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September 2, 2026

One of my favorite things about gathering people for my show, are the hundreds of friendships that have developed with people all over the world.

Linda Royal took the effort to send me her best selling novel “The Star on the Grave” all the way from Australia, and both my wife Adi and myself are excited to read about Chiune Sugihara, a hero and tzaddik in Japan who saved thousands of Jewish lives during WW2/the Holocaust.

If that’s not enough of a reason to order the book, how about the fact that in spite of winning awards and selling out in Australia, the book was mostly rejected by American publishers and bookstores because it’s… “too Jewish.” One publisher even suggested removing the Star of David from the cover. You know, the yellow star that Jews were forced to wear by the Nazis, shouldn’t be on a book about… Jews being saved from Nazis. I know Australia is the land down under, but right now the entire world seems like it’s flat out upside down.

Thank you my friend Linda, and I’m excited for the impending introduction to the last surviving son of Sugihara himself, seen here holding her book!

Buy it on Amazon, and encourage people to carry it: https://a.co/d/04WCftxI

 

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A post shared by Boaz Hepner (@hepner.boaz)


Boaz Hepner works as a Registered Nurse in Saint John’s Health Center. He moonlights as a podcaster, leading a large, friendly, bipartisan gathering on Zoom, allowing everyone to speak freely, just as if they were at a Shabbat table. He is a Pico/Robertson native, where he has led an annual neighborhood cleanup since 2009. He enjoys spending time with his wife Adi and children Natalia and Liam, and pursuing his passions of movies, poker and traveling.

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