The book is split into 12 chapters, and is encyclopaedic in nature – opening with Joyful Foundations, before moving into chapters on Shabbat and the key festivals, and closing with Anytime Ideas for Everyday Joy.
Alongside more than 75 gorgeous recipes – from classics such as Lowin’s go-to challah and gefilte fish with preserved lemon gremolata, to modern twists like banana pudding hamantaschen and build-your-own Moroccan fish tacos with pomegranate salsa – each chapter includes ideas for the kind of thoughtful touches that elevate a gathering from perfectly nice to truly memorable.
Rebekah Lowin's Moroccan fish tacos (Photo: Johnny Miller)[Missing Credit]
These Projects & Possibilities cover everything from Chanukah gelt flowers (Lowin’s favourite craft project in the book) to bagel bouquets and 36 quick-fire ideas for celebrating Purim. Alongside all of this, each chapter opens with a personal essay, and there are countless other tips, tricks, reflections and insights scattered through the 250-plus pages.
Lowin first started exploring Jewish life through this lifestyle lens with a blog in 2019. Since then, she’s amassed “a loving, wonderful community” of more than 40,000 Instagram followers who, she says, “really run the gamut from Orthodox to Reform and everything in between”. It is these (mostly) women she had in mind while writing the book, explaining they have taught her that “we are much more similar across denominations than we think, and we all have this appetite for whimsy and sophistication and depth and delight.”
Rebekah Lowin's 'Mazel' grazing cups (Photo: Johnny Miller)[Missing Credit]
This sense of unity is beautifully encapsulated in the final line of the book’s introduction, where Lowin writes: “Most Jewish people don’t live in places where we’re the majority.
“If we want more Jewish joy out in the world, we have to start by building it in our own homes – and inviting each other inside to see and share. The only way forward is together: keeping each other close, and making Jewishness feel communal, warm, alive, and worth returning to.
“That’s my favourite line in the book,” adds Lowin, explaining that when she first started her blog, she found herself trying to “convince everybody else that our traditions are gorgeous and meaningful and special and worthy of a of a seat at the table.” Now she has realised “what’s going to move the needle is Jewish people loving being Jewish”.
Lowin was about ten pages into the book proposal when October 7 happened, and says that the book is more “honest” because of this. “I remember saying to my agent: yes, we’re going to bring the light, and we are going to focus on parties and gatherings and beautiful Rosh Hashanah tables, but we cannot be dishonest. We have to talk about, not just the world today, but the world that has always existed for the Jewish people,” she recalls. Later she adds: “I no longer accept when people are judgmental about beautiful aspirational content, but I also won’t allow for dishonest conversations that aren’t grounded in the reality of this antisemitism and the things that we’re dealing with every day.”
An illustration of Rebekah Lowin and her sons lighting the Shabbat candles, from her new book (Illustration: Samantha Hahn)[Missing Credit]
Another seismic shift is that, since starting work on the book, Lowin has had two children. “Once you have kids, you understand that you are building their future memories of Jewishness,” she tells me, explaining how motherhood helped her reconnect with the Jewish practices of her childhood. This is also the reason why Lowin insists that “beginning again” is a “core piece” of her book. “I want people to know the author of this book isn’t someone who was this way every, single, Friday night for my entire life,” she says. “It got lost, and I re-found it.”
One of the things I love most about the book is the way it embraces the religious side of Judaism. In the opening chapter there’s a double-page spread of the core berachot, and each new chapter opens with an excerpt from a psalm, Torah passage or hymn.
“My Jewishness starts with God,” Lowin tells me, adding: “I don’t believe that to be the case for everyone who picks up my book, but that’s the place I’m coming from… I like to use the word religious to define myself.”
Rebekah Lowin's book is released in the US on September 8, and the UK on October 8 (Photo: Harper Collins)[Missing Credit]
Before our call ends, we find ourselves back on the topic of Stewart. While there’s no denying she’s been a key influence – Lowin grew up reading her mother’s copies of Martha Stewart Living magazine and later, in “the most exciting and lucky full circle moment”, worked there as an assistant – Lowin is keen to explain that her true creative influences are her mother and grandmother.
“I grew up in a home steeped in creativity,” she tells me. “My mother is very creative, as was my grandmother, who was an Auschwitz survivor. She fled to the United States after being liberated, and built a career as an opera singer. My mother was also a singer and a Broadway actress, and now she’s a painter. Everything in my home growing up was made by hand – except, funnily enough, the food,” she laughs.
“I had a gorgeous childhood, and I grew up understanding that beauty is like a sacred value,” she adds. “I like to think that that philosophy translates over into how I’m trying to steward my own family’s Jewish life forward. It’s with care, it’s with precision and delicacy, and yes, exquisite visual detail,” she says – following up seconds later with a dose of that aforementioned honesty: “And our home is a mess sometimes! It just means that on Friday night, I’ll throw the toys under the couch and I will clean up a little. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing.”
A Year of Jewish Joy: Inspired Recipes, Rituals, and Traditions for Beautiful Celebrations by Rebekah Lowin is available for pre-order now, from Harper Collins
Rebekah Lowin's mezuzah cookies are a hit online (Photo: Rebekah Lowin)[Missing Credit]