With winter holidays approaching, there’s only one thing everyone wants keeping them warm by candlelight on a dark winter’s night: a Jewish romance novel. You may laugh, but the subgenre is huge, spanning from rabbis to regency. What’s the deal? Are Jews reading this—or is it for curious gentiles? Tamar Fox, an author and editor, joins to explain the plots, the meaning and what the books actually do well.
After that, Instagram comedian and hazzan Orel Gozlan stops by to outline the impact of French Jewish comic Gad Elmaleh, who recently announced his conversion to Catholicism.
What we talked about
- Books mentioned: Hot Rabbi by Aviva Blakeman; Promised Land by Rose Lerner; Band Sinister by K.J. Charles; The Rabbi Who Prayed with Fire by Rachel Sharona Lewis; The Intimacy Experiment by Rosie Danan
- Listen to “Stages of Psychosexual Development” by Ryan Stotland
Credits
Bonjour Chai is hosted by Avi Finegold, Ilana Zackon and David Sklar. Zachary Kauffman is the producer and editor. Michael Fraiman is the executive producer. Our theme music is by Socalled. The show is a co-production from The Jewish Learning Lab and The CJN, and is distributed by The CJN Podcast Network. To learn how to support the show by subscribing to this podcast, please watch this video.