The Rebbe of Baton Rouge

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-fiancée 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.

Author: Jennifer Anne Moses,Stuart P. Green
Publisher: University of Louisiana
Published: 10/20/2026
Pages: 202
Binding Type: Paperback
ISBN13: 9781959569381
ISBN10: 1959569384
BISAC Categories:
- Fiction | Jewish
- Fiction | Southern
- Fiction | Romance | Contemporary