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The Ripped Bodice, Brooklyn’s new romance-only bookstore, reflects the values of the Jewish sisters who own it
(New York Jewish Week) — Just a few minutes after entering The Ripped Bodice, a new romance bookstore in Park Slope, Rose Cohen, a woman in her early 20s, already had two books in hand.
Armed with a list of coveted romance books on her iPhone notes app, Cohen, who lives an hour outside the city, had dragged her best friend Emma on the train all the way into Brooklyn to visit the borough’s newest bookstore, with its bubblegum pink exterior, walls and ceilings decorated in an impressive display of classic romance novels — and of course rows and rows of her favorite genre.
A huge romance fan, she already knew The Ripped Bodice would have all the books she was looking for; she had been following The Ripped Bodice’s evolution at its first location in Los Angeles for years and was eager to visit the Brooklyn store on Thursday afternoon, as she wasn’t able to make it for opening weekend earlier this month.
The Ripped Bodice, a bookstore that only sells the one genre, is owned by Jewish sisters Leah and Bea Koch. They opened the first location in Culver City, California, in 2016 with funds from a Kickstarter campaign. Seven years later, the business was successful enough for them to make the leap to the East Coast.
“We ship all over the country and outside of California, the most common place we were shipping to was New York,” Leah Koch said. Plus, New York is home both to family — the sisters’ father, stepmother, brother, sister-in-law and nephews all live in Brooklyn — and to the historical center of the publishing industry.
After living in Los Angeles for the last 12 years, Leah, 31, has relocated to New York to run the Brooklyn location while her sister Bea, 33, will stay behind and helm the flagship. Having to split up after working together for nearly a decade “is my least favorite part” of opening the Brooklyn store, said Leah, but Bea has already been back and forth several times to help get the store open and has more trips planned in the near future. On the flip side, Leah said, being based in New York opens the door for some of her favorite activities — including seeing Broadway shows and celebrating Shabbat and Jewish holidays with her family.
Originally from Chicago, the sisters were raised in what they described as a culturally Jewish household. Growing up, “my parents had such an emphasis on education and reading and books,” Leah Koch said. “I think that was directly influenced by their understanding of Judaism as a culture that values education, curiosity and questioning.”
As business owners, those Jewish values and traditions influence the way the Koch sisters run their stores. During the holiday season in Los Angeles, they host an annual drive for menstrual products called “Eight Crazy Nights of Tamponukkah.” They also raised money for abortion clinics in Mississippi.
“I’m not very religious, so my value system is how I interpret Judaism and I don’t believe in the separation of my personal values and my business,” Leah Koch said. “My business is a way for me to put those values into practice — we are able to contribute to causes that we care about and that are directly related to what we sell.” If those more progressive stances might alienate customers, she said, “I don’t really care.”
When it opened, The Ripped Bodice was touted as the country’s first romance-only bookstore.
“The number of people who are crazy enough to want to open a brick-and-mortar bookstore is really small. Within that, the number of people who want to focus only on one genre is even smaller,” Koch said.
But since, several others have opened amid a boom in romance sales among younger readers, driven in part by TikTok’s #BookTok.
Koch said she has been drawn to romance her whole life — at first because “the weight and importance that was put on ordinary people’s emotional lives,” and later on, because it offered a respite. “It’s a genre of hope and joy,” she said. “When life gets bleak, I continue to find comfort in a guaranteed happy ending.”
Jean Meltzer, a romance author whose characters and stories are Jewish, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in 2021 that she had turned to the genre as an antidote to most storytelling about Jews.
“I wanted to write a book for Jews where the heroes were sexy, where the men were strong, where the women were beautiful, where they got their happy ending,” said Meltzer, whose third book, “Kissing Kosher,” comes out this month. “I wrote this book primarily for myself, but it was really out of a desire to sort of just create a different type of Jewish story.”
Meltzer’s books are featured at The Ripped Bodice, and Koch said she thought the author was right that romance can be meaningful for Jewish readers. “It’s true for so many different types of people, but Jews specifically,” she said. “[Romance novels] are particularly valuable for people who very rarely see themselves portrayed like that.”
The walls of the store are decorated with open romance novels and pictures of the sisters and their family throughout their lives. (Julia Gergely)
At 1,900 square feet, The Ripped Bodice bookstore has plenty of room to carry all the Jewish romance novels. Cohen suggested “Weather Girl” by Rachel Lynn Solomon. Koch mentioned Meltzer and Stacy Agdern, who write contemporary romance, along with Felicia Grossman, who writes Jewish historical romance set during the Regency period in England.
Along with Jewish romance, they carry stories dealing with all kinds of religion, disability, race, gender and sexuality, as well as some nonfiction about women’s health and sexuality from traditional and indie publishers. They even carry self-published books. “If it exists, we will find it,” Koch said.
The store also sells original merchandise, greeting cards and homemade tea blends named after tropes of the genre — such as an Earl Grey called “There’s Only One Bed” and a lemon ginger named “Can You Zip Me Up?”
Business is already booming in Brooklyn, Koch said. She wasn’t shocked at how many people showed up for the opening, which she guessed was over 1,000. But she said it’s been a welcome surprise at how many have come in the weeks since — on Thursday afternoon, dozens of customers rotated through.
And at least for Cohen, the store has lived up to the hype. “It’s everything and more,” she said.
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The post The Ripped Bodice, Brooklyn’s new romance-only bookstore, reflects the values of the Jewish sisters who own it appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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US Clamps Sanctions on Israel-bashing UN Rights Monitor Albanese
Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, attends a side event during the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, March 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
The Trump administration has imposed sweeping sanctions against Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, citing the UN official’s lengthy record of singling out Israel for condemnation.
In a post on X, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the sanctions under a February executive order targeting those who “prompt International Criminal Court (ICC) action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives.” He accused Albanese of waging “political and economic warfare” against both nations and asserted that “such efforts will no longer be tolerated.”
“Today I am imposing sanctions on UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese for her illegitimate and shameful efforts to prompt [International Criminal Court] action against U.S. and Israeli officials, companies, and executives,” Rubio announced on X/Twitter.
“Albanese’s campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated,” declared the Trump administration’s top foreign affairs official. “We will always stand by our partners in their right to self-defense.”
Rubio concluded: “The United States will continue to take whatever actions we deem necessary to respond to lawfare and protect our sovereignty and that of our allies.”
The decision to impose sanctions on Albanese marks an escalation in the ongoing feud between the White House and the United Nations over Israel. The Trump administration has repeatedly accused the UN and Albanese of unfairly targeting Israel and mischaracterizing the Jewish state’s conduct in Gaza.
Albanese, an Italian lawyer and academic, has held the position of UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories since 2022. The position authorizes her to monitor and report on alleged “human rights violations” by Israel against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
Last week, Albanese issued a scathing report accusing companies of helping Israel maintain a so-called “genocide economy.” She called on the companies to cut off economic ties with Israel and warned that they might be guilty of “complicity” in the so-called “genocide” in Gaza.
Critics of Albanese have long accused her of exhibiting an excessive anti-Israel bias, calling into question her fairness and neutrality.
Albanese has an extensive history of using her role at the UN to denigrate Israel and seemingly rationalize Hamas’ attacks on the Jewish state.
In the months following the Palestinian terrorist group’s atrocities across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Albanese accused the Jewish state of perpetrating a “genocide” against the Palestinian people in revenge for the attacks and circulated a widely derided and heavily disputed report alleging that 186,000 people had been killed in the Gaza war as a result of Israeli actions.
The action comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits Washington, where he has received a warm reception from the Trump administration. Netanyahu has been meeting with US officials to discuss next steps in the ongoing Gaza military operation.
Gideon Sa’ar, Minister of Foreign Affairs for Israel, commended the Rubio announcement with his own post on X/Twitter, exclaiming: “A clear message. Time for the UN to pay attention!”
The post US Clamps Sanctions on Israel-bashing UN Rights Monitor Albanese first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hardball: Trump Administration Reports Harvard to Accreditor Over Antisemitism Allegations
US President Donald Trump speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, July 8, 2025. Photo: Kevin Lamarque via Reuters Connect.
The Trump administration escalated its showdown against Harvard University on Wednesday, reporting the institution to its accreditor for alleged civil rights violations resulting from its weak response to reports of antisemitic bullying, discrimination, and harassment following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 massacre across southern Israel.
The US Department of Education (DOE) announced the action on Wednesday. Citing Harvard’s admitted failure to treat antisemitism as seriously as it treated others forms of hatred in the past, the DOE called on the New England Commission of Higher Education to review and, potentially, revoke its accreditation — a designation which qualifies Harvard for federal funding and attests to the quality of the educational services its provides.
“Accrediting bodies play a significant role in preserving academic integrity and a campus culture conducive to truth seeking and learning,” said Secretary of Education Linda McMahon. “Part of that is ensuring students are safe on campus and abiding by federal laws that guarantee educational opportunities to all students. By allowing anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination to persist unchecked on its campus, Harvard University has failed in its obligation to students, educators, and American taxpayers.”
The DOE, McMahon added, “expects the New England Commission of Higher Education to enforce its policies and practices, and to keep the Department fully informed of its efforts to ensure that Harvard is in compliance with federal law and accreditor standards.”
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, Harvard’s Presidential Task Force on Combating Antisemitism has acknowledged that the university administration’s handling of campus antisemitism fell well below its obligations under both Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its own nondiscrimination policies.
In a 300-plus-page report, the task force compiled a comprehensive record of antisemitic incidents on Harvard’s campus in recent years — from the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee’s endorsement of the Oct. 7 terrorist atrocities to an anti-Zionist faculty group’s sharing an antisemitic cartoon depicting Jews as murderers of people of color. The report identified Harvard’s past refusal to afford Jews the same protections against discrimination enjoyed by other minority groups as a key source of its problem.
Coming several weeks after President Donald Trump ordered the freeze of $2.26 billion in federal research grants and contracts for Harvard, the task force report found it was “clear” that antisemitism and anti-Israel bias have been fomented, practiced, and tolerated not only at Harvard but also within academia more widely.”
The university is now suing the federal government over the funding halt.
President Trump has spoken scathingly of Harvard, calling it, for example, an “Anti-Semitic, Far Left Institute … with students being accepted from all over the world that want to rip our Country apart” in an April post to his Truth Social platform.
In recent weeks, however, both Trump and McMahon had commended Harvard’s constructive response in negotiations over reforms the administration has asked it to implement as a precondition for restoring federal funds. The requested reforms include hiring more conservative faculty, shuttering diversity, equity, and inclusion [DEI] programs, and slashing the size of administrative offices tangential to the university’s central educational mission.
The administration has since changed its tone in the wake of a report by The Harvard Crimson that interim Harvard President Alan Garber has said “behind closed doors” that he has no intention of doing anything that would make Harvard more palatable to conservatives.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration’s Joint Task Force to Combat Antisemitism issued Harvard a formal “notice of violation” of civil rights law. Charging that Harvard willfully exposed Jewish students to a flood of racist and antisemitic abuse both in and outside of the classroom, it threatened to strip whatever remains of Harvard’s federal funding.
“Failure to institute adequate changes immediately will result in the loss of all federal financial resources and continue to affect Harvard’s relationship with the federal government,” wrote the federal officials comprising the multiagency Task Force. “Harvard may of course continue to operate free of federal privileges, and perhaps such an opportunity will spur a commitment to excellence that will help Harvard thrive once again.”
In Wednesday’s announcement, US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Harvard’s conduct “forfeits the legitimacy that accreditation is designed to uphold.”
“HHS and Department of Education will actively hold Harvard accountable through sustained oversight until it restores public trust and ensures a campus free of discrimination,” he said.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Hardball: Trump Administration Reports Harvard to Accreditor Over Antisemitism Allegations first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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IDF Strikes Hezbollah Sites in South Lebanon as Terror Group Pushes to Rebuild Amid US Disarmament Talks
IDF operating in southern Lebanon. Photo: IDF Spokesperson
Israeli forces uncovered and destroyed Hezbollah weapons caches in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, as a new report indicated that despite ongoing U.S.-led efforts to secure a disarmament deal, the Iran-backed group is making repeated, largely concealed attempts to rebuild its military presence in the area.
Troops carried out several operations targeting Hezbollah infrastructure in southern Lebanon on Wednesday morning, destroying weapons depots, explosives and multibarrel launchers concealed in forested terrain, the IDF said, in violation of the November ceasefire, which requires Hezbollah to withdraw its forces 20 miles from the Israeli border.
A new report released this week by the Alma Research and Education Center found that Hezbollah is focused on rebuilding in three areas: operational deployment, weapons acquisition, and financial recovery.
“Hezbollah didn’t give up its resistance narrative and motivation,” Alma’s director, Lt. Col. (Res.) Sarit Zehavi, told The Algemeiner.
“It wants to rebuild its capabilities and infrastructures, whether it’s the villages that will be used as human shields or the military infrastructure in South Lebanon and in Lebanon in general.”
According to Zehavi, Hezbollah is attempting to return Radwan fighters to positions south of the Litani River as part of a wider plan to restore its elite forces to operational readiness. The IDF on Monday killed Radwan commander Ali Abd al-Hassan Haidar in a targeted strike. The action came hours after US Special Envoy for Syria Thomas Barrack met with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in Beirut to discuss a long-term deal that would include an Israeli withdrawal and complete disarmament of Hezbollah.
Barrack described the Lebanese response to the proposal as positive. Later, he issued a blunt warning to Hezbollah in response to a vow by the terror group’s leader, Naim Qassem, not to lay down its arms. “If they mess with us anywhere in the world, they will have a serious problem with us,” Barrack said in an interview with Lebanese news network LBCI. “They don’t want that.”
Zehavi said it was premature to predict the outcome of the diplomatic efforts. She warned that the challenge of disarming Hezbollah remains enormous and emphasized that the Lebanese Armed Forces have not demonstrated the capability or willingness to confront the group.
“It’s too soon to be optimistic or pessimistic,” she said, noting that no firm commitments have emerged from the Beirut talks.
Hezbollah’s efforts to smuggle and manufacture weapons have been complicated by both Israeli strikes and the regional realignment over recent months. While Israeli strikes have disrupted many supply routes, according to Zehavi, Syrian authorities have intercepted far more Hezbollah-bound weapons than the Lebanese Army, which claims to have uncovered 500 arms caches but has provided no evidence.
The financial front marks the third aspect of Hezbollah’s rebuilding effort. Last week, the group halted cash payments to Shiite civilians whose homes were damaged in the war, citing liquidity problems. Zehavi attributed the shortfall to disruptions in Iran’s funding networks — an outcome of the 12-day war against the regime in Tehran — and said the constraints would likely hamper Hezbollah’s ability to compensate its base and sustain operations.
“I hope they will continue to have problems with the cash flow, that way it will be very difficult for them to recover,” she said.
The post IDF Strikes Hezbollah Sites in South Lebanon as Terror Group Pushes to Rebuild Amid US Disarmament Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.