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, why I’ve been podcasting about Jewish children’s literature for 20 years on The Book of Life, and why I’ve 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 Ana María Shua, a very prolific Argentine author. Today, I’m thrilled to introduce you to A.R. Vishny, an award-winning debut author of Jewish paranormal romance. I interviewed her on The Book of Life Podcast in March 2025.
A.R. Vishny’s writing is engrossing, fascinating, and exciting. Her debut young adult novel Night Owls was about two estries (owl-shifting female vampires from Jewish folklore) who run an art house cinema in the Village in New York City. The book is full of adventure and romance, all illuminated by real history. I’m pleased to bring you this exclusive Jewish Joy interview for Multicultural Kid Blogs, and if you’d like to hear more from A.R. in her own voice, please click on the podcast link below.
Q&A with A.R. Vishny
THE BOOK OF LIFE: A.R., please describe your own Jewish identity, along with any other aspects of your identity that you’d like to share.
A.R. VISHNY: I am an Ashkenazi Jew. My mom is quintessentially “Jewish Boston” with a family descended of Jews who left Eastern Europe in different immigration waves. My dad is Israeli. His mother was a Kindertransport refugee born in Berlin and his father was born near Krakow, but as long as I knew him he called Buenos Aires home. I grew up in the Boston area and my family attended a Conservative synagogue, but as I’ve said elsewhere the thing that really has defined me is my very “culturally Jewish” upbringing, in the literal arts and culture sense. Jewish languages, music, art, and of course books were really critical pieces of how I, and my family, experienced and participated in Jewish life even when I was young, so writing and storytelling always felt like a natural extension of my own identity. For the last ten years, I’ve lived in New York City.
TBOL: Why is it important to you to include Jewish representation in your writing?
ARV: I remember at a fairly young age becoming aware of a disconnect between how I experienced being a Jew and being in a Jewish community, with how that was portrayed in pop culture.I was very aware of the fact that being Jewish wasn’t seen as “cool” and that this was predominantly a message I was getting from TV and film in particular. To the extent I was aware of Jews on screen, the depictions were dominated by really tired stereotypes of nebbishes (dorky, anxious men), princesses, and overbearing mothers. And even benign stock images and cultural markers didn’t really resonate. Books were, generally speaking, a better medium for nuance, but still there were significant gaps between what I saw on the page, and what I knew to be my reality. While the landscape has dramatically improved since I was young, it was, and still can be hard to find depictions of Jewish immigrants not set around nineteenth century pogroms or in the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust. It is exceedingly difficult to find children’s books about Israelis and Israeli-Americans that treat them as full people (as opposed to metaphors or political talking points) and is not itself focused on war. It is still very rare to see depictions of Sephardic Jews at all, and rare to see depictions of Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jews as family, friends, or romantic partners existing at the same time and in the same spaces and communities. A lot of the bubbles that fictional Jews frequently seem to exist in feel artificial to me. All of this is just some of why I didn’t really recognize my own family or friends of my family in these portrayals, all together it just doesn’t do justice to the diversity of experience in the contemporary Jewish world. People sometimes talk about “Ashkenormativity,” which is a term I really dislike and don’t use because I don’t even think Ashkenazi experiences are well represented in much of what’s historically been on offer in pop culture. I write what I write to put out into the world the kind of characters I do recognize, and a Jewish world that feels authentic to the one I move through, in the kind of books I like as a reader (so…ghosts and vampires).
TBOL: About being Jewish: what is hard, and what brings you joy?
ARV: Well, leaving aside the thousands of years of anti-Jewish bigotry, in author life, I feel like I’m always fighting with the perception that Jewish culture isn’t “cool” or interesting to someone who is not Jewish, which is the biggest obstacle when trying to sell a Jewish book. To the extent that there is mainstream interest in us, it’s often in a very limited set of topics. This is compounded by what often feels like ever-rising hostility to Jewish people and perspectives in the current culture and mainstream. It’s a real uphill battle against, simultaneously, an obsessive fixation on Jews by people who hate us and a lack of curiosity about what we’re actually like.
I get so much joy from that sense of family in Jewish spaces. And being a Jewish author is a specific kind of joy, because that kind of familiarity I’ve found extends across genres and disciplines. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to get to know Jewish authors not just in my corner of YA SFF, but in middle grade, picture books, adult romance, literary fiction, and more. Most of my big “pinch me” moments since publishing have involved getting to be in the company of creatives I admire and respect.
TBOL: What do you want the world to know about Jewish people?
ARV: Jewish culture is rich, varied, and interesting. The most mainstream depictions of Jewishness often flatten that, and reduce Jewishness to surface level kitsch, anxiety, or jokes about digestive issues. There is so much more to Jewish culture and history than that, and it’s worth getting to know. Jewish people are worth getting to know!
TBOL: Tell us about any Jewish books you’ve written.
ARV: I am the author of Night Owls, a YA Paranormal about two Estries — bread-eating, owl-shifting women vampires from Jewish folklore — who run an indie cinema in Manhattan’s East Village. When the girlfriend of the younger sister disappears, they have to team up with the elder sister’s crush, a charming box-office attendant who can see dead people, to find her and fight a monstrous Manhattan underworld in the process. I am so proud of that book, which is exactly the book I wanted it to be, and I still sometimes can’t believe that I got to debut with it. There’s more from me in the works that I’ll hopefully be able to share soon-ish!
TBOL: What other Jewish books are you excited about, and why?
ARV: My copy of Hannah Reynolds’s A Practical Guide to Dating a Demon recently arrived and I’m so excited to dive in! People who know me know that I love Jewish demonology, and I’m always excited by fresh, fun takes on it. Aden Polydoros’s sequel to The City Beautiful, City of Slaughter is on the horizon, and I was so excited when that was announced, Aden’s work is always so cool and creepy. And last year’s I Wish I Didn’t Have To Tell You This by Eugene Yelchin was a breath-takingly good, nightmare-inducing (in the best way!) depiction of life as a young Jewish artist in the Soviet Union. It was one of the best things I read last year. In the adult space, I recently read Soon by You by Dahlia Adler, and while all of Dahlia’s books are excellent and worth reading, this might be my favorite yet, it’s so fun and so real.
TBOL: A.R., thank you for sharing your thoughts, and I hope we’ll see more published work from you soon!
Heidi Rabinowitz
Latest posts by Heidi Rabinowitz (see all)
- Jewish Joy with Adam Gidwitz - July 13, 2026
- Jewish Joy with A.R. Vishny - June 15, 2026
- Jewish Joy with Ana María Shua - May 18, 2026
