Download Otter for your meeting notes

THE BOOK OF LIFE - We Need Israel Books | Otter.ai

THE BOOK OF LIFE - We Need Israel Books

AJL Holly Zimmerman40min

Yael Levy

00:00

[COLD OPEN] Read more books about Israel. If you're a writer, do research and write a book connected to Israel. If you're a publisher, publish books about Israel. If you're an editor, consider books about Israel. Let's...let's work on this

Heidi Rabinowitz

00:15

[MUSIC, INTRO] This is The Book of Life, a show about Jewish kidlit, mostly. I'm Heidi Rabinowitz. Like so many of you, I am devastated by the suffering and loss of life in Israel and in Gaza, inflicted by the terrorism of Hamas. So I'm interrupting our regular schedule to bring you additional content related to the war in Israel and Gaza. This conversation with Yael Levy, Chava Pinchuck, and Marjorie Gann, is about the need for children's literature about Israel, and the challenges that make it hard to get that literature published. The show notes are going to be chock full for this episode, so be sure to check that out at bookoflifepodcast.com. For context, because things can change rapidly in wartime, this interview was recorded on October 15 2023.

Heidi Rabinowitz

01:25

First of all, thank you for making time to speak with me during this very stressful and troubled time. All of us are members of the Jewish Kidlit Mavens Facebook group that I administrate along with Susan Kusel. So first, I'd like each of you, Mavens, I'd like each of you to go around and introduce yourself. Tell us just very briefly, who you are and your role within the world of Jewish children's literature. So Yael,I want to start with you.

Yael Levy

01:58

Hi, my name is Yael Levy. So I made aliyah in 2015, and I split my time between Missouri and my home in Israel. I primarily write Jewish kidlit. And this past year, I also was a fellow at the Maimonides Foundation digital media fellowship, where I learned how to take graphic novels that I've been working on and try to make them into episodes for YouTube, which has been very exciting. I've trying to really expand how I approach Jewish kidlit and it is something I think about all the time.

Chava Pinchuck

02:41

I'm Chava Pinchuck. I am a past chair of the Sydney Taylor Book Award Committee. I co administer the Sydney Taylor Shmooze with Heidi Rabinowitz and Susan Kusel, and I am the editor of the Jewish Values Finder for the Association of Jewish Libraries. I made aliyah in 2012.

Marjorie Gann

03:06

I'm Marjorie Gann. I am a retired teacher, and children's book author. I've written two books about slavery. The first is Five Thousand Years of Slavery. It's the history of slavery everywhere in the world. It's mostly for young adults. And the second book is Speak a Word for Freedom: Women Against Slavery. It's about the women who have fought slavery since about the 18th century. I also review children's books. Lately for the past couple of years, I've been reviewing books that contain significant amounts of anti Israel propaganda for the CAMERA Education Institute.

Heidi Rabinowitz

03:56

And Marjorie, where do you live?

Marjorie Gann

03:57

I live in Toronto, but I have a daughter in Israel. She lives in Jerusalem with her four children. And I usually go for a few months every winter.

Heidi Rabinowitz

04:08

Okay. I absolutely don't want to engage in trauma porn. But I also want to give you the opportunity to share what you're experiencing at whatever level of sharing might be comfortable for you. So is there anything you would like to say about this last week of war and what it has been like for you? Yael.

Yael Levy

04:31

I have no words. As a writer, I have no words. It is. Just horrible. It's absolutely horrible.

Heidi Rabinowitz

04:44

Chava.

Chava Pinchuck

04:46

So, I've been avoiding the news and the pictures, though I think the world needs to see these pictures and see what is going on here. But I'm just overwhelmed by the outpouring of Israelis here, like every time they ask for anything, food, clothing, bedding places for people to stay, it's just incredible how giving and how concerned the whole country is.

Heidi Rabinowitz

05:13

Thank you. Marjorie.

Marjorie Gann

05:15

I didn't sleep at all last night. I'm thinking about my daughter and her children. But more than anything, I'm thinking of my son in law. He's in the reserves. He's a tank commander. And right now, he's near the Lebanon border. So it's very frightening. And when I look at the news, I just wonder what's going to happen in the north. So that's been very hard.

Heidi Rabinowitz

05:41

Thank you. So the reason we're talking today. Yael, in our Facebook group, Jewish Kidlit Mavens, which is a space for the Jewish children's literature community, you recently posted about the need for educating non Israeli children about Israel. So can you talk more about that?

Yael Levy

06:02

Sure. I'm seeing a lot of posts on social media where many people write, "I don't really know much about Israel, don't really know much about the conflict." But then you see students marching.... Sorry, it's just so painful, it's really hard to, um... Where, where we're seeing statements coming out of universities that I used to respect, young people, the things coming out of their mouths, calling this deserved because of the occupation, to say these kinds of things, the students, the youth, the intellectuals, they're just using Hamas talking points, and they don't even realize what they're doing. Hamas has infiltrated into the upper echelons of Western thought. When I was researching books to discuss with you, the strongest books I found were from my generation that I read when I was 12. There's nothing really out there. We have a whole generation of young people who do not know anything about Israel, anything about Jewish history, anything about our right to be in this country and our right to live, and live unmolested. Can I be angry at them? They don't even know. We haven't educated them. The blood isn't even dry, and they're marching??? It is so, so painful. What we have to endure here is so painful, but to get that kind of slap in the face from our young people??? They don't know.

Heidi Rabinowitz

07:53

Yeah.

Yael Levy

07:53

And we, we have to open them up.

Heidi Rabinowitz

07:57

I want to quote from your original post on Facebook that inspired me to invite you to this interview. You said "for years now many of us creators in the Anglo Israel space, have felt frustrated and dismissed. What we want to express about Israel has been deemed irrelevant to American kids. Friends, part of the wonder of reading is to expose our kids to other ideas and realities. The kaleidoscope of cultures, traditions, and experiences that make up Israel is so fascinating and important for American children to connect to." As you say, this education is crucial for people to actually understand the context for what's happening right now. Why has it been so hard to get these kinds of books published?

Marjorie Gann

08:46

Could I speak to that?

Heidi Rabinowitz

08:47

Marjorie.

Marjorie Gann

08:48

Last year when I was in Israel, I had coffee with an agent who lives in Israel. She's an agent for many Israeli writers, Jewish and Muslim. And she talked about the difficulty of getting books that look in a positive way at Israel, getting them published. And I had already read an article in The Washington Examiner called "Publishers and the People of the Book" written in 2021, December. It quoted Yossi Klein Halevi. Now Yossi Klein Halevi had this wonderful book, Letters to my Palestinian Neighbor. He's so humane. He is so open to listening and dialoguing with Arabs, this book could not have been more suitable. And he said he really had difficulty getting it published. He's a significant Israeli writer. I'm sure you all remember the incident with Once More with Chutzpah.

Heidi Rabinowitz

09:54

Yeah, Once More with Chutzpah by Haley Neil. And the incident was that even before it was published, it experienced a whole cancel culture thing on, I believe Goodreads, right? Where people took umbrage with the fact that this was a positive story that took place in Israel, because it was a Birthright or Birthright-style trip was going to be depicted in the story. And without even reading it or knowing anything else about it, people slammed it. And it actually got postponed. The publication date was postponed for like maybe a year or something, I think. And it was revised, I assume. Because once I actually read the book, it felt like it could have taken place on a trip to go anywhere. It was really about the intensity of the kids experiencing that, you know, kind of short term, highly emotional, highly engaged, relationship building that happens when you're all on a trip together. But I felt like it didn't even necessarily need to take place in Israel, because she must have toned that part down in response to all of this furor.

Marjorie Gann

11:02

Authors don't put the work in to writing in order not to get published. And it sounds like Israel has become the I-word. And I think on the Mavens conversation, one of the authors said they had to remove the name Israel from something on the cover of their book. So I think it's very true that this has happened maybe in the last 10 to 15 years.

Heidi Rabinowitz

11:29

Chava, did you want to share any thoughts about this?

Chava Pinchuck

11:32

So I recently blogged for the Jewish Book Carnival that I found three recent children's books that were really good. There's one called Barefoot in the Sand, which also has an interesting story. I don't know, Marjorie, if you're aware of this. So I reviewed it for the Association of Jewish Libraries newsletter. I loved it, it's such a positive story about Israel, and it's about someone from Romania and someone from Yemen, both men are dreaming of going to their homeland, and they get there. And one of my criticisms was, it would have been nice to see a map, so you could see their routes. So I think it came out during the AJL conference, that the book is published in China, and they censored the map. So there was no map in the book. I felt bad that I criticized it for no map when they couldn't put it in.

Heidi Rabinowitz

12:21

So are you saying that because the book was printed in China, China wouldn't print that map?

Marjorie Gann

12:28

I think it was Michael Levinthal, he told that story, didn't he, at the conference?

Chava Pinchuck

12:34

Yes.

Marjorie Gann

12:34

And it was because of the geopolitical scene and the closeness of China with Iran or something like that. They wanted to write "Palestine." I think that was what the Chinese wanted to do. And he said, No, he pulled the map instead.

Heidi Rabinowitz

12:52

Is there anything you can think of to say to allay the fears that publishers have about touching on this topic, any advice for them?

Yael Levy

13:01

Every person in publishing should read that article. Was it you Marjorie that pointed out that article in The Washington Examiner?

Heidi Rabinowitz

13:11

I'll link to it in the show notes.

Yael Levy

13:13

They are concerned about being mobbed or their books cancelled by people saying that anything about Israel is Islamophobic, a horrible thing to think. In Israel we are integrated with our Islamic neighbors. My life was saved in Hadassah Hospital by Muslim physicians and Muslim nurses and orderlies. A few years ago, I had emergency surgery, my gallbladder got infected, and it was over Passover. I just gave my life over to God, and to all of these wonderful people that worked at Hadassah, Ein Kerem. My life was completely in their hands, and they were beautiful hands. I had a woman that I was sharing the room with. She was a Muslim woman from Hebron and she was so gracious about me having my Pesach Seder for Passover, while she was trying to get another kidney. But in Israel, we're all just together. It's so integrated. A lot of our stories are back and forth between neighbors who are Jewish and Muslim and other ethnicities and other religions. This is normal. This is the normal way that we live in Israel. The world doesn't even know that. They're just assuming there's this occupation and all of the people of the Muslim faith are behind a cage, I really think that's how people are thinking, and this is not true. I'm reading posts from Israeli Arabs, Israeli Muslims, who are just as equally horrified with what Hamas is doing. This is not Jew versus Muslim. This is about nihilism versus light. And it affects all of us. It affects all of us in Israel and affects all of us in the world. The problems we're having are with Hamas, a genocidal organization, no different than the Nazis. Maybe worse than the Nazis because they boast. The Nazis tried to cover up what they did in the camps and here, the it's all over social media, you can't get away from it. They're proud of all of their horrible crimes. We're dealing with a very sick and depraved enemy. It has nothing to do with the Arabs of Israel. So the publishers need to be strong. And they need to push back when they're getting this kind of mob culture because the mob culture starts with "It's not about the Jews, we're just anti Zionist." But then every one of those parades that I'm seeing and those mobs that I'm seeing, it starts with anti Israel slogans and throw the all the Jews in Israel into the sea. And then right afterwards they say, and F the Jews and gas the Jews. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to connect the dots here of what's going on. So, again, the publishers that are not letting the world see what Israel is and and how beautiful it is, and how integrated it is, they're feeding into Hamas narratives and Hamas talking points. Hamas is evil, they are pure evil.

Heidi Rabinowitz

16:21

Chava or Marjorie, do you have any advice for publishers?

Chava Pinchuck

16:26

I don't. Because, I recommended this book to Marjorie also, it's book by Richard Landes who's a historian, he was a professor at Boston University. And he wrote a book titled Can the Whole World Be Wrong? It's an adult book. It's a very long book. But it's meticulously researched. He says that journalists and publishers and the media is handed these talking points. And instead of doing journalism, and investigating and getting a balanced report, they are printing this stuff as truth and as fact. So it's very hard to fight that. And publishers are not so brave. I mean, the bottom line is the bottom line. They're not librarians, they're not teachers, they're not educators, they publish books to make a profit. And they have to keep their company going. They're in a precarious position. And I don't see anyone who could be that brave in that position.

Marjorie Gann

17:28

I think the other question is who the publishers will be, because when I spoke with the agent last year, she said, she tries to sell books to the Big Five. They don't want them. So there's the Jewish publishers like Kar-Ben, but their distribution is nowhere near the distribution of the Big Five. So the percent that the agent makes is much less. And so there's also the issue of the agents.

Heidi Rabinowitz

18:04

Right, the agent has less incentive.

Marjorie Gann

18:06

That's right.

Heidi Rabinowitz

18:06

That they're not going to be able to get these books sold to a big publisher. We now should call upon publishers to realize that this is an educational need, that's for the greater good. It's for peace, it's for humanity, and urge them to be brave, and take on these titles. You know, thank you so much to the Jewish publishers like Kar-Ben, Green Bean Books, Kalaniot, Apples and Honey Intergalactic Afikomen, who am I forgetting? You know, there's a handful of small publishers that are dedicated to producing Jewish children's literature. Thank you to all of them for the representation of Israel that they do on an ongoing basis. But like you say, it would be super helpful to get a few books published by larger publishers with big marketing budgets.

Heidi Rabinowitz

19:04

So I believe that there is really no such thing as authorial neutrality. You know, you can't really have an objective book, exactly. But there is such a thing as misinformation. So, let's talk a little bit about the problem of children's books that misinform readers about Israel. You know, how widespread is this problem? What are some examples? Marjorie, I know that you compiled a list of books like this for CAMERA. First define CAMERA, what is CAMERA?

Marjorie Gann

19:38

The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis. And they decided to develop a an education platform and books are one of the things they're concerned with. In Habibi by Naomi Shihab Nye, an American Arab Palestinian girl returns to her village with her family from somewhere on the West Bank. And then she meets a Jewish boy. And she brings up the question of the chosen people. And she says, and this is sort of the last word on it, Oh, it just sounds like teacher's pet to me, meaning that God prefers one people to another. But that isn't what the chosen people means. It means people chosen with certain onerous responsibilities, but it presents a sort of supremacist image of Jews. That is not what the chosen people means. There are just many, many books like that that misinform. One of the ones, I'm drawing a blank on the title now, but it misinformed about the Six-Day War and makes it as though Israel was the aggressor in the Six-Day War, when Israel was fighting for its life, against the stated, by Egyptians and by the Palestinians, the stated desire to eliminate Israel. But the writer turns it upside down.

Chava Pinchuck

21:14

Tasting the Sky?

Marjorie Gann

21:15

Yes, it was Tasting the Sky, right.

Chava Pinchuck

21:18

Ibtisam Barakat.

Marjorie Gann

21:20

Barakat. Yeah.

Heidi Rabinowitz

21:22

Obviously, you know, in the current atmosphere of book banning, we don't want to come down on the side of book banning, but at the same time, librarianship is about curation. And our work is about making selections and recommendations. So I think what we want to make clear here is that books can have an opinion. Books can be written from a point of view. And it might be a pro Israel point of view. And it might be a pro Palestine point of view. But books that are inaccurate, that's a problem. We're not telling people not to read things, but they need to be aware if a book is providing bad information.

Marjorie Gann

22:05

A bunch of us in Toronto met with the acquisitions people and the Chief Librarian at Toronto Public Library on behalf of a small Israel advocacy organization. And we dealt with exactly that point. So we made it clear that we did not want to see books banned, but we suggested that it was important to educate their acquisitions people, and we recommended Noa Tishby's book, Israel: The Most Misunderstood Country on Earth, to give them some information, and Daniel Gordis's history of Israel. We also said, take something like Little Black Sambo, it's not on the shelves of the library because of racist caricatures in the original illustrations. It's in the library, but it's on the reserve shelf, and you have to request it. So we said that could be done with some of the books you already have. And then you can buy books, knowing a little bit more about Israel, a little bit more knowledgeably. And one good example is that book about Twenty-five Amazing Middle Eastern Women. The map is just plain wrong. It's completely incorrect. So one person I think posted on Mavens that their library said they would put a bookmark and it to alert readers. Another library said, we won't feature it, it'll be on the shelves, but we won't put it out front to promote it.

Heidi Rabinowitz

23:38

You know, there's no perfect solution. But there are various creative ways to deal with the problem of books that you might already have in your collection, that have misinformation. And then just to raise the level of education and awareness, so that when you are selecting books, you can select the best of the best, and not just fall into the trap of you know, ticking a box that okay, you have a book about this topic, without taking a really good look at the book and making sure that it's what you want.

Heidi Rabinowitz

24:06

What is your wish list for topics that you would like to see covered in children's books about Israel, that you would encourage publishers to seek out what kind of stories?

Chava Pinchuck

24:17

I write them and they're rejected, but I write about wildflowers, the beauty of Israel, the change of seasons here, you know, certain foods are going to be in the supermarket. Just daily life here. No politics, no agenda. Different cultural things that are specific to Israel, that are different from other places.

Heidi Rabinowitz

24:38

Thanks, Chava. Yael?

Yael Levy

24:40

I have a lot of ideas. It's just so rich. And there's so much going on, throughout history, today. Such a melting pot of cultures. You have people here from so many different countries and cultures and ways of doing things. All children can learn about resilience, learn about getting along with different people, learn about different cultures. Maven Judy Petersen mentioned what she wanted to see, and I had also thought about it: Jewish historical presence in the land during the Crusades, or, Napoleon or Ottoman times, and she wrote she'd like to see a book about Hiam Farhi, the Jewish general who helped stop Napoleon at the siege of Akko. These are interesting things And show, there's been Jewish presence in this land, and show different challenges and different way Jews have participated in history, as well as our story is part of the Christian story, part of the Muslim story. It's not just fighting and sad stories. We've got so many exciting stories and interesting stories and adventure stories and mysteries and ghost stories and romance stories. We're the people are the book, we got a lot of stories. We've got so much to share. I think the world would be a better place if we share them.

Heidi Rabinowitz

26:00

Thank you. Marjorie, did you have any wishlist topics?

Marjorie Gann

26:04

Well, Yael covered a lot. But I would also have said, people who have come to Israel for refuge. There's so many stories of that. That should be told. And I think Shoham's Bangle is a very good example. There's a whole generation in the US that has never heard of Natan Sharansky. There's one book, but I think his story could be told in more than one book. I mean, look how many there are on Ruth Bader Ginsburg, you don't need just one on Natan Sharansky. Also, one of the things that strikes me about Israel is, for example, organizations like Save a Child's Heart, which bring children with heart problems from everywhere in the world-- from Gaza, for heaven's sake! From the Arab world. And it's like a secret among the Jews. Nobody else knows about it. So if someone could tell the story about one child who came from an Arab country for surgery on their heart.

Heidi Rabinowitz

27:06

I think there was one children's book about that, about Save a Child's Heart.

Chava Pinchuck

27:10

Yeah, there was, but it was, again, that was either self published or published by the organization. So it didn't get a lot of publicity or distribution.

Heidi Rabinowitz

27:19

Right.

Marjorie Gann

27:19

Yeah.

Heidi Rabinowitz

27:21

Okay. And I want to point out that there is a recommended reading lists from the Association of Jewish Libraries, part of the Love Your Neighbor series, which are books aimed at all readers, not just Jewish readers, they're meant to help build bridges, and list number eight are recommended titles about Israel. And I will put a link to that in the show notes.

Marjorie Gann

27:43

I would suggest people listening, look at the CAMERA site, because in addition to my section, which is biased books, there's recommended books. And of course, there's Beni's War and The Six-Day Hero by Tammar Stein. Books that are forgotten like a Canadian book called Cry of the Giraffe, about the rescue of two Ethiopian girls, written by Judie Oron. It's by a major Canadian publisher. Now it's probably more than 10 years old now. All those books that show why Israel is needed.

Chava Pinchuck

28:24

Good books about Israel, The Miracle Seed, about date seeds they found at Masada and they germinated them, and they were able to grow a tree, but it was a male tree. It didn't make dates. So then they found another seed that they germinated and it was a female tree, so they had baby dates. And they have a new breed, not a new breed of date, an old breed of date from the time of Masada, which is like the early part of this millennium, from like 70 CE, dates that weren't available before.

Heidi Rabinowitz

28:58

Yeah, that was a fascinating graphic novel that these ancient, basically extinct date trees were able to be brought back.

Chava Pinchuck

29:06

It's a graphic novel, it takes place in Israel, it talks about science, it has so many, I don't know, appeal points, to me for kids, even for adults. I love that book, and Miriam Leshem-Pelly's new book, A Feather a Pebble, a Shell, where she talks about her childhood traveling around Israel and going to different places, and she sees like a feather from our national bird or she sees a seashell or she sees a rock. And that's part of the landscape. So she leaves them, and I'm the opposite. I take them! I have little jars of all my seashells, and I have jars of rocks and I have-- I don't have feathers. I don't collect feathers, but I like to take a little thing from like my trips around Israel because it's such an amazing, beautiful country and she really captures that in the book.

Heidi Rabinowitz

30:00

And that's coming out in 2024. Right?

Chava Pinchuck

30:03

Correct.

Heidi Rabinowitz

30:05

If a family was going to read a single book about Israel with their kids, do you have one particular title you would recommend above all others?

Chava Pinchuck

30:15

It's on the AJL list. It's called My Israel and Me, that shows how diverse this country is and how for the most part, everyone gets along. And I think that book shows it.

Marjorie Gann

30:27

As a picture book, I would pick Yuvi's Candy Tree, which I think actually may have also been translated into Hebrew, charming picture book about the long trek from Ethiopia to Israel. They have a very perilous voyage. Not everyone in their group survives. It's very beautifully illustrated, wonderful book.

Heidi Rabinowitz

30:51

Many years ago, when that book was new, it was on the podcast. So I'll find the link and put that in the show notes.

Yael Levy

30:56

I haven't seen specific books for children that I'd say, that's the book they need to see. I would just say perhaps publishers could work with fantastic books that are already out there and see if they could make a children's version, like Israel: A Concise History by Daniel Gordis. Can we get young readers edition of that or anything by Yossi Klein Halevi? Everything by Matti Friedman, I could see those as graphic novels, I mean, they're so visual. Just get them engaged, get the kids engaged.

Heidi Rabinowitz

31:32

I will mention a middle grade novel, Not So Shy by Noa Nimrod, it reminded me a lot of the much more widely known Maizy Chen's Last Chance by Lisa Yee, they were both about a girl who moves to a strange place and then has to make a home there and connect with the people there. And in the case of Not So Shy, it was an Israeli girl whose family goes to California for her father's work. And she has to make a life there and deal with some antisemitism, and connects with a classmate who is Arab, because they have actually similar experiences. So I think that that is an interesting view, for people who are not in Israel to see a perspective that's actually maybe a little bit more familiar, a setting that's more familiar, but still dealing with some of these issues.

Heidi Rabinowitz

32:29

Let's take a moment to talk about your own work. What books or projects do you want us to know about? Yael?

Heidi Rabinowitz

32:38

I have a picture book out with Kar-Ben called Bedtime for Maziks, not related to Israel. If I'm not writing about Israel, it's taking place in Brooklyn. I grew up in Brooklyn. Sometimes they take place in both places. Right now we have a book manuscript. It's a graphic novel, middle grade. It's called the Solomon Chronicles and it's about what happens when demons get unleashed over Brooklyn. Bunch of kids have to save the world.

Heidi Rabinowitz

33:06

Chava, do you have anything you want to promote?

Chava Pinchuck

33:08

Still editing the Jewish Values Finder, which is a database of children's books that emphasize Jewish values. And the Shmooze, I'm a co-administrator of the Shmooze, and it's a great place to find books about Israel and the latest Jewish books. And we have a great bunch of reviewers who are really dedicated and do an excellent job of promoting and reviewing children's Jewish literature.

Heidi Rabinowitz

33:36

Marjorie, do you have anything that you want to promote?

Marjorie Gann

33:38

Well, I'm not writing about Israel, except in my book reviews that are on the CAMERA site. One of my last reviews is of this nefarious book called They Called Me a Lioness: A Palestinian Girl's Fight for Freedom. Ahed Tamimi is the co-author of it. It's her biography. She actually has collaborated with Hamas, but she presents herself as completely innocent. She went to a conference in Beirut in 2015, and appeared together with a Hamas leader, an Islamic Jihad leader, and a Hezbollah leader. And it's nowhere in the book, of course, so what I try to do is to reveal these things in my reviews. The camouflage is a human rights camouflage, but she actually supports terror.

Marjorie Gann

34:36

The book I'm most proud of, is my slavery book, which I co-authored with Janet Willen. And it's called Five Thousand Years of Slavery. It's a history of world slavery to remind people that slavery was a universal practice, from antiquity to the present, practiced by people of all races, all colors, all religions, everywhere in the world. And there is a section on the Exodus and on the importance of the message of the book of Shemot to the people of the world and liberation movements. I've made sure that that got into the book, because I think the Jewish contribution to anti-slavery was huge.

Chava Pinchuck

35:21

What are you working on, Heidi?

Heidi Rabinowitz

35:24

What am I working on?

Chava Pinchuck

35:25

Yeah, besides everything you do,

Heidi Rabinowitz

35:28

I'm juggling many things. I have all of my ongoing projects with the Jewish Kidlit Mavens, the Sydney Taylor Shmooze, The Book of Life podcast, the Association of Jewish Libraries. I've recorded a presentation for the AB Kids storytime series, which is part of the Augusta Baker Storytelling Experience through the University of South Carolina's library school. As part of their diversity, equity and inclusion series, I'm doing a Jewish storytime. So I guess that's the thing that will promote at this moment. The recording will be available online. Thank you for asking that.

Heidi Rabinowitz

36:03

On this podcast. I always have a tikkun olam segment, where I invite suggestions for healing the world. So what call to action to each of you have for our listeners? Yael?

Yael Levy

36:20

I think when this quiets down, come and visit Israel, come see it for yourself. And read more books about Israel. If you're a writer, do research and write a book connected to Israel. If you're a publisher, publish books about Israel. If you're an editor, consider books about Israel. Let's, let's work on this. But in general, I'd ask everybody to please pray for our captives, and to really irritate the International Red Cross to look out for them. Pray for the safety of Israel. And think about a mitzvah you personally can do, whoever you are, to elevate the light on this earth and encourage your friends also to do that.

Chava Pinchuck

37:11

Chava, do you have a tikkun olam suggestion?

Chava Pinchuck

37:14

I'd say to open your mind, open your heart. If you hear things about Israel that don't sound right, take the time to find out what the facts are. And don't believe everything you hear, about anything. Take the time for yourself to really learn what's going on.

Heidi Rabinowitz

37:34

Marjorie?

Marjorie Gann

37:36

If you want to look for a place to donate, there are many. Many organizations help the soldiers in the IDF. I would think about the soldiers.

Heidi Rabinowitz

37:48

Okay, thank you all. I'm going to put a lot of links in the show notes for organizations you can donate to, for news sources. I'll try to to do my librarian thing and provide as much information as I can. In terms of tikkun olam, I'll mention a few suggestions that came up in the Jewish Kidlit Mavens. Some folks were suggesting sharing posts and photos with positive messages about Israel using the hashtag #whyIloveIsrael, or the hashtag #Israellovestories, just as a way to put some positive representation out into the world. And also, there was a suggestion to get involved in school boards. And this of course, is also helpful in terms of fighting book bans. But if schools have committees that advocate for Jewish students, or they have diversity committees or anti-bullying committees where a Jewish voice can be part of the mix, that's another suggestion that I saw. That seems like a pretty good idea.

Heidi Rabinowitz

38:55

Thank you all so much for joining me, and everybody, please stay safe and stay sane. And I wish you light and comfort in these troubling times.

Yael Levy

39:07

Thank you, Heidi, for putting this together, I really appreciate it. And I think we talked about some very important things that people need to hear even if it's really uncomfortable. Thank you.

Heidi Rabinowitz

39:20

Thank you.

Heidi Rabinowitz

39:24

[MUSIC, OUTRO] Say hi to Heidi at 561-206-2473 or bookoflifepodcast@gmail.com Check out our Book of Life podcast Facebook page, or our Facebook discussion group Jewish Kidlit Mavens. We are occasionally on Twitter too @bookoflifepod. Want to read the books featured on the show? Buy them through Bookshop.org/shop/bookoflife to support the podcast and independent bookstores at the same time. You can also help us out by becoming a monthly supporter through Patreon. Additional support comes from the Association of Jewish Libraries, which also sponsors our sister podcast, Nice Jewish Books, a show about Jewish fiction for adults. You'll find links for all of that and more at BookofLifepodcast.com Our background music is provided by the Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band. Thanks for listening and happy reading!

00:0000:00