(Fiction, 341 pp. 2021)
Jacobo’s Rainbow delves into a New Mexican crypto-Jew’s developing self-awareness, emerging from tumultuous 1960s activism for civil rights, free speech, and the ambiguity of early U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. Along the way, it exposes the mesmerizing and frightful sway charismatic leaders exercise on impressionable and idealistic followers. At its heart, it is a tale of Jewish young adults from widely varying circumstances who discover joy in the complex bonds of peoplehood and strength in their resolve to challenge casual and systemic antisemitism.
Discussion questions from the author’s website:
Review by Fran Hawthorne, New York Journal of Books
Review by Renita Last, Jewish Book Council, May 3, 2021
Review by Linda Zagon, Linda’s Book Obsession, May 3, 2021
Review by Matt Sutherland, Foreword Reviews, May 12, 2021
Collected Reviews from publisher website
Author writing process by David Hirshberg, Long and Short Review, May 21, 2021
Interviews with author David Hirschberg
Interview by Deborah Kalb, Book Q&A with Deborah Kalb, May 4, 2021
Interview by Elizabeth Rynecki, Author Answers
Podcast interview and review with Judaism Unbound, Episode 272 (audio)
