Celia Gurevitch Jewish Community Library

The CBA trope class of Ruth Wilson started last Sunday. Not coincidently the requests for books and guides related to the topic have significantly increased. I would like to share with all interested parties the summary of our resources available. Ruth listed five items in her syllabus for the course. Two of them we have on reference/reserve. Come in any time the library is open and use them here:

• Joshua R. Jacobson:  Chanting the Hebrew Bible: The Art of Cantillation
• Abraham Binder: Biblical Chant

The library just ordered a copy of the (249 page long) student edition of Jacobson‘s “Chanting The Hebrew Bible.” (The non-student edition, which have on reserve, is 965 pages and includes an audio CD.) When Rivka Sherman-Gold‘s “The Ohs and Ahs of Torah Reading” new edition will be published later this year the library will order a copy of that too. The last book on Ruth’s list, Tikkun Korim (by Nachum Kornfeld and Abraham Walzer) can be purchased from Bob and Bob in Los Altos.

Besides the above titles, recommended by Ruth, we have the two volume edition of Marshall Portnoy‘s  “The art of Torah cantillation.” The first volume is checked out right now, but the second contains sheet music and two compact discs with text in English and Hebrew. We also have a copy of Pinchas Spiro‘s “Haftarah chanting.” Furthermore we have three audio tapes and two copies of the accompanying books titled “T’aamim Lakorim,” (and subtitled How to read the Torah Haftarah and Megillot) published by Chadish media. Finally, we have an interactive Trope trainer CD-ROM by Kinnor software.

Ruth listed two great online resources on her syllabus Navigating the Bible II and Jewish Calendar Tools. I would like to recommend two more. This page contains seven easy to use, simple trope training lessons. And as usual, it never hurts to check the Wikipedia page on cantillation . It is quite detailed with plenty of outbound links for further exploration.

You probably noticed that the big blue container disappeared from the parking lot about a month ago. What you may not have been aware of that it contained a good portion of the books the library has, but had not place to put. They were boxed up and thus unavailable for too long. We are in the process of changing this situation. The boxes (and the shelves from the container pod) were placed in the chapel temporarily. Last week I took the books out from their boxes, placed them on the shelves sorted by their call numbers and labeled the shelves. See the results below. It was an arduous and dusty process but it was worth it, because I started to get familiar with a previously hidden section of our wonderful collection. What I need to do next is to figure out how the library can provide access to them. I will get back to you here with the answer when I have it.

What a difference a day makes… On March 31 the area between the library and the sanctuary was a spot in bad need of landscaping. That day plants arrived to the campus. Next day they were strategically positioned to their future location, see first picture below. By April 2 they were all planted as you can see on the second picture below. All these plants and my previous post reminded me of a fascinating local history book we have: Under the Vine and the Fig Tree: The Jews of the Napa Valley, by Lin Weber.

Rabbi George Schlesinger was quoted (see below) in yesterday’s Press Democrat in an article recommending kosher wines for Passover. The library does not serve wine, we cannot help you there. But we do have a few cookbooks specifically written for the unleavened period, if you want to spice up your holiday. The most comprehensive is Frances R. Avrutick‘s The Complete Passover Cookbook.

Rabbi George Schlesinger of Congregation Beth Ami in Santa Rosa said he, like most Jews in the 20th century, also grew up on Manischewitz, recalling how the wine stained many a Haggadah or prayer book. But the rabbi is aware of some tasty kosher alternatives, and he’s most familiar with the wines from Napa’s Hagafen Cellars.

“The owner and winemaker, Ernie Weir, is a childhood friend of mine,” Schlesinger said. “We went to Hebrew School together. . . . As kids, I never suspected that this would be Ernie’s calling, and yes, I do tell my congregation about his wine.”

The Jewish Family and Children’s Services is delivering “Seder sacks” to seniors in our community.   They are looking for volunteers to help assembling the sacks tomorrow afternoon: April 10, 3:00 – 5:00 PM at 1360 N. Dutton Ave Suite C, Santa Rosa. You can also help delivering the bags next week Monday through Wednesday.

Their announcement mentioned that helping seniors to celebrate Passover is a mitzvah. This reminded me of the passages below from “The women’s Passover companion.” (Come on in to the library and pick up this or one of the many other books we have on Passover.)

“[…] it helped me to understand that all mitzvoth are important: both lighting Shabbat candles and going to shul on Friday night, both cleaning for Pesach and participating in the Seder. Of course, women should get more involved in the mitzvoth and practices they have not traditionally considered their own, but that does not mean that they should abandon the customs of their mothers. And o the flip side of the same coin, men should become more involved in the spheres of Jewish life in which they have not traditionally been engaged, like cleaning for Pesach.”

When I opened the library yesterday afternoon a message was waiting for me both on voicemail and in the office. It was from Copperfield’s Books. They have been weeding their Judaica collection and offered us their surplus books as donation. Today, I drove to their Petaluma location and had a great conversation with Art Kusnetz, the manager who called us. He showed me (and helped loading into my car) the nine boxes full of books that have not been selling for years. I was more than happy to take them off from his hands. As I will catalog and incorporate the 150-200 books into our collection in the coming weeks I will post here the list of gems we received from them.

Thank you Art for thinking of us and thank you Copperfield’s Books for your kind donation.

I mentioned last week that archiving is an important function of libraries. By helping the congregation to preserve and maintain its communal memory I strive to strengthen it. As part of this archival effort from now on I will make the past issues of the News and Events CBA webpage available. You can see this year’s issues on the newly created Past Events page . It will also stay linked from the bottom of the current page.

Those of us who attended the “A Musical Tribute to Susanne & Al Batzdorff” on February 23 enjoyed the essays, pictures and memories collected in the booklet designed for the event. For those who did not make it, its PDF version is now online.

The last bit of archiving I did today was posting the materials related to the March 23 “Theatrical Megillah Extravaganza & Purim Banquet,” including the flyer, the  program cover, and the program itself (PDFs).

As part of the 25th Sonoma State University 2008 Holocaust Lecture Series Michael Berenbaum , the director of the Sigi Ziering Institute at the American Jewish University will give a lecture tomorrow, titled “Perspectives on the Holocaust in the 21st Century.” The lecture is open to the public and free, albeit parking is not. For more information about the series check their flyer. Michael Berenbaum is the author of more than a dozen books on the topic. The library has two of them:

• The Holocaust and history: The known, the unknown, the disputed, and the reexamined
• The world must know: The history of the Holocaust as told in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

The former is an anthology of 54 essays that Mr. Berenbaum co-edited with Abraham J. Peck. The latter looks like en extended catalog of the museum, with 2-4 images on every page and plenty of context giving description.

As you read in the Shofar Michael Wex, best-selling author, translator and storyteller will be in town this weekend and will deliver three lectures at Shomrei Torah (on Saturday, April 12 at 10:30 AM and 7:30 PM and on Sunday at 8:30 PM.) He is best known for his latest book, “Born to Kvetch: Yiddish language and culture in all its moods.” The library has a copy of it in case you want to catch up with your Yiddish before or after his lectures. To get a feel of his funny style listen a short segment (related to the upcoming Pesach) from the audio version of the book below.

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As you prepare for the celebration of Passover this year may I suggest a visit to the library! You can choose from dozens of books on the topic, including five academic introductions from various perspectives. The 22 different Haggadot we have will satisfy any taste. If you want to spice up your Seder, to make it different from previous years, consult the vegetarian Seder or the one with the liberated lamb. If you want to have a visual feast to go along with your epicurean one take a look at the facsimile edition of the 1492 Sarajevo Haggadah, or the many others, illustrated by artists throughout modernity, including Marc Chagall and Saul Raskin.

We also have 24 Passover-themed books for children. They cover the whole spectrum from toddler to teenager and from simple storytelling to complex ethical questions. Make it a memorable holiday this year for the little one by reading with him or her.

If you are more of an auditory type, i.e. you enjoy listening just as much as reading; get one of our five audiotapes for the holiday. You can hear songs both from the Oriental and the Ashkenazi tradition on them, stories masterfully told or even an audio guide to help you through the Seder night.

Finally, if you are a visual person, meaning you like movies, borrow any of our four related VHS tapes. Watching the two animated features could be fun for the whole family: one of them is with the Rugrats and the other is a claymation. If you prefer an explanatory video, detailing the habits and customs of the holiday, we have that too, not to mention a video with superb performances of Passover music and songs.

No matter what your Passover related information needs are or what kind of media you enjoy the most, we have it covered.