Jennifer Anne Moses and Stuart P. Green — The Rebbe of Baton Rouge - With Amy E. Schwartz — at Union Market
This event is in partnership with Moment Magazine.Anna Zisk is a professor of Yiddish literature who, after being accused of an inappropriate relationship with a grad student, flees her settled life in Boston and seeks refuge at her childhood home in Baton Rouge. There, she's forced to confront her long-ago first boyfriend, who claims he still loves her; a fraught relationship with her sister; and the uneasy feeling of never having quite belonged in the Deep South. To top it all off, she's been relegated to teaching LSU football players basic composition--a skill they do not crave and will not master. Meanwhile, Adam Kluger, the new rabbi in town, is struggling to keep his congregation afloat in a small southern city where there are barely enough Jews to fill a high school gymnasium. It doesn't help that his ex-fiance left him; the cross-town rival synagogue's rabbi is poaching his shul's members; and he's being haunted by a spectral, Yiddish-speaking, elderly Hasid who pops up at the most inopportune moments. Not to mention that he's falling in love with Anna. The Rebbe of Baton Rouge is funny, absorbing, and twisty. A genre-bending, Yiddish-infused, southern lit rom-com that digs deep into the dynamics of this proud but vulnerable community--their rivalries and friendships; pettiness and generosity; faith and skepticism; insecurities and sense of solidarity.Jennifer Anne Moses is the author of nine previous books of fiction and nonfiction, including Bagels and Grits: A Jew on the Bayou, a memoir. Her novels explore family, identity, and the messy beauty of everyday life.Stuart P. Green is a Distinguished Professor of Law at Rutgers University and the author of several books on criminal law and philosophy.Moses and Green will be in conversation with Amy E. Schwartz, the opinion and book editor of Moment Magazine, as well as editor of the magazine's popular "Ask the Rabbis" section. She is editor of the 2020 book Can Robots Be Jewish? And Other Pressing Questions of Modern Life. Before joining Moment in 2011, she spent 17 years as an editorial writer and weekly op-ed columnist at The Washington Post. She has also worked at Harper's, The New Republic and The Wilson Quarterly. Schwartz is president of the non-denominational Jewish Study Center, an independent adult education institution in Washington, DC. This event is free with first come, first serve seating.To request accommodations for this event or to inquire about accessibility please email events@politics-prose.com ideally one week in advance of the event date. We will make an effort to accommodate all requests up until the time of the event.