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A USA Today Bestseller for 29 weeks!
Featured in the Washington Post
Inspired a stage adaptation, a global Substack, and 100+ events
"Zibby Owens has done the literary world a great service, collecting important views at a critical moment in history. As she says, this is not a time to lower your voice. Kudos to her and all the authors here for sharing valuable insight, emotion, and perspective on the often misunderstood Jewish experience.”
—Mitch Albom, author of Tuesdays With Morrie
On October 7th, 2023, Israel was attacked in the largest pogrom since the Holocaust. Jews around the world felt a collective shock and a renewed urgency to speak, gather, and hold one another closer. On Being Jewish Now is an intimate, hopeful, funny, moving, and deeply meaningful collection of essays about what it means to be Jewish in this moment, and the unique culture that brings this group together.
Edited by Zibby Owens, bestselling author, podcaster, bookstore owner, and CEO of Zibby Media, this collection brings together 75 authors, advocates, actors, rabbis, and cultural voices reflecting on Jewish joy, celebration, humor, food, identity, loss, love, family, and the ties that connect Jewish people across generations and geographies. Together, these essays offer a portrait of a community changed by tragedy but still rooted in memory, meaning, and stubborn hope.
For Jewish readers, On Being Jewish Now offers the comfort of recognition and the reminder that you are not alone. For allies, friends, and loved ones, it offers an honest, accessible window into what many Jews have been carrying since October 7th, and why Jewish culture, humor, history, and connection remain so powerful.
All profits will be donated to Artists Against Antisemitism.
Contributors:
Abby Stern
Ali Rosen
Alison Hammer
Alison Rose Greenberg
Alix Strauss
Aliza Licht
Alli Frank
Alyssa Rosenheck
Amy Blumenfeld
Amy Ephron
Amy Klein
Anna Ephron Harari
Annabelle Gurwitch
Barri Leiner Grant
Bess Kalb
Beth Ricanati
Bradley Tusk
Brenda Janowitz
Cara Mentzel
Caroline Leavitt
Corie Adjmi
Courtney Sheinmel
Danny Grossman
Daphne Merkin
Dara Kurtz
Dara Levan
David K. Israel
David Christopher Kaufman
Debbie Reed Fischer
Diana Fersko
Eleanor Reissa
Elizabeth Cohen Hausman
Elizabeth L. Silver
Elyssa Friedland
Emily Tisch Sussman
Harper Kincaid
Heidi Shertok
Ilana Kurshan
Jacqueline Friedland
Jamie Brenner
Jane L. Rosen
Jeanne Blasberg
Jennifer S. Brown
Jenny Mollen
Jeremy Garelick
Jill Zarin
Joanna Rakoff
Jonathan Santlofer
Judy Batalion
Julia DeVillers
Keren Blankfeld
Lihi Lapid
Lisa Barr
Lisa Kogan
Lynda Cohen Loigman
Mark Feuerstein
Nicola Kraus
Noa Yedlin
Rebecca Keren Jablonski
Rachel Barenbaum
Rachel Levy Lesser
Rachelle Unreich
Rebecca Minkoff
Rebecca Raphael
Renee Rosen
Rochelle B. Weinstein
Samantha Ettus
Samantha Greene Woodruff
Sharon Brous
Shirin Yadegar
Stacy Igel
Steve Leder
Talia Carner
Toby Rose
Zibby Owens
“Zibby Owens has done the literary world a great service, collecting important views at a critical moment in history. As she says, this is not a time to lower your voice. Kudos to her and all the authors here for sharing valuable insight, emotion, and perspective on the often misunderstood Jewish experience.”
—Mitch Albom, author of Tuesdays With Morrie
“Sharing our stories has always been a strength of the people of the book. This collection is a prime example of the power of the pen to unite, connect, and inspire.”
—Noa Tishby, New York Times bestselling author of Uncomfortable Conversations with a Jew and Israel: A Simple Guide to the Most Misunderstood Country on Earth
“Seventy-five writers, including Daphne Merkin, Annabelle Gurwitch and The Post’s David Christopher Kaufman share thoughts on Jewish faith and culture—and how both have been tested and reimagined in the year since the Hamas attack on Israel.”
—New York Post “The Best New Books this Week”
“Owens . . . gathers more than 70 thought-provoking essays from Jewish writers, actors, artists, and religious leaders . . . It’s a revealing look at the wide range of responses to a sad chapter in Jewish history.”
—Publishers Weekly
“With a new anthology, author and publisher Zibby Owens brings together dozens of writers to talk about Jewish life after Oct. 7th.”
—Tablet
“With more than 70 meaningful, smart, funny, sad, emotional and inspiring essays from writers, actors, artists and religious leaders, On Being Jewish Now is a time capsule, containing a wide range of voices from around the world.”
—Jewish Journal
“The book’s subject is heavy: living Jewishly in an era where it’s fraught to do so. But the reading itself is breezy; each essay is just a few pages, sharply written and with plenty of humor (of course) and even challah recipes (again, of course) mixed in with sadness and reflection . . . some essays are funny. Others are serious. They contain a mix of outlooks and histories; trauma and hope. The anthology itself is a sweeping emotional touchstone.”
—Jewish Boston
“A powerful volume.”
—Association of Jewish Libraries
Zibby Owens is the bestselling author of Blank: A Novel, Bookends: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Literature, and Princess Charming. She is the editor of two anthologies: Moms Don’t Have Time To: A Quarantine Anthology and Moms Don’t Have Time To Have Kids: A Timeless Anthology.
Zibby is the founder and CEO of Zibby Media, which includes the Zibby Publishing boutique publishing house, Zibby’s Bookshop, an independent bookstore in Santa Monica, CA, the award-winning daily podcast Totally Booked with Zibby, which she hosts, Zibby’s Book Club, and Zibby Retreats for book lovers.