Many of you have been enjoying our Jewish Joy series of interviews with Jewish children’s book authors like Sarah Sasson, Veera Hiranandani, and Richard Ho. Today, we are celebrating the dynamo behind the series, long-time member of Multicultural Kid Blogs, Heidi Rabinowitz. Heidi is a staunch supporter of Jewish books for kids and teens, especially those that represent the diversity of Jews around the world.
Heidi Rabinowitz hosts The Book of Life Podcast, a show about Jewish kidlit (mostly) at www.bookoflifepodcast.com. She moderates the Facebook group Jewish Kidlit Mavens for people who have a strong interest in Jewish children’s literature, and is a co-admin of The Sydney Taylor Shmooze, a book review blog. She’s the Library Director at Congregation B’nai Israel in Boca Raton, Florida, and does 25+ preschool storytimes every week. Below, we talk to her about her podcast, now celebrating 20 years!
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Please introduce yourself and The Book of Life podcast.
The Book of Life is an interview-format podcast about Jewish books for kids and teens, with at least one new episode per month. I’m the show’s creator and host. I am a synagogue librarian and I serve as the school librarian for our preschool and religious school. I started the podcast in 2005 when I “graduated” from the Association of Jewish Libraries’ Sydney Taylor Book Award committee, because I wanted a way to stay immersed in the world of Jewish kids’ books after my committee term ended.
Congratulations on 20 years of podcasting on The Book of Life! How has your podcast evolved over the years, and in what ways has it stayed the same?
When I started the show, the focus was much broader. I covered the Jewish arts more generally: not just children’s lit but also books for adults, as well as Jewish music, film, and web projects. I tightened the focus to “kidlit” when I realized I was rejecting all the pitches for everything else! Nothing else interests me the way children’s literature does.
Also, early episodes packed in several segments with different guests and topics. That amount of work was not sustainable, so after a while I switched to a deeper dive with a single guest in each episode.
A funny change is that in the early days, I had to explain to people what a podcast was! Now everyone is familiar with the concept, so I don’t have to walk listeners through the steps for accessing the show.
What are some of your favorite interviews that you’ve done? The most surprising? The ones that you look back and say, “I can’t believe I got to interview them!”?
Some of the guests who are my favorites because they are so easy to edit are Lesléa Newman, Joshua Levy, and Adam Gidwitz. They are particularly well-spoken and thoughtful. I’ve had all of them on the show multiple times and I’m so glad I can call them my friends!
I think one of the most surprising was actor/musician Theodore Bikel’s widow Aimee Ginsburg Bikel, who edited and published a short story he left behind and who turned out to be an amazing storyteller in her own right. The episode was “Theodore Bikel’s The City of Light” posted in December 2020. Another surprise was the author and Yiddish translator of You Be You, The Kid’s Guide to Gender, Sexuality, and Family in 2022. I was surprised at the existence of the Yiddish translation, and it was fascinating to hear about the purpose and the process.
A few guests who had me kind of starstruck were Alice Hoffman, talking about her YA book Incantation in 2006, staff of the TV show Shalom Sesame in 2010, and Dara Horn talking about her graphic novel One Little Goat AND about the whole arc of Jewish history(!) in March 2025.
We chatted in March 2023 about diverse Jewish books for kids and teens (including recommendations for children’s books for Purim), plus you have written numerous booklists for us with recommendations of diverse Jewish children’s books. Where does this passion for children’s books come from?
Children’s books are beautiful, meaningful, concise works of art that pass along culture from generation to generation. Children’s books are important, because they are absorbed in a deep way during the formative part of one’s life. And children’s books offer the best of humanity, showing the world as it is but also how it should be, offering hope that we can make the world better.
My passion for sharing Jewish children’s books is based on that hope, that these beautiful books can make the world a better place, serving as a validating mirror to Jewish readers and an illuminated window to others. Jews are only 2% of the US population (and only .2% of the world), so many readers may not know any Jews in real life. Befriending Jews through books may help inoculate kids against prejudice.
You emphasize diverse Jewish children’s books. What do you want people to understand about Jewish kidlit?
Like any group, Jews are not a monolith. Modern Jewish children’s/YA books reflect that fact. It’s wonderful to see the growing representation of not only Ashkenazi Jews (of European descent) but also Sephardic Jews (descended from those expelled from Spain in the Inquisition), Mizrahi Jews (from Arab lands of the Middle East), Jews from Africa and India, Latine Jews, Jews of Color, LGBTQ+ Jews, disabled and neurodiverse Jews, Jews from different observance traditions, secular Jews, and more.
What I most want people to understand is that Jewish kidlit is not just for Jewish readers. These are not religious texts, they are portraits of a culture. These are wonderful window books, and I want everyone to read them! They’re not just educational, they are great reads too!
On your website, you include resources for supporting Jewish kidlit and fighting anti-Semitism. Why is supporting Jewish authors and reading Jewish books for kids so important to fighting anti-Semitism and nurturing Jewish joy?
Children’s books are so formative and have so much impact on the reader’s life and outlook, so I feel that children who read Jewish books will empathize with Jews in real life. We know that the first step towards hate is dehumanization. Books are a weapon against hate because literature is a humanizing force.
The humanizing effect is also what makes kidlit so joyful! We love these books because we see ourselves in them, and that’s true for mirror books AND for window books. Books that show Jewish joy help remind ALL of us that Jewish life is beautiful and fulfilling, despite the many tragedies that have befallen our people over the years.
Supporting Jewish authors and books ensures that they’ll keep being published – the same is true for any minority! After the shooting at the Capitol Jewish Museum in May 2025 I recorded a podcast about ways to be supportive, and you can listen to it or read it HERE.
Do you remember the topic of your first podcast (or if it was an interview, who you interviewed?)
Yes, it’s easy to remember the first episode because every single episode is still available at www.bookoflifepodcast.com! You can still hear that very first episode from December 21, 2005 at https://jewishbooks.blogspot.com/2005/12/december-2005-book-of-life-on-hanukkah.html.
Here are the show notes listing the guests, a mix of authors and “local celebrities” from Congregation B’nai Israel where I am the Library Director. The theme was Hanukkah.
- Eric Kimmel, author of Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins
- CBI Youth Director Aley Sheer, reviewing Craig Taubman’s new CD The Hanukkah Lounge
- Author Rebecca Tova Ben-Zvi on her new book, Four Sides, Eight Nights
- CBI’s Rabbi Richard Agler, sharing a page from his personal “Book of Life”
- and a bonus track! Rabbi Robert Silvers sings “Thank God I’m a Jewish Boy!” (also available on the CD Now That Sounds Kosher!)
What is the future of The Book of Life podcast?
I love Jewish kidlit, I love talking to authors, and I love podcasting, so I’d be happy to keep going for another 20 years! In the meantime, I’m editing a retrospective episode for December 2025 that will sample audio from 2005 through now. And I’m planning to find a way to participate in Jewish Joy Con, next March in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
Where can readers find The Book of Life?
The website is at www.bookoflifepodcast.com, but this year I also started a newsletter at bookoflifepodcast.substack.com. I hope you’ll subscribe to the newsletter to get new episodes and their transcripts right in your inbox! The newsletter also includes Jewish kidlit news and calls to action. And if you have any questions, please do get in touch! My email is bookoflifepodcast@gmail.com.
Leanna
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Thank you, Heidi and Leanna, for all you do to promote multicultural children’s books! So proud to be part of this community with you both guiding the way.
Thanks for shining a light on Heidi! She does such great work promoting Jewish book joy!
Heidi is my hero! Thanks for this terrific interview!
Heidi has created such wonderful welcoming content which allows authors to share their insights. But also, I like hearing about a book that may not come across my radar otherwise for my own enjoyment or to expand my knowledge base. Thank you for including her in this series.
I started listening to Heidi’s podcast from the first one in 2005 when the idea of podcasting was practically unknown. She is the hardest working person in the world of Jewish children’s literature and has done so much to make it accessible to Jews and non-Jews the world over. Thank you for the highlighting her work!
Love this!! So helpful for school librarians to be sure Jewish kids feel seen.
Heidi is one of a kind! Thank you for the trip down memory and always pushing for recognition of Jewish Kid Lit.
Thanks for this interview, Heidi and Leanna! And congrats, Heidi, on 20 years of the Book of Life podcast. That is certainly a cause for celebration. Thank you for all you do, Heidi, to promote Jewish kidlit and the authors who write the books.