Climbing Sinai

This entry has been cross-posted at the JPS Blog.

The Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago recently announced that the PJ Library is launching its free book program in the city. Each month for three years, the PJ Library will send a new, free book to thousands of young Jewish families in the Chicago area. Children receive the gift of a great, age-appropriate Jewish storybook, and families receive the gift of being able to enrich their children’s Jewish learning experiences, and of feeling embraced by the broader Jewish community. Chicago, in fact, is only one of 100-plus communities throughout North America where PJ Library operates – each month, the program reaches over 50,000 children! According to the Chicago Federation announcement,

In each community where it is available, the PJ Library receives enthusiastic praise from parents and grandparents who cite the high quality of the books, and the thoughtful accompanying guides for parents to provide background on topics, among their favorite aspects of the program.

[...]And then, there is the excitement felt by children each month when an envelope arrives in the mail addressed to them, and the joy the parents feel when they watch their children’s faces light up when they learn something new. “The program isn’t just free—that it makes learning about Judaism fun, is priceless,” commented Deborah Cooper, PJ Library program director.

The books that PJ Library selects are age-appropriate and are meant to engage a broad spectrum of Jewish families. Themes tend of focus on Jewish holidays, the Bible, Jewish values, and folklore.

Wishing all the littlest residents of the Windy City happy reading,
Naomi

This entry has been cross-posted on the JPS Blog.

Wow, tonight’s been quite a night… it’s Halloween, it’s game three of the World Series (go Phillies!), and I just discovered an incredible video!  Do you remember when I blogged about the Valmadonna Trust Library back in September?  No?  I’ll remind you: for the past few months, Sotheby’s has been working to sell the largest private collection of Jewish book and manuscripts to any buyer who has the financial oomph (read: at least $40 million) to purchase the thing in its entirety.  The Valmadonna is incredible, in terms of both its breadth – some 11,000 rare books and manuscripts – and in terms of the quality of the actual items in the collection, for example, the complete Bomberg Babylonian Talmud.  Back in February, blogger Gotham Girl explained why this particular set is so impressive:

[The Bomberg Talmud was] originally acquired by Henry VIII (hoping to find something in support of divorce), which arrived too late to help him out of his dilemma. These volumes of Talmud sat unused for 400 years in Westminster Abbey until acquired by the trust in exchange for a copy of the original charter for the Abbey. They are in perfect condition.

The entire collection was on exhibition back in February, but that exhibition has since closed.  When, back in September, I realized that I had found out about the collection a few months too late, I threw in the towel.  I figured that I would probably have to wait months, if not years, before the collection was again made open to the public by whoever ended up purchasing it.

… And this is where the exciting video comes in!  During my most recent trolling about the internet in search of exciting Jewish Book News, I stumbled across a video on the Sotheby’s website that provides an inside look at the Valmadonna Trust Library!  Get the scoop from Sotheby’s Vice Chairman, Judaica consultants, and even the collection’s custodian, Jack Lunzer!  Learn about how Jack Lunzer accumulated his collection, see some of the collection’s gems, and take a peek at how Sotheby’s put together the collection that you and I sadly missed.  Unfortunately, the video isn’t embeddable, so just click here to go the video on Sotheby’s website.

This entry has been cross-posted on the JPS Blog.

This week, in a stand against censorship and in support of intellectual freedom, the American Library Association is celebrating Banned Books Week.  This annual awareness campaign not only encourages the public to pick up and read books that have been the targets of attempted bannings, but also encourages readers everywhere to challenge attempted bannings in their local schools, libraries, bookstores, and religious institutions.

Now, I’m all for standing up against the censorship of ideas – and banning books means censoring both the production and consumption of ideas.  Not exactly something a free society should stand for, right?  We should keep in mind, though, that most books which have been challenged in the United States were children’s books that were considered age-inappropriate.  And while it can be argued that it should be the parent’s job to decide what his children can and cannot read, let’s just also keep in mind that many children don’t exactly have particularly good parental oversight – and that for these kids, the library is the place where they can get access to books.  So perhaps the issue isn’t so black-and-white: maybe it is in our society’s best interests to let our libraries use some discretion when deciding what books to make available to kids.  (That is, of course, as long as those decisions remain local.  I think we can all agree that we don’t want the government getting all Orwellian on us!)

Still, there’s nothing quite like intellectually “sticking it to The Man”.  I think that’s half of the appeal of banned books week – somewhere, a book gets banned, and bibliophiles everywhere rebel by reading that book.  So, because I like sticking it to The Man just as much as the next guy, I’ve decided to share with you a list of Jewish authors whose books have been banned (or have almost been banned).  I was originally planning to compile my own list, but after a bit of research, I discovered that Tablet Magazine beat me to it this morning:

[1] In 1972, a librarian in Caldwell Parish, Louisiana, used tempera paint to diaper the naked baby in Maurice Sendak’s In the Night Kitchen. In 1993, the book was challenged in Minnesota’s Elk River elementary schools because “reading the book could lay the foundation for future use of pornography.”

[2] In The Boy Who Lost His Face, by Newbery Medalist Louis Sachar, a boy gives the middle finger to an old woman during an episode of peer pressure and bullying. The book was challenged at an elementary school in San Ramon, California, in 1993. for obscene gestures, profanity, and “inappropriate subject matter.”

[3] In William Steig’s Caldecott-Medal-winning Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, police officers are drawn as pigs. The Illinois Police Association therefore wrote to librarians in 1977 asking them to remove the book from libraries. (Even though the pigs in the book are perfectly nice pigs.)

[4] Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume is No. 60 on the American Library Association’s list of the 100 Most Frequently Banned or Challenged Books of the 1990s. (In the Night Kitchen is No. 10.) It’s been challenged for sexual and religious themes, as have many of Blume’s books, which may have something to do with her being so active in the National Coalition Against Censorship.

[5] Robie Harris’s four brilliant sex-education books, aimed at kids of different ages and illustrated in comic-book style by Michael Emberley, make censors crazy. Her book for teenagers, It’s Perfectly Normal, is celebrating its 15th anniversary this fall with updated sections on Internet safety, birth control, and the HPV vaccine. In 2008, a patron of the Lewiston, Maine, public library took out the book and refused to give it back because she deemed it disgusting. Other patrons then donated four copies of the book, which remain in circulation. Yay.

[6] According to the delightful website Bookslut, an elementary school in Decatur, Georgia, banned The Bad Beginning, the first volume in A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket  because it was deemed to endorse incest. In the book, cartoonishly evil Uncle Olaf tries to steal the children’s inheritance by marrying his niece Violet. (She outwits him, of course.) “It’s difficult for me to imagine how I can construct a villain whose actions would be unobjectionable,” Snicket, aka Daniel Handler, told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “That’s called a hero.”

Happy illicit reading!

This entry has been cross-posted on the JPS blog.

One of the things I love about history is that sometimes, it goes “meta” on you.  What I mean is that on the one hand, there are historians who write about history.  And on the other hand, there are historians who write about how other historians write history.  It’s historiography: the history of history.  (Sick of the word “history” yet?  Too bad!)  For example, there’s E.H. Carr’s What is History?, or Mary Spongberg’s Writing Women’s History Since the Rennaissance, or The Historiography of Contemporary Science and Technology by Thomas Söderqvist.  One of the neat things about history is that there’s no one way to produce it: over time, historians’ accounts of, say, Classical history will be influenced by variations in research methodology, philosophical approach, and even values.

What’s all this got to do with Judaism?, you may wonder.  Well, it just so happens that earlier today, I began to read a wonderful little gem of a book called Zakhor: Jewish Memory and Jewish History, by Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi: Jewish historiography!

In this book, Yerushalmi traces the development of how Jews not only studied, but remembered, their own history.  According to Yerushalmi, throughout much of its lifetime, Judaism has had an uneasy relationship with the formal writing and studying of history.  He claims that writers of Jewish history over the ages have typically engaged in what should really be called “selective memory” – recording and commemorating some events and not others, couching historical events in a religious language and context, or simply forgoing recorded history in favor of commemorative holidays or liturgical poems.  It’s all fascinating stuff, gracefully written, and completely accessible for any lay reader.

I also happen to know that JPS will, in the upcoming months, be publishing a work of Jewish history that dates back to the medieval period, and which is discussed in Zakhor.  So keep your eyes peeled, and when the book is finally published, look to Zakhor to read about its historical context.

Heck, read Zakhor right now.  It’s awesome.

- Naomi

This entry has been cross-posted at the JPS Blog.

This has been a busy week for me, as I’m sure it has been for many of you.  The week that straddles August and September brings with it days of hectic preparation: parents buy supplies for their children at back-to-school sales; college students move into dorm rooms and attend orientation events; and those of us in between build IKEA furniture, drive tank-like UHauls, and get very, very lost in Chinatown (don’t ask).

Now that I’m getting settled into my new place in New York, I’ve decided that I need to start exploring its Jewish cultural offerings.  Unfortunately, this week has been somewhat busy (see the above reference to UHauls and Chinatown), so I’ve been unable to visit any museums or Judaica bookstores.

However, as I was ignoring my still-packed suitcase this afternoon, I stumbled upon an incredible article on ABC News.  According to the February article, the largest private Judaica collection – the Valmadonna Trust Library – went up for auction at Sotheby’s a few months ago.  The entire collection of some 11,000 rare Hebrew books and manuscripts, valued at over $40 million, was on display for a time in February in order to drum up interest among potential buyers.  Among its many treasures, the Valmadonna Trust Library includes:

“a nearly pristine complete edition of the Babylonian Talmud printed in 1519-1523 by Daniel Bomberg, a Christian printer of Hebrew books… the nine-volume, leather-bound Bomberg copy is recognized as one of the most significant texts in the history of Hebrew printing, on which all other Talmud editions are modeled.”

But before you whip out your wallets in a fit of excitement, it is unfortunately my duty to inform you that the collection will only be sold as a whole.  So unless you’re willing to cough up $40 million (more actually, since the auction starts at that value), you’re going to have to wait for a museum or library to acquire it before you can crack open that Bomberg Talmud.

But don’t worry about having lost the opportunity to ever see these rare books.  Martin Cohen over at the Ruminative Rabbi makes a great point that since the asking price for the collection is so high, the Valmadonna Trust Library

“will probably not be bought by someone planning to hide the collection away in a private home and so the chance to see it will probably present itself again…either in Washington at the Library of Congress or in some similar library or museum with that kind of acquisitions budget.”

When I hear any news about a final buyer, I’ll clue you all in.  And maybe I’ll see you at the buyers’ exhibit!

-Naomi

This entry is cross-posted at the JPS Blog.

About a week ago, the Jerusalem Post reported about a recent attempt to revive the Jewish religious literary tradition in Krakow, Poland.  Today, fewer than 1,000 Krakow residents identify with the Jewish community.  Yet before the Holocaust, the city was home to 80,000 Jews – and some of the greatest religious writings to come out of Eastern Europe from the early modern period onward were written by the rabbis of Krakow.  Haviv Rettig Gur reports:

The new Polish-language book Dovev Siftei Yeshenim (The Utterings of the Lips of the Sleepers), written by Krakow’s Rabbi Boaz Pash, is an effort to bring back to life the voices of the city’s rabbinic tradition in the place where it all happened. The book is a collection of interpretations on the weekly Torah portion written by some of the greatest rabbis Krakow ever produced.

“Everyone has heard about the rabbis and sages of Krakow, but who can quote them?” asks Pash. “What member of the current generation that is living and growing up in Poland can open their books? This book and others of its kind represent an attempt to meet that need.”

The book begins with 15th century scholar Rabbi Yom Tov Milhausen, and continues with such luminaries of the Jewish bookshelf as the 16th century giant Rabbi Moshe Isserles, better known as the Rama, and the 17th-century halachist Rabbi Yoel Sirkas, the Bach.

(Interestingly, Dovev Siftei Yeshenim is coming on the heels of a possible re-publication of a German edition of Mein Kampf! That’s irony for ya.)  The publication of this book is indicative of a larger trend in Polish Jewish life:

The book, like Pash’s rabbinic work, are funded by the Shavey Yisrael organization, one of the groups at the forefront of the quiet rekindling of Jewish life in Eastern Europe.

“Since the fall of the Iron Curtain, more and more young Poles are rediscovering their Jewish roots and expressing a desire to draw closer to the Jewish people and the State of Israel,” according to the Israel-based chairman of Shavey Yisrael, Michael Freund.

“At the same time, Jewish communal life in Poland is gradually gaining strength. We cannot turn our backs on these exciting historic developments and must do everything we can to facilitate them,” Freund said in a statement announcing the publication of Dovev Siftei Yeshenim.

I’m thrilled that they’re publishing this book in Polish, so it will be accessible to Polish Jews and non-Jews alike.  At the same time, however, I’d love to see an English translation of the book.  It sounds like an absolute gem.

- Naomi

This entry is cross-posted at the JPS Blog.

Here’s an interesting, and controversial, bit of news:  According to the Telegraph, German-Jewish leaders are supporting an effort by historians to publish Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf in Germany, for the first time since World War II.  (I’m assuming that the edition would be in German, though the article didn’t say so explicitly.)  According to the Telegraph, this “scholarly edition would be accompanied by a critical introduction and footnotes challenging Hitler’s assertions under the proposal by Munich historians.”  So why has this become such a major issue now, over 60 years later?

The German state of Bavaria, in which Hitler wrote the mix of ideology and memoir while serving a four-year jail sentence for his failed 1923 coup attempt, has a 70-year exclusive copyright on publishing the book, which it has used to maintain an effective ban.

This copyright is due to expire at the end of 2015, leading to fears of a free-for-all among unscrupulous publishers.

Bernhard Gotto, spokesman for Munich’s Institute of Contemporary History, which has historians working on the scholarly edition, said this was why it was important that historians got in first with their critical editions.

“We do not want obscure publishers profiting from this book,” Mr Gotto said. “We think historians need this scholarly edition, which would lead to a demystification of the book.”

The German Finance Ministry has responded by insisting that it will try to find a way to extend the book’s copyright and prevent its publication.

Now, I’m not a fan of censorship by any means.  And while I can’t help but feel uneasy about the ready availability of hate literature, I do agree with the position of Stephen Kramer, the general secretary of the Central Council of Jews in Germany:

“An aggressive and enlightening engagement with the book would doubtless remove many of its false, persisting myths.”

Additionally, in this day and age, Mein Kampf is readily available on the internet anyway, in every language imaginable.  So I think that we could definitely do with a critical, scholarly edition that would combat the book’s hatred and falsehoods.  This is pretty controversial stuff, though, so I’m not necessarily wedded to my own opinion.  Would anyone like to sound off on the issue?

-Naomi

(That was a one-hit wonder by the Monotones, in case you’re curious.)

This entry is cross-posted at the JPS Blog.

Following on the heels of Tisha B’Av (the most somber day in the Jewish calendar) is the festival of Tu B’av – the Jewish holiday of love.  In days gone by (during the Second Temple period, to be exact – around 2500 years ago), young, unmarried women would don white dresses and dance in the vineyards.  There, according to the Mishna, they would sing, “young man, consider whom you choose to be your wife” – and hopefully, some eligible bachelor would take notice.  (After all, it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife…  Anyone?  Anyone?)  After the destruction of the Second Temple, the dancing and matchmaking of Tu B’Av fell out of practice, and the holiday went on a nineteen-hundred year hiatus.

Recently, however, the day has experienced a resurgence in popularity, especially in Israel.  The entertainment, beauty, and flowers and cards industries have begun to have a field day promoting Tu B’Av as the Jewish alternative to Valentine’s Day.  And uniquely, though it’s a Jewish holiday, there are essentially no rituals and no liturgy associated with it – so if you want to celebrate the day, pretty much anything goes!  Host a romantic dinner party, send some flowers to a loved one, sign up on JDate, or… check out some Jewish books on love and relationships (hey, you’re reading a Jewish book blog, what did you expect?).  Here are a few popular ones you may want to consider:

● Love Your Neighbor and Yourself: A Jewish Approach to Modern Personal Ethics, by Rabbi Elliot Dorff
● Treasury of Jewish Love: Poems, Quotations & Proverbs, by David C. Gross
● Kosher Sex: A Recipe for Passion and Intimacy, by Shmuley Boteach
● God, Love, Sex, and Family: A Rabbi’s Guide for Building Relationships That Last, by Michael Gold
● The Jewish Way in Love and Marriage, by Maurice Lamm
● Dating Secrets of the Ten Commandments, by Shmuley Boteach
● Kabbalah on Love (Technology for the Soul), by Yehudah Berg

Happy reading! XOXO,
- Naomi

This entry is cross-posted at the JPS Blog.

Today is Tisha B’Av, the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av, and it is considered to be the saddest and most serious day in the Jewish calendar.  Tisha B’Av was the day when it was decreed that the Jews would wander in the desert for 40 years before they could enter the Land of Israel.  In 586 BCE, on Tisha B’Av, the Babylonian army destroyed the First Temple.  In 70 CE, on the ninth of Av, the Second Temple was destroyed – an act which forever altered Judaism and almost marked the downfall of the religion.

After the destruction of the Second Temple, the Rabbis began to notice a pattern, that the month of Av – and especially the ninth day of that month – was a herald for many disastrous events to befall the Jewish people.  Both the expulsion from England in 1290 and the expulsion from Spain in 1492 occurred on Tisha B’Av.  The emptying of the Warsaw Ghetto – 9 Av, 1942.  The bombing of the JCC in Buenos Aries, in which 90 people were killed and 300 injured – 9 Av, 1994.

Of course, not every calamitous event in Jewish history has occurred during the month of Av, and many a Tisha B’Av has passed with nary a bother.  But because of the deep significance of the Temple’s destruction to the Jewish psyche, Tisha B’Av has become the representative day of mourning for all the sufferings of the Jewish people.  And when an event like the 1994 Buenos Aires bombing occurs, its sting is just a little sharper, because it happened on Tisha B’Av.

Tisha B’Av is observed with ritual mourning practices, as if mourning the passing of a loved one.  In addition to a 25-hour fast, Jewish tradition mandates refraining from wearing leather, washing one’s body, and using perfume.  Active mourning rituals include the reading of Eicha (Lamentations) and Kinot (Hebrew elegies written at different periods in Jewish history).  And while regular Torah study is discouraged (because the study of Torah is meant to be joyful), the study of Job and Jeremiah, as well as the portions of Talmud and Midrash that discuss the destruction of Jerusalem, is encouraged.

My suggestion?  If you can, set aside a little time today to do just that.  Read through the book of Lamentations, or, with a friend, read and discuss the many probing questions posed by the book of Job.  Reflect a little.  Think about humanity’s capacity for cruelty, and where that has led us over the centuries.  And think about what we can all do to offset that, and to make our world just a little bit kinder.

-Naomi