Vox Tablet

Joy Ladin is a poet and a professor of English at Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women. For most of her life, though, she was a man named Jay, and her biological sex was a source of deep unhappiness. And so three years ago, Jay decided to start the process of becoming a woman. His marriage fell apart, and he worried about how the world would receive him after he became a woman. In this podcast from our archives, Joy Ladin spoke with Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry about her decision to transition genders, her relationship to God, and the reaction from her Orthodox students. Joy Ladin’s third book of poetry, Transmigration, was published last month by Sheep Meadow Press. Your browser does not support the audio element.

It’s astonishing how many hits from the American songbook—the corpus of music written from the 1920s to the 1960s that includes Broadway hits, Tin Pan Alley tunes, and Hollywood musicals—were written by Jews. These Jewish composers and lyricists included heavy hitters like Irving Berlin, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and the Gershwins, plus perhaps lesser known figures like Harold Arlen and Dorothy Fields. Writer and poet David Lehman explores this connection in his new Nextbook Press book, A Fine Romance: Jewish Songwriters, American Songs. Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry talks to him about the book, the songs, and the Jewish themes buried in some of the best-known classics. Related: Lehman serves up an American songbook playlist A Fine Romance Your browser does not support the audio element.

In 1974, prompted by the vision of an itinerant preacher, Joseph Armah and several other members of the Sefwi tribe in western Ghana declared themselves the descendants of one of the lost tribes of Israel. This wasn’t as arbitrary as it sounds; for centuries, though unfamiliar with Judaism, the tribe had followed Jewish practices, performing circumcision a week after an infant’s birth, observing Shabbat, and excluding pork from their diet. Their conversion raises interesting, if familiar, questions about who can legitimately call himself a Jew. But for Armah’s children, those questions don’t really matter. They are among the first generation of Ghanaians to be raised Jewish, and as such they must navigate for themselves what that means on a daily basis.  Anna Boiko-Weyrauch spent a weekend with the Armah family, and sent us this dispatch. Your browser does not support the audio element.

In Reading Like a Writer, Francine Prose advised aspiring writers that the best way to hone their craft is to read works of great literature closely, word by word. In her new book, Anne Frank: The Book, The Life, The Afterlife, Prose applies that method to the famous young diarist’s work. By Prose’s measure, Frank’s diary has achieved its success not only because of what it documents but also because of her remarkable skill as a writer. What Prose begins as a literary investigation expands to encompass the history of the diary and its author, as well as its many reincarnations as a musical, a film, a brand, and an inspiration for human rights organizations and classroom curricula. Prose spoke to Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry about the diary and its impact. Your browser does not support the audio element.

It’s not easy to convert to Judaism. Typically, the process involves up to a year of study with a rabbi, culminating in an appearance before a beit din, or rabbinic court, and, finally, immersion in the mikveh, or ritual bath. The writer C.A. Blomquist has wanted to convert to Judaism for most of her life, but, as she wrote about on Tablet last week, it took some major mid-life changes for her to realize the step was possible. Finally, in her early fifties and after two years of study, she was ready to take the last step. Vox Tablet followed her to the mikveh. Here is her story. This is the second in a three-part series by C.A. Blomquist on her conversion. The first installment was “Taking the Plunge.” Your browser does not support the audio element.

Every new year, Jews are told to seek forgiveness for the “sins we have sinned.” It sounds fairly straight forward, but it’s not, especially for people who are prone to over-thinking. On what basis should we judge our behavior and those sins? The Bible? An internal moral compass? And how broad should our self-examination be? Are we looking only at how we treat our parents, or should we also consider our neighbors, our community, our fellow citizens, or perhaps all living beings? Michael Sandel cannot answer those questions. He’s neither a rabbi nor a scholar of Jewish thought (at least, not by profession); he’s a professor of government at Harvard. He is, however, very good at explaining ways of thinking about right and wrong, as the many thousands of undergraduates who have taken his course on justice can attest. He spoke with Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry about health care, Wall Street bonuses, and other collisions of politics and ethics. Your browser does not support the audio element.

Elul, the last month of the year on the Hebrew calendar, is often regarded as a time to prepare for the rigorous self-reflection that takes place on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Throughout the month, the shofar, or ram’s horn, is sounded to induce an appropriately wakeful frame of mind. And so, in order to get into the spirit of the High Holidays, Tablet Magazine’s Gabriel Sanders met up with an old family friend: lung specialist, Judaica collector, and expert shofar-blower Ira Rezak. The two discussed the shofar’s ritual significance, and then they settled in for a lesson in the difficult business of getting a shofar to sound the way it should.

Israeli-born musician Oran Etkin fell in love with jazz at age 10, when his parents gave him his first CD—a Louis Armstrong record. Later, he would fall in love with the clarinet, then with the polyrhythms of Malian music, and, later still, with the plaintive sounds of klezmer. In his new album Kelenia, a collaboration with three West African musicians, he combines all these elements to exhilarating effect. All Music Guide credits him with “set[ting] a new standard for world music.” Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry interviews Etkin at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, where he teaches, about his unusual musical trajectory. For information on his upcoming performances, go here. Your browser does not support the audio element.

According to Jewish law, women are considered impure during their monthly period and are not allowed to have sexual relations or even casually touch their husbands until seven “clean” days have passed and they have immersed in the mikveh, or ritual bath. For Orthodox women, going to the mikveh is a fact of life from the time of their marriage until menopause. But as Varda Polak-Sahm discovered while researching her new book, The House of Secrets: The Hidden World of the Mikveh (translated from the Hebrew by Anne Hartstein Pace), in Israel, many secular women also choose to use the mikveh. Polak-Sahm spoke to Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry from her home in Jerusalem about the power of the mikveh for both the observant and the secular, the women-only rituals that take place within the mikveh’s walls, and her own vastly different immersion experiences before her first and second weddings. Your browser does not support the audio element.

In 1947, British-ruled Palestine faced mounting tensions: vast numbers of displaced European Jews hoped to immigrate, Arabs feared losing their land and majority status, and Jewish insurgent groups were fighting for the establishment of Israel. Britain reacted with often inept anti-terrorism squads. Historian David Cesarani combed through newly released archival materials from that period to uncover the role Roy Farran, a 26-year-old Special Air Service major, played in the abduction and death of a 16-year-old Jewish boy from Jerusalem, an event that further strengthened resolve for the establishment of Israel. Cesarani spoke to Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry from his home in London about Major Farran’s Hat: The Untold Story of the Struggle to Establish the Jewish State, his new history of the period. Your browser does not support the audio element.

You can count on one hand, if not one finger, the number of openly devout Jewish musicians who have attracted a sizeable secular following in the United States. There’s Matisyahu, and there’s … ? In Israel, though, the pop music landscape looks very different. Many of the most popular singers there today are deeply religious, and they explore their faith through music. In this week’s Vox Tablet podcast, Tablet Magazine’s Liel Leibovitz, a ninth-generation Israeli, explains that they’re popular neither because of their religiosity nor in spite of it. Here’s the playlist: 1. Shuli Rand, “Mohin Dektanot,” from the album Good Point 2. Shuli Rand, “Ma Hatachlit,” from the album Good Point 3. Eviatar Banai, “Av Harachman,” from the album Night Will Shine as Day 4. Berry Sakharof, “Shochney Batey Chomer,” from the album Adumey Hasfatot 5. Berry Sakharof, “Melitsati Bideagati Hadufa,” from the album Adumey Hasfatot Your browser does not support the audio element.

The Grand Concourse, a major thoroughfare in the Bronx loosely modeled after the Champs Elysee, turns 100 this year. Back in the 1920s and 30s, the Concourse was considered among the best addresses to have, particularly if you were an upwardly mobile Jew. Several decades later, though, things changed radically; the Bronx became an emblem of urban decay and violence. In Boulevard of Dreams: Heady Times, Heartbreak, and Hope Along the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, out later this month from NYU Press, Constance Rosenblum traces the rise and fall and rise again of this historic artery. She speaks with Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry about the art deco monuments that characterized the Grand Concourse, Jews’ affinity for apartment living, and the forces that contributed to its mid-century decline. The exterior of Loew’s Paradise. Photo: Theatre Historical Society of America. The Lorelei fountain in the 1970s, covered in grafitti. Photo: New York Times. The lobby of the Fish Building. Photo: Carl Rosenstein. Your browser does not support the audio element.

Forty years ago, poor, crime-ridden Israeli neighborhoods were often ruled by a local mobster. It was a Godfather-style situation: the bosses were feared, but they were also respected as protectors for those who played by their rules. But today’s Israeli mafia is something quite different, younger, greedier, more ambitious, and far more reckless. In 2006, Tablet contributing editor Douglas Century visited Hatikva, a neighborhood in south Tel Aviv that spawned some of the more deadly modern mafiosi. Accompanied by Ilan Benshoshan, who grew up there, Century met gangsters, drug dealers, pimps, and a frightened populace trying to steer clear of the violence. Vox Tablet’s Sara Ivry spoke to the pair for a street-level view of today’s Israeli mob. Your browser does not support the audio element.

Tomato Rhapsody, Adam Schell’s debut novel, is a romance set in 16th century Tuscany. It centers on the forbidden love between Davido, a Jewish tomato farmer, and Mari, a Catholic olive farmer, and also includes a grand duke, a priest who has come under a strange spell, an evil stepfather, a village fool, and some serious chefs in love with tomatoes, olives, and cheese. Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry spoke to Schell about the inspiration for this Italian romp, his meeting with Harvey Keitel, and what he hopes to do with his earnings. Your browser does not support the audio element.

When memoirist Janice Erlbaum mentioned to an elderly neighbor that she’d been teaching a writing workshop for girls who are trying to get out of the sex trade, the neighbor surprised her with a reference to “Di Grine Kusine,” a Yiddish song from the 1920s. Erlbaum shares this story. Janice Erlbaum is the author Girl Bomb and Have You Found Her. For more of her stories on our site, click here, here, here and here. Your browser does not support the audio element.