In recognition of Jewish Heritage Month, this episode features a conversation with Nicholas Lemann, whose work and life story open up questions about American and Jewish identity. Nicholas discusses his assimilated Louisianan/ German-Jewish upbringing and his lifelong quest for connection with Judaism. What does it mean to be both Jewish and have ancestors who benefitted from slavery? We’ll also discuss what Tolstoy’s Russia has in common with the New Orleans of Nicholas’ childhood, and his appreciation for reading the Torah in all its moral complexity.
Nicholas was born and raised in New Orleans and has been a magazine writer since he was a teenager. He has worked at the Washington Monthly, Texas Monthly, the Washington Post, The Atlantic Monthly, and has been a staff writer at the New Yorker since 1999. He is a professor and dean emeritus at the Columbia Journalism school, and in 2023 was appointed to Columbia’s Task Force on Antisemitism.
Nicholas is also the author of many books of nonfiction including The Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America, The Big Test: The Secret History of the American Meritocracy, and Transaction Man: The Rise of the Deal and the Decline of the American Dream. His latest book is Returning: A Search for Home Across Three Centuries. delves deeply into his family’s German-Jewish-Lousianan story. From their arrival in Louisiana in the 1830s as peddlers from Germany, to their becoming plantation owners and department store owners after the Civil War, to their emergence in the aristocratic world of New Orleans, where they could never quite belong.
Nicholas Lemann’s Five Books:
1. My Son the Nut by Allan Sherman (album)
2. How Judaism Became a Religion by Leora Batnitzky
3. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
4. The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth
5. Returning: A Search for Home Across Three Centuries by Nicholas Lemann
Other Episodes You Might Enjoy:
Rachel Cockerell on the Zionist Dream that Sailed to Galveston
Matti Friedman on the Stories that Built a People
Elizabeth Graver on Lost Worlds and New Doorways
Francine Klagsbrun on Embracing and Reshaping Tradition
The Five Books is a podcast that celebrates the role of books in Jewish culture. Through author interviews, we delve into Jewish identity and discover each author’s favorite novels. Join us every week for new Jewish book recommendations! Some of our episodes have included conversations with Rabbi Sharon Brous, Sam Sussman, Rabbi Angela Buchdahl and Allegra Goodman.
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Hosted by Tali Rosenblatt Cohen
Produced by Odelia Rubin
Editorial and website support by Amelia Merrill
Artwork by Elad Lifshitz of the Dov Abramson Studio
Music by Dov Rosenblatt and Blue Dot Sessions
