More in ‘Sara Ivry’

Illustration by Paul Rogers

Novelist Steve Stern wasn’t raised in a traditional Jewish home—indeed, he says, his childhood in Memphis was virtually devoid of “heritage.” But he has made up for that as an adult, delving deeply into Jewish history, fiction, liturgy, and mysticism in his work. All of that comes into play in The Frozen ...

Joy Ladin is a poet and a professor of English at Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women. For most of her life, though, she was a man named Jay, and her biological sex was a source of deep unhappiness. And so three years ago, Jay decided to start the process of becoming a woman. His marriage fell apart, and he worried about how the world would receive him after he became a woman.

According to Jewish law, women are considered impure during their monthly period and are not allowed to have sexual relations or even casually touch their husbands until seven “clean” days have passed and they have immersed in the mikveh, or ritual bath. For Orthodox women, going to the mikveh is a fact of life from the time of their marriage until menopause. But as Varda Polak-Sahm discovered while researching her new book, The House of Secrets: The Hidden World of the Mikveh (translated from the Hebrew by Anne Hartstein Pace), in Israel, many secular women also choose to use the mikveh. Polak-Sahm spoke to Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry from her home in Jerusalem about the power of the mikveh for both the observant and the secular, the women-only rituals that take place within the mikveh’s walls, and her own vastly different immersion experiences before her first and second weddings.

Historian David Cesarani combed through newly released archival materials from Mandatory Palestine to uncover the role Roy Farran, a 26-year-old Special Air Service major, played in the abduction and death of a 16-year-old Jewish boy from Jerusalem, an event that further strengthened resolve for the establishment of Israel. Cesarani spoke to Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry from his home in London about Major Farran’s Hat: The Untold Story of the Struggle to Establish the Jewish State, his new history of the period.

The Grand Concourse, a major thoroughfare in the Bronx loosely modeled after the Champs Elysee, turns 100 this year. Back in the 1920s and 30s, the Concourse was considered among the best addresses to have, particularly if you were an upwardly mobile Jew. Several decades later, though, things changed radically; the Bronx became an emblem of urban decay and violence. In Boulevard of Dreams: Heady Times, Heartbreak, and Hope Along the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, out later this month from NYU Press, Constance Rosenblum traces the rise and fall and rise again of this historic artery. She speaks with Vox Tablet host Sara Ivry about the art deco monuments that characterized the Grand Concourse, Jews’ affinity for apartment living, and the forces that contributed to its mid-century decline.