Jewish Emotional Support Books: a conversation with Heidi Rabinowitz and AJL conference attendees

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 night-stand. The other spouse yelled in alarm (something like) "don't move those - they are my emotional support books!" We were inspired to ask our fellow attendees at the 2024 Association of Jewish Libraries conference to speak about their emotional support books!

Follow along with the transcript.

Enter the drawing for your own personal emotional support book bag! Share a review on social media (such as Facebook or Instagram) or post a review on your podcast platform (such as  Apple podcasts, Spotify,  Amazon, etc.) Take a screen shot of the review and email it to [email protected] by Oct. 24 2024 (the ultimate Jewish reading holiday, Simchat Torah)

If you can't wait for the drawing or you want to buy one for your friends and family you can get one (or many) at our Zazzle shop.

OUR EMOTIONAL SUPPORT BOOKS

Sheryl Stahl: He, She, and It by Marge Piercy

Heidi Rabinowitz: When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Lamb

Heidi Rabinowitz: Joyful Song: A Naming Story by Lesléa Newman 

Dara Henry: On All Other Nights: A Passover Celebration in 14 Stories ed. by Chris Baron, Joshua Levy, and Naomi Milliner

A.R. Vishny: Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik 

David Schlitt: Teitelbaum's Window by Wallace Markfield 

Sally Weiner Grotta: Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl 

Sally Weiner Grotta: The Golden Dreidel by Ellen Kushner 

Lies Meerboom: The Promise by Chaim Potok 

Aden Polydoros: A Far Wilder Magic by Allison Saft 

Rifka Yerushalmi: What a Beautiful Morning by Arthur A. Levine

Sidura Ludwig: Starry Sally J. Freedman as Herself by Judy Blume 

Elysa Keshen: All Rivers Run to the Sea by Elie Wiesel 

Susan Dubin: Sisters at Sinai by Jill Hammer and other books about women in the Bible

Richard Ho: Happy Hanukkah, Curious George by H.A. Rey 

Shoshana Traum: The Beekeeper's Apprentice by Laurie R. King 

Shoshana Traum: Jewish Futures: Stories from the World's Oldest Diaspora by Michael A. Burstein 

Henry Woodall: Maimonides' Commentary on the Mishnah 

Dina Herbert: The Baby-Sitters Club by Ann. M. Martin 

Olga Potap: the works of Sholem Aleichem 

Daniel Scheide: the works of William Morris 

Jane Rothstein: All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor 

Sally Stieglitz: Sandwich by Catherine Newman 

Michal Babay: the works of Harlan Coban 

Xandra O'Neill: Golemcrafters by Emi Watanabe Cohen 

Bette Stahl: Jewish Cookbooks

David Stahl: A Torah Commentary for Our Times by Harvey J. Fields

Thanks to:

• The Association of Jewish Libraries
• Heidi Rabinowitz, podcast mentor
• Dee Yan Key for use of their Freylekh (downloaded from https://freemusicarchive.org/home)
• Donate to support the podcast

If you enjoyed this podcast, you might also like the AJL sister podcast, The Book of Life, a podcast about Jewish kidlit, mostly.