April 2026 Patron Newsletter

Hello and Happy Spring!

There’s some news I’m personally excited about this month, which is the release of JBI Library's first image-described graphic novel. Liana Finck’s wonderful “Let There Be Light: The Real Story of Her Creation” is now available to order in audio and braille.

In this ambitious and transcendent graphic novel, Liana Finck turns her keen eye to none other than the Old Testament, reimagining the story of Genesis with God as a woman, Abraham as a resident of New York City, and Rebekah as a robot, among many other delightful twists. In Finck's retelling, the millennia-old stories of Adam and Eve, Abraham and Isaac, and Jacob and Esau haunt the pages like familiar but partially forgotten nursery rhymes―transmuted by time but still deeply resonant. With her trademark insightfulness, wry humor, and supple, moving visual style, Finck accentuates the latent sweetness and timeless wisdom of the original text, infusing it with wit and whimsy while retaining every ounce of its spiritual heft. 

“Let There Be Light” features an audio description track written exclusively for JBI. It is a multi-voice book with three narrators and sound effects. To request this book in audio or braille, please contact our librarians at library@jbilibrary.org or 212-545-8025. 

In celebration of this milestone, we will be hosting a virtual listening party featuring two chapters of the novel and discussion about the art of image description. We’ll also be celebrating with a listening party and discussion on Zoom, so please join us to hear a sample, talk about the book, and learn about the art of image description. Soon we’ll also be releasing our second image-described graphic novel, which is a charming story for kids of all ages called “Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword,” by Barry Deutsch."

JBI Library also wishes you all a warm and meaningful Passover. Books hold our histories and we remember, as we are currently mailing out over 1,200 accessible Haggadahs to families around the world, how much the written word is deeply connected to our families, traditions, and learning. Contact us to find more books and texts to feed your intellectual appetite for information about Jewish history, food, slavery and oppression around the world, the desert, or whatever other interests are piqued this season.

Best wishes,
Jill Rothstein
Head Librarian 

Programs: 

From our Poetry Series: The Book of Ruth: Gleanings from Many Corners  
Thursday, April 23, 4:30 – 6pm ET
Virtual (Zoom), FREE
Come join award winning poet Jessica Greenbaum to read the short Book of Ruth alongside a few contemporary poems that bring the text closer to our lived experience. Ruth is a speedy book whose plot begins with famine and moves to a harvest time with enough for gleaners to take from the field’s corners. 

In between come some famous lines of our ancestry, and food for thought about women in Tanach, immigration, vulnerability, chesed (loving-kindness), deliberate family, the great forces of ill and good fortune—and of creation. 

No previous experience in poetry or text necessary. All voices are welcome. Please join us as we move towards Shavuot with the eternal story traditionally paired with the spiritual harvest and renewal of the Jewish people!

Register at the following link: https://jbilibrary.org/programs-events/book-clubs/book-club-olive-days-by-jessica-elisheva-emerson

Book Club: “Olive Days” by Jessica Elisheva Emerson
Monday, April 20 at 5pm ET
Virtual (Zoom), FREE
Trapped between her identity as a Modern Orthodox mother and her secret atheism, Rina Kirsch’s life changes forever after a night of wife-swapping. The experience sparks a forbidden affair with her art teacher and a return to painting, forcing Rina to choose between the safety of tradition and the risky pursuit of personal freedom. Told in the fevered tenor common to both lust and religious devotion, Olive Days is an unforgettable story of the agonizing choices women make to balance duty against desire.

Register for this book club at the following link: https://jbilibrary.org/programs-events/book-clubs/book-club-olive-days-by-jessica-elisheva-emerson

Listening Party: “Let There Be Light,” JBI’s first image-described graphic novel
Tuesday, April 28 at 4:30pm ET
Virtual (Zoom), FREE
JBI is excited to announce that we have completed our first image-described graphic novel, and in celebration of this milestone, we will be hosting a virtual listening party featuring two chapters of the novel and discussion about the art of image description.

“Let There Be Light” features an audio description track written exclusively for JBI. It is a multi-voice book with three narrators and sound effects. To request this book in audio or braille, please contact our librarians at library@jbilibrary.org or 212-545-8025. 

Register for the listening party at the following link: https://jbilibrary.org/programs-events/culture-arts/listening-party-let-there-be-light

JBI Voices/JBR Chat
Thursday, April 30 at 4:30pm ET
Virtual (Zoom), FREE

The theme this time will be Identities: Historical and Modern

Access Note: If you have any access needs, require ASL interpretation, or prefer to register via email or phone, please reach out to us at register@jbilibrary.org or 646-616-3929. 

Missed a program? Visit our online archive of program recordings on Vimeo at the following link: https://vimeo.com/jbilibrary?fl=pp&fe=sh

New For You in our Library Collections:

Newly Added Audio Titles:

Every Body Beloved: A Jewish Embrace of Fatness by Minna Bromberg, Audio, EN408913 and Braille BRN008913

The author lays bare the harm of anti-fat bias and the restorative potential for body liberation in Jewish tradition to confront fatphobia. Bromberg demonstrates what we can learn from Jewish tradition that will allow us to usher in a culture of healing and acceptance of all bodies created in the Divine image.

*Stay tuned for a JBI author talk with Minna Bromberg this summer!

Drizzle Of Honey: The Lives and Recipes of Spain's Secret Jews by Gitlitz, David M.& Davidson, Linda K, Audio, EN407546

This book offers the recipes of the tens of thousands of Iberian Jews in the time of the inquisition. With each recipe comes an accompanying text which tells us of their past.

Let There Be Light: The Real Story of Her Creation by Liana Finck, Audio, EN408911

In this novel, Liana Finck turns her keen eye to none other than the Old Testament, reimagining the story of Genesis with God as a woman, Abraham as a resident of New York City, and Rebekah as a robot, among many other delightful twists.

What Zeesie Saw on Delancey Street by Elisa Oken Rael, Audio, EN408914, Children's Book

For her seventh birthday, Zeesie is going to her first package party with Mama and Papa. But as Zeesie soon discovers, not everything and everyplace is meant to be explored, and what she does see that night on Delancey Street leaves her with a new knowledge about giving and receiving.

Play Goes On: A Memoir by Neil Simon, Audio, EN407549

Told with his characteristic humor and unflinching sense of irony, the book is rich with stories of how Simon's art came to imitate his life. Simon offers a revealing look at an artist in crisis but still able and willing to laugh at himself.

Sarah Bernhardt: The Divine and Dazzling Life of the World’s First Superstar by Catherine Reef, Audio, EN408915

A tantalizing biography for teens on Sarah Bernhardt, the first international celebrity and one of the greatest actors of all time, who lived a highly unconventional, utterly fascinating life. Illustrated with more than sixty-five photos of Bernhardt on stage, in film, and in real life.

Louisa by Simone Zeltich, Audio, EN407562

Nora, a sturdy Holocaust survivor, arrives in Palestine in 1949 and lands in an "absorption camp" where everyone is in training to become a good Israeli.

Clement Greenberg: A Life by Florence Rubenfeld, Audio, EN407563
Rubenfeld traces the rise and fall of this impassioned and provocative critic, telling his story through his words and the words of the array of personalities who surrounded him. She provides a new assessment of Greenberg’s contribution to art criticism, insights into his influences and identity, and an engaging social history of an infamous postwar milieu, peopled by brilliant intellectuals and groundbreaking artists.

The Last Dekrepitzer by Howard Langer, Audio, EN408916
The book follows the life and spiritual quest of Shmuel Meir Lichtbencher a/k/a Sam Lightup, the sole survivor of the obscure Dekrepitzer Hasidic sect known before the war for its rebbes' fiddling.

Books in Russian

So Much in Life We Want to Accomplish by Vladimir Andreyev, Audio, RU401107
Poetry Compilation

Newly Added Braille Titles:

A Partner In Holiness Part Two: Numbers-Deuteronomy, by Rabbi Jonathan P. Slater. Braille BRN01106. 

Bringing together the teachings of beloved Hasidic master Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berdichev and the practice of mindfulness meditation, Rabbi Jonathan P. Slater reveals a new entrance into Jewish spiritual life. The book presents an accessible translation of selections from Kedushat Levi, R. Levi Yitzhak's Hasidic Torah commentary, which emphasizes our spiritual capacity to transform consciousness and so our life experience.

The Original Crock Pot Slow Electric Stoneware Cooker, BRN010112

This book contains recipes and how-to’s for slow cooking, in addition to facts about meat and nutrition, crock-pot hints, care and cleaning, and much more.

Every Body Beloved: A Jewish Embrace of Fatness by Minna Bromberg, Audio, EN408913 and Braille BRN008913

The author lays bare the harm of anti-fat bias and the restorative potential for body liberation in Jewish tradition to confront fatphobia. Bromberg demonstrates what we can learn from Jewish tradition that will allow us to usher in a culture of healing and acceptance of all bodies created in the Divine image.
*Stay tuned for a JBI author talk with Minna Bromberg this summer!

Other Programs of Interest From Outside Organizations:

The California Braille institute is hosting these online events this month:

Author Talk: Nita Prose, Molly the Maid Series
Thursday 2 April, 2 - 3pm PT
Join a virtual interview with award-winning author Nita Prose about her cozy mystery series that started with The Maid (DB106298 from NLS).Register here.

Author Talk: Lachi, I Identify as Blind
Friday 10 April, 2 - 3pm PT
Lachi, the multi-talented recording artist, song writer, producer, and disability activist joins us to discuss her book, I Identify as Blind. Register here

Reading Reimagined: Free Library Audiobook Apps
Tuesday 14 April, 2 - 3pm PT
Learn about free methods of borrowing audiobooks on your computer, smart phone, and tablet! Register here

Opening to Presence: Where Jewish Mindfulness Meets Lived Disability Experience
An Or HaLev, JBI Library and Matan course taught by Rabbi Lauren Tuchman
Thursdays April 23, 30, May 7, 14
At 12:00 ET/9:00 PT/17:00 UK/19:00 Israel
75-minute sessions on Zoom 
This series is intentionally designed by and for practitioners with disabilities. It offers a space to explore the intersection of Jewish mindfulness practice and lived disability experience. Out of an acknowledgement that too often practice spaces have been inaccessible to practitioners with disabilities, we will together co-create a field of practice and learning in which all parts of ourselves are warmly welcomed as they are. Through cultivation practice we will tend to our inner garden, planting seeds of supportive mind states such as pleasantness and compassion. In times as challenging as these it is even more important that we resource ourselves to meet our experiences with gentleness.
Register your interest and share accessibility requirements here.