Celia Gurevitch Jewish Community Library

As I mentioned Friday I spent the weekend in San Jose at the annual conference of the California Library Association. If I manage to find the time I plan to write up my impressions and insights on my personal blog. Here I would like to cover only those points that relate to Judaica one way or another.

First of all the keynote speakers for the opening general session were Michael Chabon and Ayelet Waldman. (See my picture of them below.) As you know Chabon is the Pulitzer Prize winning of author of many novels including “The Yiddish Policemen’s Union” and “The amazing adventures of Kavalier and Clay“. (We just added the latter to our collection.) What you may not know that his wife Ayelet Waldman is an author on her own right, having written 9 novels so far. Together on stage they talked about on what it means and how it works for them on being married to a writer. I admit they didn’t touch on any specifically Jewish topic, but as some of their work relates to it I found worthwhile to mention how delightful their conversation with each other was. They seemed passionate, knowledgeable and likable people. For those of you who liked The Yiddish Policemen’s Union I have good news: The Coen brothers are planning turning it into a movie.

One of the sessions I visited was titled “Cultural Diversity on the Shelves: Authors’ Perspectives on Blending Latinos, Asians, and Others into Children’s Literature.” The panel consisted of five authors, who wrote children books with multicultural characters, plots and/or locations. I went there primarily to listen to the Jewish participant, Susan Goldman Rubin , the one on the right the picture below. She authored many books for young people on arts and artists, such as Matisse, Warhol, Thiebaud, Hopper and Degas. She also wrote six books related to Jewish themes. I purchased one of them for the library and asked her to sign it. “Fireflies in the Dark: The Story of Friedl Dicker-Brandeis and the Children of Terezin” is a book about the Holocaust for children that is not as terrifying visually as most books with pictures on this topic. The book won eleven prizes including AJL’s “Honor Book in the 2000 Sydney Taylor Book Award for Older Readers.” I am hoping that this book will be borrowed by the children who visit our library.

Ms. Goldman Rubin’s other books include “Searching for Anne Frank: Letters from Amsterdam to Iowa,” L’Chaim! To Jewish Life in America! Celebrating from 1654 until Today,” ” The Flag With Fifty-Six Stars: A Gift From The Survivors of Mauthausen,” “The Cat with the Yellow Star: Coming of Age in Terezin,” “Haym Salomon: American Patriot.” One of her upcoming books, “The Anne Frank Case: Simon Wiesenthal’s Search for the Truth” is about Simon Wiesenthal’s (successful) search for the Nazi officer responsible arresting Anne Frank. Currently she is working on a book about Mengele.

During her 15 minute talk I learned about how she grew up in the Bronx, where she thought that being Jewish is nothing spectacular, but later in life she learned to appreciate the uniqueness of her culture and background. She also shared the organic process how she got involved in writing about Jewish topics. She spoke about the importance of teaching the Holocaust to the younger generations, who have less and less chance to talk to survivors themselves.

The conference had not other Jewish themed panel, but on the exhibition floor I found a few items. There were several companies offering books on CD, tapes or MP3. But only one of them displayed any item of interest for us. Blackstone Audio Inc, has Geraldine Brooks‘ “People of the book“, which is on our discussion group’s schedule. It is a bit pricey, so I haven’t decided whether to purchase it or not. Finally “I’d Bark But You Never Listen: An Illustrated Guide to the Jewish Dog” by Harold Kimmel looked funny.