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.

The “crown” is one of the words I knew in Hebrew first, so it took me  a second to realize what they are talking about. “Rimonim“, also meaning pomegranate, is the ornamental top that they put on the top of Torah scroll, made of precious metal. The one which is missing in this book is made of golden and has little bells on it, that are used to smuggle diamonds. The one on the picture here is from the Brooklyn Museum.

The fast paced story was mixing lots of actions(, including car chase, subway chase, fights), planning sessions, always accompanied with eating piles of dessert and family moments. The events described took place during a summer vacation, starting with the discovery of a suspicious house. This opening reminded me of a book I read several times as a kid “Vakáció a halott utcában” (“Vacation in the dead street”) by István Csukás, but then the rest of the content of the two books diverged.

Unfortunately I found the writing boring and repetitive. The same phrases kept popping up making me feel like I was reading an episode of a 60′s family sitcom. The kids in the book and the supposed readers were both treated as a little idiots and not as developing persons. The vocabulary of the book was mostly appropriate for th 8-10 year old crowd, but every once in a while a word appeared that surely would have required explanation for the age group. The author must have known this too, because the first few times he did weave into the conversation words that shed light on the meaning of the complicated words. Later he abandoned this useful habit.

I also had problems with some of the messages of the book. Using ice-cream as the only reward for good deeds is not something I want to follow, although I can see how that can motivate kids. The fact that there were no girls amongst the kids and the adult female characters were also just footnotes in the book reminded me why I could never embrace a non-egalitarian orthodox lifestyle. I kept hoping that the stories the shammas shared with the kids would be Biblical or from classical Rabbinic literature, instead he made up parables corresponding way too directly to the kids’ current situation and they were not very captivating.

I found that the plot was enjoyable, but the author’s style and message prevented me to be able to recommend the book wholeheartedly.

The book at Amazon.com

Any (good) story that has more than one kind of animal in it can be a hit with kids. They sure made all the animals sounds as the story moved on. Some of them even figured out the ending: when you take out the animals the limited space will feel spacious and the atmosphere will be relaxed again. The kids in my audience stayed excited though and the book encouraged them to take it a record number of books from the library where we had our story time.

A disadvantage of readings a book to a group of kids, that not all of them could see the illustrations. In this case the colored in sketches were mostly lost on them. However they enjoyed the humor and by making them talk and think about the ending I made sure that the wisdom of the story wasn’t lost on them either. It was a good experience for all. It could have been much worse.

The book at Amazon.com

• A mother who is collapsing mentally under the weight of what happened during the Shoah.
• A father who was dead before the daughter was born.
• A group home for orphans, that includes both sabras (people born in Israel) and refugees from Europe.

The book is a coming of age story for a group of young, mostly orphan, teens living in a children’s village in Israel. The story is set in 1953, just late enough after the war that some of the children remember segments of their life in Poland and some don’t. During the course of the novel at least four of them  have to revisit (and face the darker parts of) their personal history in various ways. This process helps them heal on the long turn, but is painful in the short. What helps them the most is the friendship and solidarity with the other girls and boys.

The book is probably most enjoyed by young teen girls, after all a lot of the book is dealing with hopes, dreams and aspirations of that group. I enjoyed the mix of humor, the interpersonal and group dynamics, the inspiring strength of the young people mixed with their concerns that are often prematurely adult in their nature. The Domim Tree itself stands strong as a real place and a symbol of a solid point in the universe where they can pour their heart out. With their previously transient life and recurring nightmares they sure need something like this.

Hillel Schenker’s translation (from Hebrew to English) is adequate but I got the sense that the original Hebrew might have been more poetic. The content of the book certainly allows more colorful language, although I have to keep in mind the target audience’s age. As far as I know the book’s sequel (Summer of Aviya) hasn’t been translated to English. Interesting to note that the film version of the second book (1988) came out seven years before the film version of the first book (1995). The author who is one of the most well-known actors in Israel is playing in both, although not herself.

This is a recommended book for 12-15 year olds as they can learn about problems and problem solving, the value and advantages of friendships and the importance of being honest to yourself.

The book @ Amazon.com

The story in a nutshell: two siblings first help a kid who they notice at the store couldn’t get any treat for Shabbat, because her mother didn’t have enough money for it. Then they and their friends keep helping them with grocery, and eventually warm up the poor family’s morose landlord too. Who in turn opens up and will help the poor family even more. As you see, there are only positive characters in the book and the overall message is that helping others is a worthwhile mitzvah: it is the right thing to do, it brings you joy and it may even multiply itself in surprising directions.

The story was originally conceived by Mayer Bendet and was written for this book by Yaffa Leba Gottlieb. Miriam Lando‘s illustrations make the book lively and fun for kids who have been reading for a few years. As most pages have 5 to 15 lines of text it may not be the best for the youngest kids.

I didn’t grow up or ever lived as an orthodox Jew. Thus I am not intimately familiar with the details of the everyday life as depicted here. It is clearly set in an orthodox family and neighborhood I only encountered via literature and movies. For me this, being set in an exotic lifestyle in an regular suburb, felt slightly artificial. I assume that you are an orthodox Jew, living similarly to the people described in this book, there is no lingering surreal feeling. To me the drawing’s style enhanced this feeling. The design reminded me of the visual styles I saw in other “orthodox” publications (of other faiths) such as the Watchtower or many varieties of Bible stories for kids. I cannot pinpoint it, but they have all have a simplified, cleancut, worldview with erect, clearly black or white figures.

I loved the message of the story, but because it is not set in a world I live in, I felt alienated from its heroes.

P.s. The text of entire book can be found online here, along with small version of the accompanying images.

These and the rest of the events are all set in Wyoming. Both the author, Esther Silverstein Blanc, and the illustrator, Tennessee Dixon grew up there. The loving care and attention to the details of the descriptive text and water paintings clearly reflect their affinity to the Great Plains region. I loved the paintings, but I regretted that only the cover one was in color, the rest was black and white. It set an unnecessarily melancholic tone for the mostly positive book.

The first half  of the book, covering the younger years of the horse, the narrator  and his siblings are truly idyllic and happy. The homesteader family doesn’t seem to have any problems; the horse is smart, friendly and splendid. Later, during the rough years, they have to move to town and sell the horse. As we learn at the end the horse eventually learns to live in the wild and that seems  to support its manifest destiny.

I borrowed this book from our, Jewish, library, so I was expecting it to have some Jewish content. My expectation was met, but it wasn’t a particularly Jewish book, besides the name of the horse, the mention of the Talmud once and the use of the word “chochim” once it could have been about any family. Well, maybe the fact that the father’s fallback work was being a tailer was a hint. Otherwise thought it was just a  book about a Midwest family, like many others.

The end of the backflap of the book says this about the publisher, “Volcano Press is a woman-owned company, publishing women-oriented books that seek to enlighten, liberate and delight.” The company’s home page has more detailed information about their admirable mission and history. Having read the above I realized that in the center of the book was the relationship between the matriarch of the family and the horse. It was a strong and defining bond in both directions. I recommend reading the book to observe that, the peaceful drawings, and the description of a simple life.

The book at Amazon.com

• Saving Zoar: How Did Lot Succeed? Gad Dishi
  A comparison of the actions, words, personalities and circumstances of Abraham and Lot, explaining how they both managed to save others via different methods.
• How Should We Understand Ecclesiastes 2:26? Aron Pinker
  Analyzing traditional interpretations such as “poetic justice” or “divine arbitrariness”, but ultimately decides that ti was a added by a “pious glossator”.
• “What Is It?” Interpreting Exodus 16:15 Zvi Ron
  Trying to find the answer for the question whether the word “manna” is Hebrew or not.
• The Mantle of the Matriarchs: Ruth 4:11-15 Alan T. Levenson
  Using intra-biblical interpretation the author detail the connection between the peculiar Ruth verses and the Matriarchs and draws conclusions the realm of midrash, feminism and character development.
• Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh Gerardo Sachs
  Four, mutually exclusive,  contradictory interpretive translations of the famous words with a  focus on in Moses’ personal history.
• Hot Pursuit Into Canaan Shubert Spero
  Exploring and resolving the tension between the events described in Numbers 21:1-3 and Judges 1:16-18.
• Tzefarde’a: Frogs or Crocodiles? Natan Slifkin
  Expounding Ibn Ezra’s reasoning on how the second plague might have referred to crocodiles, but disproving the assumption.
• The Three Tenses in the Kingdom of God: God of Israel or of the World Jacob Chinitz
  “When Scripture uses past, present, and future with regard to God, does the choice have any particular theological meaning? Or do we have here representation of different aspects and variant temporal reflections in relation to a concept similar eschatological connotation embodied in the well-known phrase, the Kingdom of God?”
• Book Review: The Dawn of Redemption: What the Books of Ruth and Yona Teach About Alienation, Despair and Return Mattan Erder
• Book Review: Etz Hayim: Torah and Commentary David Zucker

Finally a picturs to prove, that this journal can be enjoyed at any age.