Mark Oppenheimer Archives

Originally appeared in Jerusalem Post Magazine on July 25, 2026.

The prolific Blume, still alive and well at age 88, has sold over 80 million copies of her books worldwide.

Mark Oppenheimer, a lifelong bookworm and author of the entertaining new biography Judy Blume: A Life, admits, “When I was 11, the only author I reread was Judy Blume.”

The prolific Blume, still alive and well at age 88, has sold over 80 million copies of her books worldwide. Iconic titles include Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (1970), Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing (1972) and others in the “Fudge” series including Superfudge 1980) and Double Fudge (2002), as well as such classics as Forever (1975), Blubber (1974), Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great, as well as other books across all genres, including children’s young adult and adult fiction.

Oppenheimer, who lives in New Haven, Connecticut, not far from Yale University, which houses Judy Blume’s correspondence, drafts, audiovisuals, photographs, awards, and more in its Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, spent hours combing through and finding useful gems in the archives.

But it is his careful reading and rereading of all of Blume’s books and his considering the social, historical, and political contexts of the periods in which they were written that help readers understand Blume’s important contributions to children, young adult (YA), and adult literature.

Oppenheimer masterfully weaves in the details of her life, which he learned through countless conversations, in-person meetings, and emails with Blume and members of her family. He clearly formed a meaningful, trusting, and ongoing relationship with Blume and her family.

Judy Blume's signature. — Judy Blume’s signature. (credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Blume’s rich and complicated life, captured, in part

He reports that, early in his research, Blume turned over notes – some handwritten, some typed – that she had made for a memoir which she later abandoned. The two remained in touch throughout the project.

When Oppenheimer shared his final draft of the book, he reports that Blume sent back “hundreds of comments in the margins… and a separate memoir, 40 pages long, offering suggestions, disagreements, and assorted thoughts covering every era discussed in the draft.”

He has managed to capture details of Blume’s rich and sometimes complicated life, and her uncanny ability to understand angst and issues facing children and teens. And he tells Blume’s story in an entertaining manner.

Oppenheimer is no stranger to telling stories both in writing and through the spoken word. He has become somewhat of a household name in his own right through his books, articles, columns and his podcasts.

His numerous books include Squirrel Hill: The Tree of Life Synagogue Shooting & the Soul of a Neighborhood (2021), about the Tree of Life shooting in Pittsburgh; The Newish Jewish Encyclopedia (2019), Wisenheimer: A Childhood Subject to Debate, a memo of sorts about his debating years; and Thirteen and a Day, a book about bat and bat mitzvah. He is currently working on The Dirty Bicker: Princeton, the Jews, and the Scandal of 1958, about the notorious scandal when an unusually high number of Jewish students were denied admission to Princeton University’s prestigious eating clubs.

Oppenheimer holds a PhD in religion from Yale and has hosted the popular podcast Unorthodox for eight years – as well as the podcast Gatecrashers, about the history of antisemitism in the Ivy Leagues.

He wrote the beliefs column for The New York Times for years and currently serves as executive editor of Arc Magazine, an online journal of the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics based at Washington University in St. Louis.

In Judy Blume: A Life, Oppenheimer tells Blume’s story in 31 chapters, each covering a chapter of her life as he brings the rich, multi-faceted, ahead-of-her-time, genre-defying author to life.

Blume was born Judith Marcia Sussman in 1938.

Oppenheimer captures Blume’s Jewish heritage and her upbringing in middle-class New Jersey and Miami around the time of World War II.

He describes her childhood and relationship with her brother (who struggled with mental health issues), her dentist father (who died suddenly at an early age), her well-read homemaker mother, and various relationships and marriages.

Blume never even considered being a writer until she was nearly 30 years old, unhappily married to “a well-meaning personal injury lawyer,” and a stay-at-home mother of two young children. It was then that she began taking the bus to New York City every Monday night to attend an evening class at New York University in writing for children.

Her early works from the class never got published, but she persisted. Her hard work, natural ability, sense of humor, lived experience, and her keen eye for what was going on around her and deep within people of all ages allowed her to eventually deliver books that would tackle topics that had until then been mostly absent from children’s literature, including budding sexuality, puberty, divorce, loss, family complexity, and bullying.

Blume was always “spot on” and managed to speak to generations of readers in an intimate, understanding, and practical way.

Charming, annoying, entertaining younger siblings

Her protagonists are almost universally known. Margaret Simon, the 11-year-old protagonist in Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret permitted readers to explore and question their religious identity and as they learnt about puberty.

Peter Hatcher and little brother, “Fudge” – known worldwide through Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing and Superfudge – introduce us to charming, annoying, and entertaining younger siblings. (Who doesn’t remember two-year-old Fudge going to the hospital after swallowing Peter’s pet turtle, Dribble?)

And Sally J Freedman in Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself is a curious Jewish girl who, much like Blume, moves to Florida in the 1940s after WWII and deals with feeling like an outsider.

Blume showed her versatility with the release of bestseller Wifey in 1978. The book was groundbreaking because it marked a pivot to adult fiction. Blume was not afraid to tackle issues then still considered taboo.

One of Oppenheimer’s significant contributions is in honestly and respectfully sharing details of Blume’s not-always-picture-perfect private life. She experienced unsuccessful – and successful – marriages, as well as aborted pregnancies.

Blume moved a lot – to places such as New Jersey, Florida (Miami and Key West), Connecticut, New York, Los Alamos, New Mexico, and Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. She loved and cared for her many homes, and she was very philanthropic. She also cheered on librarians and booksellers in ongoing battles against censorship.

Oppenheimer gives the reader an honest and loving picture of this beloved author and leaves readers hoping that the almost nonagenarian will grace us with at least one more book.

JUDY BLUME:
A LIFE

By Mark Oppenheimer
G.P. Putnam’s Sons
480 pages; $20

Original Article Published On The Jerusalem Post

NEW YORK – Mayim Bialik could hardly contain her excitement about appearing on a recent episode of Tablet Magazine’s Unorthodox podcast.While waiting to be released from the Zoom waiting room to appear on episode No. 246, “Nobel Effort,” the Jewishly observant Big Bang Theory actress, who holds a PhD in neuroscience, sent a frantic message to show co-host Mark Oppenheimer, begging to join him and co-hosts Stephanie Butnick and Liel Leibovitz for the discussion on their shared hobby of Googling Nobel Prize winners to see if they are Jewish.

Oppenheimer pitched the idea of a Jewish podcast to Tablet Magazine five years ago when he began noticing that “podcast listening was exploding.” The Unorthodox podcast, which reminds its prospective 5,280 Facebook group members that it is “not a group for the Netflix show and book of the same name,” recently aired episode 250. Unorthodox boasts a loyal and diverse fan base of more than 20,000, known as the #JCrew.

In a recent interview with The Jerusalem Post, Oppenheimer reports, “We know from Facebook and listener surveys that we attract Jews from all ranges of observance, lots of non-Jews and a large number studying for conversion.” He adds, “There is no typical listener. They are young and old, Conservative, Reform and Modern Orthodox, and there are some haredi [ultra-Orthodox] listeners. A haredi listener may learn about secular TV and a secular listener may learn about Shmini Atzeret.”

Episodes follow a similar format including playful banter among the co-hosts, news from the Jewish world, appearances by the Gentile and Jew of the Week and fan letters.Oppenheimer is a writer with a PhD in religious studies from Yale and the director of the Yale Journalism Initiative.

Butnick serves as deputy editor of Tablet, and Israeli-born Leibovitz, who frequently mentions growing up in Israel and his army service, is a journalist, media critic and video-games expert.

In the current episode, the Gentile of the Week is celebrity chef Tom Colicchio, head judge on Bravo’s Top Chef and founder of Crafted Hospitality. He discusses whitefish, the story of proposing to his Jewish wife over pastrami at Manhattan’s 2nd Ave Deli, and raising Jewish children.

Oppenheimer notes that the “Most-Coveted Gentile” on the show was English actor John Cleese, of Monty Python fame. “He was witty, famous and very non-Jewish!”

The Jewish guest in episode #250 is Temple University Prof. Lila Corwin Berman, discussing her new book, The American Jewish Philanthropic Complex: The History of a Multibillion-Dollar Institution. Other famous Jewish guests include comedian Judy Gold, NPR’s Peter Sagal, writer Abigail Pogrebin and former Israeli ambassador to the US and former member of the Knesset Michael Oren.

Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, who died last week at 72, appeared on the show twice, including this past September, when he discussed his most recent book, Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times.

Special episodes each year include the Apology episode each fall, to coincide with the High Holy Days, and the Conversion episode each Shavuot. Stephanie Butnick reports, “My favorite episodes are probably the ones that send me to fun and unexpected places, like the Joyva factory in Brooklyn, or to Petaluma, California, to tell the fascinating history of its Jewish chicken farming community, or to Food Network host Molly Yeh’s farm on the Minnesota-North Dakota border, where we made sprinkle challa. ”Oppenheimer feels what makes the podcast unique is that it is “not preachy and not doing kiruv [outreach].”

He adds, “We are having an authentic discussion that matters to Jews culturally and politically, and listeners can eavesdrop on frank talk among Jews.”

Butnick notes, “The best part of Unorthodox for me is showcasing the diversity of the Jewish experience, and the many different ways of being Jewish. We hear from listeners who don’t live near a Jewish community, or have no interest in going to synagogue, but they find a deep Jewish connection each Thursday when they play the podcast. That is incredibly meaningful for me as a host.” LAUREN GROBOIS, 24, of Manhattan’s Upper West Side, reports that Unorthodox is “the only podcast where I find myself being intellectually challenged, tearing up and laughing hysterically within one episode. I am proud to be a member of the #JCrew.”

Erika Dreifus, a New York-based writer and self-described “super-fan,” reports, “I was a little late to embrace podcasts. I suppose you could say that Unorthodox was my gateway podcast. As a regular Tablet reader, I took note of its development. I began listening, and I was instantly drawn in. The hosts – who even when they disagreed with each other were never disagreeable – seemed to become my friends.

“The conversation was always lively; the guests (both Jewish and non-Jewish), intriguing. I became something of a super-fan, attending virtually every live show they produced in New York, and joining their Facebook group. These days I don’t always get to listen to the weekly episode the very first thing each Thursday morning, but I never let the episodes accrue.

I’m always caught up!” The three hosts, who recently wrote The Newish Jewish Encyclopedia: From Abraham to Zabar’s and Everything in Between, have taken their show “on the road” to many American cities.

Oppenheimer observes, “I terribly miss not being able to go to these cities due to COVID. We love meeting hundreds of listeners, being in the community and having listeners come up and hug us!” He reports that they wrote the book because “people were treating us as their rabbis and professors with their questions about Yiddishkeit [Judaism].

They didn’t know who to ask or were afraid to ask. There are lots of books about Jewish practices, but not also about black-and-white cookies and Barbra Streisand. We wanted it to reflect the eternal questions about what we are – a people, a nation, a religion, an ethnicity – all of the above.”

While the majority of Unorthodox listeners come from the United States, Oppenheimer feels listeners in Israel would also enjoy and learn from the podcast. “It is the best weekly window into what American Jews find interesting. It is funny.

One of the things we do is NOT take ourselves too seriously! We are not self-righteous and not overly serious. It is an enjoyable space. It is a place to turn when people are fed up with old Jewish institutions.”

Butnick is pleased with the show reaching the milestone 250th episode. “I can’t quite believe we’ve hit 250 episodes. It’s been five wonderful, surprising, edifying years doing this podcast, and I couldn’t be more grateful for our top-notch guests, our energetic community of listeners, and – I’ll admit it – my two co-hosts.

“According to Leibowitz, the experience of being part of Unorthodox has opened his mind to the Jewish world beyond Israel.

“Before embarking on this podcast, I too, like so many Israelis, often believed that Jewish life was at its most vibrant and meaningful when experienced anywhere between Eilat and Misgav Am, and forms of Jewish expression that weren’t directly related to observing the mitzvot and engaging in study were wallpaper at best and, at worst, a distraction,” he said.

“Hearing from our tens of thousands of listeners, however, I discovered tens of thousands of ways to be Jewish, all wildly passionate, deeply meaningful and blissfully unorthodox. And I realized that for all our griping about dwindling synagogue attendance, say, or intermarriage, the actual, real-life Jews out there aren’t experiencing their identity as the staging ground for crisis; they’re seeing it as an opportunity to explore the most moving, intimate, and transformational ideas and emotions, and they gravitate to the podcast because it feels like a space that’s both open and curious.

“It’s our profound privilege to be a part of so many people’s Jewish journeys, and to change the national Jewish conversation from one predicated on anxiety and dread to one focused on tremendous pride and joy.”