The glow of the Hanukkah lights will shortly fill our homes and shine through the windows. The Hanukkah story  is a great story with heroes and villains, suspense, and a satisfying ending. Even when the story is modified for young readers, it still retains its majesty and provides many opportunities for reinforcing  Jewish values.

This year’s crop of Hanukkah books includes some excellent retellings as well as a look at Hanukkah in settings other than the U.S. There have been several books with interfaith families as the focal point. And there’s a delightful handful of Hanukkah books for adults. Continue reading →

Begun in 1924 as Jewish Book Week by a Jewish librarian who worked at the Boston Public Library, it has stretched to the entire month before Hanukkah. Jewish Book Month is a time to highlight and celebrate libraries, books and Jewish writers.

Jewish books have been around for a very long time: even if not everyone was literate, each person knew the value of the Torah and the highest aspiration was to be a scholar of Jewish books. Continue reading →

The story of Noah and the ark has something for everyone: there are cute animals for the little ones, a lesson in architecture for older readers, and some bawdy details for adults …. as well as a couple of serious issues of respect for one’s elders and by way of midrash, respect for the earth.

However, it’s those cute animals or the rainbow that most often become the focus. Pass a preschool classroom and you might hear a chorus of bass and moos when Noah is introduced or children drawing brightly colored rainbows. Continue reading →

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 →

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 →

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).

Continue reading →