Instead, the “book club” is actually a biweekly podcast about Jewish romance novels. Hosted by close friends and stepsisters Malya Levin and Rachel Mintz — who goes by her “Hebrew” name, Raizel, on the show — the duo discuss a different Jewish-themed romance novel each episode while simultaneously unpacking their Jewish identities and their experiences dating in New York City.

The podcast’s name, Hanukkah Erotica, came from a nickname Mintz coined for a genre that she didn’t even know existed until one year ago. That’s when she read her first-ever Jewish romance novel, “I’ll Be Home for Hanukkah” by KK Hedrin, about a big-city Jewish girl named Shayna Adler who finds herself living out a bizarre Hallmark Christmas-movie fantasy with a Jewish colleague when they get stuck in North Pole, Alaska over the holiday.

“I was very connected to the material,” Mintz told the New York Jewish Week. “It felt very nostalgic to the early 20s Malya and I experienced.”

Levin concurs. “Our relationship really formed during our early 20s on the Upper West Side, when we were coming into our own Jewish identities and having a lot of funny, stereotypical young single Jewish woman experiences,” she said.

Mintz and Levin, both 39, met shortly after they graduated college, when their parents started dating. They quickly became close as Mintz was looking to move to the Upper West Side. Levin was already living there, and as they became involved in the Jewish communities in the neighborhood, their social circles began to intertwine.

Now married with children — Brooklynite and elder abuse lawyer Levin has four and New Jersey-based Mintz has two — the podcast gives them an opportunity to spend time with each other, bonding over their mutually beloved book genre.

Jewish romance novels are a burgeoning genre that are written about Jewish protagonists, usually by Jewish authors. Like other publishing categories, romance has become more diverse in recent years, with novels centering on people of color, gay and lesbian characters and the neurodivergent. Authors like Elissa Sussman — author of “Funny You Should Ask” — and Jean Meltzer — author of “The Matzah Ball” and “Kissing Kosher” — have released best-selling novels in the last few years about Jewish protagonists seeking love. Jewish romance authors have attempted to change the narrative about Jewish stories to include joy and positivity — as the genre rule of romance is that there always has to be a happily ever after.

Then there’s The Ripped Bodice, a romance-only bookstore owned by Jewish sisters Leah and Bea Koch with locations in Brooklyn and Culver City, California. “We’re very passionate about fostering diverse narratives in romance novels,” Leah told the New York Jewish Week. “Highlighting Jewish representation in this genre is so important, especially for a group of people that is almost entirely represented by stories of tragedy. We love to introduce people to Jewish stories of love and joy.”

To that end, the Brooklyn bookstore is hosting Hanukkah Erotica’s first-ever live show on Dec. 13. Leah Koch calls the Hanukkah-themed event “a celebration of Jewish identity and inclusivity.”

“For us, it’s brought about a lot of thinking about our Jewish identity, Jewish practice,” Mintz said of the Hanukkah Erotica Book Club. “It sounds silly, but these books have made us think about a lot of aspects about Jewish identity and Jewish peoplehood.”

Mintz, a preschool director and adjunct professor, told the New York Jewish Week she has read romance novels for as long as she can remember; she treated the genre as “a palate cleanser between ‘great books,’” she said.

Levin, meanwhile, had never read a romance novel when Mintz convinced her to read “I’ll Be Home for Hanukkah.” She admits she had many preconceived notions about the genre and was surprised by how much the novel resonated with her — right down to the protagonist bringing packets of tuna with her on vacation.

“Was this written for anyone except for me?” Levin recalls thinking. “That’s what it felt like.”

Mintz was shocked by the amount of feedback she got from friends after sharing passages and quotes from Jewish romance novels on Instagram — they were fascinated by these novels and wanted to know more about them, she said.

“It seemed like people were coming out of the woodwork and seemed interested in engaging in this conversation about this Jewish romance book,” Mintz said. “And I know Malya and I kind of banter and have this rapport. So when she said ‘this book is speaking to me,’ I knew we needed to book club this together and do it on a podcast.”

Now 38, the stepsisters and close friends, shown here in 2010, met as young women in the Upper West Side. (Courtesy)

Levin and Mintz give the impression of being in conversation with their audience, almost as if one is not listening to a podcast, but rather chatting with old friends.

That’s by design: The duo wanted “Hanukkah Erotica” to resemble a book club that discusses the books in the context of their lives. Both Mintz and Levin go into rambles about previous jobs, dating experiences and different segments of the romance community, giving listeners an insight into their lives. Their dynamic is casual and funny without trying to be.

“I don’t know that we could talk about these books without weaving our own personal experiences in, because that’s part of why we like these books,” Mintz said. “If they’re speaking to us, they’re probably speaking to other people.”

The stepsisters, while sharing a similar sense of humor and interests, grew up in very different Jewish communities: Levin grew up Orthodox in Brooklyn and Passaic, New Jersey, while Mintz was a member of a Conservative synagogue in Great Neck, New York. As Mintz and Levin draw upon their Jewish backgrounds, each host has moments when she can connect to aspects of a book that the other cannot.

On the podcast, which is produced by Levin’s husband, William, the pair often debate the novels’ depictions of Judaism and whether they find them to be accurate. They’ve taken on topics like whether an author took creative license when describing a Jewish deli that serves brisket and latkes with sour cream, or whether or not anyone goes to a Wednesday night Torah reading as a social event. (Turns out, said Levin, that some of their listeners do.)

One year and 25 episodes after starting “Hanukkah Erotica,” many aspects of the podcast have changed. What was initially conceived as a short-term podcast only focusing on Hanukkah romance evolved into a broader discussion about the Jewish romance genre.

“Once we finished Hanukkah, we didn’t feel done,” Mintz added. “Once we realized there was more out there in Jewish romance, we still wanted to have this conversation.”

They’ve since delved into High Holiday romances, Purim romances and Jewish summer camp romances. In the process, Mintz and Levin have realized that the world of Jewish romance extends into all the subgenres and tropes that non-religious romance does.

The podcast has also devoted episodes to Jewish romantic movies and television, featuring guest stars like Aleeza Ben Shalom from the Netflix reality show “Jewish Matchmaking” and Jonah Platt, star of Hulu’s 2022 holiday film, “Menorah in the Middle.”

With Hanukkah beginning on Thursday evening, Dec. 7, the pair are planning for their live Hanukkah episode to be about “Eight Kinky Nights” by Xan West, a novel described as “kinky polyamorous Chanukah f/f romance.” (F/f stands for “female/female.”) They also plan to cover “Round and Round,” the new Hallmark Hanukkah movie starring Bryan Greenberg — who they hope to get on the podcast — as well as “Eight Dates and Nights,” a new teen romance by Betsey Alderedge.

“For us, it’s brought about a lot of thinking about our Jewish identity, Jewish practice,” Mintz said of the Hanukkah Erotica Book Club. “It sounds silly, but these books have made us think about a lot of aspects about Jewish identity and Jewish peoplehood.”

“The idea that Jewish Jewish readers like us can find themselves in any of these books, I think, is exciting. And we want to kind of broadcast that and highlight it,” Mintz said.

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Benjamin “Yellow Benjy” Melendez was the son of Puerto Rican Jewish immigrants and the leader of a multicultural gang called the Ghetto Brothers that promoted peace. After his comrade Cornell “Black Benjie” Benjamin was beaten to death in 1971 while trying to break up a fight, Melendez brokered a truce among 50 gangs that led to safer streets, a flourishing of public art and, ultimately, the birth of hip-hop.

Julian Voloj, an occasional Jewish Telegraphic Agency contributor who is married to New York Jewish Week managing editor Lisa Keys, published a graphic novel about Melendez in 2015. Now he has co-written and co-produced a five-part podcast about the Ghetto Brothers that debuted on Audible last month in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of hip-hop.

“Can You Dig It?” includes interviews with former gang members and historians, dramatic reenactments of key moments in the Ghetto Brothers’ history and recordings of Melendez, who died in 2017. Chuck D of the legendary rap group Public Enemy narrates the series, and Coke La Rock — who rapped at what is considered to be the first hip-hop party, on Aug. 11, 1973 — spits a few bars and shares some memories.

Melendez’s ancestors were crypto-Jews from Spain who practiced Judaism in secret to avoid persecution during the Inquisition and afterward. Likewise, he kept his faith under wraps during his gang years. While he forbade members of the Ghetto Brothers from wearing swastikas to appear tough, he never explained why the symbol offended him. Later in life, he embraced his Jewish roots and prayed at the Bronx’s Intervale Jewish Center.

RELATED: From Rick Rubin to Doja Cat, Jews have helped shape the first 50 years of hip-hop

Voloj, who lives in Queens, spoke with the New York Jewish Week this week about hip-hop history and how Melendez’s Jewishness has inspired his own projects on the genre.

This interview has been condensed and lightly edited.

JTA: When did you first hear about Benjamin Melendez?

JV: I started a photo series on Jewish diversity in 2005, and I always was looking for interesting characters to photograph. Someone recommended Yellow Benjy. He got his nickname because the mother of his first two kids was Chinese, and there were a lot of other Benjamins in the neighborhood. So I called him up and we met up in the Bronx in 2010 at the stairs where Cornell Benjamin was murdered.

That first meeting was really meant to be just one photograph, but he had this fascinating story and we hit it off. I guess it had to do with my own Latinx, Jewish identity — my parents are Colombian — so we really had a lot in common. When Yellow Benjy died, my kids thought that he was a real relative because they had seen him so many times. He was Uncle Benjy to them. 

Benjamin Melendez in 2010. (Julian Voloj)

At its heart, “Can You Dig It?” is a story about gangs of disenfranchised youth fighting over turf. What’s the connection between gangs and hip-hop?

Every culture is part of a certain environment in which it was created. The realities of the 1970s Bronx, there were no youth activities, so the gangs in a way filled this void. Obviously “gang” is a term that’s not one size fits all.

After the Hoe Avenue peace meeting, the Ghetto Brothers invited other gangs into their territory for street parties. There is a direct connection to the early hip-hop parties. The philosophy of early hip-hop was about peace, love, unity and having fun. Only later on did you have gangsta rap with its glorification of violence.

Scholar Joe Schloss says on the podcast that people were always surprised to learn Melendez was Jewish and calls him “a perfect example of what it means to be Jewish in the world in a way that was very different from sort of stereotypical notions of what Jewish is.” Do you agree?

It was one of my main motivations to tell Yellow Benjy’s story in the graphic novel “Ghetto Brother.” He was a proud Puerto Rican Sephardic Jew, and it was a story that was missing from the overall canon on Jewish identity. It was also important that his children have Jewish names, and so his kids have names like Judah, Zipporah, Sarah, Rebecca, Joshua. And with them, his legacy lives on.

Several Jewish personalities are mentioned in the podcast. Can you share a little bit about them?

You have all different aspects of Jewish identity in the story. There’s Benjamin Melendez, who’s a Puerto Rican crypto-Jew. Then you have Robert Moses who comes from a German-Jewish family. The Cross Bronx Expressway is the legacy that he’s most associated with, which really accelerated urban decay and white flight.

Then you have Rita Fecher, whose father was a rabbi. She grew up Orthodox, then divorced her husband and lived as a single mom in the Chelsea Hotel in Manhattan. Fecher was an art teacher at a school in the South Bronx, and she was such a positive influence on all these kids who had never met any Jews. She really cared about them. She allowed them to find their own voice and helped them to think about art. She’s the kind of teacher you wish would exist more.

From left: Pete Chelala, Angelique Lenox, Julian Voloj and Bryan Master at the Cornell Benjamin street renaming ceremony in the Bronx, June 2, 2023. (Courtesy of Voloj)

And she co-produced with Henry Chalafant the 1993 documentary about gang life titled “Flyin’ Cut Sleeves.” How did that come about?

She brought a video camera to the Bronx in the late ’60s, early ’70s, and she gave the kids the camera to document their own lives, which was unheard of. Over a decade later, she tried to track down her former students and see where they ended up. That’s really the powerful thing: you see these angry kids who feel left behind and then you see that everything somehow worked out.

For me, the fascinating part of “Flyin’ Cut Sleeves” is you see Yellow Benjy at the Intervale Jewish Center, the last synagogue of the South Bronx. He goes to services and he’s with Moishe Sacks, who was the rabbi there.

Each episode of “Can You Dig It?” ends with a song by the Ghetto Brothers band, which was fronted by Melendez. Did he rap too?

He really didn’t like hip-hop. It wasn’t his music. He was more of a Beatles fan. He liked Santana.

Although he wasn’t a hip-hop artist, he has a direct connection to the hip-hop troika of [DJ Kool] Herc, Bambaataa, and Grandmaster Flash. Like Herc, he was once a member of the Cofon Cats [gang]. He was friends with Afrika Bambaataa, who may or may not have participated in the Hoe Avenue peace meeting. Grandmaster Flash, who is slightly younger, knew about the Ghetto Brothers growing up and mentions them in his autobiography.

Who is this podcast for?

Anybody who’s interested in nonfiction audio storytelling. Anybody who’s interested in the history of New York. The bookends of every episode are scripted reenactments, like they use in film documentaries. They really allow listeners to dive in and experience the Bronx in the 1970s.

For the hip-hop community, it allows people to discover a different origin story. You can argue over whether hip-hop is really 50 or not because there are so many origin stories. This is one of them.

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But the former late-night host interviews “regular” people, too, and sandwiched between two recent episodes — featuring “The Office” star Ed Helms and “You” star Penn Badgely — listeners can hear O’Brien crack jokes about Jewish life with a New York rabbi.

David Schuck, who is the rabbi at New Rochelle’s Conservative Beth El Synagogue Center, appeared on the Dec. 29 episode of “Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend,” where he discussed his job as a congregational rabbi. 

“I honestly did not expect to be chosen to be on his podcast,” Schuck told the New York Jewish Week via email. “I just thought it would be a thrill to meet him, and it was.”

Schuck said that he has “always been a fan of Conan,” adding that anyone can fill out a form online to be considered a guest on the show.

“He is a brilliant comedian with a rich intellectual life and he seems sincerely interested in other people,” Schuck said. “The wonderful thing about Conan is that as far as I could tell, he is who he seems to be. There was no pretense with him or anything performative that changed when the audio was not being recorded.”

In one segment of the episode that was featured on the comedian’s YouTube page, O’Brien joked about accidentally mistaking foreskin for calamari at a bris — eliciting both groans and laughter from Schuck and O’Brien’s crew.  

Schuck then shared that he buried his son’s foreskin behind home plate at a baseball field in Central Park. 

“What a terrible image,” O’Brien said. 

Conan, who is an Irish Catholic, said he grew up in an area of Boston where he was surrounded by synagogues. “Many of my friends were Jewish,” O’Brien said. “I think I went to many more bar mitzvahs when I was a kid than first communions or any other Christian ceremony.”

“You ended up in a good place, in Hollywood,” Schuck joked.

“What the hell?” Conan said laughing. “Tone it down, David. It’s not true, there are no Jewish people in Hollywood. It’s all Mormons. It’s the Mormons that control Hollywood.” 

O’Brien asked Schuck if he wears anything outside of synagogue that would identify him as a rabbi, or if Schuck can “go undercover.” 

The rabbi replied that he does get recognized frequently, adding that when he runs to the grocery store for some chips, he might then find himself “counseling somebody in aisle six around a cancer diagnosis.” 

“When I am not in New Rochelle or Westchester, I never tell people I am a rabbi, ever,” Schuck said. 

Schuck told the New York Jewish Week that he did not let his synagogue know in advance that he would be on O’Brien’s podcast. 

“People were surprised, and they were excited to hear us establish a sincere connection with one another,” Schuck said. “In a strange way, people were touched that Conan felt genuinely grateful for the ways in which rabbis serve their communities.” 

On the podcat, O’ Brien riffed on New Rochelle, saying that he grew up fantasizing about living there because “The Dick Van Dyke Show” was set in the upscale northern suburb of New York City. 

“If I could live in New Rochelle and be married to Mary Tyler Moore and write comedy,” O’Brien said. “Well, one of those came true.” 

The rabbi added that Conan is always welcome to visit New Rochelle.

“I bet I could convince the mayor, Noam Bramson, to give him the key to the city,” Schuck told the New York Jewish Week. “I make a mean cholent if Conan wants to share a Shabbat meal with us. Otherwise, this will just go down as a thrilling opportunity to chat with someone whom I admire.”

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 “Anyone who knows me knows that I have no hate in my heart nor malice intention,” he wrote Monday in a Facebook post. “I do not condone hate speech nor the spread of hateful rhetoric. We are living in a time when it is more important than ever to promote unity and understanding.”

Cannon was responding to the release late last month of his interview with Richard “Professor Griff” Griffin, who performed with the rap group Public Enemy. Griffin was kicked out of Public Enemy in 1989 for making anti-Semitic remarks in an interview with The Washington Post in which he reportedly said that Jews were responsible “for the majority of wickedness that goes on across the globe.”

In his “Cannon’s Class” video podcast, Cannon calls Black people the “true Hebrews,” and he praises Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, saying that “every time I’ve heard him speak, it’s positive, it’s powerful, it’s uplifting,” and that Farrakhan “has been demonized.” Farrakhan has called Jews “termites” and denounced the “Synagogue of Satan.”

“In today’s conversation about anti-racism and social justice, I think we all — including myself — must continue educating one another and embrace uncomfortable conversations — it’s the only way we ALL get better. I encourage more healthy dialogue and welcome any experts, clergy, or spokespersons to any of my platforms to hold me accountable and correct me in any statement that I’ve made that has been projected as negative,” Cannon also wrote.

He said that “I hold myself accountable for this moment and take full responsibility.”

Cannon told the Fast Company website that a few rabbis have reached out in the wake of the video and that he plans to have them on his podcast.

“I can’t wait to sit down with some people that can help educate me and help further this conversation. I want to be corrected,” he said.

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The series launched this week with the testimony of Martin Schiller, a Jewish man from Poland who described his experiences in the concentration and slave labor camps of Plaszow, Skarzysko-Kamienna, Buchenwald and Theresienstadt. Plaszow serves as the setting for the film “Schindler’s List,”

Titled “Those Who Were There,” the podcast has narration by Eleanor Reissa, an actress and Yiddish theater director, and historical oversight by Professor Samuel Kassow. It features testimonies collected from 1979 onward.

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“The Shrink Next Door,” rated No. 1 for three weeks straight on Apple’s Podcast charts, is about a Manhattan psychiatrist, Dr. Isaac “Ike” Herschkopf, known for treating — and name-dropping — an array of celebrity patients while becoming well known in Jewish and literary philanthropic circles.

The podcast, written and hosted by Bloomberg columnist Joe Nocera, is mostly about Martin Markowitz, a longtime patient of Herschkopf, who says he spent most of his life – more than 30 years – under Herschkopf’s sway. In six episodes — a seventh comes out this week — Nocera describes how the psychiatrist isolated Markowitz from his friends and family and encouraged him not to pursue potential marriage partners.

There’s more: “Shrink” describes how Herschkopf became president of Markowitz’s theatrical fabrics business, created a charitable foundation almost entirely with Markowitz’s money, and got the foundation and his wife named in Markowitz’s will after his patient removed his sister and her children at the psychiatrist’s suggestion.

In the meantime, Herschkopf collected more than $3 million in fees from Markowitz over three decades, Markowitz told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency this week in an interview at his estate here.

It’s the same wooded, bucolic property that figures prominently in the podcast: Nocera lives next door, and while it belongs to Markowitz, Herschkopf managed to commandeer it and present it as his own for 26 years — relegating Markowitz to guest quarters at the back of the compound.

Herschkopf has claimed that Markowitz was a willing partner in everything, and Nocera’s wife speaks for many listeners when she says at one point, “It takes two to tango.” Markowitz admits he was vulnerable and willingly followed his psychiatrist’s instructions. Nevertheless, the podcast explores the professional ethics of a psychiatrist insinuating himself into the personal, family and financial life of a patient to the degree that Herschkopf did.

Since the podcast debuted last month, Herschkopf has faced professional consequences.

Last weekend he disappeared from the New York University Medical School’s website. He resigned voluntarily, Herschkopf told JTA in a telephone interview.

Over the weekend Herschkopf also resigned from FASPE, the Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics, on whose board of directors he sat, according to the board chair, David Goldman.

“We accepted his resignation. Please note that we did not do any independent investigation of the reporting contained within the podcast,” Goldman told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

In response to a message, Herschkopf called back JTA three times.

“I resigned [from NYU and FASPE] to spare them the adverse publicity Nocera was going to visit upon them,” Herschkopf said in one of the calls.

He called later to question Nocera’s motivation for the podcast, noting the journalist plays tennis on Markowitz’s court.

“One would presume that would compromise his neutrality,” the psychiatrist said.

Herschkopf also said that “90 percent of the podcast is untrue or out of context,” and that Nocera “has had a vendetta against me for 10 years,” dating back to when the reporter began investigating Markowitz’s claims.

Nocera replied to JTA that the podcast was “rigorously reported and fact checked to a fare-thee-well by me and the people at Wondery and Bloomberg,” which jointly produced the podcast.

The podcast has created a stir in Manhattan’s tight-knit philanthropic and Modern Orthodox Jewish circles. Herschkopf famously hosted  summer parties in the Hamptons that brought between 70 and 170 people on buses — chartered by Markowitz — to the house whose mailbox bore the name of “Dr. Isaac Stevens,” Herschkopf’s alias. Herschkopf had Markowitz prepare the compound for each party and stand at the barbecue roasting kosher fare and serving guests.

Markowitz’s Southampton house was the scene of boisterous parties, hosted by his psychiatrist, featuring celebrities and members of New York’s Modern Orthodox community. (Debra Nussbaum Cohen)

Although patients would often be invited to the parties and mingle with the other guests, guests with whom JTA spoke say they had no idea that Markowitz was Herschkopf’s patient. They believed – from the way Markowitz was dressed to the roles he served at the parties – that he was hired help.

The parties drew celebrities, actors and writers, and the creme de la creme of Manhattan’s Modern Orthodox world. Gwyneth Paltrow, who was Herschkopf’s patient for a time, was among the guests, Markowitz says.

For years Herschkopf wrote columns published in The Jewish Week, most recently in September. One was about being beaten by his father, an Auschwitz survivor.

The writer Shalom Auslander wrote a thinly veiled account of his time with his celebrity-obsessed shrink for The New York Times in 2006. Perhaps he was simply repaying the favor: Herschkopf wrote a letter to Esquire magazine in 2001 identifying himself as Isaac Steven Hersch, Auslander’s psychiatrist.

Auslander did not respond to several attempts by JTA to reach him.

Another famous writer, who asked that her name not be included in this article, said she never went to the Southampton parties, though she attended a Passover seder with Herschkopf and his family once at their Manhattan apartment.

“Does this come as a great shock to me? No,” she said. “There is something about him, his obsession with famous people, and he always seemed to be sidling up to famous literary people. I personally would never recommend him to anyone.”

Major Modern Orthodox rabbis and communal leaders were also invited to the summer parties: Rabbi Haskel Lookstein of the Ramaz School and Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun; Rabbi Arthur Schneier of Park East Synagogue; his son Rabbi Marc Schneier of The Hampton Synagogue; and Rabbi Joseph Telushkin, the author of many books on Jewish literacy and Jewish ethics.

In “Code of Jewish Ethics Volume 2: Love Your Neighbor As Yourself,” Herschkopf is the first person among dozens Telushkin thanks in his acknowledgments. Telushkin also cites the psychiatrist several times throughout its pages. Telushkin did not respond to email and voicemail messages left by JTA.

Psychiatrist Samuel Klagsbrun and his wife, writer Francine Klagsbrun, were invited to the parties.

“We may have gone. I don’t know him particularly well,” said Samuel Klagsbrun, who founded Four Winds Hospitals, which offer mental health services in upstate New York.

After being told about the allegations against Herschkopf, Samuel Klagsbrun said, “This is one of the worst cases I’ve ever heard of. To use psychiatry to manipulate people like that is all kinds of criminality. He should have his medical license taken away. He used whatever talent he has to manipulate people. The damage he did to Marty … and it besmirches all of psychiatry.”

Pouring salt into open wounds

I visited Markowitz in the Hamptons on a breezy June Saturday, and he showed me around the sumptuous, sun-dappled property. There is a large pool complete with slide, full-size basketball court, the tennis court, hot tub and modern sculptures. That’s in addition to multiple koi-stocked ponds and a professionally designed 18-hole miniature golf course – one of only five installed at private homes in the country at the time, Markowitz said. It was all installed at Herschkopf’s direction and paid for by Markowitz, he told JTA.

Markowitz looks a decade younger than his 77 years, and is delighted to show me the apiary where he recently began keeping honeybees, behind which he plans to soon add a chicken coop. He is witty and calm, and dispassionate as he recounts the facts of his relationship with Herschkopf. He seems content.

But it wasn’t always that way. In June 1981 Markowitz, then 39, had recently lost both his parents and was unexpectedly running their large family business, Associated Fabrics. In 1980, Markowitz was sued by an uncle unhappy that his late brother had left 50 percent of the company to his son Marty. Just the year before, Markowitz had broken off an engagement when his fiancee refused to sign a prenuptial agreement. It was a stressful and painful time.

He turned to his rabbi, Shlomo Riskin, at the time Lincoln Square Synagogue’s leader, who had brought Markowitz closer to Judaism. Riskin referred Markowitz to Herschkopf, then a young psychiatrist in his late 20s. Through his assistant, Riskin – who has lived in Israel since 1983 – said he “cannot offer any recollections, reflections or insights on the matter.”

Markowitz began seeing Herschkopf three times a week.

“Very quietly, over about an 18-month period, Ike started pouring salt into all of my open wounds,” Markowitz said. “He got my sister and her children and all of my blood relatives and close friends out of my life.

“A constant mantra from Ike was he’d say ‘you can’t handle the truth. You’re passive aggressive, you can’t handle confrontation, you’re going to screw up the business and lose customers,’” Markowitz recalled.

As he eroded what remained of Markowitz’s fragile confidence, Herschkopf gradually began insinuating himself into management decisions at Associated Fabrics.

Phyllis Shapiro, Markowitz’s younger sister by three years, then worked at the fabric company. In early 1983, Herschkopf “instructed me to serially lower Phyllis’s pay by $5,000, which I did several times.” Markowitz told JTA.

The psychiatrist told Markowitz to have a second bar mitzvah in May 1983, and not to invite his sister or her children.

Afterward, Shapiro flew to Switzerland, according to the podcast, and removed money inherited from their parents from a bank account held jointly with her brother, removed gold coins from a jointly owned safe deposit box and took bonds from Markowitz’s apartment.

“At Dr. Ike’s insistence I fired Phyllis from Associated Fabrics,” Markowitz wrote on a timeline of events he shared with me in Southampton.

Markowitz wrote a letter he said Herschkopf drafted stating that “no one in the family would ever inherit any of my money.” At the psychiatrist’s insistence he hired a messenger to deliver the letter, who left it with Shapiro’s then 11-year-old daughter.

After guiding Markowitz to cut off all those relationships, “Ike said, ‘you don’t have a family? Don’t worry. My family will be your family, my kids like your nieces and nephews and we’re going to make a social life for you,'” Markowitz recounted.

In February 1984, Herschkopf “instructed me to create the Yaron Foundation,” Markowitz wrote on his timeline. “Dr. Ike, Rebecca (his wife) and I are the officers and directors. Simultaneously he convinces me to execute a will leaving my entire estate to the Yaron Foundation. Dr. Ike is the sole executor of the will.”

That year Markowitz and his sister were at terrible odds. They agreed to let Rabbi Riskin settle their conflict and, after a beit din, or rabbinical court, to which both siblings brought lawyers, Riskin issued a ruling dividing the assets between them, which they both accepted.

After that, “I didn’t see my sister for 27 years,” Markowitz told JTA.

“I had a ring in my nose and he was leading me around,” he said of Herschkopf.

Asked if he felt any internal resistance to the demands his psychiatrist was making, Markowitz said, “I had to put my feelings down. If my sister contacted me, if she left a message or sent me a birthday or New Year’s card, he instructed [me] to ‘bring all those things into me.’ We would listen to it together and he would interpret it.”

Markowitz and his sister, Phyllis Shapiro, reconciled after 27 years apart — a break, they both say, that was engineered by psychiatrist Isaac Herschkopf. (Debra Nussbaum Cohen)

‘I was choking to death’

At the time, Markowitz owned only the Southampton property that is now the guest house. In September 1986, Markowitz said, Herschkopf instructed him to buy the adjoining property. The properties were connected, and the first of what would become the legendary summer parties was held in June 1987 at the property Herschkopf began presenting as his own.

Framed photos of Herschkopf with celebrities covered every interior wall of the house. Herschkopf would instruct Markowitz to have them framed at his patient’s expense. He also had Markowitz type up every manuscript of the 12 books he wrote, most of which have not been published.

To the parties, “each invitation came from Dr. Ike and his family, with no mention of me,” Markowitz wrote on his timeline.

To be sure, this isn’t the only case in which a psychiatrist has been accused of manipulating a patient and creating family rifts and estrangements. The heiress Gloria Vanderbilt, who died Monday, experienced something similar with her psychiatrist, Dr. Christ Zois. Vanderbilt eventually sued Zois and won a $1.5 million judgment against him and an attorney who she accused of “preying on her wealth and emotional fragility.” It took many more years for her to reconcile with her estranged son Stan Stokowski.

Markowitz began feeling stirrings of discontent with his psychiatrist when the doctor insisted that he keep the business in Manhattan, in space he could no longer afford.

“I was choking to death,” he said. “We were four or five months away from bankruptcy,” both because of the rent and the fees he was paying his psychiatrist straight out of the business.

Markowitz said that in 1995, he also lost over $1.5 million he had invested, at Herschkopf’s recommendation, in the Bennett Funding Group, which filed for bankruptcy after the SEC filed fraud charges. At the time it was the largest Ponzi scheme in U.S. history.

Markowitz said he broke away from Herschkopf in 2010 after Markowitz had a hernia operation and Herschkopf didn’t check in with his patient and supposed friend of almost 40 years.

“I was devastated,” Markowitz said. “I began to question the whole basis of our relationship.”

Using lessons learned from Herschkopf, Markowitz wrote a letter saying he wanted to take a break. The doctor wrote back warning that Markowitz was making a terrible mistake and would lose his business to manipulative employees.

In December, Markowitz reached out to his sister, Phyllis. When she answered the phone, she told him, “I’ve been waiting for this call for 27 years.”

Though it took some of her children a while to trust him again, they are now closer than ever.

Dr. Isaac Herschkopf, shown at left in a photo with Henry Kissinger, tasked his patient Marty Markowitz with curating the photos he took with celebrities. (Debra Nussbaum Cohen)

In the years since 2010, brother and sister have biked together through Italy and traveled to China. Shapiro spends lots of time now at the Southampton estate, where she takes daily tennis lessons and plays competitively. The day I visited, neighbors dropped by – including Joe Nocera, who lives next door. The two first met years ago, when Herschkopf invited him to one of the summer parties and Nocera, like everyone else, thought Markowitz was the psychiatrist’s employee.

Seeking justice

Things have turned around for Markowitz.

“Once I started running the company totally by myself I got my mojo back,” Markowitz told JTA. “I’m a graduate of the Wharton School and NYU Law – I’ve got some serious CV going on!”

The business is smaller, but it’s turning a profit for the first time in many years.

“I’m the happiest I’ve been for many, many years,” Markowitz said.

According to Markowitz, two more of Herschkopf’s patients, with similar stories of being manipulated, also have stepped forward, though neither he nor Nocera would divulge their names or agree to contact them on JTA’s behalf.

Markowitz’s one remaining goal is to make sure Herschkopf is professionally disciplined for his ethical breaches. Complaints he filed with the New York State Department of Health in 2012 have gone nowhere. And Herschkopf resigned from the American Psychiatric Association, Markowitz said, after being notified that it was going to commence an investigation into his conduct.

A Department of Health spokeswoman, Erin Silk, told JTA, “Consistent with Public Health Law, the Department cannot confirm or deny the receipt of any complaint or the existence of an Office of Professional Medical Conduct (OPMC) investigation of a licensee unless charges have been posted on the DOH website or the Board for Professional Medical Conduct has taken a public action.”

In the podcast, Markowitz describes a conversation with an OPMC employee who informs him that the complaint is in process but offers nothing more.

A search of Herschkopf’s name on the OPMC section of the DOH website turned up nothing.

“I want justice to be served and to me, him losing his [medical] license is justice,” Markowitz said. “I just don’t want him to do this to anyone else.”

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She told Rabbi Shmuley Boteach in a new appearance on his podcast that she is not planning to watch the “Roseanne” spinoff titled “The Conners,” which brings together the entire former cast except for her iconic character, when it premiers on October 16.

“I have an opportunity to go to Israel for a few months and study with my favorite teachers over there, and that’s where I’m going to go and probably move somewhere there and study with my favorite teachers,” she said during the podcast, Deadline Hollywood reported. “I have saved a few pennies and I’m so lucky I can go.

She said that she is going to go and study “with any rabbi that I can ask to teach me.” She also said: “It’s my great joy and privilege to be a Jewish woman.”

The interview comes days after John Goodman, the television husband of star Roseanne Barr, confirmed in an interview with the London-based The Times that Roseanne will be killed off for the spinoff.

Rosanne told Boteach that she will neither “curse it or bless” the spinoff show.

“That’s what I gotta do… I have some mental health issues of depression and stuff. I got to stay in the middle or I’ll go dark and I don’t want to go dark again,” she said.

She also said that she is working on a new sitcom.

Roseanne last appeared on the rabbi’s podcast two days after ABC canceled her popular show, a reboot of her late 1980s sitcom, over a tweet mocking Valerie Jarrett, a former adviser to President Barack Obama and an African-American woman. The tweet said the “muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj.” The actress later deleted the tweet and issued an apology, saying she had made “a bad joke about her politics and her looks.”

Boteach did not release the podcast right away, saying “I want to give her space to reflect on the recent events and releasing the recording is a decision she will make at the appropriate time.” He later released the podcast, a day after the announcement of plans to launch “The Connors.”

Boteach has had a 20-year friendship with Barr, who is Jewish.

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The interview had taken place two days after ABC canceled her popular show, a reboot of her late 1980s sitcom, over the tweet mocking Valerie Jarrett, a former adviser to President Barack Obama and an African-American. The tweet said the “muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj.” The actress later deleted the tweet and issued an apology, saying she had made “a bad joke about her politics and her looks.”

Boteach did not release the podcast at the time, saying “I want to give her space to reflect on the recent events and releasing the recording is a decision she will make at the appropriate time.”

He released the podcast early Sunday morning, a day after ABC rehired most of the cast of the rebooted show with reported plans to launch a new show, “The Connors,” about the popular working class family but without the original show’s namesake.

The podcast was aired on SoundCloud, and an edited transcript was posted on Facebook.

During the podcast, Boteach traced his 20-year relationship with Barr, who is Jewish, and noted that she “loves the Torah.”

Barr broke down crying during part of the interview, telling Boteach: “I’m a lot of things, a loud mouth and all that stuff. But I’m not stupid, for God’s sake. I never would have wittingly call any black person and say they are a monkey. I just wouldn’t do that. I didn’t do that. And people think that I did that and it just kills me. I didn’t do that. And if they do think that, I’m just so sorry that I was so unclear and stupid. I’m very sorry. But I don’t think that and I would never do that. I have loved ones who are African-American, and I just can’t stand it. I’ve made a huge error and I told ABC when they called me.”

Barr said she thought Valerie Jarrett was a white woman when she made her comments.

“Of course, no I don’t excuse it. I horribly regret it. Are you kidding? I lost everything, and I regretted it before I lost everything. And I said to God, ‘I am willing to accept whatever consequences this brings because I know I’ve done wrong.’ I’m going to accept what the consequences are, and I do, and I have. But they don’t ever stop. They don’t accept my apology or explanation. And I’ve made myself a hate magnet. And as a Jew, it’s just horrible. It’s horrible.”

Barr noted during the interview that ABC had asked her to “get off Twitter” when they hired her for the reboot but that she told the network: “I have to tell you right now before we sign any papers that I will never stop defending Israel and the Jewish people. I cannot, if I were to do that, I would rather be dead, I can’t do that. So if you want to hire me, know that. I will never stop.”

Barr tweeted two weeks after the original Jarrett tweet that it was not meant to be racist, but rather was critical of anti-Semitism and the Iran deal.

“Rod Serling wrote Planet of The Apes. It was about anti-semitism. That is what my tweet referred to — the anti semitism of the Iran deal. Low IQ ppl can think whatever they want,” she tweeted.

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Dayanna Volitich, a teacher at Crystal River Middle School, in the western part of the state, was removed from her classroom early last month when the Citrus County School District began investigating the podcast she hosted under a pseudonym.

The probe started after the Huffington Post reported that using the name Tiana Dalichov, the teacher bragged about secretly injecting her beliefs into the classroom. She reportedly bashed diversity, said Muslims should be eradicated “from the face of the Earth” and praised the work of Kevin MacDonald, a retired psychology professor who holds anti-Semitic views. MacDonald has said Jews are genetically programmed to destroy Western societies, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Assistant Superintendent Mike Mullen said on Monday that the district received Volitich’s resignation, CNN reported. The resignation is not final until the letter is accepted by the school board. Mullen said approval of the resignation will be on the agenda at the April 10 school board meeting.

Volitich has claimed that her statements during the podcast, called “Unapologetic,” were “political satire and exaggeration.”

“None of the statements released about my being a white nationalist or white supremacist have any truth to them, nor are my political beliefs injected into my teaching of social studies curriculum,” she said in a statement released last month.

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Let’s face it, though: Days of love are not for everyone. Some of us may be happily alone; some recently heartbroken, broken up or widowed. Some couples may be going through a rough patch.

So instead of obsessing about your relationship — or lack thereof — you can spend this Tu b’Av listening to other people’s stories about love. Even those in happy partnerships may learn a thing or two from these six Jewish podcast episodes.

1. “Death, Sex and Money” — Ellen Burstyn interviews Gloria Steinem

In this episode from a podcast about — you guessed it! — death, sex and money, Gloria Steinem talks with Ellen Burstyn about living alone and deciding not to get married when she was younger. Burstyn also dishes about her three-year marriage, at age 66, to activist David Bale, and about how caring for him as he died helped her come to terms with how she could not care for her ailing mother when she was a child. The intimate conversation between the famed actress and the iconic Jewish feminist is incredibly insightful and moving, and you’ll feel as if you’re sitting in the room with these two larger-than-life women.

2. “Strangers” — The Waxing Virgin, Then and Now

This episode of “Strangers” — a podcast about the amazing things that happen when strangers meet — is about Becca, a Persian Orthodox Jew. An aesthetician, she sees people’s most intimate parts on a daily basis — and she’s also a 30-year-old virgin. Lea Thau, the host of “Strangers,” interviews Becca about how she reconciles her upbringing with her desire for love and partnership and with her job. It’s a gripping and brutally honest story that’s definitely not suitable for the squeamish or young children.

3. “Why Oh Why” — Deep in the Woods

“Why Oh Why” is a podcast all about relationships and technology hosted by the charming Andrea Silenzi, who often features her enchanting grandma, Phyllis. In this episode, Silenzi shares an experiment she did on live radio at WFMU: She had her grandma call into her radio show and go on an “audio date” with her friend Jim Perle, who was in the studio. The two pretended they were at a fancy restaurant; Phyllis even ordered lobster. Afterward, we hear Phyllis spin an enchanting and heart wrenching tale of true love, opera and loss.

4. “This American Life” — Infidelity
This episode of the iconic radio program hosted by Ira Glass is all about infidelity. Not every story in the episode is Jewish, but it features an evocative short story from the Israeli writer Etgar Keret about the aftermath of an affair called “The Man Who Knew What I Was About To Say.” It also includes a chapter from Jewish writer Dani Shapiro’s memoir, “Slow Motion,” about her own destructive affair with a married man.

5. “Israel Story” — Love Syndrome

A nice Jewish girl from a Conservadox family in New York finds love in Alaska. But when the couple’s sixth child is born with Down syndrome, things become complicated. Their journey to build a home for their child takes the family from Fairbanks to the Israeli city Safed, and from casual observance to Orthodoxy. This episode of the Israeli podcast will make you reconsider so much about love, from the unconditional love mothers have for their children to the romantic lives of those with Down syndrome. This is a wonderfully spun tale that at times is unbelievable — but trust me, you will not regret taking this journey.

6. “Where Should We Begin?”

Esther Perel is a rock star psychotherapist. The Belgian daughter of Holocaust survivors has a degree from Hebrew University, a viral TED talk about sex in long-term relationships and a best-selling book, “Mating in Captivity.” But what’s really revolutionary — and revelatory — is her approach to therapy: Perel meets with couples in crisis for a one-time, three-hour session; each session is recorded and edited into a podcast of 30 to 50 minutes. Listening to the sessions will teach you so much about relationships and how to make them work.

Perel’s podcast episodes are available for purchase on Audible, but before you commit, you can listen to this incredible session in which Perel tries to help a wife salvage her marriage to a husband who had cheated on her for 20 years (he’s repentant). It’s a teachable moment for anyone who is or hopes to be in a relationship.

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This month, one of the best of the Jewish podcasts, “Israel Story,” is touring the U.S. with a show called “That’s What She Said” presenting a diverse set of Israeli women’s voices. It will feature stage adaptations of stories heard on the show combined with live music, dance and video. The tour will include stops in Manhattan, Baltimore and Chicago.

For those who can’t make it to the live shows, we curated a list of top Jewish-themed podcasts, from the funny and lighthearted to the eye-opening and serious. Just download them to your phone or computer, plug in your earphones and listen.

Israel Story
“This American Life” — the gold standard in radio and podcast storytelling — spawned this unapologetic Israeli imitator in English and Hebrew versions. “Israel Story” is the closest anyone has come in a long time to introducing the rest of the world — including Diaspora Jews — to the messy, complicated Israeli reality beyond conflict and clichés. The first English episode featured a sweet and funny story about the painful lengths to which Israeli soldiers will go to get sick leave, a useful corrective for American Jews who tend to idolize the Israeli military.

The Joy of Text
This podcast deals with sexuality from an Orthodox Jewish legal perspective. Rabbi Dov Linzer, head of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah, and Dr. Bat Sheva Marcus, a sex counselor, host the program, which is moderated by Rabba Ramie Smith. Topics include concepts unique to Judaism — such as “niddah,” the period during and following menstruation when a woman is not allowed to have sex with her husband — as well as Jewish perspectives on topics such as infidelity and masturbation.

Heavyweight
Jonathan Goldstein is a Canadian fiction writer and broadcaster whose previous long-running “Wiretap” podcast for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. showcased his wry, self-deprecating humor, as well as his literary chops and skills as an off-kilter interviewer. In his new podcast, “Heavyweight,” he creates more of the long-form radio documentaries that have made him a well-known contributor on “This American Life.” An early episode about his attempt to reunite his aging Brooklyn-born father with an estranged uncle in Florida is like a “Seinfeld” episode written by Philip Roth.

2 Minutes of Torah
Want an easy way to incorporate a bit of Jewish study into your busy life? In this short podcast Rabbi Danny Burkeman, an England native who now works at The Community Synagogue in Port Washington, New York, provides his interpretation of the weekly Torah portion. Burkeman makes the Torah, which can sometimes seem far removed from our daily lives, accessible by relating it to current events and issues, including the refugee crisis and the recent Rio Olympics.

The Promised Podcast
Three Israel-based hosts present an insider’s view of the country’s politics. Allison Kaplan, a journalist for the Haaretz daily; Don Futterman, who works to promote democracy and peace in Israel for the Moriah Fund, and Noah Efron, a technology and science professor at Bar-Ilan University, host the program. Topics of  discussion include religious freedom, Zionism and U.S.-Israel relations.

Streetwise Hebrew
Forget about Hebrew school classes that left you bored and — let’s face it — completely unable to carry on a conversation in Hebrew. In this “bite-sized” podcast, host and former journalist Guy Sharett, who speaks seven languages, teaches modern Hebrew by focusing on “gems” such as slang or biblical idioms that are in use today. Sharett offers listeners a glimpse into unique words and phrases; he also provides an insight into Israeli culture. Some of the unconventional sources for his lessons include graffiti, street signs, tombstones and sewer covers.

Seincast
Still can’t get over the fact that “Seinfeld” ended in 1998? This podcast lets you relive the glory days of Jerry, George, Kramer and Elaine. Every week, hosts Matt Williams and Vinnie Freda — “two guys who can barely run their own lives” — provide literary-style analyses of one episode of Jerry Seinfeld‘s super-Jewy sitcom, which ran for nine seasons. The duo discuss and explain “the excruciating minutiae of every single, weekly event” — but be sure to check out their Tumblr page for additional gems, like a photo of a “Seinfeld”-themed slot machine.

RELATED:

Feminist? Yiddish speaker? This millennial’s podcast is for you

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Fox is the millennial “balaboosta,” or host, of Vaybertaytsh, a new feminist, Yiddish-language podcast that aired its first episode on Tuesday. She hopes to interview women and feature their music, writing and other creative work every two weeks — all in Yiddish.

It’s not going to be the next “Serial” — and Fox is fine with that. Even so, two days after it premiered, the podcast had drawn some 300 listeners.

By day, Fox, 27, is writing her doctoral dissertation on American Jewish summer camps and youth groups after World War II.

JTA spoke with Fox about how she got into Yiddish, why she started the podcast and what its name — Vaybertaytsh — means.

JTA: Why did you decide to start a Yiddish podcast?

Fox: I wanted for a long time to do something creative in Yiddish. Once you speak Yiddish to a certain degree, and once you can write it, the first thing you get asked by various forms of Yiddish media is to write. The last thing I want to do when I’ve closed my dissertation for the day is write again. The more new forms of media we can create in Yiddish, the better.

I learned Yiddish by listening to my friends speak Yiddish until I could speak. I guess I believe there are other people out there like me who learn that way. A podcast might be a way also to draw people into Yiddish because they might listen to it and say, “Oh, I do kind of understand a little bit of this.” Let’s say they have a little bit of background in German or Hebrew. While reading a text, picking up and reading Sholem Aleichem is a very intimidating act.

Sandy Fox, 27, started a podcast in Yiddish to create a space for Yiddish-speaking women to share their creative work. (Courtesy of Fox)

How did you come to learn Yiddish? Do you believe there’s a value in spreading it?

I originally started just because I had to take a language exam for my graduate program. I really fell in love with it, with the language, with the way it sounds. For some reason, it felt really natural coming out of my mouth in a way Hebrew actually never has. Even though I have this really strong American accent in Yiddish, it feels natural to me to be speaking Yiddish.

Linguistic diversity in general is very important. One thing that makes me a little sad about Israel is, as great as it is that Hebrew is a success here, it’s a bummer that all sorts of Jewish languages kind of got thrown under the bus in that process. Yiddish happens to be the language of my ancestors, but I would also love to see more people learning Ladino and Judeo-Arabic.

How many people are going to listen to a podcast in Yiddish?

Obviously the audience will be limited, but that’s actually good because I feel like it’s going to be this intimate audience that I can be myself in front of. I don’t have to worry so much about what I say. It’s kind of great. It’s like speaking to family.

There are a lot of Yiddishists. Also haredim, Hasidim, they access a lot of today’s Yiddish media, like the Forverts [the Yiddish Daily Forward] all the time, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I end up getting a cohort of Hasidim who are listening. Whether or not they’re “supposed to,” [it’s] not my business.

Why did you decide to make the podcast specifically feminist?

There were all these feminist radio collectives on college radio in the late ’70s and ’80s. I’m pretty inspired by that idea. Women in the media, we still constitute such a small percentage of the people at the helm. I sort of wanted to combine these interests — Yiddish and feminism.

In terms of the people I know who speak Yiddish, there’s sort of a trend that women are more timid to speak. I thought it was time to create a space for women to create things in Yiddish and not to worry so much about making it perfect.

There’s only one rule on the program, and that’s that we should not excuse ourselves for our Yiddish. I hear a lot, and I really only hear this from women: “I’m so sorry, my Yiddish is just so bad.” There’s always that element of making the excuse before you’ve even opened your mouth.

What kinds of things are you going to feature?

Basically it’s all an experiment, so whatever people want to do I’m pretty much down for. I personally am really interested in doing some interviews with Yiddish-speaking women from all different parts of society — Hasidim, ex-Hasidim, older people, younger people, secular people, Israelis, Americans, Europeans, all across the spectrum.

The next episode will be an interview that I’m conducting this week. She’s a baal teshuvah [newly religious] Hasidic woman.

How did you choose the name?

Vaybertaytsh was commentaries on the Torah that were written in Yiddish by men for women in Eastern Europe. Women did not get, usually, a Jewish education in [Hebrew]. They would usually pray in Yiddish, so similarly the weekly Torah portion would be explained in Yiddish with Vaybertaytsh.

“Taytsh” means meaning, or sense. “Vayber” means women. It has so many different ways you can interpret it. It can mean “women’s sense.” It can be like flipping mansplaining on its head: We’re making the sense, we’re doing the commentary for the women, by women. Instead of the way it used to be.

Also, it has a great ring to it — in Yiddish.

Vaybertaytsh is available for download on iTunes.

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You’re on your own on questions one and two. But when it comes to No. 3, famed Jewish philosopher Martin Buber can help, according to Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg, author of “Nurture the Wow: Finding Spirituality in the Frustration, Boredom, Tears, Poop, Desperation, Wonder, and Radical Amazement of Parenting.”

In a series of informative and short parenting podcasts on our sister site Kveller, Ruttenberg breaks down how Buber’s theory applies to getting your kid un-naked — and much more.

The book, Ruttenberg writes on Kveller, was inspired by and based upon three main questions: “What does the treasure trove of Jewish wisdom have to offer parents in the thick of their kids’ young years?  What do parents have to teach the tradition, so much of which was authored by rabbis who were, let’s face it, not particularly engaged in the labor of childcare? And, most importantly: How is parenting a spiritual practice in its own right?”

The podcasts — each about five to seven minutes long — provide an “extended dance remix” of these themes, she writes.

Fun and inspiring, you can give all five of them a listen here:

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Gutkind, who has been dubbed “the godfather of creative non-fiction” by Vanity Fair, has performed as a clown for Ringling Brothers, scrubbed in with heart transplant surgeons, traveled with a crew of baseball umpires, and seen the U.S. on a motorcycle — all as research for his more than a dozen books, and numerous profiles and essays.

In Jerusalem, he says, “there are stories everywhere.” He was in Israel this month to teach a writing seminar hosted by Bar-Ilan University’s Shaindy Rudoff graduate program in creative writing.

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The former GOP presidential candidate is visiting Israel courtesy of the Jerusalem Reclamation Project, the U.S. fund-raising arm for Ateret Cohanim, a Jewish organization that buys Arab properties in eastern Jerusalem to boost the Jewish presence in Arab neighborhoods of the city.

Critics say organizations like Ateret Cohanim are an obstacle to peace, making it more difficult for the Israeli and Palestinians to divide sovereignty over Jerusalem.

But Huckabee says bringing Jews into Arab neighborhoods is good for eastern Jerusalem. He also says he doubts a two-state solution ever will solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

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Dina Kraft, JTA’s Israel Correspondent met up in Jerusalem with singer Michelle Citrin aka Rosh Hashana Girl and her creative partner and friend William Levin. They are the team who brought the world the two YouTube hits “Twenty Things to do with Matzah” and “I Gotta Love You Rosh Hashana” – part of their attempt to bring a touch of the young, hip, and artistic to being Jewish today.

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In the following podcast, JTA’s Israel correspondent Dina Kraft speaks with Harvard Professor Stephen Walt, co-author of the controversial book “The Israel Lobby” who, with his co-author John Mearshimer of the University of Chicago, visited Israel last week on a speaking tour sponsored by the Israeli peace organization Gush Shalom. Walt said he welcomed the dynamic and lively debate in the Jewish State and said he hoped their book might prompt discussion about the policies of the Israel lobby among Israelis themselves. You can read Ms. Kraft’s full story on the subject here.

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