Culture
Introducing “The Five Books”
In this episode of The Five Books Podcast, host Tali Rosenblatt Cohen welcomes Zibi Owens, who discusses her anthology 'On Being Jewish Now.' Zibi shares how five influential books, includin...
Introducing “The Five Books”
Culture •
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Interactive Transcript
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Hi, it's Zibi. As someone who is always fascinated by the power of books to shape our lives and understand
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the world, I have the perfect podcast recommendation for you. It's called The Five Books Podcast,
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hosted by literary insider Tali Rosenblatt Cohen and created with support from the Jewish book
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the council. Each episode features a riveting conversation with a Jewish author who reflects
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on five books that have influenced their writing and worldview. By the way, I was a guest on this show.
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It's an insightful and intimate look into the minds of authors you love and once you'll soon be
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falling for whether you're Jewish or just a lever of thought provoking literature, the five books
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podcast will leave you feeling inspired and connected to something bigger. Today, I'm excited
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to share a recent episode of the show, which features me. I talk about this very bug on being Jewish
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now, but also about how reading night by Eli Weisel all the way back in middle school impacted
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my Jewish identity and how reading memoirs shaped my trajectory and what has changed for me
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since October 7th. Needless to say, but I'll say it. The Five Books is the perfect companion
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podcast to on being Jewish now. So make sure to follow the Five Books on your favorite podcast app.
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Here's the Five Books. Welcome to the Five Books, where each week we talk with a Jewish author
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about five books that are near and dear to them. My name is Tali Rosenblatt Cohen. Every week
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I ask Jewish authors about five books and five categories. We'll hear about two Jewish books that
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have impacted the author's Jewish identity. We'll hear about one book, not necessarily Jewish,
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that they think everyone should read, a book that changed their worldview. We'll get a peek into
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what book the author is reading now and we'll get to hear about the new book they've just published
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and how it came about.
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Today we'll be talking with Zibi Owens about the collection of essays she edited called
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on being Jewish now. In this collection, 75 contributors reflect on what it means to be Jewish
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and how life has changed since the attacks of October 7th. Authors and advocates write about Jewish
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joy, celebration, laughter, food, trauma, loss, love, and family, and the common threads that
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course through the Jewish people, resilience and humor. On being Jewish now is edited by Zibi Owens.
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Zibi is the best-selling author of the recent novel Blank, Three Anthologies, A Children's Book,
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and the 2022 Memoir Bookends, which touches on the loss of her best friend and college roommate
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on 9-11 and how she eventually found herself in books. Zibi is also the CEO of Zibi Media,
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which includes a publishing house, a bookstore, the award-winning daily podcast,
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moms don't have time to read books, which she hosts, Zibi's book club, and Zibi's retreats for book
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lovers. In our interview, Zibi will reflect on how night by Ellie Wiesel impacted her.
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When I think back on that time, it was just a piece of an otherwise pretty rosy middle school
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that never left my consciousness. She will share how reading and writing memoir have changed her
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perspective. It woke me up to the power of writing through trauma, writing through difficult things,
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and how powerful that could be. And she will talk about what the last year has been like for her as a
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powerful advocate for Jewish authors. I hadn't gone through life in any way like meeting new
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Jewish people. It's opened up all these new experiences and relationships and made me examine
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who I am and what this piece of my life means to me. That's all coming up next.
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Hi Zibi. Hi. Thank you so much for joining me on the five books. I'm so thrilled to talk to you
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today, but your new book on being Jewish now. Thank you for having me. What a pleasure. Thanks for
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coming. I know you have taken on the publishing world at a breakneck speed. I think it's in the last
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six years. You've started your podcast, your publishing company, you've published three books.
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I know you've done author retreats. I'm sure I'm missing more. You've opened a bookstore. In that,
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I know you've certainly owned your Jewish identity, but it hasn't been a feature. Then in the last
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year since 10, seven, you've really become a tremendous voice and advocate for Jewish voices,
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for Jewish authors, for Jewish stories. What has that been like for you stepping into that?
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It felt like such an obvious decision that it almost didn't feel like a decision.
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After 10, seven, I was so stunned, shocked, horrified, all of it, and it quickly
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seeped in the anti-Semitism, the festering here in the United States that was the second
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shock after the attack itself quickly entered into my day-to-day life in many ways and throughout
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the publishing industry and through books and through so many other ways that I felt like I had to
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tell everybody, like, look at what's going on. Oh my gosh. Obviously, I felt like it was an obvious
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thing to do to post in support of, you know, a heart to go out to Israel and everybody affected,
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like, of course, little did I know that was a controversial position to empathize with a country
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that was massacred, crazy. So I feel like when you have a platform, which I didn't used to have,
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obviously, as you mentioned, this is all kind of new, I feel like part of the responsibility of
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that is to advocate and use it for good. I mean, I'm really trying to do all of this for good,
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is the genesis of the whole thing, but how could I not speak out? So yes, it hadn't been, I felt like
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I hadn't been needed, right? Everything was fine. Everything was just not really fine now that I
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know and now that I've learned much more. But on the surface, it seemed like books needed my
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help more than the Jewish people. So that's where most of my focus went. But I wasn't
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ignoring it. I mean, while I was in at work, I was at Hebrew school with the kids and
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high holidays and lighting candles and Shabbat. And, you know, I was doing all the things as part of
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who I am when I wrote blank my novel that came out last year, this year. Oh my gosh, my main
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character was Jewish and there was a whole thing with a Hebrew school teacher and her dog's name
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was Dainu and of course, she was Jewish because like, I'm Jewish. I didn't even occur to be not too. So
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these things just felt like foregone conclusions and the escalation of speaking out has been one
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snowballing into another and being in a position where I see so much and therefore I have to
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call it out much more than if you hadn't seen as much of the negatives. I know so many people are
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so grateful to have your voice and have you using your platform in that way. So tell me about
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what sparked the decision to turn all of that into this book on being Jewish now.
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Well, as I said, I was speaking up the whole course of the year and whatever I did, whether it was
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an Instagram post or a controversial decision to pull out of the National Book Awards or something.
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Nothing made a difference, it felt like. I mean, maybe yes in the moment, people said, thank you,
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I appreciate you speaking out, whatever. But I'm like, this is not what I'm trying to like,
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how can we make a difference? Is there anything we can do? Because I have trouble sitting with this
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feeling of powerlessness and hopelessness and there must be something. Like, I'm optimistic in
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that way. I always feel like there's a way to make things better, but I just haven't figured out
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what it is. And one thing that happened soon after October 7th is that I joined up with 30 other
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Jewish women authors at the request of Alison Hammer who was starting up artist again to anti-semitism.
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And did I want to join? And I said, yes, of course. So I joined up with these women who have since
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become people I am feel really close to and we have been in this group chat all year. And I've
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heard a lot that I probably would never have heard things that they experienced in their booktours
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or through their publishers or through their children who are all different ages and they're in
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different places in the world and all of that. And in June of this past summer, it was bad
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news day. I don't know what was happening, but it was just another moment. And I realized
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nothing is ever going to change because of what I have to say about things. No one's going to
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change their mind about Jewish people because of what a Jewish person has to say about that. And so
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two things became clear. One was that I had to join forces and hopefully join a chorus of voices
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all speaking together to try to elevate, speak louder, make more of a difference. And also that I
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really wanted to reach allies, people like Emmanuel Acho who I had on my podcast. There are some
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very vocal kind motivated people who are speaking out. And I had published two other anthologies,
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not published them, but edited them. So I knew how to do an anthology. And in this case, I had
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started a publishing house. So actually I realized I could just publish this book even though we don't
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publish books like this. We do fiction and memoir. But like the infrastructure was set up. And it was
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my company. I'm like, well, maybe we could do it. So I thought of the idea for the anthology.
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I pitched it to this group in the group chat. And everybody was like, yes, we'll help of course.
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And then I called Ann Miserie who I work with who's the publisher. And she has like 25 years of
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experience. And I was like, I know this isn't like on our schedule. But can we slot this in? And
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she was like, of course, we'll make it work. So this tiny team of us off on the side did the whole
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thing. And I edited all the essays this summer. And then I was in the closet recording audiobook
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sections and working with all the authors pitching the authors. We went out to 200 people to write essays
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and 75 said yes. So it came from a place of wanting to help, wanting to share stories. And hopefully
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making a difference by showing the joy of being Jewish, who we are, the culture, the differences
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between us both in race and location and backgrounds and everything else. But that what unites us are
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these shared values and everything else. And I just hoped that maybe people reading it would think,
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oh, look, they're great people.
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Book One, a Jewish Book from Childhood, Night by Ellie Wiesel.
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My parents came from different Jewish backgrounds. My dad was raised conservative in
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Philadelphia, suburb and was quite observant. My mother came from a date no higher family that
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was very assimilated. And their family had come from Germany and she they they had a Christmas tree.
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I'll just put it that way. And didn't want anything to be too obvious markers. However,
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of being Jewish, however, and she was not bought Mitzvah and all that. But being Jewish was very
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important to them, just not necessarily showing that they were Jewish. So when they got married,
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my mother kind of won. We were we had a Christmas tree, which is crazy and I'm looking back on it.
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And yet I went to Hebrew school. I felt, you know, I was I started as Anne Frank in
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diary of Anne Frank. I was very, you know, I felt very identified as Jewish. I did go to a school
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where I was one of only a few Jewish people from K through 8. And so I was very aware of the fact
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that I was Jewish and what that meant and how that made me different. And it was just part of who I
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was. I got about Mitzvah. I was confirmed. It was just part of who I was. And then I got married
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and my ex-husband now came from a family more like my dad's family when he married my mom. And so
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the pendulum swung back. We were having Shabbat dinners on Fridays and all of that and the idea
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of having Christmas trees verboten. So it was just part of my life. Hi, it's Ibi again. If you want to
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hear the rest of this episode and find out which books other authors have picked, follow the five
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books on Apple podcasts, Spotify or your favorite listening app. Tell them we sent you.