Jewish Joy with Joanne Levy

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 LGBTQ+ Jewish author/activist Lee Wind. Today, I’m thrilled to introduce you to Joanne Levy, a Canadian Jewish author who writes heartfelt realistic middle grade fiction. I have interviewed Joanne several times on The Book of Life: in 2020 about Fish Out of Water, in 2022 about Sorry For Your Loss, and in 2024 about Let It Glow, each time alongside other guests who’d authored books on related themes. The quote you’ll see at the end of this post is from her 2022 episode on the theme of “Good Grief” when Joanne’s co-panelists were Emily Barth Isler (Aftermath) and Tyler Feder (Dancing at the Pity Party).

Joanne’s writing is both sensitive and humorous. Her characters are quirky and real. I’m pleased to bring you this exclusive Jewish Joy interview for Multicultural Kid Blogs, and if you’d like to hear more from Joanne in her own voice, please click on the podcast link below.

Q&A with Joanne Levy

THE BOOK OF LIFE: Joanne, please describe your own Jewish identity, along with any other aspects of your identity that you’d like to share.

JOANNE LEVY: I identify largely as a secular Jew. As a child, I attended Hebrew school, celebrated holidays, and went to synagogue occasionally, but I’ve never felt very connected to the religious part of Judaism. Yet I am all-in on the spiritual and cultural aspects of being Jewish! I care about Jewish values—doing good deeds, repairing the world, being a good, kind, loving person, getting together with friends and family often, and consuming delicious traditional Ashkenazi foods like brisket, kugel, and bagels.

In May 2023 I visited Israel as part of the PJ Library Israel Author Adventure, which cemented my connection to the Jewish homeland. One of my biggest takeaways that I never expected: when I was walking the streets of Jerusalem with a couple of author friends, I realized that for the first time in my entire life, I felt safe as a Jew. My shoulders relaxed and I was able to fully breathe. I hadn’t, until that moment, consciously realized that I never felt fully safe presenting as a Jew. The undertones of antisemitism and generational traumas and fears are always there and I had never been unburdened until then. I understood, for the first time, why Jews move to Israel, even as fraught a place as it may seem to Westerners like myself. 

My Jewish identity has changed and grown since October 7, 2023, when Hamas burst into Israel, murdering and kidnapping innocent Israelis. Since then, I feel a fierce protectiveness of that place where I felt so at home. The term Zionist has been co-opted to be a slur but all it really means is someone who believes in the Jewish people exercising our right to self-determination in our only historic, ancestral, and indigenous homeland. It doesn’t mean not allowing others to live in that homeland – just ask the 2 million Arabs who live in Israel who have the same rights as Jews who have the same rights as Christians. So to answer your question: I’m a cultural Jew and a staunch Zionist.

TBOL: Why is it important to you to include Jewish representation in your writing?

JL: I was one of a small handful of Jewish kids in my neighborhood where, at best, I rarely felt seen, and at worst had to deal with overt antisemitism. There was no talk of our heritage, culture, or history beyond what we learned about the Holocaust, implying that we were a people that existed as victims in history and only on the periphery in modern times. 

I want to portray what it means to be Jewish today and to do that, it’s my job to feature Jewish representation in my books. A great way to build empathy and make kids hate-proof, is to ensure they read diversely and learn about other peoples. That includes Jews. You can’t say you have a diverse library if it doesn’t include books about Jewish people or if the only books containing Jews are about the Holocaust.

My books have varying degrees of Jewish content, from characters simply identifying as Jewish to fully Jewish settings like the funeral home in Sorry For Your Loss — but all my books feature Jewish kids living in our modern times. 

TBOL: About being Jewish: what is hard, and what brings you joy?

JL: Being a Jew in these times is hard. Having to see what happened on October 7^th and beyond is hard. Watching people get caught up in false narratives and protesting from a place of disinformation is hard. Trying to educate others when the zone is flooded with hate is hard. But what brings me joy is belonging to a community that gets it. Never feeling alone because I always have an extended family I can turn to. And my work—I always find joy in writing books for kids.

TBOL: What do you want the world to know about Jewish people?

JL: We are not a monolith of tired old tropes of overbearing mothers and thrifty fathers. We don’t own the banks, we don’t run Hollywood (look at history to see where those stereotypes came from – they’re nearly always a case of Jews having to carve their own paths because they were excluded!) We are loving, vibrant, diverse, and are committed to seeing peace in the world.

TBOL: Tell us about any Jewish books you’ve written.

JL: How much time do you have? All my books have Jewish characters and varying degrees of Jewish content. To tell you about a few, I cover topics like antisemitism wrapped in a Purim holiday party (The Book of Elsie), grief (Sorry For Your Loss, All the Things We Found), being away from home for the first time (The Sun Will Come Out), sexism and stereotypes (Fish Out of Water), bullying and the desire for a pet (Bird Brain), and ADHD and normalizing menstruation in my upcoming How to Walk a Dog. All of these books are told through a Jewish lens because that’s how I see the world.

TBOL: What other Jewish books are you excited about, and why?

JL: Thank you for asking! I’m always excited about sharing Jewish books. I’m particularly excited about Last Known Address: The Stumbling Stones of Europe by Kathy Kacer. It’s about a project by artist Gunter Demnig that memorializes Holocaust victims with brass plaques embedded into the cobblestones outside the victims’ last voluntary addresses. The book shares their stories. Full disclosure: Kathy is a dear friend but this piece of history is new to me and I can’t wait to learn more. I admire Kathy’s steadfast commitment to telling Holocaust stories to ensure new generations never forget. 

I’m also looking forward to digging into a couple of recent releases that I haven’t gotten to yet: Max in the Land of Lies: A Tale of World War II by Adam Gidwitz and Neshama by Marcella Pixley.

TBOL: Joanne, thank you for sharing so much of your personal story and for giving us so much wonderful Jewish representation in your writing!

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Heidi Rabinowitz

Library Director at Congregation B'nai Israel of Boca Raton, FL

Heidi Rabinowitz hosts The Book of Life Podcast, a show about Jewish kidlit (mostly) at www.bookoflifepodcast.substack.com. She moderates the Facebook group Jewish Kidlit Mavens for people who have a strong interest in Jewish children's literature, and is co-founder of The Jewish Book Garden on Substack. She's the Library Director at Congregation B'nai Israel in Boca Raton, Florida, and does 25+ preschool storytimes every week.

Latest posts by Heidi Rabinowitz (see all)

• Jewish Joy with Rachelle Burk - August 24, 2026
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