# Kitty Zeldis On Passing and the Relief of Being “Kitty”

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-five-books-jewish-authors-on-the-books-that-shaped-them-7105649/kitty-zeldis-on-passing-and-the-relief-of-being-kitty
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-five-books-jewish-authors-on-the-books-that-shaped-them-7105649/kitty-zeldis-on-passing-and-the-relief-of-being-kitty.md
Podcast: [The Five Books: Jewish Authors on the Books That Shaped Them](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-five-books-jewish-authors-on-the-books-that-shaped-them-7105649)
Published: 2025-10-14T07:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pdst.fm/e/mgln.ai/e/51/tracking.swap.fm/track/tcQd6Q6C0RUUlOHq1Ytj/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.megaphone.fm/TPG5259707569.mp3?updated=1759167618
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Duration seconds: 2957

## Resource

At Vassar College, Kitty Zeldis confronted what she calls a “WASP tsunami,” sparking lifelong questions about what it means to be Jewish in a wider, often unwelcoming world. In our conversation, she reflects on how that tension shaped her new novel One of Them, and shares the moments and stories that shaped her Jewish identity: from a German-Jewish poet who challenged her assumptions about culture and belonging, to her parents’ formative years in Israel, to the haunting family memory of a murdered great-grandfather in Russia. In One of Them, Anne Bishop seems like a typical Vassar sophomore—one of a popular group of privileged WASP friends. None of the girls in her circle has any idea that she’s Jewish, or that her real first name is Miriam. Pretending to be a Gentile has made life easier—as Anne, she no longer suffers the snubs, snide remarks, and daily restrictions Jews face. She enjoys her college life of teas, late-night conversations, and mixers. She turns a blind eye to the casual anti-Semitism that flourishes among her friends and classmates—after all, it's no longer directed at her. But her secret life is threatened when she becomes fascinated by a girl not in her crowd. Delia Goldhush is sophisticated, stylish, brilliant, and unashamedly Jewish—and seems not to care that she’s an outcast among the other students. Knowing that her growing closeness with Delia would be social suicide if it were discovered, Anne keeps their friendship quiet. Delia seems to understand—until a cruelty on Anne’s part drives them apart and sends them scattering to other corners of the world, alone and together. Kitty Zeldis is the pen name of Yona Zeldis McDonough, a Brooklyn based author of nine novels, numerous essays, articles and works of short fiction as well as forty books for…

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