Celia Gurevitch Jewish Community Library

In January our book group discussed Tamar Yellin‘s “The Genizah of the House of Shepher.” Susanne Batzdorff just donated a copy of Yellin’s newer book, “Tales of the Ten Lost Tribes” to the library. She also wrote the following review for the AJL newsletter about it:

In ten chapters, named after the ten lost tribes, Yellin presents ten individuals whom the narrator encounters on her travels and who appear to embody the characteristics of ever-seeking, ever searching, never quite belonging; “that hidden tribe of wanderers and strangers, aliens and misfits to which I, too, belonged.” Each chapter is preceded by a quotation from a historical source which deals with the topic of the ten lost tribes. The author’s style is luminous, poetic, and each character instantly springs to life by the force of her descriptive genius. While this is not a “must” acquisition for budget-stressed librarians, it is surely a gem to enrich your adult fiction collection and delight all who appreciate fine writing.

Rabbi Benjamin J. Segal is an author and as you can see from his brief bibliography at the end of this post has served the Jewish community in many functions throughout his life. His latest book, a translation and commentary on Shir haShirim, titled “The Song of Songs: A Woman in Love” will be published in March. Rabbi Segal will be with us the whole weekend as our scholar-in-residence.

• Friday evening he will give the drash titled “Must Israel Do T’Shuvah-Morality While Living with Terror” (Services start at 7:30 PM)
• Shabbat morning we will have “Lunch and Learn” session with him on the topic of “Politics and Peace–After the Election.” (Services start at 9:30 AM, potluck lunch around 12:30.)
• Sunday morning at 11 AM Rabbi Segal will give a book talk and we will have a chance to talk with him about the book.

His book can be purchased on Sunday or ordered on Saturday and picked up on Sunday.

The official description of his book from the publisher’s site (Gefen) reads:

A love poem as old as the Bible, as contemporary as today…
One love poem–the Bible’s Song of Songs – continues to be read and to inspire after thousands of years. Using the best of biblical scholarship and sharp literary analysis, Benjamin Segal’s new translation and commentary reveal a picture of ideal love so appealing that it became for centuries the monotheistic model of human-divine attachment. Here one also finds a rare ancient effort to capture the female voice. Segal’s literary analysis captures the pulsating rhythm of the poem, and allows the reader to confront its ever-contemporary and challenging view of love.

Information on Rabbi Segal:

Benjamin J. Segal is the past President of Melitz, the Centers for Jewish and Zionist Education, in Jerusalem, and most recently has created within that context the major Jewish learning festival of Sukkot in Jerusalem, “Gateways.” A past President of the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies, the academic and educational center of Masorti Judaism in Israel, he previously served for nineteen years as the Director of the Ramah Programs in Israel, He is former Chairman of the Masorti Movement in Israel and, for many years, served on the Expanded Executive of the World Zionist Organization. He is the chairman of the Executive of the Meimad Political Party in Israel, and serves on the boards of several non-profit enterprises.

In addition to authoring the book, Returning: The Land of Israel as Focus in Jewish History, he is the author of two study texts: Missionary at the Door: Our Uniqueness and Midrash: The Quest for a Contemporary Past. His translation and commentary, The Song of Songs: A Woman in Love, is now being published. He has also published various articles on biblical, educational and Zionist issues, including the (Hebrew) booklet, “A People and its Land,” an ideological statement on the Jews and Israel. Recent articles include: “The Liberated Woman of Valor”, “The Land of Israel in the Torah” (an appendix to the new Torah commentary, Etz Hayim), “Terms of Endearment: Toward a Clearer Horizon for Israeli Masorti Judaism,” “Psalm 126: Of Dreams, Prayer and Fulfillment” and “Anger and Old Age: An Appreciation of Psalm 90.” He was a member of the committee which wrote “Emet Ve’Emunah,” the ideological statement of the Conservative Movement.

Rabbi Segal was ordained at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, in 1969, and served as a pulpit rabbi in Congregation Kol Emeth, Palo Alto, California for four years. He made aliyah in 1973, and now lives in Jerusalem with his wife Judy and their family. Since moving to Jerusalem, Rabbi Segal has served as scholar in residence and visiting rabbi (high holidays) for numbers of congregations abroad. The Segals have five children and 11 grandchildren.

Sunday we had another successful breakfast at the library despite the weather. Because of the heavy rain we set up our table inside, instead of outside as we did in warmer months. We also slightly overestimated the demand and had some leftover bagels at the end. But I am sure if it were sunnier more people would have joined us. On the other hand it was a good idea to put our several boxes of our used books, because we sold a few items.

• Thank you for those who came, hope you had a good time.
• Thank you for those who donated to our collection box or bought books and supported us that way.
• Finally, I would like to thank Ruth and Ira Rosenberg for providing us with the breakfast and their time.

I personally know Ari, who sent the message below, which should be of interest to readers of this blog,

We are pleased to announce that on March 1, 2009, the Jewish Women’s Archive will launch the free, online version of Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. Previously available only on CD-ROM, the Encyclopedia is the first comprehensive source on the history of Jewish women and includes more than 1,700 biographies, 300 thematic essays, and 1,400 photographs and illustrations (minus a few for which we do not have web display permission). The Encyclopedia nearly doubles the content available on our website (jwa.org) and gives Internet users all over the world free and easy access to a wealth of information. A press release is attached. We encourage you to forward it to your friends and colleagues.

For the next two weeks we will making final pre-release adjustments. If you are interested in participating in the Preview/Beta, please email adavidow@jwa.org ; if you would like to get a sense of who is in the Encyclopedia, or to find out more, please visit http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/preview

Our formal press release is at http://qa.jwa.org/press/2009/2009-0202-encyclopedia.html

After I wrote yesterday’s entry on Black History Month I received the email notification that the latest issue of the Book of Life podcast (“about the Jewish people and the books we read”) is online. It happens to be about Sonia Levitin‘s book (and now stage play) “The Return“, which is one of the more popular books at our library. It chronicles an Ethiopian Jewish girl’s walk to freedom in Israel via Operation Moses. On the podcast’s webpage you can listen to an interview with Ms. Levitin, in which she describes what inspired her to write the book and about the current situation of Ethiopian Jews in Israel; watch a clip from the musical and if you scroll down a whole other entry on “Black History Month, Jewish Style.”

February is Black History Month. Last year same time I wrote an entry about our books on African-American Jewish relations and another one the book titled Glimpses by Reverend Ann Gray Byrd, who visited our synagogue that month.

This year I would like to recommend two books that relate to the topic in different ways. A patron just inquired about one of them today. (Thank you Susan for pointing me to this item we had and I was not familiar with.) “The flying camel; Essays on identity by women of North African and Mid. Eastern Jewish heritage“  , edited by Loolwa Khazzoom, contains 16 essays. Here is the description from the back cover:

Expanding the very definition of what is Jewish, this collection reveals and explores the often-hidden experiences and identities of Jewish women descended from, two rich and varied regions: North Africa and the Middle East. Writing from their unique perspectives, contributors bridge divisions between East and West, “foreign” and “familiar”, and discuss the impact of historical and contemporary tensions between Islam, Judaism, and Christianity have had on them and their families. Essays include a harrowing and desperate flight from persecution in Libya; an exploration of the category “Arab Jew”; discrimination in the Ivy League; and a light-skinned, Moroccan-born woman’s attempts to pass in order to gain acceptance among European Jews in Israel. A tender, honest, and above all, brave collection, “The flying camel” offers a new, critical perspective on the interplay of Arab and Jew and the complexities of people.

The other book also puts Jews and Africa together but in a different way and period. Gary Greenberg‘s “The Moses mystery: The African origins of the Jewish people” asks the question ” Why does the archaeological record show no evidence for the origins of biblical Israel? ” Here is an excerpt from the author’s website with the framework of the answer he gives

According to Greenberg, Moses served as Chief Priest to Pharaoh Akhenaten, whose religious changes provoked a major social and governmental crisis in Egypt. Shortly after Akhenaten’s death, the religious establishment regained control over the government and under Pharaoh Horemheb the government launched a full scale effort to purge the Egyptian record of any reference to Akhenaten’s existence, an effort that included the persecution of Akhenaten’s associates and followers. Moses fled Egypt at this time but returned on Horemheb’s death, claiming the throne as the only legitimate blood heir. This resulted in a civil war between the allies of Moses and Ramesses I, Horemheb’s co-regent at the time. Moses lost and led his followers out of Egypt, an event remembered in the bible as the Exodus.

Today I attended the second meeting of the PJ Library Committee at Jewish Community Federation’s Levitas Library in San Francisco. (Reminder: the PJ Library is a program sending children’s Jewish bedtime stories and music every month FREE!) The program is going great, lots of new families signed up. We are working to sign up many more. In order to do so I will spread the word about it more actively in Sonoma County. Now I have not only printout of the signup sheets, but beautiful postcards and posters too. Meanwhile you can sign up online as well for your own child or grandchild.

As a mere coincidence the monthly email newsletter was also sent today. Here are the books that will be sent out this month:

Age 1: When It’s Purim
Age 2: The Bedtime Sh’ma
Age 3: Five Little Gefiltes
Age 4: The Shabbat Box
Age 5: Bone Button Borscht

The winners for the Sophie Brody Medal, “an award for the U.S. author of the most distinguished contribution to Jewish literature for adults,” was announced earlier this month.. Excerpt from the announcement:

This year’s winner is Peter Manseau for “Songs for the Butcher’s Daughter” (Free Press). The narrator of this book, an American Catholic translator, tells the colorful story of an elderly Yiddish poet, covering a century of events in Israel, Poland, Russia and the United States. The interwoven stories are a tour de force of writing styles demonstrating the power of passion and commitment to Jewish culture.

Three books received honorable mentions. “Beaufort,” by Ron Leshem (Delacorte Press), winner of Israel’s highest literary award, the Sapir Prize, depicts a group of young Israeli soldiers occupying an ancient Crusader fort in Lebanon. The dialogue of these young men engaged in a battle against an unseen enemy depicts the absurdity and futility of war in a very real way.

“Friendly Fire,” by A.B. Yehoshua (Harcourt), one of Israel’s best known novelists, has given us a beautifully written portrait of a close-knit Israeli family. The slice of daily life in contemporary Israel, the issue of identity raised by a character’s rejection of all things Israeli and Jewish and the imagery of “friendly fire” make this a compelling story.

“From Krakow to Krypton: Jews and Comic Books,” by Arie Kaplan (Jewish Publication Society) recognizes that the “story of Jews’ involvement in comic books is a reflection of Jews’ changing status in American society.” Kaplan’s illustrated history details the ways in which Jews–and traditionally Jewish beliefs–contributed to what is now called the graphic novel. “From Krakow to Krypton” is engagingly written, a popular history whose readability often conceals a wealth of original research.

I am happy to announce that we just purchased a copy of the medal winner book. If everything goes well by the end of next week it will be borrowable.

Absolute Music presents a Chamber Music Concert not to be missed!

On Sunday, February 15 at 2 p.m. at the Friedman Center in Santa Rosa, String Circle, fine and talented classical string artists Katie Kyme and Lisa Weiss, violins; Anthony Martin, viola; and Thalia Moore and Robert Howard, cellos will perform:

• Haydn‘s Sunrise Quartet (Opus 76, No.4)
• Schubert‘s Quintet in C Major

Please come and support our efforts to bring great artists and great music to our community at affordable prices. Tickets at the door are $18. Students are free.

As today is Abraham Lincoln‘s 200th birthday let me introduce you to a slim volume by Naphtali J. Rubinger titled “Abraham Lincoln and the Jews.” The six chapters on 92 pages are filled with stories and historical references you may not find elsewhere. First we learn about “Jews in the Ante-Bellum Period” and “Lincoln’s Jewish friends.” After touching on “The effects of the Civil War” we get a detailed description of “The Chaplaincy issue,” i.e. whether and how Jewish clergyman can serve the spiritual needs of Jewish soldiers. After a lengthy controversy “Lincoln signed the Bill in July of 1862, permitting Jews to serve as chaplains.” (page 60). Before the concluding chapter of “The final tribute” the specifics of “Grant’s order No. 11,” in which he expelled Jews from the army in December 1862, is discussed. (The short version: the president revoked the order. )

What better way to celebrate president’s day than borrowing and reading this book.