I’m Heidi Rabinowitz and I am so happy to be Jewish. The beautiful and varied customs, the focus on deep thought and learning, and the historical connections going back over the centuries, all bring me joy. That’s why I’ve dedicated my career to synagogue librarianship and why I’ve been podcasting about Jewish children’s literature for 20 years on The Book of Life, and established a new hub for Jewish kidlit this year at The Jewish Book Garden on Substack. That is also why I created the Jewish Joy series here at Multicultural Kid Blogs!
What?
I’m thrilled to share this Jewish Joy series for Multicultural Kid Blogs with you. I’ll be bringing you Q&A’s from diverse intersectional Jewish authors, showcasing the variegated tapestry of Jewish life and books. In each interview, I’ll link back to the author’s appearance on The Book of Life Podcast for you to hear their voice and learn more about them.
Why?
In these turbulent times with antisemitism at record highs, Jewish Joy is crucial. As poet Toi Derricotte says, joy is an act of resistance. Joyful books invite everyone in, so that Jewish stories can, in the words of Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop, become windows as well as mirrors, bringing hope, demystifying the Jewish experience, and building empathy and understanding.
Who?
In the last Jewish Joy post in this series, you met interfaith author Erica Lyons. Today, I’m thrilled to introduce you to Lee Wind, an author dedicated to providing positive representation of both the queer and Jewish experiences . I’ve interviewed Lee several times, most recently on The Book of Life Podcast in June 2025.
Lee’s writing is both heartfelt and educational. He’s also an activist, championing diverse reading with his long-running blog I’m Here, I’m Queer, What the Hell Do I Read? and his new project We Are Stronger than Censorship. I’m pleased to bring you this exclusive Jewish Joy interview for Multicultural Kid Blogs, and if you’d like to hear more from Lee in his own voice, please click on the podcast link below.
Q&A with Lee Wind
THE BOOK OF LIFE: Lee, please describe your own Jewish identity, along with any other aspects of your identity that you’d like to share.
LEE WIND: I see myself as culturally Jewish, super-grounded in the values I was raised in, both Jewish and American: Kindness to ourselves and others. Fairness. Empathy. Liberty and Justice for All. And from a very young age through today, I really internalized the vision and duty of Tikkun Olam –that our job as human beings is to help heal the world. To try and make things better.
TBOL: Why is it important to you to include Jewish representation in your writing?
LW: I was closeted about being gay for 14 years (from age 11 to 25) and that was really hard. Homophobia in 1970s and 80s suburban Philadelphia where I grew up was everywhere — and it was made worse by there not being any positive representation of gay people in any of the books I read. And I read voraciously.
There weren’t a lot of great representations of contemporary Jewish characters, either.
As an author, I find myself writing the books that would have changed my life as a Gay Jewish kid and teen. The hope is that the stories resonate for kids and teens today, and we all heal, together.
Even in a book that isn’t about a character being Jewish, I’ll often make the character Jewish, just to have that representation. Like in my YA action adventure romance series (A Different Kind of Brave and A Different Kind of Enemy) where the one of the heroes (Sam) is Gay and Jewish. it’s not a “Jewish book,” but it’s important to me that Sam is like my daughter, raised in a pretty secular way but with Jewish (from me) and Christian (from her other dad) cultural rituals. Representation matters!
TBOL: About being Jewish: what is hard, and what brings you joy?
LW: Antisemitism is hard, and its resurgence in America is disappointing.
I also find it frustrating that many Queer liberal spaces falsely equate Zionism (the belief that Jews should have a place in the world where they can live in peace) with the terrible policies of the current Israeli government and the war and destruction that’s happened in Gaza.
It has become a very black and white kind of thing, and there doesn’t seem to be much place in public discourse for the folks like me who don’t want anyone killed. For the folks like me who want everyone (Jews, Palestinians, other arabs, Israelis, etc…) to be able to somehow live together in peace.
I fear it will be generations before peace is possible in Israel and Gaza and the West Bank. There’s so much hate all around, and I sadly see that as intentional on the part of the current government in Israel.
It’s a very unpleasant parallel to the erosion of civil liberties and the rule of law here in the US under our current federal administration. They’re also fomenting hate intentionally, to make sure peace doesn’t happen. To keep fear transcendent. To scapegoat immigrants, and Trans people, erase Black and Queer history, and we Jews should know better.
What I see as joyful about being Jewish is our legacy of resistance, of survival, of hope. I love the idea of l’dor v’dor, that from generation to generation we’ve been working to make our world better, and I can be part of that chain. I am part of that chain, and that’s pretty amazing.
After two of my books (No Way, They Were Gay? and The Gender Binary Is a Big Lie) were repeatedly banned, I teamed with with Dr. Tasslyn Magnusson to come up with something that would help those of us on the side of the freedom to read play offense, rather than just defense. We co-created We Are Stronger Than Censorship, a program that raises funds to buy and donate two books to offset every one book challenge.
The idea is to make the numbers work against the book banners, and so far we’ve raised enough to buy and donate 5,000 books — offsetting 2,500 book challenges. It’s collective action that’s made that possible. We have over 80 organizations we’ve partnered with, hundreds of people donating, and I get to run the program as part of my day job as Chief Content Officer for the Independent Book Publishers Association.
It feels like Tikkun Olam in action, and along with all the other people and organizations and initiatives fighting for the freedom to read, that gives me hope.
TBOL: What do you want the world to know about Jewish people?
LW: We’re not a monolith.
TBOL: Tell us about any Jewish books you’ve written.
LW: Red and Green and Blue and White – a picture book (illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky) where a Jewish family whose house is decorated for Hanukkah experiences an act of hate (someone throws a stone through their window) and has to decide if they’re going to hide being Jewish or stand up. They stand up, and are joined by their friends and ultimately the entire town who come together to say we can celebrate our differences, that’s what it means to live together as a community. And it was inspired by a true story!
Banana Menorah – a picture book (illustrated by Karl West) where a two-dad family and their little girl are on vacation for the first night of Hanukkah. The dads remembered to pack the candles but forgot a menorah! Their daughter has to get creative to save the holiday, and that first night, a banana is her solution. The creativity (and silliness) grows from there.
No Way, They Were Gay – nonfiction for ages 11 and up. This overview of men who loved men, women who loved women, people who loved without regard to gender, and people who lived outside gender boundaries includes quite a few fascinating pieces of Jewish history too, including the famous Nazi book burning in 1933 in Berlin’s Opernplatz that was mainly destroying thousands of books from Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld’s institute to advocate for LGBTQ+ people (though we weren’t called that back then.) Magnus was Gay and Jewish. Also including Mohandas Gandhi whose soulmate wasn’t his wife Kasturba, but the German Jewish architect Hermann Kallenbach. The letters (and the love contract!) between Mohandas and Hermann are incredible.
The Gender Binary Is a Big Lie: Infinite Identities Around the World – nonfiction for ages 11 and up. Chapter 2 in this book is all about The Six Genders of Classical Judaism. Learning about the history of multiple genders in my own cultural heritage, like the Trans poem/prayer by Qalonymos ben Qalonymous from 1322 and all the resources from TransTorah today was so inspiring. I’ve never looked at twilight the same since.
And while my picture book Like THAT Eleanor: The Amazing Power of Being an Ally (illustrated by Kelly Mangan doesn’t have any overtly Jewish characters in it, it is very much a book about Tikkun Olam. About standing up as an ally, and so the theme of that feels very Jewish to me.
TBOL: What other Jewish books are you excited about, and why?
LW: A World Worth Saving by Kyle Lukoff – This empowering middle grade novel about a Trans kid navigating – and trying to save – our world full of mystical Jewish elements like demons and other spirits really blew me away.
Joyful Song: A Naming Story by Lesléa Newman, illustrated by Susan Gal – this beautiful picture book is incredibly heartfelt, with a little girl and her two moms taking their family’s new baby to the temple for a naming ceremony. Curious neighbors and friends see them on the way and ask the baby’s name… and the book builds like a parade as they all head to the temple to hear the little one’s name for the first time. So sweet. Queer, Jewish, and all about community.
TBOL: Lee, thank you for sharing these amazing stories with the world!
Heidi Rabinowitz
Latest posts by Heidi Rabinowitz (see all)
- Jewish Joy with Rachelle Burk - August 24, 2026
- Jewish Joy with Adam Gidwitz - July 13, 2026
- Jewish Joy with A.R. Vishny - June 15, 2026
Wonderful interview !! Am sharing!!
Jewish joy is listening to and learning about different perspectives. Thank you!