Chil­dren’s

101 Rea­sons to Vis­it Israel (and Per­haps Make Aliyah)

Estie and Dovid Solomon
  • Review
By – March 9, 2012
This small, 6” x 8” book, illus­trat­ed with full-page pho­tographs, could be titled, 101 Rea­sons for Ortho­dox Fam­i­lies to Vis­it Israel and Make Aliyah. Although there are pic­tures of sec­u­lar activ­i­ties and typ­i­cal tourist attrac­tions, the book empha­sizes the tra­di­tion­al prac­tices of day-to-day liv­ing in the Israeli Ortho­dox com­mu­ni­ty. For the hol­i­days, an entry for Yom Kip­pur pic­tures a boy with pay­ot and kip­pa hold­ing a chick­en, ready to per­form the rit­u­al of kap­parot. A Passover pho­to­graph shows a pot of boil­ing water on a street, avail­able for kosher­ing sil­ver­ware for the hol­i­day. A pic­ture of an Israeli kitchen fea­tures a dish­wash­er with a spe­cial Shab­bat cycle. One chap­ter high­lights kosher foods and wine. Ortho­dox syn­a­gogues, places of study, and home obser­vance are promi­nent through­out the book. Beyond its Ortho­dox ori­en­ta­tion, the book high­lights some basic Jew­ish val­ues such as donat­ing food to the needy on Shab­bat and stand­ing up for the elder­ly in the bus. The text of this book is direct­ed toward adults, but the pic­tures are appro­pri­ate for chil­dren of all ages. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, because of the qual­i­ty of paper used in the book, the pho­tographs lack sharp­ness and appeal. Ages 8 – adult.
Diane Levin Rauschw­erg­er is librar­i­an for Con­gre­ga­tion Beth Am, Los Altos Hills, CA, and has worked as a children’s librar­i­an for the Sun­ny­vale Pub­lic Library. She is the author of a series of children’s pic­ture books, includ­ing Dinosaur on Hanukkah, Dinosaur on Passover, and Dinosaur on Shab­bat, pub­lished by Kar-Ben Publishing.

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