Podcast appearances and mentions of sara ivry

In this episode, we investigate the deep connections between mental health and physical health. For years, a large faction of the medical community neglected this link, and patients who suffered mental distress had to do it alone. Why have taboos around mental health persisted? And what does the future look like as we probe the innate relationship between mental and physical health? To answer these questions, host Sara Ivry is joined by Heather Von St. James, a cancer survivor and patient advocate, and Dr. Neha Chaudhary who co-founded Brainstorm: The Stanford Laboratory for Brain Health Innovation and Entrepreneurship.  The individual(s) who have written and created the content in and whose images appear in the articles, profiles, podcasts and videos from the Life Effects program may have been paid by Teva Pharmaceuticals for their contributions.  This content represents the opinions of the contributor and does not necessarily reflect those of Teva Pharmaceuticals. Similarly, Teva Pharmaceuticals does not review, control, influence or endorse any content related to the contributor's websites or social media networks. All content on the Life Effects website is intended for informational and educational purposes and should not be considered medical advice or recommendations. Consult a qualified medical professional for diagnosis and before beginning or changing any treatment regimen​. NPS-US-NP-00390 DECEMBER 2018 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From pacemakers that help control abnormal heart rhythms to apps that monitor everything from oxygen to sugar levels, technology’s role in patients’ lives and health care generally is continuing to expand. In this episode, we look at how innovations in telehealth, wearable tech, and artificial intelligence are changing patients’ experiences and healthcare in general.  Host Sara Ivry is joined by Glenda Rouland, a patient who feels empowered by technology after being diagnosed with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF), a chronic lung disease with no known cure. Jessilyn Dunn, a medical researcher and post-doctoral fellow at Stanford University School of Medicine, also joins the conversation. Jessilyn’s research focuses on biosensors, electronic medical records, and wearable devices. The individual(s) who have written and created the content in and whose images appear in the articles, profiles, podcasts and videos from the Life Effects program may have been paid by Teva Pharmaceuticals for their contributions.  This content represents the opinions of the contributor and does not necessarily reflect those of Teva Pharmaceuticals. Similarly, Teva Pharmaceuticals does not review, control, influence or endorse any content related to the contributor's websites or social media networks. All content on the Life Effects website is intended for informational and educational purposes and should not be considered medical advice or recommendations. Consult a qualified medical professional for diagnosis and before beginning or changing any treatment regimen​. NPS-US-NP-00387 DECEMBER 2018 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is Life Effects, a podcast from Slate Studios and Teva Pharmaceuticals. In this episode, we enter the world of caregivers: the relatives and close friends who step up when sick family members need support. Often, it’s a full-time job, so it's not surprising that these caregivers can end up neglecting their own health. Host Sara Ivry discusses this dilemma with guests Kate Schrock and Dr. Sandy Butler. In a rapid turn of events, Kate Schrock became a single mom raising a newborn and the primary caregiver to her ailing mother. Sara and Kate are also joined by Dr. Sandy Butler, a professor in the School of Social Work and a Resident Scholar at the Center on Aging at the University of Maine. Her primary focus is the health needs and social welfare experiences of low-income women. The individual(s) who have written and created the content in and whose images appear in the articles, profiles, podcasts and videos from the Life Effects program may have been paid by Teva Pharmaceuticals for their contributions.  This content represents the opinions of the contributor and does not necessarily reflect those of Teva Pharmaceuticals. Similarly, Teva Pharmaceuticals does not review, control, influence or endorse any content related to the contributor's websites or social media networks. All content on the Life Effects website is intended for informational and educational purposes and should not be considered medical advice or recommendations. Consult a qualified medical professional for diagnosis and before beginning or changing any treatment regimen​. NPS-US-NP-00369 NOVEMBER 2018 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, we look at the millennial generation’s unique relationship with health. From chat rooms to social media to wearable tech, millennials are used to having boundless information just a click away. So how does their post-internet world connect to millennials’ tendency of taking health matters into their own hands? To answer these questions, host Sara Ivry is joined by a Stephen Fiskell, a millennial patient, and Dr. Gol Golshani, a millennial doctor specializing in internal medicine. Over the past few years, Stephen has taken a radical—and creative—approach to improving his health by tracking everything from his eating habit to his sleep. Doctor Gol Golshani also joins the conversation. As a millennial herself, Dr. Golshani has a multifaceted understanding of how her generation views their own health and engages with the healthcare system.  NPS-US-NP-00378 NOVEMBER 2018 The individual(s) who have written and created the content in and whose images appear in the articles, profiles, podcasts and videos from the Life Effects program may have been paid by Teva Pharmaceuticals for their contributions.  This content represents the opinions of the contributor and does not necessarily reflect those of Teva Pharmaceuticals. Similarly, Teva Pharmaceuticals does not review, control, influence or endorse any content related to the contributor's websites or social media networks. All content on the Life Effects website is intended for informational and educational purposes and should not be considered medical advice or recommendations. Consult a qualified medical professional for diagnosis and before beginning or changing any treatment regimen​. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, we investigate the deep connections between mental health and physical health. For years, a large faction of the medical community neglected this link, and patients who suffered mental distress had to do it alone. Why have taboos around mental health persisted? And what does the future look like as we probe the innate relationship between mental and physical health? To answer these questions, host Sara Ivry is joined by Heather Von St. James, a cancer survivor and patient advocate, and Dr. Neha Chaudhary who co-founded Brainstorm: The Stanford Laboratory for Brain Health Innovation and Entrepreneurship.  The individual(s) who have written and created the content in and whose images appear in the articles, profiles, podcasts and videos from the Life Effects program may have been paid by Teva Pharmaceuticals for their contributions.  This content represents the opinions of the contributor and does not necessarily reflect those of Teva Pharmaceuticals. Similarly, Teva Pharmaceuticals does not review, control, influence or endorse any content related to the contributor's websites or social media networks. All content on the Life Effects website is intended for informational and educational purposes and should not be considered medical advice or recommendations. Consult a qualified medical professional for diagnosis and before beginning or changing any treatment regimen​. NPS-US-NP-00390 DECEMBER 2018

From pacemakers that help control abnormal heart rhythms to apps that monitor everything from oxygen to sugar levels, technology's role in patients' lives and health care generally is continuing to expand. In this episode, we look at how innovations in telehealth, wearable tech, and artificial intelligence are changing patients' experiences and healthcare in general.  Host Sara Ivry is joined by Glenda Rouland, a patient who feels empowered by technology after being diagnosed with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF), a chronic lung disease with no known cure. Jessilyn Dunn, a medical researcher and post-doctoral fellow at Stanford University School of Medicine, also joins the conversation. Jessilyn's research focuses on biosensors, electronic medical records, and wearable devices. The individual(s) who have written and created the content in and whose images appear in the articles, profiles, podcasts and videos from the Life Effects program may have been paid by Teva Pharmaceuticals for their contributions.  This content represents the opinions of the contributor and does not necessarily reflect those of Teva Pharmaceuticals. Similarly, Teva Pharmaceuticals does not review, control, influence or endorse any content related to the contributor's websites or social media networks. All content on the Life Effects website is intended for informational and educational purposes and should not be considered medical advice or recommendations. Consult a qualified medical professional for diagnosis and before beginning or changing any treatment regimen​. NPS-US-NP-00387 DECEMBER 2018

In this episode, we enter the world of caregivers: the relatives and close friends who step up when sick family members need support. Often, it’s a full-time job, so it's not surprising that these caregivers can end up neglecting their own health. Host Sara Ivry discusses this dilemma with guests Kate Schrock and Dr. Sandy Butler. In a rapid turn of events, Kate Schrock became a single mom raising a newborn and the primary caregiver to her ailing mother. Sara and Kate are also joined by Dr. Sandy Butler, a professor in the School of Social Work and a Resident Scholar at the Center on Aging at the University of Maine. Her primary focus is the health needs and social welfare experiences of low-income women. The individual(s) who have written and created the content in and whose images appear in the articles, profiles, podcasts and videos from the Life Effects program may have been paid by Teva Pharmaceuticals for their contributions.  This content represents the opinions of the contributor and does not necessarily reflect those of Teva Pharmaceuticals. Similarly, Teva Pharmaceuticals does not review, control, influence or endorse any content related to the contributor's websites or social media networks. All content on the Life Effects website is intended for informational and educational purposes and should not be considered medical advice or recommendations. Consult a qualified medical professional for diagnosis and before beginning or changing any treatment regimen​. NPS-US-NP-00369 NOVEMBER 2018 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More than half of Americans are currently living with one or more serious, preventable, chronic diseases. These rates are expected to increase significantly over the next two decades. In this episode of Life Effects, host Sara Ivry talks to Gabriel Cortez, a San Francisco-based educator and poet who is one of many young people actively working against the rise of Type 2 diabetes in his community. Dr. Mercedes Carnathon, Vice Chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University, also joins the conversation. Together, they look at Type 2 diabetes from multiple angles, including Gabriel’s first-hand experience watching the chronic disease infiltrate his family and the broader role that social determinants (culture, socio-economic status, stress, stigmas, etc.) play in who develops the disease and how it’s managed. The individual(s) who have written and created the content in and whose images appear in the articles, profiles, podcasts and videos from the Life Effects program may have been paid by Teva Pharmaceuticals for their contributions.  This content represents the opinions of the contributor and does not necessarily reflect those of Teva Pharmaceuticals. Similarly, Teva Pharmaceuticals does not review, control, influence or endorse any content related to the contributor's websites or social media networks. All content on the Life Effects website is intended for informational and educational purposes and should not be considered medical advice or recommendations. Consult a qualified medical professional for diagnosis and before beginning or changing any treatment regimen. NPS-US-NP-00369 NOVEMBER 2018 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More than half of Americans are currently living with one or more serious, preventable, chronic diseases. These rates are expected to increase significantly over the next two decades. In this episode of Life Effects, host Sara Ivry talks to Gabriel Cortez, a San Francisco-based educator and poet who is one of many young people actively working against the rise of Type 2 diabetes in his community. Dr. Mercedes Carnathon, Vice Chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University, also joins the conversation. Together, they look at Type 2 diabetes from multiple angles, including Gabriel’s first-hand experience watching the chronic disease infiltrate his family and the broader role that social determinants (culture, socio-economic status, stress, stigmas, etc.) play in who develops the disease and how it’s managed. The individual(s) who have written and created the content in and whose images appear in the articles, profiles, podcasts and videos from the Life Effects program may have been paid by Teva Pharmaceuticals for their contributions.  This content represents the opinions of the contributor and does not necessarily reflect those of Teva Pharmaceuticals. Similarly, Teva Pharmaceuticals does not review, control, influence or endorse any content related to the contributor's websites or social media networks. All content on the Life Effects website is intended for informational and educational purposes and should not be considered medical advice or recommendations. Consult a qualified medical professional for diagnosis and before beginning or changing any treatment regimen​. NPS-US-NP-00369 NOVEMBER 2018 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, host Sara Ivry explores the pressures on parents and pre-teens to navigate the celebrations that take place after the services and the speeches. You'll hear from party planners and DJs and a handful of insightful pre-teens who are seeking alternatives to the typical celebration.    "If you're the family that has over the top catered events. Have an over-the-top catered event. If you're a family that doesn't, then having one for the bar/bat mitzvah is twisted."  - Mark Oppenheimer

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live to be 100? How about 150? Life-extending technology may not be accessible today, but is it possible that something as simple as exercise could reverse the aging process right now? In this episode, we explore the aging process on a personal and scientific level. Host Sara Ivry talks to Katherine Beiers who, at age 86, regularly runs road races and recently finished her fourteenth marathon. Dr. Roberta Gottlieb, head of the Gottlieb Laboratory at Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles also joins the conversation. She is investigating the relationship between our cells and longevity, with a focus on the phenomenon of “autophagy” (cells reviving themselves). The individual(s) who have written and created the content in and whose images appear in the articles, profiles, podcasts and videos from the Life Effects program may have been paid by Teva Pharmaceuticals for their contributions.  This content represents the opinions of the contributor and does not necessarily reflect those of Teva Pharmaceuticals. Similarly, Teva Pharmaceuticals does not review, control, influence or endorse any content related to the contributor's websites or social media networks. All content on the Life Effects website is intended for informational and educational purposes and should not be considered medical advice or recommendations. Consult a qualified medical professional for diagnosis and before beginning or changing any treatment regimen​. NPS-US-NP-00369 NOVEMBER 2018 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, we look at the millennial generation's unique relationship with health. From chat rooms to social media to wearable tech, millennials are used to having boundless information just a click away. So how does their post-internet world connect to millennials' tendency of taking health matters into their own hands? To answer these questions, host Sara Ivry is joined by a Stephen Fiskell, a millennial patient, and Dr. Gol Golshani, a millennial doctor specializing in internal medicine. Over the past few years, Stephen has taken a radical—and creative—approach to improving his health by tracking everything from his eating habit to his sleep. Doctor Gol Golshani also joins the conversation. As a millennial herself, Dr. Golshani has a multifaceted understanding of how her generation views their own health and engages with the healthcare system.  NPS-US-NP-00378 NOVEMBER 2018 The individual(s) who have written and created the content in and whose images appear in the articles, profiles, podcasts and videos from the Life Effects program may have been paid by Teva Pharmaceuticals for their contributions.  This content represents the opinions of the contributor and does not necessarily reflect those of Teva Pharmaceuticals. Similarly, Teva Pharmaceuticals does not review, control, influence or endorse any content related to the contributor's websites or social media networks. All content on the Life Effects website is intended for informational and educational purposes and should not be considered medical advice or recommendations. Consult a qualified medical professional for diagnosis and before beginning or changing any treatment regimen​.

In this episode, we enter the world of caregivers: the relatives and close friends who step up when sick family members need support. Often, it's a full-time job, so it's not surprising that these caregivers can end up neglecting their own health. Host Sara Ivry discusses this dilemma with guests Kate Schrock and Dr. Sandy Butler. In a rapid turn of events, Kate Schrock became a single mom raising a newborn and the primary caregiver to her ailing mother. Sara and Kate are also joined by Dr. Sandy Butler, a professor in the School of Social Work and a Resident Scholar at the Center on Aging at the University of Maine. Her primary focus is the health needs and social welfare experiences of low-income women. The individual(s) who have written and created the content in and whose images appear in the articles, profiles, podcasts and videos from the Life Effects program may have been paid by Teva Pharmaceuticals for their contributions. This content represents the opinions of the contributor and does not necessarily reflect those of Teva Pharmaceuticals. Similarly, Teva Pharmaceuticals does not review, control, influence or endorse any content related to the contributor's websites or social media networks. All content on the Life Effects website is intended for informational and educational purposes and should not be considered medical advice or recommendations. Consult a qualified medical professional for diagnosis and before beginning or changing any treatment regimen​. NPS-US-NP-00369 NOVEMBER 2018

In this episode of Life Effects, we focus on the science of longevity. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live to be 100? How about 150? Life-extending technology may not be accessible today, but is it possible that something as simple as exercise could reverse the aging process right now? In this episode, we explore the aging process on a personal and scientific level. Host Sara Ivry talks to Katherine Byers who, at age 86, regularly runs road races and recently finished her fourteenth marathon. Dr. Roberta Gottlieb, head of the Gottlieb Laboratory at Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles also joins the conversation. She is investigating the relationship between our cells and longevity, with a focus on the phenomenon of “autophagy” (cells reviving themselves). The individual(s) who have written and created the content in and whose images appear in the articles, profiles, podcasts and videos from the Life Effects program may have been paid by Teva Pharmaceuticals for their contributions.  This content represents the opinions of the contributor and does not necessarily reflect those of Teva Pharmaceuticals. Similarly, Teva Pharmaceuticals does not review, control, influence or endorse any content related to the contributor's websites or social media networks. All content on the Life Effects website is intended for informational and educational purposes and should not be considered medical advice or recommendations. Consult a qualified medical professional for diagnosis and before beginning or changing any treatment regimen​. NPS-US-NP-00369 NOVEMBER 2018 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

More than half of Americans are currently living with one or more serious, preventable, chronic diseases. These rates are expected to increase significantly over the next two decades. In this episode of Life Effects, host Sara Ivry talks to Gabriel Cortez, a San Francisco-based educator and poet who is one of many young people actively working against the rise of Type 2 diabetes in his community. Dr. Mercedes Carnathon, Vice Chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine at Northwestern University, also joins the conversation. Together, they look at Type 2 diabetes from multiple angles, including Gabriel's first-hand experience watching the chronic disease infiltrate his family and the broader role that social determinants (culture, socio-economic status, stress, stigmas, etc.) play in who develops the disease and how it's managed. The individual(s) who have written and created the content in and whose images appear in the articles, profiles, podcasts and videos from the Life Effects program may have been paid by Teva Pharmaceuticals for their contributions.  This content represents the opinions of the contributor and does not necessarily reflect those of Teva Pharmaceuticals. Similarly, Teva Pharmaceuticals does not review, control, influence or endorse any content related to the contributor's websites or social media networks. All content on the Life Effects website is intended for informational and educational purposes and should not be considered medical advice or recommendations. Consult a qualified medical professional for diagnosis and before beginning or changing any treatment regimen​. NPS-US-NP-00369 NOVEMBER 2018

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live to be 100? How about 150? Life-extending technology may not be accessible today, but is it possible that something as simple as exercise could reverse the aging process right now? In this episode, we explore the aging process on a personal and scientific level. Host Sara Ivry talks to Katherine Beiers who, at age 86, regularly runs road races and recently finished her fourteenth marathon. Dr. Roberta Gottlieb, head of the Gottlieb Laboratory at Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles also joins the conversation. She is investigating the relationship between our cells and longevity, with a focus on the phenomenon of “autophagy” (cells reviving themselves). The individual(s) who have written and created the content in and whose images appear in the articles, profiles, podcasts and videos from the Life Effects program may have been paid by Teva Pharmaceuticals for their contributions.  This content represents the opinions of the contributor and does not necessarily reflect those of Teva Pharmaceuticals. Similarly, Teva Pharmaceuticals does not review, control, influence or endorse any content related to the contributor's websites or social media networks. All content on the Life Effects website is intended for informational and educational purposes and should not be considered medical advice or recommendations. Consult a qualified medical professional for diagnosis and before beginning or changing any treatment regimen​. NPS-US-NP-00369 NOVEMBER 2018

Life Effects is a podcast about patients' experiences and the factors that shape them, now and in the future. In Season 2, host Sara Ivry brings patients and experts together for inspiring and informative conversations about health conditions and trends. Together, they look at what patients are experiencing now and map out what the future might hold.

In this episode, host Sara Ivry examines the spiritual side of the b'nai mitzvah process. Listen in as Sara explores both the moments of blessing that occur in the ceremony and around it - and the unexpected ways that pre-teens are experiencing holiness in the rite of passage.    

A conversation with Sara Ivry, host of the Jewish podcast Vox Tablet from Tablet Magazine. Be sure to check the show notes for links to all the podcasts discussed. www.bookoflifepodcast.com

Since 2005, the Vox Tablet team—producer Julie Subrin and host Sara Ivry—have done our best to create a Jewish podcast with conversations, stories, and reports from across the Jewish cultural world. But good things—even pioneering, award-winning podcasts—come to an end, and their makers move on to new adventures elsewhere. In our final episode, we take a brief walk down memory lane to some of our favorite moments from the past decade. Among highlights we feature are our visits with actor Fyvush Finkel; illustrator and author Roz Chast; Silver Jews’ frontman David Berman; tourists en route to the Statue of Liberty; South African justice Albie Sachs; attendees at an annual deli luncheon in a small Mississippi town; Israeli musician Noam Inbar; and West Side Story aficionado Alisa Solomon. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Exactly a century ago, President Woodrow Wilson nominated Louis Brandeis to the Supreme Court. After a contentious confirmation process, he became the first Jewish justice, serving on the bench for 23 years. His rulings on privacy, workers’ rights, and free speech feel as relevant today as they did when he issued them, and his foresight, wisdom, and clear-spokenness cemented his reputation as nothing short of a visionary. In Louis D. Brandeis: American Prophet, writer Jeffrey Rosen explores Brandeis’s personal and professional life. He joins Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry to discuss the influence Thomas Jefferson had on Brandeis—known as the "Jewish Jefferson," the justice’s ruling in Whitney v. California—a landmark free speech case, and why Brandeis is uniquely relevant in the fractious political climate of our day. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Earlier this year, the Rabbinical Assembly of the Conservative movement put out a new prayer book, or siddur. Siddur Lev Shalem, which means ‘full heart,’ is full of innovations. There are new translations of traditional prayers. Poems are included. There are commentaries on different parts of the Sabbath and holiday services. There are straightforward explanations of simple rites and gestures, like when and why to bow during the Amidah. The last time the Conservative movement published a new siddur was 15 years ago—not so very long. What compelled rabbis to put together a new siddur so soon? How does it differ from what preceded it? Rabbi Edward Feld, who oversaw the creation of Siddur Lev Shalem, joins Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry to talk about the whats, whys, and hows behind this new prayer book. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Rob Weisberg, the host of the world music radio program Transpacific Sound Paradise, joins Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry to talk about a trio of new genre-bending projects: A-Wa, Sandaraa, and Schizophonia. A-Wa are Israeli sisters of Yemeni ancestry who invoke the music of legendary singer Ofra Haza. Sandaraa joins Pashtun songs from Pakistani singer Zeb Bangash with the Eastern European klezmer clarinet of Michael Winograd. And Schizophonia, a project of guitarist Yoshie Fruchter, reconceives cantorial songs by setting them in a rock and roll context. Weisberg shares a bit of background about each project and we listen in for ourselves to these energetic and riveting sounds. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Barbra Streisand turns 75 next year. In her 50-plus year career, she has made her mark on the silver screen, on Broadway, in nightclubs, and on the record charts. Her beginnings were humble—she grew up poor and scrappy in Brooklyn with a mother and stepfather who were far from encouraging, and knew early on that she wanted to be a star regardless of her unconventional looks and comportment. How did she do it? What was the source of her broad appeal? And why does she stand out as a unique cultural figure in the landscape of so-called ethnic performers? Writer Neal Gabler tackles these and other questions in Barbra Streisand: Redefining Beauty, Femininity, and Power, a new title in Yale University Press’s Jewish Lives Series. Gabler joins Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry to discuss Streisand as an ersatz Christ figure, how she has functioned as a metaphor for American Jewishness, and the deep debt she's owed by Melissa McCarthy and Adele. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Especially in election season, we love talking about the moral fiber (or lack thereof) of our candidates. But when it comes to ethics, no man—or woman—is an island. Host Sara Ivry talks to Professor of Religious Studies Heidi Ravven about the myth of "free will," and how neuroscience along with philosophical traditions from Aristotle to Maimonides to Spinoza may offer more useful ways for us to think about how to foster ethical behavior and moral societies. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Host Sara Ivry talks to writer Adina Hoffman about her new book, Till We Have Built Jerusalem, which brings to life three architects who transformed the city in the days of the British Mandate. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

February is Black History month. To celebrate, Tablet contributor and JN Magazine editor MaNishtana is writing a series of blog posts introducing readers to Jews of Color whose religious affiliation you might not have known. Think: less Drake, more Lani Gunier. MaNishtana joins Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry to discuss the whats and hows of this project, his own Jewish roots, and why questions about the different parts of his identity makes no sense. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

There are roughly three weeks until the summer clock unofficially runs down. How will you spend these last lazy days? Maybe you’ll be under an umbrella by the sea or in a hammock next to a green meadow or flopped on a big, soft couch in your very own living room. Wherever you are, you’ll want a good book by your side. To help you figure out exactly what that good book will be, Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry asked some experts what they’ve enjoyed reading this summer and what they’re still yearning to dive into. Music for this week’s podcast comes from Podington Bear. *** Book Recommendations:

For many Jews, the fact that Albert Einstein was Jewish is a point of pride. But what do we know about his Jewish self-identification? And how many folks out there could claim to have a basic understanding of his General Theory of Relativity? In Einstein: His Space and Time, biographer Steven Gimbel tackles these and other fundamental aspects of Einstein’s life and work. Gimbel is chairman of the philosophy department at Gettysburg College. He spoke with Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry about Einstein’s religious period (it came to an abrupt end when he discovered geometry at age 10), his clashes with all forms of authority, and his love of Israel, which fit uneasily with his profound distrust of nationalism. Gimbel also lays out the basic tenets of Einstein’s achievements in physics in terms that will make even science-phobes comfortable. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

During his political career, Léon Blum—who served three short terms as French prime minister between 1936 and 1947—was derided by his detractors as “a woman,” a “weak Jew,” and even a traitor. Meanwhile, he was worshiped by many French workers, grateful to him for introducing the 40-hour work week, vacation time, and other legislation from his Socialist agenda. According to sociologist Pierre Birnbaum, author of the new biography Léon Blum: Prime Minister, Socialist, Zionist, none of these characterizations captures the complexity of this under-appreciated figure. In an interview with Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry, Birnbaum describes Blum as a remarkably brave, intelligent, and unflappable leader... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

More than a decade ago, an Italian-born Jerusalem-based singer named Shulamit learned of a collection of songs composed in concentration camps during WWII. Written by a handful of women most of whom perished in the war, the songs nearly possessed her. Shulamit began performing them, and in 2013 started working with trumpet player Frank London, of the Klezmatics, and the Israeli pianist Shai Bachar, to make arrangements and adaptations for an album. That album, called For You the Sun Will Shine: Songs of Women in the Shoa, is now out. From her apartment in Jerusalem, Shulamit tells Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry about the individual... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The 16th president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, was known for many things, among them his humble origins, his commitment to ending slavery, his assassination exactly 150 years ago at Ford’s Theater in Washington, D.C. Less well-parsed were his relationships with Jews. And there were many such ties. Lincoln and the Jews, by Jonathan Sarna and Benjamin Shapell, examines scores of documents and archival materials to show that Lincoln befriended many Jews and also worked to include them in various strata of government. Sarna, a historian at Brandeis University, joins Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry to... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

What do we talk about at Passover? Slavery, plagues, food, and of course all the unforgettable stories from Seders past. In this Passover special, produced by Vox Tablet for public radio stations (and you), we’ve got all that and more—hosted by Sara Ivry and Jonathan Goldstein, with stories from Etgar Keret, Sally Herships, Debbie Nathan, Michael Twitty, and Jonathan Groubert. We’ll Be Here All Night, Part 1: Plagues Co-host Jonathan Goldstein speaks with writer and filmmaker Etgar Keret about the narrative strengths and weaknesses of the Passover story, ending with an animated discussion of the 10 plagues. Next, reporter Sally Herships takes us into the home of Abigail Rosenfeld... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Marcus Rothkowitz was born in 1903 in Dvinsk, a town in the Pale of Settlement. As a child, he moved with his family to the United States. It was a journey that changed his life—and that of the world of modern art. Rothkowitz grew up to become the painter Mark Rothko. He’s the focus of Mark Rothko: Toward the Light in the Chapel, a new biography by Annie Cohen-Solal. She joins Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry to discuss Rothko’s revolutionary approach to painting, his ideas about the role of the artist in society, and what made him a Jewish artist. Plus, get ready for a Vox Tablet Passover extravaganza. We’ve got a... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In the annals of biblical kings, David stands out. A humble shepherd, he slew Goliath, wrote poetry, dethroned his predecessor, and reigned in Israel for 40 years. His heroics inspired artists throughout history from Michelangelo to Shakespeare to Leonard Cohen. But David’s achievements in helping unite the Jews did not come without costs—he had innocent people killed, looked away at violence among his children, bedded married women. In David: The Divided Heart, out from Yale University Press’s Jewish Lives Series, Rabbi David Wolpe takes a look at this Jewish hero—warts and all. Wolpe joins Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This is a sponsored podcast on behalf of Yale University Press and their Jewish Lives series. Students of Jewish history—and the history of Mandate Palestine—are familiar with the name Vladimir Ze’ev Jabotinsky. Born in Odessa, Jabotinsky was a journalist and an ardent Zionist committed to the establishment of the state of Israel. He was also a talented novelist, poet and screenwriter. In Jabotinsky: A Life, writer Hillel Halkin examines the full extent of Jabotinsky’s influence. He joins Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry to discuss the liberal Jewish... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Last weekend brought bad news from Europe: Far right parties in France, Denmark, Austria and elsewhere won big in the European Parliamentary elections. And in Brussels, four people died after a shooting at the city’s Jewish Museum. The attack came in a spring punctuated by anti-Semitic violence in France, the U.K., and elsewhere. All of these incidents have elicited the question: Is it time for Jews to leave Europe? To find out if things are as hostile for Jews in Europe as they seem from the vantage point of U.S. shores, Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry speaks with two young European Jewish leaders. Andi Gergely grew up in Hungary and is the chairperson of the World Union of Jewish Students. Though now based in... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Known for frenzied takes on Yiddish and Eastern European music, the members of Golem bring the party with them wherever the band plays and no matter what they’re singing about. Their new album, Tanz, which means dance in Yiddish, covers religious rites, anti-Semitism in the former Soviet Union, dark children’s poems, and more, in a mix of rollicking interpretations of classic songs and original numbers. Golem’s founder and accordionist, Annette Ezekiel Kogan, and its violinist, Jeremy Brown, join Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry to talk about the band’s surprising Mexican fan-base, how painful it is to sing the song “Odessa” now that Ukraine is in the throes of Russian occupation, and their ambivalence (now... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

It’s fairly common nowadays to hear renditions of “Sunrise, Sunset,” for instance, or “The Sabbath Prayer,” memorable melodies from the Fiddler on the Roof, at bar mitzvahs or weddings. Songs from that musical—whose story is inspired by the work of Sholem Aleichem—have become an indelible part of our popular cultural lexicon not just in the United States, but worldwide. Directed by Jerome Robbins and starring Zero Mostel, Fiddler debuted on Broadway in 1964 and quickly became a smash, resonating with Jewish audiences comfortable enough in their assimilated lives in America to be able to look fondly back at the shtetl their parents left behind. How the play got made and what its significance has been for peoples of all ethnicities and backgrounds is the subject of a new book by Columbia University professor Alisa Solomon. Solomon joins Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry to discuss

For most of its first 50-plus years, the Yiddish language Jewish Daily Forward (now 116 years old) was edited by its founder, Abraham Cahan. Cahan was a Lithuanian immigrant and socialist who came to this country alone at the age of 22, in 1882. Within five years, he’d established himself as a leader of the Jewish immigrant community and as an industrious reporter with friends like the muckraker journalist Lincoln Steffins and the literary critic William Dean Howells. How Cahan climbed the political, journalistic, and literary (he wrote the critically acclaimed novel The Rise of David Levinsky) ranks of 20th century America is the topic of The Rise of Abraham Cahan, a new biography by Seth Lipsky. In 1990, Lipsky founded the English-language Forward. He joins Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry to discuss how Cahan managed to wear the seemingly conflicting hats... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sara Ivry is the host of Vox Tablet, the weekly podcast of Tablet Magazine, and a writer who has contributed to the New York Times, Bookforum, the Boston Globe, and other publications.

When guitarist and composer Dan Kaufman headed to Rome in 2009 to study the liturgical melodies of the city’s ancient Jewish community, he stumbled upon the site of a famous partisan attack against the Nazis. Bullet-marked, the building where the action took place remained as a testament to resistance. That story joined together in his imagination with that of the city’s inhabitants from millennia before, inspiring him to create the new album Bella Ciao. Like previous projects Kaufman has undertaken with his band Barbez—he joined the podcast in 2007 to discuss his album inspired by the work of Paul Celan—Bella Ciao draws on poetry and uses theramin, vibraphone, and more traditional instruments to produce an invigorating mix of sound and ideas. He joins Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry to talk about how he... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Questions of character shape public discourse. From Paula Deen to Edward Snowden—the choices people make and actions people take raise questions about free will, personal responsibility, and morality. And yet, researchers in sociology, psychology, and neuroscience are increasingly asserting that the independent self that we are all so attached to doesn’t really exist. What’s more, there are philosophical traditions dating back to Aristotle, Maimonides, and Spinoza that may offer more useful ways of thinking about how to foster ethical behavior and moral societies. In The Self Beyond Itself: An Alternative History of Ethics, the New Brain Sciences, and the Myth of Free Will, Heidi Ravven, a professor of religious studies at Hamilton College, examines these questions. She joins Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry on the podcast to discuss how the myth of free will took hold, what Spinoza had to say... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In his debut novel, The Path of Names, Vancouver-based writer Ari Goelman conjures Dahlia, an intrepid 13-year-old who we meet as she begrudgingly attends her first summer at Camp Arava, the Jewish overnight camp where her brother is a beloved counselor. Ever interested in figuring out sleights of hand, she’d rather spend her time learning magic. Then strange things start to happen. Dahlia spots two apparitions—little girls dressed for the 1940s who beckon to her in her bunk. Suddenly she has memories and dreams of yeshiva life and understands Hebrew words she has never before known. Unruffled by the increasingly intense fantastical phenomena around her, Dahlia forges on, keen to figure out what’s happening to her and to the sweet ghosts who keep reappearing. Ari Goelman talks with Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry about the fantasy novels that accompanied his childhood, how he came up with the idea for Dahlia and her story, and why he set the action at a... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Joshua Prager is a reporter best known for tracking down elusive characters whose lives were altered in an instant—people like Tehran-based photographer Jahangir Razmi, the only anonymous winner of a Pulitzer Prize, and Albert Clark, who was unexpectedly bequeathed the royalties of the wildly popular children’s books Goodnight, Moon, Runaway Bunny, and other titles by Margaret Wise Brown. Now Prager has written Half-Life, the story of how his own life changed in an instant. When he was 19 and spending the year studying at a yeshiva in Israel, he was a passenger on a minibus headed to Jerusalem that was struck by a speeding truck. Prager’s neck was broken, and he nearly died. Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry talks with Prager about how the accident altered the course he’d... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Growing up in the Netherlands, Simon Kuper was raised on soccer and on stories of the Dutch resistance during World War II. It was only as an adult that Kuper, a columnist for the Financial Times, began to understand the level of complicity on the part of the Dutch: more than 75 percent of the Jews in the country were killed during the war. And yet ordinary life—including soccer playing and viewing—continued with little disruption. In his book Ajax, the Dutch, the War: The Strange Tale of Soccer During Europe’s Darkest Hour (just out in the United States), Kuper looks at soccer culture during the war and offers fresh insight into the treatment of Dutch Jews. In particular, he digs into the archives and institutional memory of Ajax Amsterdam, the country’s premier club and one that has long been associated with the city’s Jews. Kuper, who has written three other books about soccer, spoke from Paris with Vox Tablet’s Sara Ivry about what he uncovered in his research and... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, Barbra Streisand returns to Brooklyn for her first public performances in her native borough since moving away more than 50 years ago. News of her homecoming shows was announced in May—with tickets to performances tonight and Saturday selling out months before the $1 billion Barclays Center, where she’ll appear, even opened. How did this happen? In 1960, Streisand was a 17-year-old kid from Flatbush trying to make it big in Manhattan. Four years later, she was the country’s top-selling female recording artist and was starring on Broadway as Fanny Brice in Funny Girl. How she and her loyal associates transformed her into a beloved and critically acclaimed star is the subject of Hello, Gorgeous: Becoming Barbra Streisand, a new biography by William Mann. (Mann’s previous subjects include Elizabeth Taylor and Katharine Hepburn.) Mann joins Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry to talk about how Streisand exaggerated her “kooky”... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Harold Kushner first brought comfort and insight to many in 1981 with his best-selling self-help book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People. Since then, he’s continued to offer life- and faith-affirming messages, with such titles as When All You’ve Ever Wanted Isn’t Enough, and Living a Life That Matters. Now he returns to his original theme of suffering with The Book of Job: When Bad Things Happened to a Good Person. In Job’s anguish and anger toward God, Kushner finds lessons on how one might remain faithful to a God who does not protect us from suffering. Kushner talks with Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry about the very personal roots of this exploration, dating back to the 1970s, when his son Aaron was diagnosed with a rare and incurable disease (Aaron died in 1977, at age 14); about the depth and complexity of the Job verses; and about why he believes we must choose between an all-loving God and an... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hanna Rosin’s new book The End of Men argues that changes in the U.S. economy—specifically the vast reduction of manufacturing jobs combined with growth in health, human resources, education, and other traditionally female-dominated professions—are leaving men in the dust in corporate culture, at universities, in families, and in popular culture. To what extent are these trends reflected in Jewish American communal life and leadership? Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry is joined by Andy Bachman, rabbi of Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn (and U.S. history and politics buff), and Shifra Bronznick, founding president of Advancing Women Professionals and the Jewish Community, to discuss Rosin’s thesis, and how it might resonate in a Jewish context. They speak as Jewish leaders, as people who are privy to the private concerns of Jewish men and women who are struggling with these changes, and as parents of sons and daughters who will have to navigate... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

When Theodore Ross moved with his newly divorced mother and brother to the Gulf Coast of Mississippi at age 9, the family pretended not to be Jewish. This deceit was his mother’s idea, and years later it led Ted to question whether he should consider himself a Jew at all, having been discouraged from embracing any religious identification as a young person. In recent years, the desire to answer that question led him to seek out other Jews who are outliers in some way, from crypto-Jews in the Southwest, to the “lost tribe” Ethiopian Jews now resettled in Israel, to ultra-Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn who welcome him into their homes for Shabbat. Ross writes about these journeys in Am I a Jew? Lost Tribes, Lapsed Jews, and One Man’s Search for Himself. He joins Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry to talk about why his mother demanded that he hide his religious identity, what it was like pretending not to be entirely himself, and why he chose to... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

David Rakoff, a contributor to our site, died Aug. 9, 2012, after a battle with cancer. He was 47. Some years ago, Rakoff wrote an essay on the life and work of Viennese writer Felix Salten. The creator of Bambi, Salten was a European Jew who wrote soft porn and a prominent critic in early 20th-century Austria. In concert with this essay, Rakoff joined Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry for a podcast conversation about the brutality in Bambi, about Salten’s place in literary society, and about the dark side of fairy tales—and life. We re-run this piece now to celebrate David Rakoff, whose wit, warmth, and grace come across in every utterance, and whose reading of a particularly wrenching scene from Bambi gives a sense both of the work’s violence and of Rakoff’s own captivating voice.... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Many people think of Islam, or religion generally, as disempowering for girls and women. The Light in Her Eyes, a documentary by Laura Nix and Julia Meltzer, challenges that notion. It follows Houda al-Habash, a conservative Muslim, wife, mother, preacher, and founder of a girls’ religious school in Damascus. In observing al-Habash, her children, students, and colleagues at school, at home, in shopping malls, and at outdoor cafés, the film explores how modernity and Muslim faith co-exist, challenging many Western assumptions that such co-existence is a fallacy. Meltzer and Nix join Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry to talk about the difficulties they had filming as American women—one Jewish, one Christian—in Syria and about their audiences’ reactions to the seemingly contradictory values and aspirations expressed by al-Habash and her students. The Light in Her Eyes airs on the PBS series “POV” on July 19, 2012, and... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

By day, Chris Silver works for a Jewish task force trying to raise awareness about civic inequalities facing Israel’s Arab citizens. But he dedicates his free time to Jews in an Arab land, with his blog, Jewish Morocco. Silver created the blog in 2008, while traveling in Morocco, as a way of sharing the stories, photographs, and other artifacts he was collecting to document what Jewish life there had been like in its heyday. Along the way, he developed a particular interest in the country’s Jewish musicians and singers—characters who were beloved by Moroccans of all backgrounds, and to whom he gives ample space on his blog. Silver joins Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry to talk about some of the unique voices he’s discovered, what happened to Jewish Moroccan singers once they left the country in the 1950s and ’60s, and where he gets his missionary zeal (hint: It has to do with Bob Dylan; Mama Cass; Bill Cosby; and Chris’s dad, Roy).... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Matthew Lazar grew up singing—at home, at summer camp, everywhere. A trained musician and conductor, he found that singing in a chorus offered him a way to foster community and express joy in being Jewish. That joy reached greater heights when Lazar took over the reins of the Zamir Choral Foundation, an organization dedicated to giving teenagers and adults an opportunity to sing together throughout the United States and Israel, 40 years ago. This Sunday, the voices of the Zamir Chorale will fill the halls of Jazz at Lincoln Center, when they perform with Yehoram Gaon, Alberto Mizrahi, and other special guests in a concert celebrating Yom Yerushalayim, or Jerusalem Day, the holiday that marks the reunification of Jerusalem after 1967’s Six Day War. Matthew Lazar joins Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry to talk about what makes choral music Jewish, about his own musical background, and about what will surely be some... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The Aleppo Codex, which dates back to the 10th century, is considered by many Bible scholars to be the most perfect copy of the Hebrew Bible that has ever existed. Yet most Jews have never heard of it. Four years ago, Jerusalem-based reporter Matti Friedman set out to change that fact, researching the codex’s mysterious history: how it changed hands from the Jews of Aleppo, Syria, where it had been safeguarded for centuries, to tightly held institutional control in the state of Israel—where it became decidedly more imperiled, and where large portions of the codex went missing. Friedman explores this journey in The Aleppo Codex: A True Story of Obsession, Faith, and the Pursuit of an Ancient Bible. He joins Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry to discuss the codex’s clandestine journey to Israel in the late 1950s, what might have happened to sections of the codex that have gone missing, and the struggle of the Jews of Aleppo to regain control of their community’s most prized religious... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In 1996, just as the Honorable Madeleine Korbelova Albright was confirmed as secretary of State—the country’s first woman to hold that post—revelations came to light that her Czech parents, neither of whom were living by then, had been born Jews. Josef and Anna (née Spieglová) Korbel converted to Catholicism in 1941, when Josef was working for the exiled Czech government in London. The information, which Albright learned of just a few months before it was made public, raised many questions: Why had her parents converted, and why had they never told her? Why had she never figured it out? And what happened to the relatives who remained in Czechoslovakia during World War II and after? It was only when her term as secretary of State ended that Albright was able to pursue answers to these questions in earnest. In her new book, Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, she chronicles her search and the answers she found. She joins Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry to talk about... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In 1999, a young woman in Colorado named Shonnie Medina died of breast cancer. Tests revealed that she carried a gene mutation commonly associated with Jews—yet Medina was a Hispano, meaning that her ancestry was both Native American and Spanish, with no known Jewish background. Other family members similarly turned out to be carriers of this potentially deadly gene; some have died from or been diagnosed with breast or ovarian cancer. How this clan of Roman Catholic Hispanos became carriers of this mutation is the subject of a new book by Jeff Wheelwright: The Wandering Gene and the Indian Princess: Race, Religion, and DNA tells Medina’s tragic tale as well as the story of how one specific genetic marker could have made its way from Ancient Babylonia to the contemporary American southwest. Wheelwright joins Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry to talk about the resilience of the breast-cancer gene, and how the Jewish Diaspora can be traced... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Growing up in Tel Aviv, pianist Alon Yavnai was exposed to a range of musical traditions including Middle Eastern, jazz, and Latin (his mother is Argentine). Since then, the Grammy-winner has experimented with other influences, touring with a Cape Verdean dance band, for instance, and collaborating with accomplished musicians such as cellist Yo-Yo Ma and saxophonist Paquito D’Rivera. Yavnai’s last album featured his own jazz trio. Now he’s trying his hand with a much bigger ensemble. Working with the Hamburg-based NDR Bigband, Yavnai has put out Shir Ahava, a jazz album that sometimes veers into symphony territory, blurring the lines between genres and suggesting, furthermore, that such lines are immaterial—to those making the music, anyway. Yavnai speaks with Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry at his home in Brooklyn about how he first took up the piano, his ventures into big band... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In the 19th century, Sa’adi Besalel a-Levi was an esteemed (if controversial) journalist, publisher, singer, and composer in Salonica, a Mediterranean port city whose 2,000-year-old Jewish community was later decimated in the Holocaust. He also wrote the earliest known Ladino-language memoir, which was all but lost until Stanford University history professor Aron Rodrigue found a forgotten copy at Jerusalem’s Jewish National and University Library. Now the memoir is available to all, in an edition introduced and edited by Rodrigue and fellow historian Sarah Abrevaya Stein, and translated by Isaac Jerusalmi: A Jewish Voice From Ottoman Salonica has been published in English in tandem with a digital version of the original soletreo, or Ladino cursive. Rodrigue and Stein join Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry to talk about Sa’adi’s life, his obsession... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

These days there is a lot to worry about: global warming, financial collapse, terrorism—you name it. For writer Max Brooks, the threat that trumps them all is zombies. He sounded a warning call about these walking dead in 2003 with The Zombie Survival Guide, followed three years later by World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, an immensely popular account of a massive zombie outbreak (the movie version, starring Brad Pitt, is due out in December 2012). Brooks joins Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry on the podcast to discuss the perils of dressing up like a zombie on Halloween, the particular horrors that a zombie infestation represents to Jews, and the origins of his own zombie fears—traced to one fateful night circa 1985 when Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft opted not to hire a babysitter. [Running time: 14:40.] See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Every day, people gather in lower Manhattan to pay tribute to an American icon. They are waiting, often for hours, for the ferry that will take them to the Statue of Liberty. While most visitors to the statue are familiar with the rousing poem displayed inside its base—“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,” and so on—very few can name the poet who wrote it, Emma Lazarus. Even fewer know that Lazarus was a Sephardic Jew and a scholar, playwright, and novelist. In 2006, Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry went to the Statue of Liberty ferry terminal to talk to visitors about Lazarus and solicit from them a group... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Sukkot, which begins later this week, celebrates the end of the harvest season. People decorate their sukkahs with branches and fruits as a way of giving thanks for the season’s bounty. Yet Jews generally shy away from nature worship, with its echoes of idolatry and paganism. It is even argued that Judaism’s human-centered worldview—the belief that humans alone are made in God’s image—makes us particularly ill-suited to respond to warnings about shrinking glaciers and dying species. How, then, does a religious Jew who is deeply concerned about threats to the environment galvanize her community? Evonne Marzouk, the founder and executive director of Canfei Nesharim, a Jewish environmental organization, addressed that question for Vox Tablet. She spoke to host Sara Ivry about rabbinical and Torah-based justifications for making environmental sustainability a priority, her own journey to... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Blasphemy and Other Serious Crimes, the latest album from the jazz-metal band Pitom, has a title that makes explicit reference to the vidui, or confession—one of Yom Kippur’s central prayers. The vidui is a recitation of the many ways in which we sin—by robbery, by lying, by blasphemy. But while the album may flirt with sin in its raucous approach, it comes from a place of devotion. Yoshie Fruchter, the leader of Pitom, is the son and grandson of cantors, and professes an abiding love for the traditional melodies sung on Yom Kippur. The songs on the album, which was released by John Zorn’s Tzadik label, are meant to invoke the intense emotions that accompany the holiday’s centuries-old prayers. The result is rich, loud, and cathartic. For Vox Tablet, Fruchter and Jeremy Brown, Pitom’s violinist, played a stripped-down version of the track “Neilah,” and they explained to host Sara Ivry why a... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Ever since his service in the Yom Kippur War in 1973, Israeli Yuval Neria has been interested in the impact of extreme trauma on mental health. He became an expert on post-traumatic stress disorder and was recruited to Columbia University’s department of clinical psychology shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Since then, he has been working with and studying those most directly affected by the events in New York City: friends and family of those who were killed in the World Trade Center, and the first responders who worked in the wreckage. On the eve of Tisha B’Av, the day of mourning that commemorates the destruction of the first and second Temples and other catastrophic events in Jewish history, Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry spoke to Neria about his own wartime experiences and what his research has taught him about treating trauma. Neria was awarded a Medal of Valor for his service, and in 1986 he published the novel Esh, Hebrew for “fire,” a fictionalized account of his time in... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

For most women, diamonds prompt reveries of fairytale engagements, or at least daydreams of Marilyn Monroe. For journalist Alicia Oltuski, they connote family. Her paternal grandfather was a diamond dealer; he once traded a single stone for condensed milk, marmalade, and honey when he was a displaced person in Germany just after World War II. Oltuski’s father also dealt in gems—buying and selling antique jewelry on West 47th Street, the heart of New York City’s diamond district. In her new book, Precious Objects: A Story of Diamonds, Family, and a Way of Life, Oltuski examines the jewelry trade and some of the characters who work in it. She joined Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry to discuss Jewish predominance in the diamond business, her family’s relationship with the industry, and how the gems now represent polar positions—romance and conflict—in popular culture. [Running time: 18:26.] See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The inaugural class of fellows at the American Academy in Jerusalem was announced last month by the Foundation for Jewish Culture, which will host the four selected American artists while they develop new work in the dynamically, culturally rich city. The project is the brainchild of Elise Bernhardt, the foundation’s president, who modeled it on the American Academies in Rome and Berlin (each is a separate entity, with no formal ties). The American Academy in Jerusalem, a nine-week residency, also aims to strengthen ties between artists and cultural institutions in the United States and Israel. Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry talked about the program with Bernhardt, discussing how the fellows were selected and whether Jerusalem can compete with European cities as a cultural capital. Ivry also spoke to the four fellows, who are headed to Jerusalem in October: urban planner David Karnovsky, visual artist

Oxford doctoral candidate Rebecca Steinfeld argues in Tablet Magazine today that granting Yigal Amir, the assassin of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, the right to conjugal visits and by extension the right to father a child is consistent with the state’s pro-natalist policies. Steinfeld is writing a dissertation on the topic, War of the Wombs: The History and Politics of Fertility Policies in Israel, 1948-2010. She spoke to Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry about the evolution of these policies, from cash “birth prizes” awarded to mothers on the birth of their 10th child in the early days of the state to today’s heavily subsidized fertility procedures for women who wish to conceive, and about accusations that these policies have favored Jewish citizens over others. [Running time: 17:29.] See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Tablet Magazine recently moved its offices to a stretch of West 28th Street in Manhattan. The new digs are in an auspicious location—the block that was once Tin Pan Alley, the historic district where George Gershwin and Irving Berlin and many others went to play piano and peddle songs to music publishers. As the 20th century reached its midpoint, tunesmiths moved elsewhere. (The Brill Building, famously home to later generations of songwriters, is just north of Times Square.) Old buildings came down while new ones went up, and our portion of West 28th is now a bustling commercial hodge-podge bookended by the flower district to the west and the perfume district to the east. To learn more about our new neighborhood—where Emma Goldman founded her anarchist magazine, too, and Zero Mostel had a painting studio—Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry spoke to

The holiday of Shavuot brings with it unique forms of observance. In addition to the consumption of dairy-rich delicacies, many people participate in a tikkun layl Shavuot, an all-night study session. During a tikkun, it’s traditional to peruse and discuss a portion from the Bible, the Talmud, or the Mishneh. To mark Shavuot this year, Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry asked novelist Nathan Englander, musician Alicia Jo Rabins, Rabbi Phil Lieberman, and theologian Avivah Zornberg what text they’d most like to think about in the early-morning hours, and what... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In the late 1950s, Florence Greenberg was a housewife in Passaic, N.J., with an itch to get into the music business. A tip from her daughters led her to a quartet of young African-American singers. Under Greenberg’s tutelage, the women became the legendary Shirelles, the group behind such hits as “I Met Him on a Sunday” and “Dedicated to the One I Love.” Greenberg’s name in the business was made. She formed three record labels—Tiara, Scepter, and Wand—and had a hand in the successes of talents including Dionne Warwick and the Isley Brothers. As the curtain rises on Baby It’s You, a new musical celebrating Greenberg’s life and work, Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry speaks with Slate Magazine music critic Jody Rosen about the obstacles Greenberg might have faced as a pioneering woman, about her ability to identify voices and styles that others didn’t think America was quite ready for, and about the real meaning of the song “Say a Little... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.