Celia Gurevitch Jewish Community Library

Tomorrow is Election Day. I encourage all reads to participate in the democratic process and get out and vote.

The library doesn’t have too many books directly related to politics, beyond the Middle East region. The only book I found that relates to this topic within the US was titled “The uncivil university; Politics and propaganda in American education,” written by Gary A. Tobin, Aryeh K. Weinberg and Jenna Ferer. The book deals with how anti-Semitism is (still or again) present on American college campuses. A 31 page long executive summary (PDF) of the book is available from The Institute for Jewish and Community Research. Or you can just read the short official description to decide whether this is something you are interested in.

The American university is suffering from a moral crisis unseen since the great social upheavals of the 1960s. In the name of academic freedom, the core values of higher education—honest scholarship, unbiased research, and diversity of thought and person—have been corrupted by an academy more interested in preserving its privileges than in protecting its own integrity. Aided and enabled, sometimes unwittingly, by faculty, administrators, trustees, philanthropists, and even the government of the United States, the American university has lost its civility.

Nowhere is this loss more apparent than in the rise of anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism on college campuses. The UnCivil University, the first volume in the series, Politics & Propaganda in American Education, documents the alarming rise in bigotry and bullying in the academy. Using a range of evidence, from first-hand accounts of intimidation of students by anti-Israel professors to anti-Semitic articles in student newspapers and marginalization of pro-Israel scholars, The UnCivil University exposes the unspoken world of double standards, bureaucratic paralysis, and abdication of leadership that not only allows but often supports a vocal minority of extremists on campus.

The UnCivil University tells a cautionary tale for all readers, whatever their background, of how higher education, an institution so touted for its open-mindedness, has become a prime vehicle for politically motivated prejudice. With millions of students passing through American universities each year, an attack against some should be of concern to all.

Please vote tomorrow.

Please join us this Sunday for this month’s “breakfast @ the library.” We will have bagels, cream cheese, orange juice, tea and coffee for you. Not to mention new books and DVDs.

Thank you all 20-25 of you who came out last night to hear Maggie Anton’s lecture. The small crowd (see picture at the end of this post) was enthusiastic enough to hear Maggie’s fascination stories about Rashi, how she got interested in the topic, the future of Talmud scholarship and 12th century renaissance. These were just some of the topics she covered with her energetic and funny talk. I hope we can get her to come back when the last installment of her Rashi’s daughter trilogy will be out next summer.

Maggie talked about the importance of studying Talmud. Tomorrow I will post a message intended to support you to do so. I am also planning to post a short video on YouTube from her talk. Finally, her latest book, the Secret Scholar will be available in the library after I catalog it next week.

As usual I would like to recount some of the lessons I learned:

• The Bohemian’s deadline is Friday noon before the week of publications and add run for two weeks.
• Every detail needs to be fixed in advance, nothing should be left assumed. In our case we had a slight miscommunication about Maggie’s lodging, but thankfully an old friend of hers volunteered to host her just in the nick of time.
• I need to be familiar with the layout of the meeting location, i.e. check out in advance if I am not familiar with it. Case in point Golden Gate transit’s bus stop it Maple @ Brookwood, is not actually on either of those streets and the salespeople at the nearby shops had no idea where the stop might be. Similarly, the same bus downtown does not actually drop you off at the main Transit Mall, where the sign is. The bus stop is on the crossroad.
  Put on the kettle early enough so people could have tea/coffee in case the room gets chilly.
• If I want to invite people to dine with our guest I need to ask them in advance whether they are interested and/or available.
  Need to find a way to reach Shomrei Torah members.
• Get someone to take pictures. I did not manage to make any good ones; the one below is the best.

The next meeting of Sonoma State University Library’s Jewish Literature Reading and Discussion Series is this Thursday from 12:00 pm to 2:00 pm in room 3001 of the University Library. The topic of the lecture and discussion is Moacyr Scliar’s (pictured) The Centaur in the Garden. If you plan to attend I can email the questions compiled by Professor Anne Goldman to give some ideas for discussion.

As this very same book is also featured in our book discussion group (in February 2009) I am inclined not to tell you much about the story in advance. As of this moment I am 3/4th way through it right now and it has been a great ride and read. It is “a novel about a centaur who is Brazilian and Jewish, who falls in love and marries, who is loved by another creature as delightful as he, and who possibly discovers the mystery of his life.” This description is from the cover of the library’s copy, which happens to be the first English edition from 1984. The book was written in 1980 in Portuguese.

A literary critic, Ilan Stavans, described the work in these words, “Scliar is a world-class fabulist with a solid and distinguished oeuvre awaiting discovery by a larger audience. I’ve seen The Centaur in the Garden compared to works by Franz Kafka, Nikolai Gogol, Philip Roth, Mordecai Richler, and even John Updike. … Scliar pushes the tragic destiny of Tartakowsky through an infusion of comedy. Its style is vintage Scliar: crisp, speedy, cinematic, succinct.”

Whether you are going tomorrow to SSU or join our bookclub discussion in February or not I am sure you will have a multifaceted experience if you read this book. It is tragedy, comedy, fantasy, family-drama, love story, all in one.

As (hopefully) most of you know tomorrow Maggie Anton, the author of the successful Rashi’s daughters series will come and discuss her historical novels and how Jewish women in Medieval France can be an inspiration to us today. She already finished two of the three volume series, one volume about each of Rashi’s three daughters. We wrote about the second volume, featuring Miriam a few months ago. Ms. Anton’s latest book, the Secret Scholar is a prequel to the first volume, Joheved, depicting Joheved’s life as a young girl. You can read the books’ description either in our post last week or on the books’ own webpage. Today I would like to use (The Jewish Publication Society, the publisher’s information to recommend the book to you. There you can also access the first two chapters and a reader’s guide to the book. I hope this will make you curious enough to purchase a copy tomorrow Wednesday night or borrow the library’s copy later next week.

The tale of a young girl who challenges conventions to engage in Jewish learning

Set in 11th-century Troyes, France, Rashi’s Daughter, Secret Scholar tells the story of Joheved, eldest daughter of Salomon ben Isaac (known as Rashi), one of the great medieval Jewish Bible commentators. At a time when women traditionally were barred from studying Jewish texts, Rashi secretly teaches first Joheved, then her sister Miriam. By day, Joheved helps in running the household and the family winemaking business, and by night she studies Talmud with her father.

As she nears marriageable age, Joheved finds her mind and spirit awakened by religious study, but she must keep her passion for learning and prayer hidden. When she becomes betrothed to Meir ben Samuel, she is forced to choose between marital happiness and being true to her love of the Talmud. Will she fulfill the expected role of a Jewish woman or pursue a path of Jewish learning?

Our used booksale at Simcha Sunday was a great success. We made more than double of our target in terms of revenues, by selling about 4th or 5th of the books we had. We also got one bid for the silent auction on the Encyclopedia Judaica, so it was sold at its opening price.

Thank you all who in the last weeks (or earlier) brought books to the library for us to sell. Thank you for the Friedman Center who let us use part of their table. Our 19 boxes of books did not fit on a single table, so we (and the gift shop too) were lucky that the Friedman Center did not use the entire surface of their table. I would also like to thank Karen Gould and the JCC for putting on this fabulous event. I had a great time, along with hundreds of others.

I was so busy for most of the 4-5 hours at the festival that forgot to ask somebody to make a picture of me behind the table. Thus I can only show how the boxes looked in the library before I took them out to Simcha Sunday and how the table looked right after I had set it up.

The books we are selling at Simcha Sunday in three days are all sorted, priced and boxed. We have 354  books (and 9 VHS tapes and 3 LPs) for sale, as listed below, that are in 19 boxes of various sizes.

I would like to recommend a program tomorrow in Sonoma, organized by Shir Shalom congregation. The Sonoma Jewish Music & Art Festival starts off with an outdoor Art Fair from 1PM to 6 PM. Then from 6PM to 9.30PM an indoor concert will entertain you. For further details check the poster below and/or the festival’s website.

The Friends of the Santa Rosa Libraries are holding their semiannual book fair this weekend. It starts today afternoon and goes on till Monday evening. I know, I know I am talking against the interest of our own library as we are having a book sale ourselves next weekend at Simcha Sunday. But I wanted to share this news anyway with our bookloving readers, hoping that the two would not conflict your time and budget.

Further information at: sonomalibrary.org

Rashi’s Daughters: Three Women and a Talmud

Award winning author Maggie Anton,  will discuss her historical novels and how Jewish women in Medieval France can be an inspiration to us today. Her latest book, “Rashi’s Daughters: Secret Scholar” is written for young adults (Hint: bring your daughters!)

Secret Scholar is the tale of a young girl who challenges conventions to engage in Jewish learning.

Joheved has a secret…
She is no ordinary girl. Smart and independent, she wants more from the world than what is permitted in 11th century France. Her life changes when her father, Salomon ben Isaac (one day to be known as Rashi, the great Jewish Bible and Talmud commentator), begins secretly teaching her Talmud. But Joheved must keep her passion for learning hidden—even from her betrothed, Meir ben Samuel. How long can she continue her deception and what will happen when, inevitably, her scholarship is out in the open?
More information at: rashisdaughters.com

The book will be available for purchase.

Where:    Congregation Beth Ami
4676 Mayette Avenue, Santa Rosa, CA 95405

When:     Wednesday, October 29, 7 PM

Cost:     Free! (Donations gladly accepted)