The Magnificent Month of May

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may1May is chock full of special days. Here are a few of both the well-known and lesser known significant days in May.

Jewish American Heritage Month is a perfect time to delve into American Jewish History or visit the Museum of Jewish Heritage (www.mjhnyc.org) or The Jewish Museum (thejewishmuseum.org)

 

Museum related reading:

  • Preserving memory: the struggle to create America’s Holocaust museum (Linenthal)
  • ABC, the alef bet book: the Israel Museum, Jerusalem  (Cassen) (J)
  • The Museum of Extraordinary Things: a novel (Hoffman)

May is also Older Americans Month. If you are a senior citizen, make sure you are on the mailing list for the Senior Citizens Advisory Committee-SCAC (email hidden; JavaScript is required). While not everything relevant to everyone, there is much valuable information and our own Ann Lippel is chairperson.

Related reading:

  • Number Our Days (Meyerhoff)
  • Ten Old men and a Mouse (Fagan) (J)
  • From Age-ing to Sage-ing: a profound new vision of growing older (Schachter-Shlomi)

May 1-7  is National Library Week and good time to discover the treasures of the Lampert Library or read about Jewish books.

Library related reading:

  • Stolen Words: the plunder of Jewish books (Glickman)
  • Outwitting History: the amazing adventures a man who rescued a                 million Yiddish books (Lansky)
  • All of a Kind Family (Taylor) (J)

may2On May 1,May Day or, in some countries, International Workers’ Day is marked.

Labor related reading:

  • Brave Girl: Clara and the shirtwaist makers’ strike of 1909 (Markel) (J)
  • The Hired Girl (Schlitz) (YA)

 Yom Hazikaron, commemorating those who lost their lives for the State of Israel, this year was also on May 1  5 Iyar) It was quickly followed by Yom Haatzmaut, Israeli Independence Day on May 2 (6 Iyar)

may3Related reading:

  • The Eve of Destruction: the untold story of the Yom Kippur war  (Blum)
  • Shmulik paints the Town (Rose) (J)
  • 1948: a soldier’s  tale: the bloody road to Jerusalem (Avnery)

May 3 is the birthday of Golda Meir, one of the founders of Israel and prime minister from 1969-1964.

Related reading:

  • Goldie Takes a Stand: Golda Meir’s First Crusade (Krasner) (J)
  • Golda (Burkett)

may4The first Friday in May is Space Day celebrating all things astronomical including space flight. This year it occurs on May 5.

Related reading:

  • Noah and the Space Ark (Cecil) (J)
  • Reach for the Stars: a little Torah’s journey (Rouss) (J)
  • Ilan Ramon: Israel’s space hero (Sofer) (J)

 May 13 marks International Migratory Bird Day. Knowing the flight patterns of birds is extremely important to airline safety.

Related reading:

  • The Man who Flies with Birds (Vogel) (J)
  • A Pigeon and a Boy (Shalev)

On May 14 on Mother’s Day, we celebrate the one person we could not have done without.

may5Related reading:

  • The Bridge Ladies: a memoir (Lerner)
  • Mamaleh Knows best: what Jewish mothers do to raise successful,             creative, empathetic, independent children (Ingall)
  • You Never Call, you never write: a history of the Jewish mother (Antler)
  • Who she was: my search for my mother’s life (Freedman)
  • The Color of Water: a Black man’s tribute to his white mother (McBride)

 

To be continued…..

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