Chil­dren’s

We Are Jew­ish Faces

Debra B. Darvick
  • Review
By – January 4, 2018

We Are Jew­ish Faces by Debra B. Dar­vick | Jew­ish Book Coun­cil

Bubbe faces, Zayde faces, broth­er, sis­ter, friend­ship faces, faces of all races and places, we are Jew­ish faces.” Debra Davick has adapt­ed her sim­ple poem from I Love Jew­ish Faces (URJ Press, 2009), changed the refrain to We are Jew­ish faces,” and includ­ed more con­tem­po­rary pho­tographs to demon­strate the diver­si­ty of the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty today. The book’s pho­tos of smil­ing faces of all ages and eth­nic­i­ties were most­ly tak­en at Jew­ish day schools across the coun­try and show chil­dren hug­ging stuffed Torahs, blow­ing sho­fars, eat­ing matzah, shak­ing the lulav and etrog, light­ing Shab­bat can­dles, and dav­en­ing. They’re also pic­tured climb­ing trees, hula-hoop­ing, read­ing, writ­ing, and play­ing musi­cal instruments.

Most of the awk­ward, forced rhymes that marred the first edi­tion have been changed or removed, mak­ing for a much smoother read­ing. Peo­ple of diverse races and ages are shown, but includ­ing pho­tographs of chil­dren with dis­abil­i­ties would have enhanced the book and made it a tru­ly inclu­sive cel­e­bra­tion of all Jew­ish faces.

Rec­om­mend­ed for ages 4 to 8.

Rachel Kamin has been a syn­a­gogue librar­i­an and Jew­ish edu­ca­tor for over twen­ty-five years and has worked at North Sub­ur­ban Syn­a­gogue Beth El in High­land Park, IL since 2008, cur­rent­ly serv­ing as the Direc­tor of Life­long Learn­ing. A past chair of the Syd­ney Tay­lor Book Award Com­mit­tee and past edi­tor of Book Reviews for Chil­dren & Teens for the Asso­ci­a­tion of Jew­ish Libraries News & Reviews, her arti­cles and book reviews appear in numer­ous pub­li­ca­tions. She has been a mem­ber of the Amer­i­can Library Association’s Sophie Brody Book Award Com­mit­tee since 2021.

Discussion Questions