron Review and Award Winning Australian Writing among others. His work has been longlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and the Galley Beggar Press Short Story Prize. He holds an MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University and has been the recipient of the KYD/Varuna Copyright Agency Fellowship and the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers’ Centre Fellowship. His debut novel, Abomination, was published by Penguin Random House Australia in May 2022 and won the Debut Fiction Prize at the National Jewish Book Awards.

Ashley Goldberg: Airing Our Dirty Laundry in Public

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 University. Sacha lives in New England with a miniature dachshund mix named Anzu Bean. Their debut novel, When The Angels Left The Old Country, has won a Printz honor, Stonewall and Sydney Taylor Awards, and is a National Jewish Book Awards finalist in the YA category.

Sacha Lamb: Supernatural Jews

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 and Gender Studies in Religion. He holds a Ph.D. in Jewish Thought from Hebrew University, a J.D. from Yale Law School, and nondenominational rabbinic ordination.  His most recent book, The Heresy of Jacob Frank: From Jewish Antinomianism to Esoteric Myth, was published by Oxford University Press and won the 2022 National Jewish Book Award for scholarship.

Dr. Michaelson’s scholarly work on Jewish mysticism and messianism has been published in journals including Theology and Sexuality, Modern Judaism, and Shofar, and anthologized in volumes including Queer Religion, Imagining the Jewish God, and Jews and the Law. 

Outside the academy, Dr. Michaelson is the author of nine books, including Everything is God: The Radical Path of Nondual Judaism and God vs. Gay? The Religious Case for Equality, a Lambda Literary Award finalist. He directs the Hazon Jewish Meditation Retreat, and is authorized to teach in a Sri Lankan Buddhist lineage.  He lives outside of New York City.

Rabbi Dr. Jay Michaelson: Jewish Mysticism Upside Down & Inside Out

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 Connecticut native, Rabbi Klein holds a degree in Psychology from Brandeis University, and a Masters in Hebrew Literature and Rabbinic Ordination from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York and Jerusalem. She pursued the rabbinate out of a passion for ancient texts, mythology, liturgy, and poetry. 

Rabbi Klein is the author of the novel Drawing in the Dust (Gallery Books, 2009) of which Publishers Weekly wrote, “Insight into the world of biblical excavation in Israel raises Rabbi Klein’s debut novel from a Jewish Da Vinci Code to an emotionally rich story of personal and historical discovery.” Drawing in the Dust has been published in five countries. 

Rabbi Klein is also the author of the children’s story The Goblins of Knottingham: A History of Challah (Apples & Honey, 2017) and the collection of short stories, Candle, Feather, Wooden Spoon (CCAR Press, 2023). Rabbi Klein’s writing is included in The Women’s Torah Commentary, Teen Texts, Holy Ground: A Gathering of Voices on Caring for Creation, The Sacred Exchange: Creating a Jewish Money Ethic and more. Her poems and prayers are used in houses of prayer around the world.

Rabbi Zoë Klein: Brand New Stories from a Thousand Years Ago

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. Rabbi Dr. Rechnitzer’s research is dedicated to themes of political theology, theological trends in Hebrew poetry, Israeli theology, and Jewish education. Recent books include: Pictures / Reproductions (Jerusalem: Carme & Yediot Aharonot, 2022) and Ars-Prophetica: Theology in the Poetry of Twentieth-Century Israeli Poets Avraham Ḥalfi, Shin Shalom, Amir Gilboa, and T. Carmi (Cincinnati, HUC Press, 2023). He has published articles on the subject of political theology, philosophy of education, theology of Piyyut (religious hymns), and Hebrew poetry. Prior to joining the faculty of the College-Institute, Rabbi Dr. Rechnitzer taught in Israel and was on the faculty of the Franklin and Marshall College, Department of Religious Studies.

Claire Rechnitzer is a freelance content writer, part-time library services associate and a passionate Alexander Technique teacher. She is thrilled to be helping her husband Haim introduce his poetry to an English reading audience.

The Poetry of Poetry in Translation

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 Italian and Jewish cuisine. Since then, she has been spreading the word about the marvels of Italian Jewish food in Italy and abroad, teaching the recipes of the cuisine to a growing number of people in cooking schools, synagogues, and community centers, among other institutions. Her work has been featured in numerous news outlets in Italy and abroad, including the Washington Post, Cosmopolitan, Elle à Table, Saveur, and Tablet. Guetta has previously coauthored two cookbooks in Italian; Cooking alla Giudia: A Celebration of the Jewish Food of Italy is her first English-language cookbook.

A Tavola! Italian-Jewish Cuisine and the Stories Behind It

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 Year. Since 1982 he has advised and written for an array of public interest organizations in the fields of human rights and environmental protection. Stephen is honored to serve as an Ambassador for CHILD USA, the leading nonprofit think tank fighting for the civil rights of children. He lives in California with his wife, Susan.

Still Work To Do: Sexual Abuse in Jewish Institutions

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

Centuries of Food at Your Table: A Medieval Sephardic Cookbook

Rabbi Joshua Weinberg tackles both the complexity and the clarity of vision embedded in the idea of Liberal Zionism.

Rabbi Joshua Weinberg: What do We Even Mean by “Liberal Zionism”?

The College Commons Podcast, passionate perspectives from Judaism's leading thinkers, is produced by Hebrew Union College, America's first Jewish institution of higher learning.

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