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Tonight marks the first night of Passover, so I thought I’d share a bit about what the holiday celebrates and what it means to me. Passover is one of the most important Jewish holidays of the year, and is probably the most observed Jewish holiday after Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur (despite what people think about Hanukah!).

Passover commemorates the story of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt, as told in the old testament (or, if you’re the kind of person who waits for the movie to come out, as told in The Ten Commandments). According to the story, the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt for 400 years, until God, with the help of Moses, led them out of Egypt and into freedom.
Whether or not you believe in God or the Old Testament, the Passover story resonates. For me, one of the most meaningful parts of it is the acknowledgement of how truly terrible and traumatic slavery is: terrible enough that, although Jews were slaves many thousands of years ago, we still recall the experience in great detail every year. We even eat bitter herbs during the seder, the traditional Passover meal, so that the bitter taste of slavery is fresh on our tongues.

Unfortunately, slavery is not ancient history; in fact, it’s alive and well in many parts of the world. Whether enslaved by law, by force, or by poverty, many human beings living on earth today are not free. Passover is a time to really meditate on what that means – and, perhaps, on our part in it. What have I done to support or abolish slavery? Am I buying from companies with good labor practices? Am I aware of what’s happening in my own community? Are there sustainable ways of dismantling slavery that I can support?

Although slavery is a heavy subject, I actually think it’s one that young people can really understand deeply, and Passover is a great time to explore it together. Over at Pinterest, we’ve rounded up some books for children about Passover and/or freedom. These books are great ways to start a discussion with young readers about slavery, both ancient and modern.

Another resource I’ll be thinking about a lot this year is a documentary I saw last week called Girl Rising, by the organization 10 x 10. The documentary focuses on the stories of ten girls from around the world and shows that for many young women, the passage from slavery to freedom is an education. Definitely worth watching, and suitable for children 12 and up. Taking kids to a screening near you would be a great way to celebrate the holiday.

If you have other slavery/freedom related resources for young people, feel free to leave them in the comments. And to all those who are celebrating tonight, I wish you all a very happy (and meaningful) Passover!

Further Reading:

What does Ramadan celebrate?

What does Chinese New Year celebrate?

Filed under: Holidays Tagged: Cambodia, freedom, Girl Rising, holidays, Jewish, passover, slavery

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Over the summer, our former intern Mitul shared her take on what Ramadan celebrates. Continuing in that tradition, since I’m Jewish I thought I’d share a bit about Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur. If you’re not Jewish, you may have seen these holidays on the calendar – or, if you’re lucky, even gotten off from school for them. But what are they really about?

Rosh Hashana is the Jewish New Year (in Hebrew, it literally means “Head of the Year”) and celebrates the beginning of the new Hebrew year. Because the Jewish calendar is based on the moon, the actual date of Rosh Hashana varies from year to year, but it always falls somewhere in the fall. For Jews, Rosh Hashana is a holy day, but a happy one: although it’s solemn and most people celebrate it by spending time in synagogue praying, it is a holiday focused on hope for a sweet new year. Because of that, the traditional food associated with Rosh Hashana is apples dipped in honey.

Yom Kippur, on the other hand, is solemn in a less fun way. Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement, so Jews spend the day fasting, reflecting, and praying. They pray for forgiveness for anything they’ve done wrong over the course of the year before, and promise God that they will do better in the year ahead.

Between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur are 10 days. Although I like Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, in truth the 10 days between can sometimes be the most meaningful part of the High Holy Days. During these days, we are supposed to do the hard internal work of reflecting on our past actions and thinking about how to change for the better, as well as repairing any hurt feelings or broken relationships that developed during the year before. It is a time for us to sincerely apologize to anyone to whom we owe an apology. The idea is that by the time Yom Kippur arrives, we have already asked for forgiveness from our peers. Only then are we in a position to ask forgiveness from God.

At the end of Yom Kippur, usually families break the fast together with a big meal. The feeling at the end of Yom Kippur is always one of lightness and hope: everyone gets to start the new year with a clean slate.

Filed under: Holidays Tagged: holidays, Jewish

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By David Biale

Two years ago, I agreed to serve as the head of an international team of nine scholars from the US, UK, Poland, and Israel who are attempting to write a history of Hasidism, the eighteenth-century Eastern European pietistic movement that remains an important force in the Orthodox Jewish world today. I was perhaps not the obvious choice for this role. Although I’ve written several articles and book chapters on Hasidism, it has not been my main area of research. But Arthur Green, one of the foremost historians of Hasidism and the person who was supposed to head the team, was unable to take on the role and I had had some success as the editor of a large compendium on Jewish and Israeli culture (Cultures of the Jews: A New History). And so, my colleagues convinced me to take on the organizational and editorial work on the project.

Surprisingly, given its long history and influence, no general history of Hasidism exists. The first attempt at such a history was published in 1931 by Simon Dubnow, the doyen of Jewish history in Russia. Dubnow had begun collecting materials for a history of Hasidism in the 1890s. However, his history covered only the first half century of the movement, ending in 1815, which is when he believed the creative period of Hasidism came to an end.

If I was going to direct this ambitious project, I needed to come up to speed on the bibliography of research over the last half century. I was familiar with the major works of the older generation of scholars such as Gershom Scholem, Joseph Weiss, Rivka Schatz-Uffenheimer, and Mendel Piekarz (to name some of the most important) as well as the younger generation, some of whom are members of our team (Ada Rapoport-Albert, Moshe Rosman, and David Assaf). Although the research community working on Hasidism is relatively small, there is still an impressive body of scholarly literature that has emerged over the last few decades.

Fortunately, at about the time I accepted the invitation to direct the Hasidism project, I was also approached by Oxford University Press to serve as Editor-in-Chief of Oxford Bibliographies in Jewish Studies. My first task was to prepare a sample bibliography. So, instead of taking on a subject whose sources were at my fingertips, I decided to put together a bibliography of Hasidism, killing the proverbial “two birds with one stone” (or, as the Jewish saying has it, “to dance at two weddings”).

What emerged from this immersion in the sources was the growing sense that our new history could significantly revise the earlier scholarship. In most of the earlier studies, as well as in Hasidism’s own self-conception, the movement was founded by the Baal Shem Tov, who died in 1760. But like the historical Jesus of Nazareth, the Baal Shem Tov (also known as the Besht) wrote little and probably had no intention of founding a movement. It was only later in the eighteenth century that scattered charismatic leaders (known as rebbes in Yiddish, or zaddikim in Hebrew) began to be seen (and to see themselves) as a coherent movement. But since the Hasidim organized themselves as devoted followers of specific individuals, the movement had no central core. Each of these rebbes had his own philosophy and style of leadership, so that one should speak of Hasidism in the plural.

The nineteenth century, far from a time of stagnation, as Dubnow thought, now appears to have been the golden age of Hasidism. While it is questionable whether the majority of Eastern Jews were Hasidim, the movement spread rapidly and became even more active in areas of Poland and Galicia than in the provinces of Ukraine where it originated. In the twentieth century, Hasidism underwent a sharp decline as a result of the Bolshevik Revolution, the rise of secular Jewish politics in Poland, and the devastation of the Holocaust (see The Holocaust in Poland). Following World War II, the movement rose from the ashes in North America and Israel, in exile, as it were, from its Eastern European homeland. Today, there may be as many as three-quarters of a million Hasidim (out of 13 million Jews worldwide). But a movement that presents itself and is often seen by others as devout guardians of tradition is, in reality, something new, a product of modernity no less than Jewish secularism.

David Biale, Editor in Chief of Oxford Bibliographies in Jewish Studies, is the Emanuel Ringelblum Professor of Jewish History in the department of history of University of California Davis. He is the editor of Cultures of the Jews: A New History (Schocken Books, 2002) and the author of Blood and Belief: The Circulating of a Symbol Between Jews and Christians (University of California Press, 2008).

Developed cooperatively with scholars and librarians worldwide, Oxford Bibliographies offers exclusive, authoritative research guides. Combining the best features of an annotated bibliography and a high-level encyclopedia, this cutting-edge resource guides researchers to the best available scholarship across a wide variety of subjects.

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Author: Cantor Leo Fettman
Publisher: Six Points Press
Genre: Jewish / Holocaust
ISBN: 978-0-9679721-0-7
Pages: 201
Price: $14.95

Author’s website

In 1944, Cantor Leo Fettman and most of his family were forced from their home and sent to Auschwitz. Cantor Fettman was the only one who survived. In Shoah: Journey From the Ashes, he shares his story of torture and survival as a remembrance to all who perished.

Fettman explains that anti-Semetism in Europe was nothing new when Hitler came to power. Jews had faced centuries of persecution, and it was easy for Hitler to blame them as scapegoats for Germany’s problems. But it took more than one madman to exterminate 6 million Jews. European Christians willingly followed his orders and other nations stood by and watched. They were just as guilty. And there are those today who deny the Holocaust ever took place, claiming that the Jews made it all up.

Hearing about the horrors of the Holocaust is difficult for most people. In facing what humanity did during the time around World War II, we also have to face what we’re doing today. Many ethnic groups and others face discrimination and outright violence when people don’t understand them and determine they are the enemy. If we want to survive as a peaceful nation, everyone should read this book and learn these important lessons from the past.

Reviewer: Alice Berger

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Author & Illustrator: Isaac Millman
Publisher: CreateSpace
Genre: Children / Jewish History / Holocaust
ISBN: 9781456333522
Pages: 60
Price: $15.00

Author’s website
Buy it at Amazon

Isaac Millman found himself alone in Paris in 1942, at the age of nine. Both of his parents had been captured and sent to Auschwitz, and he would never see them again. Now a grandfather, he journeys back to Poland to see the last place his parents were alive.

Bringing his two grandsons with him, he tours the facility known for some of the greatest atrocities ever committed. As the tour guide shows them around, Millman captures the images with watercolors. Some are bright, where flowers have grown to hide what happened so many years ago. Others are stark black and white, depicting prison cells, the crematorium, and his father’s death certificate.

Millman takes this journey for emotional healing, and he pays his last respects to his parents at Auschwitz before he leaves. And in honoring them and attempting to let go of the past, he shares his story with others, making sure that no one ever forgets the horrors of the Holocaust.

Reviewer: Alice Berger

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The Life and Opinions of Amy Finawitz Laura Toffler-Corrie

When her best friend Callie moves from Manhattan to Kansas for the year, the only friends Amy has left are two girls she finds horrendously boring. After being given the diary of a nineteenth century Jewish immigrant for a school project, Amy teams up with her elderly neighbor Miss Sophia and her Hassidic Jewish nephew, Beryl, to explore New York and solve a mystery found within the diary’s pages.

Told entirely in email written by Amy to her best friend, as well as short plays that Amy uses to illustrate her points, the reader sees how Amy masks her loneliness in extreme humor and sarcasm. Through initially forced to work with them, Amy comes to enjoy her time with Miss Sophia and Beryl as they explore such corners of the city as Houdini’s grave on Halloween, the Tenement Museum, and the Coney Island. Amy's incredibly self-centered and is a bit annoying, but you understand *why* she feels that way. If you're at home missing your best friend and counting down the days until she moves back, you're not exactly going to be happy to hear that she's made a bunch of new friends and is thinking of staying where she is. And yes, you shouldn't care what other people think, but it's hard to stand up for the weird kid when you don't entirely understand why he's so different in the name of religion, even though you are also Jewish.

In addition to the great story of evolving friendship and self-discovery, I really liked the tour of New York and the mystery. It focuses on a unknown period of Jewish history in the US. (I'd want to talk more about it, because I think people need to know about it, but at the same time it's a major a spoiler alert. SO JUST READ IT, ok?)

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Celebrate Hanukkah by Deborah Heiligman. National Geographic, 2008 (1-4263-0293-0) $6.95 pb

Aside from a short mention of how astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman spun the dreidel in zero gravity -- "it spins forever!" -- the most notable feature of this nonfiction book is the color photographs, which show Jewish children and Hanukkah celebrations all over the world. How fascinating to see Jews celebrating in India, Uganda and Rome. The text is simple and a little dull; surprisingly, the most interesting sections are in the collected information at the end, which includes a map of where the photos were taken, a glossary of terms, insights into the holiday from a Rabbi, a bibliography for further reading and a photo of Hoffman with his space traveling dreidel. A good basic introduction. (3-6)


(© 2011 Wendy E. Betts

FTC disclosure: Review copy provided by the publisher. This blog is completely independent, but I receive a small percentage if books are purchased from Powells Boks via this site.

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The Holiday season is approaching fast, the streets of New York City all decorated in lights. I love this time of the year. A walk down 5 ave or Madison ave or anywhere in New York, you can see, feel, hear, smell and taste the holiday season. There are all kinds of fun things to do. What is the wonder of it all? Christmas celebrates Jesus's Birthday while Hanukkah celebrates a wonderful story about how a small amount of oil good for one day ended up burning for eight. This was the miracle of God. Both of these holidays are very different from each other. Then there Kwanzaa I am not sure what that celebrates but it also involves lights. What are these holidays about. I believe all three are about family, communication and a love for your religious beliefs. 

 There is lots of wonder in these holidays. They have been celebrated for many centuries but do people truly know there meaning? Our children see them as a way to get gifts. Doing this time shopping is encouraged by all stores. I believe it is much more important to learn about these holidays instead of making them just another way to make an extra buck. Sit down with your children, tell them what the true meaning of the holidays are and do not buy the latest gadgets on the market. Here is a good idea for a gift give your children books about the holidays instead.

Reviews

Picture Books

One Candle - "One Candle" By Eve Bunting. Illustrated by K. Wendy Popp. Published by Joanna Cotler Books an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers. 2002. Summary: "Every year a family celebrates Hanukkah by retelling the story of how Grandma and her sister managed to mark the day while in a German concentration camp." This book has wonderful illustrations and a very powerful story about one family's celebration of Hanukkah. This book is a great example of something that should be taught to your children on this wonderful holiday. The Jewish people believe in family and community and this wonderful books looks at both. I highly recommend it to your kids and to you as well. It has lots to teach everyone.

Talia and the Rude Vegetables- "Talia and the Rude Vegetables." By Linda Elovitz Marshall. Illustrated by Francesca Assirelli. Published by Kar-Ben publishing a division of Lerner Publishing Group Inc. 2011. Summary: "City-girl Talia misunderstands her grandmother's request that she go to the garden for "root vegetables" but manages to find some she thinks are rude, as well as a good use for the rest she harvests. Includes a recipe for Rude Vegetable Stew."  This picture book has lots of fun pictures and a wonderful Jewish story line. When I read this book it touched me. It is about the Jewish tradition of charity, family, community, and holidays. This is a must have for any young child in your family. The holidays are not about gifts, shopping but about family, charity and love. This books combines all three. The best part is it comes with a very tasty vegetable stew now that cannot be beat. Make it a must have for every child and adult. 

The Littlest Frog- "The Littlest Frog." By Sylvia Rouss. Illustrated by Holly Hannon. Published by Pitspopany Press. copyright 2001 Printed in Israel and sold in New York. This is a funny twist on the bible story of Exodus. A long time ago the Jewish people were slaves in Egypt. It is believed they build huge pyramids, cities and castles. It is written like a Jewish folk tale. This time is celebrated doing S

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The Berlin Boxing Club. Robert Sharenow. 2011. HarperCollins. 416 pages.

As Herr Boch finished the last lecture of the school year, I sketched one final caricature of him into the margins of my notebook.

For someone who does not like sports novels--who claims to not like sports novels--I sure did love Robert Sharenow's The Berlin Boxing Club. Perhaps I just require HEART in my sports novels?

The Berlin Boxing Club is set in Berlin during the mid-to-late 1930s. The hero of the novel is a young Jewish boy, Karl Stern. When readers first meet Karl, he does not even identify himself as being Jewish. It's not that he's trying to hide the fact from his peers, acting one way at home, another way in public. He just does not see himself as being ethnically or religiously Jewish. His sister and father look Jewish--though Karl still argues that they don't particularly act stereotypically Jewish--so it's a shock to him that he's forced to wear this Jewish identity. And being Jewish in Nazi Germany, well, it's nothing anyone wants to be. The new laws being so strict, so harsh. (Karl ends up being kicked out of school, getting beat up by bullies, etc. And that's just the start of it, but I won't go much beyond that in this review.)

Karl also does NOT see himself as athletic. He does NOT see himself as a fighter. But when his father's friend, Max Schmeling, offers to train him, offers him a membership at the Berlin Boxing Club, well, Karl finds himself wanting/needing this. His father would have preferred that Max pay money for the painting he bought at his gallery, but this does seem to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. So Karl has to do a great deal of training to get himself in shape before he even steps into the boxing club, Max gave him a list of exercises, a training regimen. Will Karl have the stamina and motivation to continue, to live up to his potential....

So The Berlin Boxing Club is about so much more than boxing. It is even much more than just a novel about "the fights" between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling. It is a book about fighting to survive in desperate times. It is about how difficult it was to be Jewish in Nazi Germany. It's a thought-provoking read, very emotional, very compelling!

Read The Berlin Boxing Club

• If you're interested in reading about this time period, Nazi Germany in the 1930s
• If you're interested in reading Jewish fiction
• If you're looking for a companion read to The Book Thief
• If you're looking for a sports book with heart and soul

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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The Lily Pond Annika Thor, translated from the Swedish by Linda Schenck

In this sequel to A Faraway Island, Stephie is on the mainland, studying at school and lodging with Soderbergs. Unfortunately, the Soderbergs aren't as warm as Stephie expected. She's to eat her meals in the kitchen and once Mrs. Soderberg keeps her from going back to the island one weekend because she's throwing a big party. Stephie's excited to attend, until she discovers that she's to be hired help, not a guest.

The one highlight of the Soderberg home is Sven, on whom Stephie quickly develops a crush (oh, such a painful storyline to read.)

In addition, on the mainland, Stephie learns that the Nazi threat grows ever closer and even though Sweden is a neutral country, there are more than a few Nazi sympathizers. And, of course, letters from home show how desperate the situation is getting for her parents-- for modern readers who know what the truth ends up being about the fate of some many European Jews, it is heartbreaking to read, and rage-inducing to read the reactions of the Swedish adults Stephie tries to get to help her family.

There are four books in this series and I cannot wait for the next two to come out in the US. Sadly, there was a two-year lag between the first and second one. Maybe they'll speed up the publication cycle because the first two have both won awards? I don't want to wait until 2015 to see how it all turns out!!!

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The Lost Wife. Alyson Richman. 2011. Penguin. 352 pages.

New York City
2000
He dressed deliberately for the occasion, his suit pressed and his shoes shined. While shaving, he turned each cheek carefully to the mirror to ensure he hadn't missed a single whisker. 

The Lost Wife, at least at first glance, does not appear to be your traditional Holocaust novel. True, both hero and heroine are Jewish. True, over half of the novel is about what happened to them as a result of the Nazis invading their country and bringing the war all too close to home. But the way this story is told sets it a bit apart. For one, the framework of the story is NOT chronological. It begins and ends on the very same day, it begins with a reunion decades in the making. It begins with the grandfather of the groom meeting the grandmother of the bride and realizing their shared past. Their tragically-brief past.

Lenka, the heroine, perhaps has the greater task. Her narrative focuses on the past, for the most part. From her childhood to her teen years to her relationship with a young man, Josef. It covers the happy years, the anxious years, the joyful moments, the heartbreaking moments. Her time with Josef does seem brief--their marriage consisting of mere weeks when it was meant to last a lifetime. But war has a way of wrecking things.

Josef, the hero, balances out Lenka's story. His role in the novel is to relate to readers the post-war present. The focus is on his life in America. The war has cost him much, much, much more than just a wife. And so he does have to find a way to go on, and that includes marrying someone (another broken person forever changed and haunted by war, by what might have been, what should have been) and having a family. We catch glimpses of his home life through the decades. We see him as a husband, a father, a grandfather, a friend. He has never forgotten Lenka. Never.

Though the novel does jump around in time, I didn't find it confusing. I cared about both stories, though, I perhaps cared about hers a bit more. Both Josef and Lenka endured losses--great losses--and both witnessed things that were traumatic, I think her story is more compelling because of the duration. We see Lenka in two concentration camps. And we endure with Lenka. Or at least that is how it felt to me.

The way this story is told does take a good bit of suspense out of it, but I didn't mind because to me it was all about the journey. 

Read The Lost Wife

• If you want to read an amazing, heartbreaking-yet-hopeful love story
• If you are interested in reading about the Holocaust
• If you are interested in Terezin and Auschwitz 
• If you want a little art appreciation; this one has a definite art theme to it.
• If you're looking for a compelling read that's almost impossible to put down

© 2012 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews

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Peter Longerich is Professor of Modern German History at Royal Holloway University of London and founder of the College’s Holocaust Research Centre.  His book, Holocaust: The Nazi Persecution and Murder of the Jews, shows the steps taken by the Nazis that would ultimately lead to the Final Solution.  He argues that anti-Semitism was not a mere by-product of Nazi political mobilization or an attempt to deflect the attention of the masses.  Rather, from 1933 onwards, anti-Jewish policy was a central tenet of the Nazi movement’s attempts to implement, disseminate, and secure National Socialist rule.  In the excerpt below Longerich analyzes the state of Jewish citizens of Germany right before the start of the war.

Once the third anti-Semitic wave had reached its peak, the National Socialist policy of total segregation of the German Jews had now been realized by extensive measures in all spheres of life. The Jews, excluded from economic life, led a wretched existence in complete social isolation: they lived on savings deposited in blocked accounts, from which sums for their immediate needs could be withdrawn only with permission from the Gestapo, Jewish welfare aid, or the minimal wages from Jewish work deployment. Jews could only be economically active for others Jews, for example as Rechtskonsulenten (legal advisers)…

According to the results of the May 1939 census, there were still 213,930 ‘faith Jews’ (i.e. members of synagogues) living in the Old Reich Territory. The concentration of Jews in cities had intensified. There was a disproportionately high level of old people among the Jews living in Germany: 53.6 percent were over 50, 21.6 per cent over 65…As a result of emigration there was a considerable surplus of women (57.5 percent). Only 15.6 percent of the Jews counted in May were in work, almost 71 percent of all Jews over 14 came under the category of the ‘unemployed self-employed’. There were also 19,716 people who did not belong to the Jewish religious community (more than half were Protestants), but who were graded as ‘racial Jews’, as well as 52,005 ‘half-breeds grade I’ and 32,669 ‘half-breeds grade II’.

At the instigation of the NS state the compulsory ’self-administration’ of the Jewish minority had been rendered uniform: the religious associations became branches of the Reich Association…which also took over the whole of Jewish care, health, and schooling, as well as all still existing Jewish organizations. The Reich Association…thus became the organization that controlled the isolated Jewish sector. Apart from this, the only remaining autonomous Jewish organization was the Jewish Cultural Association.

If the Reich Deputation of the Jews in Germany, now dissolved, had been a holding organization of independent Jewish organizations and communities, in the new, hierarchical organization autonomy was as good as excluded…On the social level their task now no longer consisted of supporting needy Jews alongside state care; falling back entirely on their own resources, they now also had to undertake the care of the Jews who were completely excluded from the state social system. In this way the regime had not only discharged responsibility and expenses; it has also ensured that the Jewish minority was almost completely isolated from the rest of the population and it had at its disposal a compulsory organization that it made responsible for the execution of official orders.

This set-up, using a Jewish organization to control an isolated Jewish sector and making it responsible for the implementation of the regime’s anti-Jewish policies, marked the birth of a new and perfidious form of organization of Judenpolitik: the<

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Recommended for ages 5-10.

Who among us doesn't know these famous lines:
 Give me your tired, your poor, 
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free...

But we are less familiar with the woman who penned those world-renowned verses, 19th century American poet Emma Lazarus.  Linda Glaser offers us a poignant view into the short life of this New York poet and philanthropist, whose words have become nearly as famous as the statue herself.    The author introduces us to Emma as a small child, growing up in a privileged environment with "plenty of everything," surrounded by other people who had "plenty of everything."  When Emma visits Ward's Island and meets very poor immigrants, Jews like herself who had made the long, hard journey to America, she wants to help them, and begins to write about the immigrants in the newspaper and in poems to raise awareness of the poverty in which they lived.  

When the huge statue of Lady Liberty is under construction in France, Emma is asked, along with other noted American authors, to write something for a literary collection that would be sold to help pay for a pedestal for the great statue.  Although the statue initially had nothing to do with immigrants, Emma imagined how it would be the first thing new arrivals would see as they entered New York Harbor, and decided to write a poem from the point of view of the statue herself.  The author describes how Emma didn't live to see the statue erected, but after her death the poem was engraved on a plaque and placed inside the entrance to the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty for visitors to read.  The poem became so famous that schoolchildren learned it and it was even set to music by Irving Berlin.  But most important,
"Because of Emma's poem, the Statue of Liberty had become the mother of immigrants. And her torch was a lamp held out to welcome them."

The book includes an author's note with additional historical details on Lazarus and of course the complete text of the poem, entitled "The New Colossus."  The author also provides suggestions for further reading.

Claire Nivola's graceful folk-art style paintings are very engaging and complement the text.  The illustrations are particularly effective in contrasting the upper-class existence in Emma's house and the sad faces of the immigrants.  This book could be read aloud to children as young as kindergarten age, and I could imagine it being used very effectively in classrooms in talking about family history and immigration to the United States.

I will not be at all surprised to see this on the Association of Jewish Libraries Sidney Taylor Award list for outstanding books for children that authentically portray the Jewish experience.  However, this book has broad appeal beyond a Jewish audience, for the immigrant experience is embedded in the history of most American families.  

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This evening is the first night of Hanukkah/Hanukah/Chanukah — and what better way is there to celebrate than with a holiday story? Here is “The Cave of Mattathias,” a tale that originated in Eastern Europe and was passed down in the oral tradition. It is one of many stories included in Howard Schwartz’s Leaves from the Garden of Eden: One Hundred Classic Jewish Tales. Happy Hanukah!

In a village near the city of Riminov there was a Hasid whose custom it was to bring newly made oil to Reb Menachem Mendel of Riminov, and the rabbi would light the first candle of Hanukah in his presence.

One year the winter was hard, the land covered with snow, and everyone was locked in his home. But when the eve of Hanukah arrived, the Hasid was still planning to deliver the oil. His family pleaded with him not to go, but he was determined, and in the end he set out across the deep snow.

That morning he entered the forest that separated his village from Riminov, and the moment he did, it began to snow. The snow fell so fast that it covered every landmark, and when at last it stopped, the Hasid found that he was lost. The whole world was covered with snow.

Now the Hasid began to regret not listening to his family. Surely the rabbi would have forgiven his absence. Meanwhile, it had become so cold that he began to fear he might freeze. He realized that if he were to die there in the forest, he might not even be taken to a Jewish grave. That is when he remembered the oil he was carrying. In order to save his life, he would have to use it. There was no other choice.

As quickly as his numb fingers could move, he tore some of the lining out of his coat and fashioned it into a wick, and he put that wick into the snow. Then he poured oil on it and prayed with great intensity. Finally, he lit the first candle of Hanukah, and the flame seemed to light up the whole forest. And all the wolves moving through the forest saw that light and ran back to their hiding places.

After this the exhausted Hasid lay down on the snow and fell asleep. He dreamed he was walking in a warm land, and before him he saw a great mountain, and next to that mountain stood a palm tree. At the foot of the mountain was the opening of a cave. In the dream, the Hasid entered the cave and found a candle burning there. He picked up that candle, and it lit the way for him until he came to a large cavern, where an old man with a very long beard was seated. There was a sword on his thigh, and his hands were busy making wicks. All of that cavern was piled high with bales of wicks. The old man looked up when the Hasid entered and said: “Blessed be you in the Name of God.”

The Hasid returned the old man’s blessing and asked him who he was. He answered: “I am Mattathias, father of the Maccabees. During my lifetime I lit a big torch. I hoped that all of Israel would join me, but only a few obeyed my call. Now heaven has sent me to watch for the little candles in the houses of Israel to come together to form a very big flame. And that flame will announce the Redemption and the End of Days.

“Meanwhile, I prepare the wicks for the day when everyone will contribute his candle to this great flame. And now, there is something that you must do for me. When you reach the Rabbi of Riminov, tell him that the wicks are ready, and he should do whatever he can to light the flame that we have awaited so long.”

Amazed at all he had heard, the Hasid promised to give the message to the rabbi. As he turned to leave the cave, he awoke and found himself standing in front of the rabbi’s house. Just then the rabbi himself opened the door, and his face was glowing. He said: “The power of lighting the Hanukah candles is very great. Whoever dedicates his soul to this deed brings the time

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This past spring, I participated as a mentor in our local writers guild’s Sheldon Oberman Emerging Writers Mentor Program.  The program was named after Sheldon Oberman, a Winnipeg writer who is well known for his childrens’ books.  Oberman died in 2004 but his legacy lives on in the mentorship program and his wonderful childrens’ books, a few of which I’ll feature in this post.  Although my encounter with Sheldon Oberman was primarily through the legacy of the  mentorship program, my children were familiar with his books, having encountered them at their school.

The White Stone in the Castle Wall illustrated by Les Tait (Tundra Books, 1995) is the story of a poor little boy named John Tommy Fiddich, who with his white stone, considers himself “sometimes lucky, sometimes unlucky.”  Set at turn-of-the-century Toronto, the book is also about the building of one of the city’s most famous landmarks — Casa Loma — and its eccentric owner, Sir Henry Pellat.

The Always Prayer Shawl illustrated by Ted Lewin (Boyds Mills Press, 1994) is about a Jewish boy named Adam.  When Adam is a boy (and it is a time when eggs were got from chickens, heat from chopped wood, and rides in wagons pulled by horses), he receives a special gift from his grandfather — a prayer shawl.  His grandfather, a rabbi, tells him that although “some things change, some don’t.”  He tells him that one of the things that will not change is his name, Adam, and he gives Adam a prayer shawl.  Adam carries that prayer shawl with him all through his long life until many decades later he is able to give it to his grandson, Adam, when he is an old man.

TV Sal and The Game Show from Outer Space illustrated by Craig Terlson (Red Deer College Press, 1993) is about a girl sucked into a TV by TV station aliens.  This delightful story about TV addiction pokes fun at both parent and child.  I especially relate to Sal’s Mom who suggests to her TV watching daughter, “Would you like to do something different, dear?  Come out with us to look at the fog.”   I’m always nagging my children to get outside more.  It is while Sal’s family is out for a walk that Sal finds herself in that alien TV world and can’t get herself out.

Sheldon Oberman’s books are a delight and pleasure to read.  Hope you can find copies in your bookstore and library!

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I, among many, am celebrating Chanukkah this week. It’s a good holiday: candles, chocolate coins, and deep fried foods, especially latkes.

Most people know latkes as potato pancakes, slathered in apple sauce or sour cream, and they are both plentiful and delicious. But they’re not the only kind of latkes! Jews from around the Mediteranean have a tradition of spinach latkes, which are one of my favorites this time of year. I’ve had beet latkes and sweet potato latkes, and a friend has been telling me about apple latkes. If you can grate it or shred it, form it into a patty, and fry it in oil, it can be a latke.

Epicurious has a recipe for those spinach latkes I love so much. What are your favorite kinds of latkes? What other foods do you fry? Last year I made donuts, because it’s the frying that’s important. In three years, Thanksgiving is going to fall during Chanukkah, and I know people who are already planning their deep-fried turkey. Now that’s a way to combine holiday traditions.

Not hungry enough yet? Try some books as an appetizer:
George Crum and the Saratoga chip
Hiromi’s Hands
Sweet Potato Pie
The Have a Good Day Cafe
Where on Earth Is My Bagel?
Yum! ¡MmMm! ¡Qué Rico! Americas’ Sproutings

Filed under: Musings & Ponderings Tagged: food, holidays, Jewish

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By Anatoly Liberman

Allegedly a nineteenth-century Americanism, highfalutin is now known everywhere in the English speaking world, but, as could be expected, its etymology has not been discovered—“as could be expected,” because the origin of such words is almost impossible to trace.  Many years ago, while investigating the history of skedaddle, I think I found a reasonable source of this verb.  I was neither the first nor the second to discover it, but I put some polish (“kibosh,” as sculptors said 150 years ago) on it.  My thoughts on highfalutin are low-key for an obvious reason.  As will be seen, I have only one feeble idea and am offering it in the hope that, despite the lack of a persuasive solution, it may redirect the search for the source of this enigmatic adjective.  But before sharing my small treasure with the world, I would like to quote the explanation given in John Hotten’s Slang Dictionary (the spelling and punctuation of the original have been retained): “Highfaluten, showy, affected, tinselled, affecting certain pompous or fashionable airs, stuck-up—‘Come, none of your highfaluten games:’ American Slang, now common in Liverpool and the East End of London, from the Dutch Verlooten.  Used recently by The Times in the sense of fustian, highsounding unmeaning eloquence, bombast.”   (Note how often the names of cloths end up meaning ‘pompous speech’: here fustian and bombast, both reflecting the idea of padding.)  Hotten’s dictionary appeared in 1859, but I was quoting from the third edition (1864).

We notice three things in Hotten’s entry: the spelling (highfaluten), the use of the word in Liverpool and London, and the proposed etymology.  The etymology is fanciful.  Dutch verlooten (now spelled verloten) is a verb (the infinitive) meaning “to dispose of a thing by lottery, raffle.”  There is also Dutch loot “shoot; offspring.”  No connection can be established between either of them and highfalutin.  The ghost of a Dutch etymon was raised once again in 1902, when a contributor to Notes and Queries traced -faluting to verluchting “an airing” (luchtig “airy, thin, light; unsubstantial, etc.”)—thus, “flighty talk,” another dead-end proposal.  Unfortunately, Hotten’s derivation has been repeated in several popular books in which verloten was upgraded to an adjective meaning “high-flown, stilted.”  But two other features of Hotten’s comment have hardly been discussed at all.  I cannot imagine that by the middle of the 19^th century an Americanism mainly used at home in reference to the inanity and shallowness of official orations (this is the impression the earliest quotations make) reached Liverpool and even the East End of London.  The parents of those whom Jack London met and described in his 1902 book The People of the Abyss (it is about the slums of the East End) would hardly have known and appropriated this piece of American political slang.  I also doubt that The Times would have used it then; in the middle and even at the end of the 19^th century it was customary in England to pity the coarseness of “our American cousins” and resent Americanisms.  So I risk suggesting that the word is British, even though the first recorded examples are from the United States.  Finally, we see that Hotten did not hyphenate the word and spelled it highfaluten, not highfalutin, let alone high-faluting or high-falutin’.  He probably did not think that the second element of the compound was a participle.

The other conjectures on the derivation of highfalutin

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