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Every Body Beloved: A Jewish Embrace of Fatness
An authoritative call to end anti-fat bias and champion the acceptance of all bodies.
In this remarkable book, Minna Bromberg lays bare the harm of anti-fat bias and the restorative potential for body liberation in Jewish tradition to confront fatphobia. Bromberg traces her own journey of identity formation, bodily autonomy, and self-acceptance from her earliest memories of dieting at the age of seven to her young adult activism to the founding of her organization, Fat Torah. Letters reflecting on her personal experiences are interwoven with critical discussions about the need to address harmful stigma about fat bodies, to end fat shaming, and to engage meaningfully with questions of fat accessibility. Bromberg persuasively demonstrates what we can learn from Jewish tradition that will allow us to usher in a culture of healing and acceptance of all bodies created in the Divine image.
In this remarkable book, Minna Bromberg lays bare the harm of anti-fat bias and the restorative potential for body liberation in Jewish tradition to confront fatphobia. Bromberg traces her own journey of identity formation, bodily autonomy, and self-acceptance from her earliest memories of dieting at the age of seven to her young adult activism to the founding of her organization, Fat Torah. Letters reflecting on her personal experiences are interwoven with critical discussions about the need to address harmful stigma about fat bodies, to end fat shaming, and to engage meaningfully with questions of fat accessibility. Bromberg persuasively demonstrates what we can learn from Jewish tradition that will allow us to usher in a culture of healing and acceptance of all bodies created in the Divine image.
- GenresJudaism
248 pages, Paperback
Published September 9, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 5, 2025
Thank you to Wayne State University Press and Publishers Weekly Grab-a-Galley program for the digital advanced reader copy.
Every Body Beloved is an engrossing analysis of the intersectionality of Jewishness and fatness--"using Jewish tradition to confront anti-fatness." This is a book that anyone, regardless of their size or background, would benefit from reading.
The Jewish component was enlightening to me as I am unfamiliar with those traditions. The stories that Bromberg tells and how she ties them into the teaching of Judaism are illuminating. I was easily able to follow terminology and concepts despite being previously unaware of them. The book is not preachy, but instead builds upon stories and traditions in an inquisitive way. The writing is so smooth and flowing that when I stopped for the first time, I was surprised that I had read half the book already. (I finished the second half in a day, too.) It is very accessible and left me with a lot to think about.
I was particularly taken with the Rebuke and Healing section. As someone who is always looking to be a better ally to myself and my fellow humans, it's important to me to know better and do better. If I make a mistake, I hope that there would be someone to lovingly rebuke me. It is also something that I need to learn to do better, too. The Desiring Fat section and much of what came after gave me a WHOLE LOT of feelings that I need to sift through and allow myself to embrace and analyze.
Out of the entire book, the one thing that was a little questioning of and confusing to me was the cover in that it shows a brown body, but the author states she is white. It could be that I'm reading more into it or misreading something or am ignorant of any possible religious context. But I came to take it as being representative of humanity's bodily origin--our shared roots in the fertile crescent.
Every Body Beloved is an engrossing analysis of the intersectionality of Jewishness and fatness--"using Jewish tradition to confront anti-fatness." This is a book that anyone, regardless of their size or background, would benefit from reading.
The Jewish component was enlightening to me as I am unfamiliar with those traditions. The stories that Bromberg tells and how she ties them into the teaching of Judaism are illuminating. I was easily able to follow terminology and concepts despite being previously unaware of them. The book is not preachy, but instead builds upon stories and traditions in an inquisitive way. The writing is so smooth and flowing that when I stopped for the first time, I was surprised that I had read half the book already. (I finished the second half in a day, too.) It is very accessible and left me with a lot to think about.
I was particularly taken with the Rebuke and Healing section. As someone who is always looking to be a better ally to myself and my fellow humans, it's important to me to know better and do better. If I make a mistake, I hope that there would be someone to lovingly rebuke me. It is also something that I need to learn to do better, too. The Desiring Fat section and much of what came after gave me a WHOLE LOT of feelings that I need to sift through and allow myself to embrace and analyze.
Out of the entire book, the one thing that was a little questioning of and confusing to me was the cover in that it shows a brown body, but the author states she is white. It could be that I'm reading more into it or misreading something or am ignorant of any possible religious context. But I came to take it as being representative of humanity's bodily origin--our shared roots in the fertile crescent.
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November 19, 2025Smart, compassionate, and challenging. Definitely worth reading.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews