[COLD OPEN] These stories have this new life. And as readers encounter them in Jeff's book and my book, that inspiration will carry forward.
Then that turns into something extraordinary. So there's... it's the accumulation of it I think, which lends some power.
Like, everybody can do a mitzvah for someone else. And how inspiring that is!
[MUSIC, INTRO] This is The Book of Life, a show about Jewish kidlit, mostly. I'm Heidi Rabinowitz. Today I've got two holiday books for you that I think make a great pairing. We're going to hear about Red and Green and Blue and White by Lee Wind, and The Christmas Mitzvah, by Jeff Gottesfeld. Both of these wonderful people have been my guests before. You may remember Jeff from February 2020 when he told us about No Steps Behind: Beate Serota Gordon's Battle for Women's Rights in Japan, and Lee from the June 2020 Through the Window diversity exchange episode, when we learned more about queer kidlit. Today, they both return with picture books that really uphold the spirit of the holiday season, with beautiful stories of bridge building.
Welcome Lee Wind, welcome Jeff Gottesfeld. I'm so happy to have both of you back on The Book of Life podcast for new books that you have written. In this divisive time, we really need stories like your new books, The Christmas Mitzvah, and Red and Green and Blue and White, that show people building bridges and reaching out to each other. So let's first hear just a little bit, a very short description of each book. We'll go alphabetically. Jeff, tell us about The Christmas Mitzvah.
The Christmas Mitzvah is inspired by the true story of Al Rosen, who was a Jewish man in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, who absolutely loved Christmas and loved his Christian neighbors. One Christmas Eve, he was upset to have a friend of his having to work on Christmas Eve instead of being home with his family. He went on a radio station and volunteered to do the job of any Christian in Milwaukee that night for free. He did Christmas mitzvahs for the next 30 some odd years. This book is about that enterprise.
Great. And Lee, tell us about Red and Green and Blue and White.
Red and green are the Christmas colors and blue and white are the Hanukkah colors, which is where the title comes from. It's also inspired by a true story. In 1993 in Billings, Montana, most people were celebrating Christmas and then on one street there was one house that was decorated for Hanukkah, and someone threw a brick through the window; shocked the community, and they decided that they were going to stand up together, and they started a campaign of putting images of menorahs up in the windows of local stores and businesses and religious organizations, and in the space of three weeks over 10,000 windows in Billings, Montana had put up the symbol of the menorah as a sign of solidarity and what the true meaning of community is, and I was so inspired by that. I thought, that's a picture book.
Now, that story about what happened in Billings, Montana, actually was a book previously: The Christmas Menorahs: How a Town Fought Hate. How does your book differ from that earlier version of this history?
It's written for much younger kids. I wrote fiction and the idea was to sort of take a step back from the literal events that happened and really get to the heart of what it means to stand up for yourself. There are two main characters, a little boy Isaac, who it was his window his family had decorated for Hanukkah that had the stone thrown through it. And they had to make a decision. Were they going to stand up for themselves and be authentic and be honest about being Jewish? Or were they going to sort of hide who they were? And they repaired the window and they did light the menorah again. So there was that pivotal moment. And then there was another young child Teresa, whose family decided that they were going to put up an image of a menorah in solidarity, and that was part of the beginning of lots of people doing it. And so I crafted the friendship of the two kids to sort of mirror the idea that how do we allow ourselves to celebrate our differences?
Both of these books are based on true stories, so I wanted to ask how each of you first learned about the incident that inspired your story. So Jeff, start us off.
Sometimes books take a very long time to gestate. I was in Milwaukee on a theater project. I'm guessing it was maybe 1996-97. And I think I read something about Al Rosen in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which is their newspaper, and right away, I knew that was a good subject for a book. I just didn't know how I was gonna write it. And I didn't even think about writing picture books as a way of artistic expression for another 14 or 15 years, didn't cross my mind. And then it was like, Okay, I'm telling this story that way.
And for me the event in Billings actually created a bunch of things that happened, including a nonprofit that was formed called Not In Our Town and there was a documentary on PBS. And it was written up in a lot of places as a sort of sign of, you know, were they special, were the people in Billings different than everyone else, or was it just that they stood up together to say, hey, not in our town, like enough, because this wasn't an isolated incident. This was part of a series of incidents that had happened. The real work was after doing all the research and reading all the books, and watching the documentaries going into the library and looking at the Billings Gazette microfilm, trying to step back from the literal events that happened. And that was where I think it becomes really interesting. You're writing fiction that's inspired by a true story. And the rules are very different than if you're writing nonfiction, right? Like you get a lot of license, but can you preserve the heart of what was there? and I think that Jeff did that as well in his book, whether the actual details are precise is less important than, are you getting the heart of it, right?
You just already sort of stole my notes because I was going to ask you... I was, I was gonna ask you that: how you transform a news item into a picture book and how you find the emotional heart that's in there to pull readers in.
It might have been more challenging for Lee than for me because I have a very small story here in some ways, Al Rosen was just a guy and not a famous guy. He sold pots and pans door to door and the Christmas mitzvot that he did were for... there's a line in the book about all the folks easy to dismiss in a world that mistakes wealth for worth. He did the most ordinary jobs for people so they could be with their families. That was relatively easier, I think, than the task that Lee had, to find that heart.
I remember that line in particular in your book, Jeff, and how it was adding this additional layer of understanding for young readers: everybody is important. And we should encourage everyone to be celebrated. For Red and Green and Blue and White, lighting a decorative menorah in a window is not a large act in and of itself, or drawing a menorah and putting it up in your window. Those aren't large heroic acts, but there is heroism in it there's heroism in standing up for yourself and there's heroism in standing up for someone else, and I love that the Billings Gazette published an editorial with an image of a menorah to sort of make it easy for people to put it up in the window. And Heidi, may I read what the editorial said? because it was so moving.
Absolutely, yes!
It said "On December 2, 1993, someone twisted by hate threw a brick through the window of the home of one of our neighbors, a Jewish family who chose to celebrate the holiday season by displaying a symbol of faith, a menorah, for all to see. Today, members of religious faiths throughout Billings are joining together to ask residents to display the menorah as a symbol of something else: our determination to live together in harmony and our dedication to the principle of religious liberty embodied in the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. We urge all citizens to share in this message by displaying this menorah on a door or a window from now until Christmas. Let all the world know that the irrational hatred of a few cannot destroy what all of us in Billings and in America have worked together so long to build."
That is so beautiful!
Magnificent, but you know, Lee,there's a parallel in this which is that in Billings, it was 10,000 windows, and in 10,000 windows, there was incredible power. In Al Rosen's story, one Christmas mitzvah, that's really something. When you do it for 35 years until you're 80 years old and one builds on another on another on another, then that turns into something extraordinary. So there's the accumulation of it, I think, which lends some power.
Yeah, absolutely. And the idea too, that these stories have this new life, and that as readers, encounter them in Jeff's book and my book, that inspiration will carry forward; like, everybody can do a mitzvah for someone else. And how inspiring that is.
Well, I think you are both mind readers because I also had in my notes that I had noticed in The Christmas Mitzvah that you snuck in a bit of criticism of our neoliberal society....
Ya think?
...when you said that "the workers Al Rosen helped were all the folks easy to dismiss in a world that mistakes wealth for worth." So I was gonna bring that up too. Do you want to expand on that and how you came to the decision to express it in that way?
I would, and it actually latches with Lee's book again, when you think about who is behind the picture windows of the apartment windows in Billings. It's just ordinary folks. Most jobs are pretty ordinary out there. You know, there's a lot more people who are working at a 7-11 than are running Tesla, there's a lot more folks who are directing traffic and shoveling snow and cleaning rats' cages on Christmas Eve, than might be in charge of Amazon. Work in and of itself has value. And people's religious practice has value. And The Christmas Mitzvah, I think crosses those two things.
Oh, can I share one thing about what I said earlier about the editorial? One of the really exciting gifts that I feel like the illustrator gave the readers and also me because it was a total surprise to me, was on the final page on the author's note, there was a spot illustration of Teresa reading the newspaper and seeing that editorial there, which I just fell in complete love with, and thought was so charming and just such a cool way that the illustrator Paul Zelinsky, who's completely brilliant, was able to sort of like get in a little more of this research and ground it a little bit more even in the real story that happened.
This is almost spooky at this point, because the next question that I was going to ask you was related to newspapers. So I noticed that the good deeds in both of these stories were amplified by the media: radio, newspaper, TV, and so on, and that helped them spread. So what role do you think the media should play in making the world a better place?
Yes!
That's a tough question. I mean, if it bleeds, it leads. I mean, maybe it should be if it's a mitzvah, it leads. I mean, what's cool about Al's story, it was picked up, AP did a story on it, Washington Post did a story on him. You know, it was incredibly attractive. You know, now there are synagogues that are doing a Christmas mitzvah day. Yes, it's amplified. The problem is anything sentimental, people look down their noses at. But you know what, putting menorah cutouts in windows, that's a little sentimental, that comes from the heart. And being able to do a Christmas mitzvah for somebody who's running a newsstand, that's a little sentimental. Could the media do a better job and say, You know what? Coming from the heart is okay. Yeah, absolutely.
I agree with that 100%.
Right? Right?
Yeah, I feel like there's a lot of effort being made to keep us in a state of panic. And I think that there's a lot to be said for being more grounded and not ignoring the challenges, but it is interesting, the popularity of things like John Krasinski's Good News. You know, in the middle of the pandemic, just people were so hungry for-- tell me something good. Tell me something inspiring. And what I love is that both of our books do that.
It's also something to do. The people of Billings, they did something and it lasted and they built on each other. Pray? that's a mitzvah, absolutely; to say the shema is a mitzvah, light candles on Friday night, but to get out there in the world and do something, that's really significant.
As you did your research, did you learn any interesting details about the real story that you weren't able to include in the book?
The first mitzvah that Al Rosen did was he tended bar. Al Rosen didn't drink. So he is at this working class bar. He wouldn't know how to make a Tom Collins if you paid him to do it. And he wasn't taking money. How about you?
It's such a picture book thing, he filled in for a bartender!
Yeah, great, we're gonna put that right on the cover!
So many things happened in the real story of Billings. There were so many meetings, there were so many more hate crimes. A lot of it was trying to like, make it simple. Like, how do you talk to kindergarteners about somebody afraid of difference to the point where they would throw a stone through a window? How do you make that not totally traumatizing to a kindergartner and how do you make them feel safe? And how do you let them feel good about themselves and also feel empowered? Those are the questions I kept asking. I did so many drafts and it was continuously too complex. Coming up with the idea of the light and how the Christmas lights were red and green and the Hanukkah lights were blue and white, and this idea of how together they were stronger, really helped. And then, you know, even Isaac and Teresa, who were real people, just completely making stuff up about them, like I made Isaac a poet and he had these little poems and the illustrator Paul Zelinsky did this amazing thing where he incorporated the poems in the illustrations. Teresa became an artist and I wanted to give them each agency that made sense with the story and so a lot of it is invented. I mean my author's note is, "Isaac and Teresa are real people, but I fictionalized their interactions and some details of how things unfolded." And what I really wanted to shine through was this idea about how they decided not to be bystanders and they decided to be upstanders, they decided to just stand up and say, Hey, the bad things are not okay. And really what happened once they all stood up, once there were those 10,000 windows decorated with menorahs, the haters backed down, and in this little town in Montana, love won. I just thought that that was the heart of it, that was the beating heart of the story.
You mentioned the poetry. Lee, talk to us about these snippets of poetry that are incorporated throughout the illustrations and why you chose to add a political element.
I wanted to give Isaac a voice, give him something to do, because I didn't want it to just be an ally story of a friend of his drew a menorah. And so I was really trying to find the balance of the story. And when I came upon the idea of the poetry I really liked it because hey, I write bad poetry. Then the idea of like trying to channel, like what would a child's voice writing poetry be? and riffing on this idea of colors. And in fact, the first poem in the book that Isaac writes, or that I wrote for Isaac to write, just trying to play with this idea of colors from the title and this idea that red and green, Christmas, and blue and white, Hanukkah, were all stronger when they're together, which explains the title. That's the final stanza of the book, "Christmas tree and menorah light, red and green and blue and white, stronger together, shining bright."
It's so simple, but it's just perfect. So both of these picture books have beautifully warm and comforting illustrations. Red and Green and Blue and White is illustrated by past guest Paul O. Zelinsky, who I interviewed in December 2018, about All-of-a-Kind Family Hanukkah and the Christmas Mitzvah is illustrated by newcomer Michelle Laurentia Agatha. So Can each of you name a favorite illustration from your own book and maybe even from each other's books, and tell us what you love about it?
Whoa, okay, so from my book, boy, I just love the picture window of everybody lighting the menorah with Al, because it's so symbolic. You know, you've tracked this story now, for 35-36 years. You've watched babies being born and kids growing up and Al aging and the people he's doing mitzvot for aging. You've seen this multi generational thing happen, and it's encapsulated in that moment of a holiday celebrating something that happened more than 2000 years ago. I love that illustration. I also love the illustration in your book, Lee, of the kids when they were being described as one being the poet and one being the artist. The first one where you see them doing their thing. It was so human. I knew those kids, right there. I know those kids now and making the story personal like that just gave us so much power.
I love that moment too. And I'll say that for me, I thought that Paul did such a brilliant job. I have two favorite illustrations. And it's a tie because Paul actually created out of the words to different finale spreads. The magic of picture books is that the pictures carry the story as much as the words do and in some cases more. And so there's this sentence I had that was "From more than 10,000 windows came..." And then he illustrated this incredible scene of, I don't know if it's 10,000 windows, I haven't counted, but like hundreds of windows, houses decorated for Christmas and a menorah in each window and it just glows. It's so beautiful. It's almost like the call and response like in temple or something. The words say "From more than 10,000 windows came" and then the picture says what you're seeing and then you turn the page and there's this completely sort of metaphorical gorgeous illustration that is this beautiful, multicolored image with gold and silver and red and green and blue and white and there's Christmas tree and there's a menorah, and Teresa and Isaac are right there. And you can see that it's art that they've made and the poem that we're reading, that final stanza is a poem that Isaac has written, that was really powerful and beautiful. And Jeff,in your book, the illustration that I think got me like the most choked up was the one with the snowplow that all these people have gathered and the snowplow has, you know "Al Rosen's Mitzvah Plow" on it and it's just this moment where the character has this recognition that what they did mattered. That was really beautiful. And that gave me that emotional whoo! That's such a great moment. So that was my favorite illustration from your book.
Thanks. I loved it, too. I think she's a terrific young illustrator with a great sense of humor.
So, obviously, both of you have read and enjoyed each other's books. Do you have any interview questions for each other?
Lee, what did you cut that was hardest to cut?
There was a town meeting that the kids attended or that Isaac attended, where they were hearing the adults talking about like, well, what should we do? There was a lot of discussion about like, well, maybe they shouldn't put up their Hanukkah decorations, right? Maybe they shouldn't stand out. And then someone had said, Well, would you take down your Christmas tree if you were the target? I love that moment because I thought putting that question in the minds of readers would be very profound. But ultimately, as I was trying to like simplify, simplify, simplify, it didn't really work. It is an interesting land that we walk on right? Both write, both writing fictional books that are inspired by a true story. So they have their roots in the truth and then we sort of grow the story up to be like, Okay, well maybe a bartending moment is not the picture book lead on Al's mitzvot--
It's in there! Michelle got it in there and she did it beautifully.
I love that sort of like window of drinks.
I just thought it was, I just thought it was a riot. I mean, I cut, I cut a sort of a longer explanation of mitzvot where it's sort of where mitzvah derived from, and then I was like, You know what, they're not talking about that in a news stand. This has to go. It went away. I've never missed it.
Lee, did you have any interview questions for Jeff?
When you were trying to figure out the 30 year span, how did you distill it down?
I gave Michelle a lot of room to have fun of the art and tried to make the descriptions of the jobs as simple as they could be. Because that's really what the book is. It's a simple act to help a simple person enjoy an important holiday and an important time of year. I grouped some jobs, like some of the restaurant things came together, some of the animal husbandry things came together. Some of the outdoor stuff came together and then Michelle just went to town.
It's tikkun olam time. I want to invite each of you to share with listeners an action that you would like to invite them to take to help heal the world.
Do a mitzvah for someone of a different faith. There is simply, I mean, this book can inspire all kinds of mitzvot, but if you've got a friend, you've got a neighbor, you've got a co worker whose beliefs are different from yours, but valid and strong, do a good deed that's also a commandment for them, and you will be helping to repair the world.
That's lovely. I really like that. And I'll add to it, two things, because I do feel like we have to start with standing up for ourselves. So I would ask you to think about what's one thing you can do to stand up for yourself and do it, and then once we've done that, it's like on airplanes put your own oxygen mask on first. So you stand up for yourself and then you have the opportunity to stand up for someone else. And I think that that's the balance of life, right? We take care of ourselves, and then we are more available to take care of others. I do like very much this idea of not being a bystander when bad things happen to others, but of standing up and being an upstander, so yeah, stand up for yourself. Stand up for others. I think that's a great way to heal the world.
Those are great. They're very complimentary, as your books are. Are you working on anything coming up that we should keep our eyes out for?
It's been a busy year for me between Twenty-One Steps and this book. I've got a picture book biography coming up, we're looking for an illustrator, about the origins of the Food Bank movement in the United States. It's called Food for Hope. It's a riches to rags story and I say it deliberately that way, of a guy whose life fell apart, ended up on a soup line in Phoenix, Arizona, and got the idea for a food bank, which turned into Second Harvest which turned into Feeding America. It's an astonishing story no one knows about.
That's amazing! I'm working on the second book in my middle grade nonfiction series. So the first book came out earlier this year it was called No Way, They Were Gay? Hidden Lives and Secret Loves and it was for ages 11 and up and it's profiles and in-depth explorations of primary sources looking at men who loved men and women who loved women and people who lived outside gender boundaries. And the follow up book in that series is called Gender Bender. And it's gonna come out in 2023, but I'm writing it now and doing the research. And it's really about how gender is a construct of culture. It's been opening my eyes too in terms of both the structures that have been put into place in our culture, like the fact that we build buildings with bathrooms for different genders, and also just in terms of the different cultures out there in the world, both historically and contemporary, that view gender beyond the binary, including, in fact, Judaism, which has a history in the Talmud, you know, there are four additional genders that are listed and named. I can't remember all of them off the top of my head, because I have yet to do the research on that chapter. But I was completely blown away. I was like, what? I've never even heard of this, you know, having been raised Jewish. I was so stunned by that. And I'm really excited to dig in and learn more, and be an ally to gender diverse people and to also help people recognize that we can look at things with a critical eye and it doesn't mean that we are wrong, but we can be open to the wonder and the knowledge of other cultures as well and recognize that they have stuff to offer in terms of how we see ourselves and the world.
Both of those sound very exciting, and I can't wait till they get published.
Thank you, Heidi.
Thanks.
All right, thank you so much. This was awesome. And it's good to see you both again, too.
I agree. Lee, it was great to get to know you a little bit this way.
Likewise. Yeah. Heidi, I want to say thank you for the idea of combining both Jeff and I in the same episode. I think it was really inspired. I think the books have a lovely synergy between them. I'm excited because I love the idea for both of our books that it propels that inspiration forward. Every book that's out there can make an impact, every book in the library, that's why I love libraries so much because that book can reach 100 people over time. You can get so caught up in numbers in our culture. But it's like one book, right? Like that's the old Talmudic thing, saving one life, right? One book can change someone's view of the world. And that's so amazing and powerful. And this is my debut picture books I'm so excited about it.
It's going to do fantastically, you'll see. Thank you, Heidi, and thank you, Lee. Chag sameach, Happy Hanukkah.
Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas for our friends that celebrate Christmas too.
[MUSIC, DEDICATION] This is Martha Simpson, chair of the 2022 Sydney Taylor Book Award committee. I'll be joining you soon on The Book of Life podcast. I'd like to dedicate my episode to the players of the WNBA, Women's National Basketball Association. Not only are they incredible athletes, but for the past two years, they have used their platform to work for social justice and equality for women. I want to honor the strong women who are promoting causes that are bigger than basketball.
Wow, cool!
I'm a huge WNBA fan and women's basketball fan! Living in Connecticut, UConn Huskies, you know, Connecticut Sun...
I like it!
[MUSIC, OUTRO] Say hi to Heidi 561-206-2473 or bookoflife podcast@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 at @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!
[MUSIC, TEASER] This is Sheryl Stahl over at Nice Jewish Books, the Association of Jewish Libraries sister podcast. I am happy to say that my second episode is now available. I had a fascinating talk with Talia Carner, a longtime women's rights activist. We spoke about her book The Third Daughter which was inspired by a couple of Sholom Aleichem stories and follows our protagonist into forced prostitution in Buenos Aires. I should warn you that because of the topic, it does get a little intense. I still recommend you check it out at Jewishlibraries.org/nicejewishbooks.