Celia Gurevitch Jewish Community Library

You may not know that the library subscribes to a number of newspapers, journals and magazines. I would like to introduce them one by one to encourage you to check them out. I picked The Jerusalem Post as the first one, because we receive that the most often. Once a week we get the international edition of this large format newspaper. You can read the latest news and analysis of what is happening in Israel on 32 pages. I admit that most of the stories are online at the newspaper website . I believe however that it is more comfortable to read a newspaper, well on paper. Also, on the online version you have to pay for anything but the most recent articles. The library on the other hand has all the volumes for nut just this year but also for 2006 and 2007, in case you want to research a topic. Each issue has letters, editorials and interviews and articles in the society, in Israel, trends, opinions, business, books, arts, food and Judaism section.

Here are some articles that grabbed my attention in the current issue:

• The price they pay: the death of archterrorist Imad Mughniyeh even if not the work of Israel, raises the issue of targeted killings
• Obama, Clinton and Jewish good fortune
• What the global forum must do: the fight against anti-Semitism should focus on four targets
• Working at prayer: want to pray at the Western Wall, but don’t live in Jerusalem? For $2 a day you can hire a prayer agent
• Postwar Odyssey: Bernard Schlink on German guilt, legal scholarship and homecoming
• A suitcase full of memories: correspondence from nine family members offers a tragic rare firsthand glimpse into wartime Poland
• Every Jew counts

Come on in when you have a few minutes between your errands and catch up about the world of Jews and Israel by browsing through the latest issue of the International Jerusalem Post.

The Art Gallery at Sonoma State University has an exhibition open till the end of the month (March 26) that maybe of interest of the readers of this blog, “Charlotte Salomon – Life? Or Theatre?”

This exhibit features the work of German-Jewish artist Charlotte Salomon (1917-1943), who grew up as the daughter of a surgeon and a singer in Berlin. The Nazi takeover in 1933 changed the family’s situation drastically, and Charlotte Salomon escaped in 1939 to her grandparents, who had already sought refuge in Southern France. Hiding in Nice, Salomon created an unusual autobiography through more than 1300 paintings that were created within 18 months between 1940 and 1942. Salomon decided to include 769 in her work that she entitled “Leben? oder Theater?” In 1943, the Nazis deported her to Auschwitz, where she was murdered upon arrival. She was 26 years old. Before her arrest she gave her complete work to a friend reminding him: “Please keep this safe: C’est toute ma vie! This is my entire life.”

On March 11, at 4:00 pm Dr. Paula Birnbaum will give a lecture at SSU’s Warren Auditorium titled, “Visualizing Cultural Memory: The Legacy of Charlotte Salomon.” For more information about the show or the lecture check the gallery’s webpage

If you cannot make it to view the exhibition come in to the library and check out the beautiful book we have showing Salomon’s pictures on almost 800 pages, most of them in color.

We wanted the library to be present at last Sunday’s Feast of Jewish Learning event in one form or another. Therefore we took the previous version of the flyer and recreated the digital file. Then we updated the information on it, including our extended ours and online presence. We managed to produce the new version before Shabbat came in, so it did get displayed on the CBA table on Sunday. Overall, about 20 copies of it was picked up at the event.

You can view the full size of the flyer by clicking on the thumbnail image below or by downloading the PDF version. Enjoy and feel free to send it to anybody who might be interested in the library.

I am happy to announce that the library is now open Mondays and Wednesdays in addition to Tuesdays and Thursdays. This means that you can drop by any time Monday through Thursday between 3.45 and 6 p.m. and on Sunday mornings.

The library has a blog (blogs are online journals, where visitors can posts comments on the entries.) I plan to post 3-4 short messages a week, to keep you updated about what’s happening in the world of the library, recommend new and older items from our collection related to events at the synagogue and local, national and international levels. Some of the recent entries include items on klezmer music, books on African-American Jewish relations, and Sylvia Boorstein’s new book. You can read these and more at www.bethamisr.org/library. At this site you can also subscribe to receive the blog entries into your email box. The library is for the community and by the community. Here are seven ways you can help to strengthen this principle:

• Come on in, explore our collection, borrow a book (or CD or video) of your interest.
• Write a book review for the blog.
• Let us know what (kind of) books you would like to see in the library.
• Share your ideas with us about how the library could serve you better and more.
• Volunteer! It’s easy, joyful and fun. You are guaranteed to learn something interesting.
• Join the Library Committee to have a stronger voice in the library’s future.
• Contribute to the library fund.

If you are interested in any of the opportunities above, please contact me via email or by telephone at 849-7682.

This Friday night (March 7) will be special at Congregation Beth Ami. We are joining hundreds of other synagogues in the Shabbat Across America program, organized by the National Jewish Outreach Program (NJOP) . CBA encourages its members to invite Jewish non-member friends and family to the joyous Shabbat dinner for only $7 per adult or child. Dinner is at 6 p.m., services are at 7:30 p.m., and then there’s Israeli folk dancing with a live band, Zim Zum. NJOP describes the event like this:

“Shabbat Across America/Canada” is an unparalleled display of unity and Ahavat Yisrael, created in the hope of making certain that every North American Jew will have the opportunity to celebrate Shabbat!
Imagine an entire Friday evening dinner devoted to people who want to know more about Judaism! Its an interactive prayer service, joyous Shabbat dinner complete with song, ritual and lively discussion. It is fun-filled evening of camaraderie that unifies Jews everywhere as one people. Tens of thousands of Jews at hundreds of locations across North America will celebrate Shabbat together on March 7, 2008, many for the first time!

As you are reading these lines on the library’s blog I want to point out that we have lots of books related to Shabbat. Here is the six most complete :

• Abraham Joshua Heschel: The Sabbath (“Heschel’s The Sabbath is easily the primary text for all subsequent American Jewish spirituality.”-Rabbi Lawrence Kushner)
• Ronald H. Isaacs: Every person’s guide to Shabbat
• Abraham Ezra Millgram: Sabbath
• Ruth Perelson: An invitation to Shabbat
• Michael Strassfeld (editor): A Shabbat Haggadah
• Ron Wolfson: The Shabbat Seder (The art of Jewish living)

The next meeting of the book club is this Wednesday (March 5) at 10 AM. Come join the discussion led by Susanne Batzdorff on Selim Nassib‘s The Palestinian Lover. The book is “a subtle meditation on sex and politics in pre-statehood Israel, [expanding] on the legend that a young Golda Meir had an affair with Albert Pharaon, the heir to a Palestinian fortune.” Also, you can pick up a copy of Michael Chabon‘s bestseller, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union for the next group discussion on April 2.

Continue reading ‘Book Club: March 5’ »