Quite some time ago when I first became involved with Jewish libraries, there was not much to choose from in the way of modern secular literature, especially for children. K’tonton was alive and well; the All-of-a-Kind-Family were doing what families did; there were a few laughs as the Chelmites stumbled through life; folktales were here and there. Continue reading
Category Archives: Lampert Library
Reflections on This Time of Year
The poet, T.S. Eliot, wrote that April is the cruelest month, a quote often taken out of context.
But I think that in the cycle of the year, September may be the cruelest month. Although it is a month of beginning for those who never seem to shake the shackles of a school schedule, it often coincides with Tishrei which marks the beginning of our religious year, and is beautiful with full greening of the trees and bursts of color from the dahlias, marigolds and mums, the month is the last gasp before the slow decline to winter. Continue reading
Not By Brains Alone
Through the ages, Jews have established a reputation as being brainy. Look at the Nobel Prize winners; Jews are overrepresented as a group.
BUT Jews have accomplished great feats in athletics, too. Just look at all the Jews involved in modern professional and amateur sports today – Jews who don’t feel the need to hide their Jewishness, be it religious or cultural. Continue reading
Kudos to the Lampert Library
At the 59th annual conference of the Association of Jewish Libraries held in San Diego this week, the Alan Lampert Memorial Library of Congregation Shomrei Emunah received accreditation from the SSCPL division of the Association. Accreditation means that the library has done a self-study and meets the Association’s standard for an effective library. Continue reading
Guess Who?
March is Women’s History Month. To expand your horizons beyond women named Ruth or Anne, here’s a match-up quiz of accomplished but lesser-known women.
The library is a resource for information about many of them, either through single biographies, collected biographies or reference works such as Jewish Women in America which are updated on the Jewish Women’s Archive website (jwa.org).
Days of Remembrance
We Jews have so many holidays and days of remembrance. From Nissan 1, the first day of Passover, marking the beginning of the year (Yes, Nissan actually is the first month of the Hebrew calendar) through Purim in the month of Adar, there are scores of holidays – and four new years. Then there is the weekly Shabbat celebration. I’d estimate that at least 100 days are marked in some special way. Continue reading
Reflection on the Civil Rights Trip: Personal Highlights
When I was a kid and drove with my father from our hometown of Lowell, Mass to the orthodontist in Boston, we would go through the streets of Cambridge. I would notice the rather decrepit looking triple deckers, the small apartment buildings, the dirty streets – and the dark faces. I remember questioning my father and asking why people had to live that way. Continue reading
T-Day Trivia
Did you know that the Hebrew word hodu, means both turkey and give thanks. So hodu for hodu.
In Yiddish the word for turkey is indik which is related to India perhaps because the explorers thought that they had reached the East Indies. Continue reading
Noah and the Ark
And we begin again. A good book is worth rereading as we do the Torah every year. This past Shabbat, we began the annual cycle of reading about the world’s most dysfunctional family.
Is there any emotion or problem that the first family and its descendants didn’t face in the course of many generations: jealousy, fratricide, cheating, lying, murder, rape, impersonating , broken hearts, lust, infertility, lack of confidence? God may have been the world’s first therapist. Continue reading
Generations
Family lore has it that Grandpa Julius, my father’s father, was the only man in the shtetl of Skidel with a gun and that he was spirited out of town in a coffin because ”they” were after him. It’s hard to believe that this man of few words, whom I never heard raise his voice, might have had violence in this past.
Or Did Grandpa Sam, a small, quiet, white haired man with impeccable handwriting really know the Talmud so well that if you stuck a pin through a word, he would know the word on the other side of the page?
What do these family stories have to do with the High Holidays coming up? Continue reading