• The book’s 370 pages are packed to bursting with epic adventure and hysterical comedy, with grim poignancy and pointed satire, as Stern repeatedly shifts time and tone to craft a wildly entertaining tale of the 20th-century Jewish experience and the paradox of tradition. [...] In all, it’s a fine performance: Stories are told, points made, conventions flayed, and the reader comes to care about what will happen to poor Bernie, earnestly seeking transcendence from a fallen prophet. - The Washington Post
• Throughout “The Frozen Rabbi,” Stern demonstrates an alchemical power to transform lumpen failures like Bernie, barely curious enough to gaze at their own navels, into young men and women with noble missions. He does this by heaping impossible responsibilities on their shoulders; their subsequent maturation is so rapid they seem subjected to some kind of ferocious growlight. [...] Yet along with the difficult question of just what is lost when assimilation is gained, Stern also raises the hope that even the most unwitting among us cannot fully escape the passions of our ancestors. - The New York Times
• Whether his latest novel, “The Frozen Rabbi,” will finally propel him into mass recognition is impossible to say, but it ought to, because it is, like his previous books, a funny, profound and virtuosic work. [...]for those willing to enter this unfamiliar space, to be tossed between centuries and realities, between this world and the Other Side, what awaits is a rare enchantment. - San Francisco Chronicle
• The Frozen Rabbi is as much fun to read as it sounds. Peppered withYiddishisms and lively, colorful prose, even as strange as it gets sometimes it’s quite delightful. And it does get strange, especially towards the end. – Boston Bibliophile

I had to share reviews as I didn’t read the book. This also means that as of this moment the book is in the library, you can borrow it, come Sunday. Or if you can’t wait for it you can start reading the book in serialized version here. The whole book is there in 46 installments.

The magazine’s “arts & Culture” section has a subsection dedicated to books. I could say that  I read it “cover to cover”, but there are no covers in online magazines and being on ongoing publications there aren’t even single “issues or volumes”. Here is a selection just from their April articles. I omitted the names of the authors from these taglines on purpose, because I think they are interesting enough in themselves without having to resort to namedropping.

• In stories written in Poland and the U.S., the modernist master Isaac Bashevis Singer mined folk tales to convey the 20th century’s essential cruelty
• Thane Rosenbaum’s young-adult novel The Stranger Within Sarah Stein, takes on the Holocaust and Sept. 11 but can’t reconcile Jewish past and future.
• Allan Bloom’s The Closing of the American Mind remains as important as ever, and as misunderstood, 25 years after the 1980s culture wars. (See corresponding picture right.)
• In a new English translation of Second Person Singular, Israeli novelist Sayed Kashua gives voice to the Arab minority in the Jewish state.

• An introduction to the life and work of David Vogel, author of Viennese Romance, and how it relates to the creation of Modern Hebrew Literature – Tablet Magazine.
• Announcing a new publisher of Jewish Books, Mosaica Press, aiming “to uplift, explain and inspire – without negativity.” (See logo on the right)
• On Kar-Ben, a great publisher of Children books, opening its  eBookstore, with over 170 of its Jewish interest eBooks available across age levels and topic.
• Sharing the news about The Poetry of Kabbalah: Mystical Verse from the Jewish Tradition, a new book, edited by Peter Cole
• Linking to the crowdfunding efforts of Penny Wolin, a local artist, to raise money so she could publish her book on American Photographers of Jewish Ancestry.

The library and its librarian is back after the break due to the Passover festivities. Today was another fun day at the library.

I got a call earlier the week that today the religious school school’s 10-12 year old students will need books on Israel. Thus as soon as I got into the library I pulled 3+3  books for them. The first set of three included

• Arthur Tcholakian’s “Israel, land of promise” a 30 year old paperback full of excellent black and white photographs
• David Bamberger’s “Young Person’s History of Israel“, a great introduction to Israel in five parts: A land and a people, early Zionism, the road to independence, building a state, Israel today
• A Kid’s Catalog of Israel by Chaya M. Burstein is more in depth than the other two and the drawings are also funny and helpful.

The other three books I thought the children might enjoy are large format picture books:

• Israel, 50 Years: As Seen by Magnum Photographers
• The Israel I Love by Noel Calef
• Israel: The Promised Land by Jacob K. Javits

While I was pulling these out a a teacher came in and asked my help to translate some Hebrew words to English for a game. The first two dictionaries I grabbed didn’t help, but with the third one it was a breeze.

Next I checked in the books that were left in the library’s inbox. I had mixed feeling about it. On the one hand it was good to see that people are using the library and returning books in an timely manner. On the other hand all of these books were Passover related and with one exception all for children. This signaled that the library use is event/holiday driven, we didn’t have a lot of other traffic recently. Furthermore it’s great that adults borrow books for their children, but what about themselves? We have treasures they would surely enjoy had they take the time to browse our collection or ask me for recommendations.

It took longer than I thought it would to prepare the books I cataloged the previous week ready for the shelves. But, I had to do all of these things before I couls shelve the books:

• Print and cut due dates notes
• Print the “material label,” the ones with the bar codes and author/title information that goes in the book
• Print the “spine label” that has the call number of the books. These were needed in two copies, so if a book has a dust cover a label could go both on the book itself and another one onto the cover
• Put all of the above into the books: two out of three were self-adhesive, but the third need glue
• Cover the labels, but not the due date piece with a clear film to protect them from peeling down
• Add a protective transparent cover for the hardcover books.

While I was doing this a class from the religious school came in and they asked for a book on Passover. At the time I still had the Purim books out as we were just a  few days after the holiday (and on the second day of our Purim Spiel). So I recommended for them to read a Purim a story, while I gathered the Pesach ones. As of this writing, two weeks later, we are still before Passover so all the books for younger readers about this holiday are on library’s table. Come on in and borrow some to read with/for/by your children.

Are you confused why I put “Hasidism” in the title of this post? Don’t be, I am getting to it. A patron came in last time and asked for a book about this topic. I tried to guide the reference conversation to get more specifics on the nature of the “information need” as I learned it in library school. But the patron didn’t offer more details why he needs it, what he would like to find out about them, so I offered my two favorites books related to Hasidism.

Martin Buber‘s “Tales of the Hasidim” is an absolute must to understand the origins of the movement. It is a fantastic read of shorter, often funny and/or inspiring stories, with a great introduction to this world. On the other hand to understand the world of today’s Hasidism you need more. That is why I suggested the more sociologically inclined book by Sue Fishkoff titled “The Rebbe’s Army: Inside the World of Chabad-Lubavitch.” It provides insights to the operation of one particular, albeit the most well-known Hasid group

• Checked the library’s email and felt lucky that only two out of 20+ email messages required an answer.
• Put new batteries in the clock on the wall.
• Accepted four donated books by a patron, who brought them in. I also got her permission to re-sell any of the books, in case we already have them. Then checked the books and found that two we already had. The other two will be incorporated into the library’s collection. They were both on Hanukkah for children. you can never have enough Hanukkah book, as its quite a popular topic.
• Attempted to print a sign, to be put outside on the door, with our open hours. Unfortunately the printer didn’t work, so I wrote one with hand. Something I rarely do nowadays and it shows.
• Added a checkout entry into our library system, based on a note a trusted member left, about a book she borrowed in our absence.
• Checked in 2 books that were left in the library’s mailbox in the office.
• Started a new Facebook page for the library. Previously we had a group, but now I know that “pages” suit better our purpose. Once the page is fully set up, I will remove the group.
• Checked who started recently to follow our Twitter account. Netiquette dictates to follow them back. Most of them were other Jewish or library related organization, so I followed them back. Some of them were marketers, otherwise known as spammer. Those I blocked.
• Stamped two periodicals that we just received with the “Property of the Library” stamp. They were the new issues of “The Jewish Bible Quarterly” and “CJ: Voices of Conservative/Masorti Judaism“. I left them on our big table, so others could peruse it if/when they are in the library.
• Greeted two people who wandered in the library and were happy to see it open.
• Updated the statistics about the library’s usage based on the notes that volunteers left.
• Placed children’s books about  Purim on the table that I pulled out  from the shelves. This way when the children come in looking for them, as they surely will today, it will be easier for them to choose.
• Lent a book about Purim for the duration of the religious school class today.
• Talked to a patron in Hungarian for a few minutes as I may be the only person he has a chance to practice his native language with.
• Went through another bag of donated books, identifying which volumes we can incorporate in the library.  In this case it was 5 out of 8, which is much better than usual. A lot of the books that people donate to us are of popular volumes that we already have copies of. This time however five of the books were short novels targeted for the 10-12 year old age group. In that category we have room to grow.
• Did the first part of cataloging 14 new books: adding them to the catalog, with all the correct information. Before I can put them on the shelves I will still need to cover them, print and put spine and material stickers on them. Then, hopefuly next week, they will be ready for their audience.

Please, visit to meet your friendly librarian, borrow a book or two…

If you visited Simcha Sunday you saw that the library’s table was between two other CBA tables: the gift shop’s and one shared between USY (including its pop-corn machine.  The Nursery, the religious school and other CBA related materials. We were all tight a little bit, so when P’nina managed to come (after the morning’s religious school ended) it was a bit of a challenge to make space for the beautiful purses and bags she designed. But we did it ,at the end of the Library table, and she managed to make some sales. I would like to thank her for offering 50% of the proceeds to CBA. I wish I could have provided more space for her display.

I would like to thank Susan Goldstein who helped at the table from the the time we opened till we closed. Without her help I may not have been able to go and look around myself. I would also like to thank Dina, who helped in the first two hours. Sorry that I didn’t catch your last name, but I do remember that your child goes to the Nursery. I know you came to help CBA on behalf of the nursery, although you ended helping with the booksales. Thank you.

Most of all I would like thank  everyone who purchased a book or more from us at Simcha Sunday. I hope you will find them engaging and interesting. Your support of CBA is much appreciated.

“share information on the most important websites today for connecting with your Jewish family and friends on-line, discovergin your heritage, and sites you can use to increase your family’s knowledge on all things Jewish.”

As I like acronyms I divided my presentation into four areas, one for each letter of the word “Life”: Learning, Information, Family, Entertainment. The slideshow contains 36 slides, including 20 screenshots and a cover page. You can download the presentation in PPT (5.7 MB) or PDF (2.8 MB) format. The handout has all the URLs (web addresses) mentioned in the presentation, but is much smaller. Its PDF version (38 kb) is best for printing on a double sided, letter size paper for folding, while the DOC/Word version (45 kb) works well on screen.

We had a good exchange and comments from the participants during the hour long session. When I mentioned that Congregation Beth Ami has a Facebook profile, with 105 “friends” right now, a participant raised the idea to create a LinkedIn group for Congregation Beth Ami. He is following up on that so it might come to reality. (LinkedIn is a social network site for professionals, focusing on career development and professional networks.) Another participant mentioned her own site: SacredHome.com. The site combines beauty and functionality, so I recommend it.