Titles reviewed in AJL’s Jewish ValuesFinder, selected by editor Linda Silver.

RECENT TITLES

Balsley, Tilda. LET MY PEOPLE GO! Illus. by Ilene Richard. Kar-Ben/Lerner, 2008. 32 pages. ISBN: 978-0-8225-7241-1. Preschool, PrimaryColorful, cartoon-like pictures and a humorous rhyming text tell the story of Passover and the Ten Plagues through the use of five roles: the Narrator, Moses, Pharaoh, the Egyptians and the Chorus. Each role is printed in a different color, so the story could be acted out as Readers Theater at Seders, and could also be used in classroom or library presentations.

Cohen, Deborah Bodin. NACHSHON, WHO WAS AFRAID TO SWIM: A PASSOVER STORY. Illus. by Jago. Kar-Ben/Lerner, 2009. 32 pages. ISBN: 978-0-8225-8764-4. Preschool, PrimaryYoung Nachshon is known among his fellow Hebrew slaves as brave about everything except water. When Moses confronts Pharaoh and then leads the Jews out of Egypt, Nachshon overcomes his fear of water and is the first to walk into the Red Sea. This story about courage is illustrated handsomely in rich, glowing colors and with angular shapes that evoke a desert setting.

Fireside, Bryna J. PRIVATE JOEL AND THE SEWELL MOUNTAIN SEDER. Illus. by Shawn Costello. Kar-Ben/Lerner, 2008. 48 pages. ISBN: 978-0-8225-7240-4. Primary, ElementaryBryna Fireside has transformed a true account of a Seder held by Union soldiers during the Civil War into an easy-reading and appealing story in which three former slaves who are also soldiers in the Ohio 23rd join the twenty-one Jewish soldiers and their commander, William S. Rosecrans, in preparing for and then celebrating their Seder. As the preparations ensue and the Seder begins, Passover’s blessings, symbols, and meaning are extended to include the experiences of the African-American soldiers and their hope for freedom. Attractive, heavily-textured, full-color paintings adorn the story, written in a light, lively style and divided into short chapters.

Kimmelman, Leslie . THE LITTLE RED HEN AND THE PASSOVER MATZAH. Illus. by Paul Meisel. Holiday House, 2010. 32 pages. ISBN: 978-0-8234-1952-4. Preschool, PrimaryThis Yiddish-inflected Passover version of the Little Red Hen nursery tale couldn’t be more fun! Those no-goodniks sheep, horse, and dog don’t have a moment to spare for their friend, Little Red Hen, as she goes about first growing the wheat, then grinding it, and then baking it into matzah for her Seder. When all three have the chutzpah to show up for the Seder, she remembers the words in the Haggadah: “Let all who are hungry come and eat,” and invites them in. And when it’s time for clean-up afterwards, guess who says, “Not I” this time. The combination of a rollicking story, bouncy illustrations, and the take-off on a tale most children have likely heard before make this a winner! Instructions for preparing and baking matzah are given.

Portnoy, Mindy Avra. TALE OF TWO SEDERS, A. Illus. by Valeria Cis. Kar-Ben/Lerner, 2010. 32 pages. ISBN: 978-0-8225-9917-3. Preschool, PrimaryA little girl describes the two Seders she goes to each year after her parents have divorced. While expressing both wistfulness and her wish for her parents to get back together, the story’s positive perspective is strong. At each Seder, she comments on the charoset and at the conclusion, her mother compares families to charoset – some sweeter than others, some stickier, but each tasty in its own way. Four charoset recipes follow the story, which is colorfully illustrated.

Weber, Elka. THE YANKEE AT THE SEDER. Illustrated by Adam Gustavson.
Tricycle Press, 2009. 40 pages. ISBN: 978-1-58246-256-1. Primary, ElementaryThe Civil War has just ended and Corporal Levy of the Union Army finds a Jewish family in Richmond, Virginia who invite him to their Seder. Having a Yankee at the Seder is shocking to the family’s young son but the traditional injunction “Let all who are hungry come and eat” trumps political differences. Written with touches of humor and warmly illustrated, the story is rich in Jewish values such as peoplehood and hospitality. Like Krensky’s Hanukkah at Valley Forge, it is based on “hearsay” history which may or may not have actually happened.

Ziefert, Harriet. PASSOVER: CELEBRATING NOW, REMEMBERING THEN. Illus. by Karla Gudeon. Blue Apple, 2010. 36 pages. ISBN: 978-1-60905-020-7. Preschool, PrimarySuperlative in conception, design, and content, this Passover book captures both the meaning and the observance of the holiday in the present (now) and at the time of its origins (then). The text is direct and sparse, the folk-art illustrations are expansive and captivating, many spread across fold-out pages that very creatively link Passover’s contemporary and historical aspects. As a modern family prepares for Passover and then celebrates it at their Seder, each element of the Seder is connected to the Passover narrative at a level of written and visual clarity that is perfect for children of many ages, especially younger ones.

AND DON’T FORGET…

Cohen, Barbara. THE CARP IN THE BATHTUB. Illus. by Joan Halpern. Kar-Ben Copies, 1987. 48 pages. ISBN: 0930494679. Primary, ElementaryConsider this a classic for Jewish children. It is timeless in its appeal and still popular with both children and adults. The plot, the writing style, and the evocation of an earlier time when gefilte fish were made and not bought are all heartwarming. So, too, are the illustrations which capture not just the two children’s well-meant attempts to keep a carp that they name Joe, after a deceased neighbor, from the cooking pot but also the characters’ love and respect for one another. Set shortly before Passover during the Depression, this highlights one food custom but does not explain the holiday.

Cohen, Barbara. MAKE A WISH, MOLLY. Illus. by Jones, Jan N. Jones. Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1995. ISBN: 0440410584. PrimaryA sequel to Molly’s Pilgrim, this shows Molly learning to reconcile Jewish and American traditions when a classmate’s birthday party occurs during Passover. Once again, Molly’s resourceful mother comes to the rescue. As in the earlier book, this is a sensitive portrayal of children’s relationships with classmates.

Goetz, Bracha . WHAT DO YOU SEE ON PESACH? Judaica Press, 2007. 16 pages. ISBN: 978-1-932443-64-6. PreschoolPhotos of toddlers are matched with a concept related to Passover and with some additional photos of the objects associated with the concept. For example, the first double-page spread says: “Pesach is here. What do you see? A house so clean! How can that be?” The child is dressed in denim work clothes and objects used to clean the house are shown opposite her: a vacuum cleaner, sponge, broom, paper towels, pail, and mop. The book’s other concepts are food, the Seder table, drinks, clothes, the Haggadah, and the hidden afikomen. The children adorning each one are too adorable for words alone to do justice. Virtually all of the very simple text is in English except for the words kosos (cups), kos shel Eliyahu (Elijah’s cup), Seder, Hagaddah, and afikomen. However, because there is no glossary to explain these terms, this board book may have limited use. The photographs, in color, are bright, clear, and labeled.

Hanft, Josh . THE MIRACLES OF PASSOVER. Illus. by Seymour Chwast. Blue Apple/Chronicle, 2007. 28 pages. ISBN: 10: 1-59354-600-9; 13: 978-1-59354-600-7. PrimaryA cogent text, lively illustrations, and flaps to lift are the three notable features of this third book on which Hanft and Chwast have collaborated. It tells the story of the Exodus, contrasting the dignified figure of Moses with the rather effete one of Pharaoh, and concludes with scenes of two Seders, one from times past and one of today, complete with a Seder plate whose foods are discovered by lifting flaps. Chwast’s illustrations are deceptively simple because they convey so much meaning so economically. The colors are muted but the palette is varied so that there is much to look at on every page. As in The Miracles of Hanukkah, the text follows the Bible without fictional details being added.

Heiligman, Deborah. CELEBRATE PASSOVER WITH MATZAH, MAROR, AND MEMORIES. National Geographic, 2007. 32 pages. ISBN: 978-1-4263-0018-9. Primary, ElementaryAnother excellent book in the Holidays Around the World series, this is by the same author as Celebrate Hanukkah with Lights, Latkes, and Dreidels and follows the same format. Engaging color photos of Jews observing Passover in different parts of the world accompany a concise text that conveys the meaning and history of the holiday, its customs, and the observance of the Seder. Appended is more information about Passover, a recipe, and some recommended books and websites. Rabbi Shira Stern’s discussion of Passover concludes the book.

Kimmel, Eric A. WONDERS AND MIRACLES: A PASSOVER COMPANION. Scholastic, 2004. 136 pages. ISBN: 0439071755. Primary, Elementary, Middle-School, High-School, AdultThe traditional order of the Seder is the organizing principle of this superbly written and illustrated anthology. The lucid narrative blends history, tradition, modern practices, and Passover’s timeless meaning. It is extended by a fascinating selection of poetry, stories, and song lyrics, including a K’tonton tale and another about a protest rally on behalf of Soviet Jewry. The illustrations and book design are outstanding and draw from centuries of Haggadot, manuscripts, ritual objects, sculpture and paintings. A distinguished book for a wide range of interests and ages. Winner of a National Jewish Book Award.

Lehman-Wilzig, Tami . PASSOVER AROUND THE WORLD. Illus. by Elizabeth Wolf. Kar-Ben/Lerner, 2007. 48 pages. ISBN: 978-1-58013-213-8. Primary, ElementaryPassover customs of Jews from different parts of the world are introduced to children in this brightly illustrated, well-designed book. Gibraltar, Turkey, Ethiopia, India, Israel, Iran, Morocco, and the United States are the countries whose customs are used to show each step of the Seder unfolding. A map and brief historical information about each place is also provided, along with recipes. Whereas Heiligman’s book Celebrate Passover with Maror, Matzah, and Memories focused on the meaning and rituals of Passover, this book focuses on national customs. There are few books for children about Jewish customs and practices in places other than Anglophone countries so this is welcome.

Olswanger, Anna. SHLEMIEL CROOKS. Illus. by Paula Goodman Koz. JuneBug/New South Books, 2005. 32 pages. ISBN: 158838165X. Primary, Elementary This off-beat and funny story, set in St. Louis in the early 1900’s, is based on the author’s grandfather. It involves the attempted robbery of Reb Olschwanger’s saloon by two shlemiel crooks who are instigated by the ghost of Pharaoh and foiled by a talking horse and a neighborhood “shtuss.” Flavored heavily with a Yiddish inflected narration and illustrated with earthy, heavily outlined linocuts, this gem of a story requires considerable practice before reading aloud. And it’s worth the effort.

Rouss, Sylvia . SAMMY SPIDER’S FIRST HAGGADAH. Illus. by Katherine Janus Kahn. Kar-Ben/Lerner, 2007. 32 pages. ISBN: 978-1-58013-230-5. Preschool, PrimaryBeginning with a brief overview of Passover, the remainder of the book follows the traditional Passover Haggadah in abbreviated form. It is written in style that young children will understand and enhanced by clever songs that are adapted from familiar ones like “Old Macdonald Had a Farm.” The illustrations are slightly less abstract than in the other Sammy Spider books and Sammy himself appears only peripherally.

Rush, Barbara and Cherie Karo Schwartz. The KIDS’ CATALOG OF PASSOVER: A WORLDWIDE CELEBRATION OF STORIES, SONGS, CUSTOMS, CRAFTS, FOOD, AND FUN. Jewish Publication Society, 2000. 244 pages. ISBN: 0827606877. Primary, Elementary, Middle-SchoolOrganized in relation to the Seder, this is filled with information, stories, crafts, games, recipes and songs. A drab, black and white format is offset by lively, informal writing, photographs of Jewish children, and a haimish attitude on the authors’ part.

Shulman, Lisa. THE MATZO BALL BOY. Illus. by Rosanne Litzinger. Dutton, 2005. 32 pages. ISBN: 0525471693. PrimaryIn another take-off on the Gingerbread Boy, the matzo ball boy careens through the village, evading the bubbe who created him, the yenta, the rabbi, and a sly fox with a “voice as smooth as schmaltz,” but not a poor man and his wife who invite him to their Seder, where he winds up in the soup! The illustrations by Rosanne Litzinger, who also illustrated the Sydney Taylor Award winning picture book, Chicken Soup By Heart, are rich and delicious – but, they don’t quite match the text in their depiction of the matzo ball boy. The use of Yiddish is a little contrived, as well. On the other hand, a group of K – Gr. 2 children to whom the story was read found it hilarious!

Shulman, Lisa. THE MATZO BALL BOY. Illus. by Rosanne Litzinger. Dutton, 2005. 32 pages. ISBN: 0525471693. PrimaryIn another take-off on the Gingerbread Boy, the matzo ball boy careens through the village, evading the bubbe who created him, the yenta, the rabbi, and a sly fox with a “voice as smooth as schmaltz,” but not a poor man and his wife who invite him to their Seder, where he winds up in the soup! The illustrations by Rosanne Litzinger, who also illustrated the Sydney Taylor Award winning picture book, Chicken Soup By Heart, are rich and delicious – but, they don’t quite match the text in their depiction of the matzo ball boy. The use of Yiddish is a little contrived, as well. On the other hand, a group of K – Gr. 2 children to whom the story was read found it hilarious!

For more Passover titles, visit the Valuesfinder at www.ajljewishvalues.org.

For immediate release
For more info contact Heidi Estrin
pr@jewishlibraries.org

ASSOCIATION OF JEWISH LIBRARIES ANNOUNCES AFFILIATION WITH AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION

The Association of Jewish Libraries has become an affiliate of the American Library Association as of January, 2010. Among ALA’s twenty-eight affiliate organizations, there are a number that, like AJL, represent religious or ethnic library services, including the American Indian Library Association, the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association, the Catholic Library Association, the Black Caucus of ALA, and the Chinese American Librarians Association.

AJL was welcomed into the fold with a warm “Congratulations!” by ALA’s Alicia Bastl, liaison for affiliates. “AJL’s mission is to support Judaic libraries and promote Jewish literacy. ALA wants to do the same for American libraries. Our goals overlap and reinforce each other. We hope that this new affiliation will help AJL grow and strengthen even as it helps ALA diversify,” said Susan Dubin, AJL President. “This is a great opportunity for us to educate the library world about AJL and its many activities.”

Affiliates enjoy representation at ALA conferences and in ALA print and online publications. Benefits of membership began immediately for AJL, when the winners of its 2010 Sydney Taylor Book Award were announced on the ALA website alongside their other children’s literary prizes such as the Newbery and Caldecott medals.

The Association of Jewish Libraries, established in 1966, has over 1,000 members worldwide. AJL promotes Jewish literacy through enhancement of libraries and library resources and through leadership for the profession and practitioners of Judaica librarianship. Visit the AJL website at www.jewishlibraries.org, and visit http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/affiliates/affiliates/AJL.cfm to see AJL’s presence on ALA’s website.

###

The Yankee at the Seder is a Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Younger Readers category.  Read an interview with author Elka Weber at BewilderBlog with blogger Laurel Snyder.

Here’s a teaser:

Laurel: I’m excited about all the new things happening in Jewish kidlit right now. I wonder if– as part of that trend– you you’d be willing to share a few ideas for things you’re working on, or works in progress. What’s the wackiest Jewish pickture book you can imagine wanting to write? They book you’d liketo write, but have a hard time imagining anyone would publish?

Elka: As you say, this is an exciting time in Jewish kidlit. The Jewish community in the US has always been diverse, but we’ve gotten better at reflecting that reality. Children’s literature in general grows more sophisticated and Jewish literature is part of that larger trend. I just hope we don’t get too sophisticated to have fun.

My next book (One Little Chicken, June 2011) is a retelling of a story in the Talmud, but with a slight twist. It’s about a rabbi who was so committed to returning a lost chicken that he sells the eggs, invests the proceeds and ends up with a houseful of animals before the original owner shows up to claim his one little chicken. In my telling, the story gets a little antic toward the end.

The wackiest Jewish picture book I’d love to write would be What Do You Mean, You Don’t Want Seconds? starring feisty Jewish grandmothers from different times and places defending their traditional cooking. Naturally, it would be narrated by a piece of gefilte fish and end up in an all-out food fight at the central bus station in Jerusalem.

I am also writing for adults. I’ve finished a book about the last voyage of Henry Hudson. His men mutinied and set him adrift in the Arctic in 1611 and he was never heard from again. There’s nothing explicitly Jewish in the book but the question of what drives good men to evil deeds is most definitely a religious issue.

Read more…

The illustrator for The Yankee at the Seder is Adam Gustavson. You can read an interview with him at Great Kids Books with blogger Mary Ann Scheuer.

Here’s a teaser:

Great Kid Books: As a book lover, it interests me: What books or authors and/or illustrators influenced you as an early reader?

Adam G: My great loves are the old Mercer Mayer books from the 1960s and 1970s, like One Monster After Another and Professor Wormbog in Search for the Zipperump-a-Zoo. I think a lot of my cultural awareness came from these books. For example, I would see an old fashioned mailbox, and I could grasp what it was in the context of the picture.

Read more…

Naomi’s Song by Selma Kritzer Silverberg is a Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Teen Readers category. The late Selma Silverberg wrote this story many years ago, and it was recently published by JPS through the efforts of her daughter, Judy Vida. Read an interview with Judy at The Book Nosher with blogger Robin Gaphni.

Here’s a teaser:

Robin: Naomi is depicted as a very independent, strong-minded woman in a time when men were in charge of virtually everything. Naomi’s Song was originally written in the late 1950’s-the very dawn of the women’s movement. Would you consider your mother an early feminist? Did she have some of the similar traits as Naomi?

Judy: Yes, I would consider her an early feminist. She was quiet about it, but she was determined to develop her own character and pursue her own interests even within the confines of a traditional 1950’s family role. It never occurred to her that there was anything she could not accomplish. She had long wanted to return to college to earn an elementary education degree. At the age of 44 she started toward that goal, taking only 1 course each semester, and completed her degree at the age of 58. Like Naomi she identified tasks and goals then persevered to complete them.

Read more…

Tune in tomorrow for features on Jacqueline Jules (author, Benjamin and the Silver Goblet) at ASHarmony, Natascia Ugliano (illustrator, Benjamin and the Silver Goblet) at The Book of Life, Deborah Bodin Cohen (author, Nachshon Who Was Afraid to Swim) at Ima On and Off the Bima, and Jago (illustrator, Nachshon Who Was Afraid to Swim) at Jewish Books for Children.

Want to know how to organize your library?

Need help choosing appropriate books?

Interested in social media tools?

Designing a library skills curriculum?

All these topics and more can be found on the AJL wiki organized and designed by our talented Technology Committee Chairs, Diane Romm and Joyce Levine. Check it out!

B’shalom,

Susan Dubin

AJL President

The Importance of Wings is the Sydney Taylor Book Award winner in the Older Readers category. Read an interview with author Robin Friedman at Bildungsroman with blogger Little Willow.

Here’s a teaser:

Little Willow: You are a self-proclaimed Jersey Girl, but you were born in Israel. Have you visited Israel since leaving it at the age of five?

Robin: I’ve been back to Israel several times, including as a college student for a junior year abroad, at the University of Haifa. In that year, I literally fell in love with the landscape and the history, and learned so much about my heritage, as well as the gaps in my family’s story.

Read more…

Lost is a Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Teen Readers category. Read an interview with author Jacqueline Davies at Biblio File with blogger Jen Rothschild.

Here’s a teaser:

Jen: In your acknowledgments, you say that it took you ten years to find a way to tell the story of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. What about this tragedy spoke to you so strongly?

Jacqueline: This book began with a sound. Back in 1999, I was watching Ric Burns’ documentary New York. I already knew the story of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. I’d studied it years ago in college. But watching that film, I heard a sound effect that was created by the sound engineer: It was his imagining of the sound you would hear when the body of a young girl strikes the sidewalk after falling eighty feet. The sound was like a combination of an overstuffed dufflebag thrown from a great height, a stack of books dropped on a hard wooden floor, and a hand smacking a face. It’s a sound I will never forget, and it had the effect of pulling me back over a century and putting me in that place, in that fire, with those girls.

Read more…

You Never Heard of Sandy Koufax? is a Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Younger Readers category. Read an interview with author Jonah Winter with blogger Lori Calabrese at Get in the Game: Read! or at Examiner.com.

Here’s a teaser:

Lori: I read that you still have all your baseball cards from when you were a boy. How did you avert such disasters as your Mom throwing away your prized collection?

Jonah: Why would my mother have thrown away my baseball cards? She’s not a sadist! I guess there are some people who, upon becoming adults, leave their cards in the attics of their parents’ homes. Well, not this pig. I’ve always carried them around with me in my 1980 census bag (my first job out of high school was as a census taker), hauling them from one residence to the next, all 28 domiciles! (I’ve moved around a lot. In fact, that’s what inspired me to write my book The 39 Apartments of Ludwig van Beethoven. I still have 11 to go…!)

Read more…

Tune in tomorrow for interviews with Elka Weber (author, The Yankee at the Seder) at BewilderBlog, Adam Gustavson (illustrator, The Yankee at the Seder) at Great Kids Books, and Judy Vida, (author’s daughter, Naomi’s Song) at The Book Nosher.

The Association of Jewish Libraries will hold its annual Midwinter Board and Council meetings January 10 and 11 in New York at the Affinia Hotel Manhattan. All Board and Council members are asked to attend. It is during these meetings that new business is discussed and policy decisions are made. This year’s Sydney Taylor Award winners will be announced at the Council meeting on Monday.

In addition, plans for the upcoming annual convention in Seattle will be shared. Since the convention is being planned by a national as well as a local committee, the Council meeting should be a roll-up-your-sleeves and get busy work session. Other business to be discussed is the idea of giving an award to a publisher or bookseller who has benefited Judaica Librarianship. The idea voted on at the last Council meeting is to change the Doris Orenstein Fund to this award since Doris was a vendor at early AJL programs. The money in the Orenstein Fund which had formerly been earmarked for newcomers to convention would be mingled with other funds in the Convention stipend account. Last Council meeting it was decided that all first time convention attendees should get a stipend to encourage their attendance.

AJL has applied to ALA for affiliate status. Hopefully, we will hear after ALA Midwinter whether it has been approved. Once we are an ALA affiliate, we can announce our awards on the ALA page. This should give AJL much more visibility.

Plans are moving ahead to hire an administrative consultant. We are also looking for someone or some company to help with a redesign of our webpage. Many thanks to our hardworking Task Force members and the Technology Chairs for helping with this important move in moving our organization forward.

Here’s wishing everyone a happy, healthy, successful, and peaceful 2010!

B’shalom,

Susan Dubin

AJL President

AJL Regional Conference in Israel

AJL presented a regional conference in Israel at Bar Ilan University on November 5, 2009. On the program were four speakers:  

Shmuel Har Noy, Administrative Director of  the National Library of Israel, whose topic was Challenges of the New National Library of Israel.

Professor Aaron Demsky from Bar Ilan University, spoke on The Cultural Significance of Jewish Names.

Professor Elhanan Adler, Deputy Director for Information Technology of the NLI,  reported on Ten Years of Digitization at NLI .

Moshe Rosenfeld, talked about Discoveries of Hebrew Materials in Christian Repositories.

Some of the sessions at the conference were recorded and will be posted as podcasts on the AJL website.

According to Ya’akov Aronson, the organizer of this event, there were more than 50 participants from 12 different institutions. At the conference, Shmuel Har Noy, the Administrative Director of the National Library, invited the group to plan the next program at NLI. Seven people from five institutions volunteered to be on a steering committee to plan future events.

Hopefully, this is the beginning of a new branch of AJL in Israel. We are also planning to hold two simultaneous sessions in Israel and Seattle during our 2010 Annual Convention.

B’shalom,

Susan Dubin

AJL President

Thanks to the hard work of Ya’Akov Aaronson, we will have a regional conference in Israel on November 5, 2010. We have 4 speakers, Shmuel Har Noy, Administrative Director of  NLI on the Challenges of the New National Library of Israel, a professor from Bar Ilan on The cultural significance of Jewish names, Elhanan Adler on 10 years of digitization at NLI and the last one on Discoveries of Hebrew materials in Christian locations.  This is about discovering Hebrew manuscripts in monasteries in Europe. The fellow, Moshe Rosenfeld, is authorized by the Catholic Church to search in monasteries for Hebrew materials.  He has found some amazing things.

Sessions at the conference will be recorded to post as a podcast on the AJL website.

At the conference, Ya’Akov will also look for people who would like to help organize an AJL group in Israel.

 For information about the conference, contact Ya’Akov Aaronson.

 AJL President Susan Dubin and National Convention Chair Fred Isaac traveled to Montreal to review possible sites for the 2011 Convention. SSC and local Chapter President Marsha Lustigman will act as local co-chair of the Convention. Norma Newman, a librarian who has attended many past conventions, and Marsha met Susan at the airport and took her to breakfast in the Jewish community. Both are quite well-known in the community since there were several people who stopped by the table to say hello. Everyone seemed excited about the AJL coming to Montreal!

Marsha and Norma acted as tour guides and gave Susan a driving tour of some of the city. The views from the mountain where Montreal is built were breathtakingly beautiful. All three met Fred Isaac at the hotel and walked to Old Town where they enjoyed lunch in a garden restaurant known for its soft jazz.

One of the hotels being considered is right across the street from McGill University in a quaint neighborhood walking distance from everywhere. The other hotel being considered is a few blocks away at the Place du Canada where the underground rail system can be accessed.

Marsha hosted a family Bar-B-Q in her beautiful garden. Fred and Susan took the Metro there a dn found it very easy to get around.

In such a beautiful city with so much to do and see, the 2011 Convention is definitely going to be a not-to-be-missed event!

Pictures of the trip are on Picasa at the following URL: http://picasaweb.google.com/sdubinsue/20090829AJLVisitsMontreal?feat=directlink

There was a lot of talk at the AJL09 Convention about social media. As a good example of social media’s potential for mitzvah, I want to share with you this post from the Summer of Social Good campaign. — Heidi Estrin

This post is a collaboration between Mashable’s Summer of Social Good charitable fundraiser and Max Gladwell’s “10 Ways” series. The post is being simultaneously published across more than 100 blogs. Social media is about connecting people and providing the tools necessary to have a conversation. That global conversation is an extremely powerful platform for spreading information and awareness about social causes and issues. That’s one of the reasons charities can benefit so greatly from being active on social media channels. But you can also do a lot to help your favorite charity or causes you are passionate about through social media. Below is a list of 10 ways you can use social media to show your support for issues that are important to you. If you can think of any other ways to help charities via social web tools, please add them in the comments. If you’d like to retweet this post or take the conversation to Twitter or FriendFeed, please use the hashtag #10Ways.

1. Write a Blog Post

Blogging is one of the easiest ways you can help a charity or cause you feel passionate about. Almost everyone has an outlet for blogging these days — whether that means a site running WordPress, an account at LiveJournal, or a blog on MySpace or Facebook. By writing about issues you’re passionate about, you’re helping to spread awareness among your social circle. Because your friends or readers already trust you, what you say is influential. Recently, a group of green bloggers banded together to raise individual $1 donations from their readers. The beneficiaries included Sustainable Harvest, Kiva, Healthy Child, Healthy World, Environmental Working Group, and Water for People. The blog-driven campaign included voting to determine how the funds would be distributed between the charities. You can read about the results here. You should also consider taking part in Blog Action Day, a once a year event in which thousands of blogs pledge to write at least one post about a specific social cause (last year it was fighting poverty). Blog Action Day will be on October 15 this year.

2. Share Stories with Friends

Another way to spread awareness among your social graph is to share links to blog posts and news articles via sites like Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, Digg, and even through email. Your network of friends is likely interested in what you have to say, so you have influence wherever you’ve gathered a social network. You’ll be doing charities you support a great service when you share links to their campaigns, or to articles about causes you care about.

3. Follow Charities on Social Networks

In addition to sharing links to articles about issues you come across, you should also follow charities you support on the social networks where they are active. By increasing the size of their social graph, you’re increasing the size of their reach. When your charities tweet or post information about a campaign or a cause, statistics or a link to a good article, consider retweeting that post on Twitter, liking it on Facebook, or blogging about it. Following charities on social media sites is a great way to keep in the loop and get updates, and it’s a great way to help the charity increase its reach by spreading information to your friends and followers. You can follow the Summer of Social Good Charities:

Oxfam America (Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, YouTube) The Humane Society (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, Flickr) LIVESTRONG (Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr) WWF (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr)

4. Support Causes on Awareness Hubs

Another way you can show your support for the charities you care about is to rally around them on awareness hubs like Change.org, Care2, or the Facebook Causes application. These are social networks or applications specifically built with non-profits in mind. They offer special tools and opportunities for charities to spread awareness of issues, take action, and raise money. It’s important to follow and support organizations on these sites because they’re another point of access for you to gather information about a charity or cause, and because by supporting your charity you’ll be increasing their overall reach. The more people they have following them and receiving their updates, the greater the chance that information they put out will spread virally.

5. Find Volunteer Opportunities

Using social media online can help connect you with volunteer opportunities offline, and according to web analytics firm Compete, traffic to volunteering sites is actually up sharply in 2009. Two of the biggest sites for locating volunteer opportunities are VolunteerMatch, which has almost 60,000 opportunities listed, and Idealist.org, which also lists paying jobs in the non-profit sector, in addition to maintaining databases of both volunteer jobs and willing volunteers. For those who are interested in helping out when volunteers are urgently needed in crisis situations, check out HelpInDisaster.org, a site which helps register and educate those who want to help during disasters so that local resources are not tied up directing the calls of eager volunteers. Teenagers, meanwhile, should check out DoSomething.org, a site targeted at young adults seeking volunteer opportunities in their communities.

6. Embed a Widget on Your Site

Many charities offer embeddable widgets or badges that you can use on your social networking profiles or blogs to show your support. These badges generally serve one of two purposes (or both). They raise awareness of an issue and offer up a link or links to additional information. And very often they are used to raise money. Mashable’s Summer of Social Good campaign, for example, has a widget that does both. The embeddable widget, which was custom built using Sprout (the creators of ChipIn), can both collect funds and offer information about the four charities the campaign supports.

7. Organize a Tweetup

You can use online social media tools to organize offline events, which are a great way to gather together like-minded people to raise awareness, raise money, or just discuss an issue that’s important to you. Getting people together offline to learn about an important issue can really kick start the conversation and make supporting the cause seem more real. Be sure to check out Mashable’s guide to organizing a tweetup to make sure yours goes off without a hitch, or check to see if there are any tweetups in your area to attend that are already organized.

8. Express Yourself Using Video

As mentioned, blog posts are great, but a picture really says a thousand words. The web has become a lot more visual in recent years and there are now a large number of social tools to help you express yourself using video. When you record a video plea or call to action about your issue or charity, you can make your message sound more authentic and real. You can use sites like 12seconds.tv, Vimeo, and YouTube to easily record and spread your video message. Last week, the Summer of Social Good campaign encouraged people to use video to show support for charity. The #12forGood campaign challenged people to submit a 12 second video of themselves doing something for the Summer of Social Good. That could be anything, from singing a song to reciting a poem to just dancing around like a maniac — the idea was to use the power of video to spread awareness about the campaign and the charities it supports. If you’re more into watching videos than recording them, Givzy.com enables you to raise funds for charities like Unicef and St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital by sharing viral videos by e-mail.

9. Sign or Start a Petition

There aren’t many more powerful ways to support a cause than to sign your name to a petition. Petitions spread awareness and, when successfully carried out, can demonstrate massive support for an issue. By making petitions viral, the social web has arguably made them even more powerful tools for social change. There are a large number of petition creation and hosting web sites out there. One of the biggest is The Petition Site, which is operated by the social awareness network Care2, or PetitionOnline.com, which has collected more than 79 million signatures over the years. Petitions are extremely powerful, because they can strike a chord, spread virally, and serve as a visual demonstration of the support that an issue has gathered. Social media fans will want to check out a fairly new option for creating and spreading petitions: Twitition, an application that allows people to create, spread, and sign petitions via Twitter.

10. Organize an Online Event

Social media is a great way to organize offline, but you can also use online tools to organize effective online events. That can mean free form fund raising drives, like the Twitter-and-blog-powered campaign to raise money for a crisis center in Illinois last month that took in over $130,000 in just two weeks. Or it could mean an organized “tweet-a-thon” like the ones run by the 12for12k group, which aims to raise $12,000 each month for a different charity. In March, 12for12k ran a 12-hour tweet-a-thon, in which any donation of at least $12 over a 12 hour period gained the person donating an entry into a drawing for prizes like an iPod Touch or a Nintendo Wii Fit. Last month, 12for12k took a different approach to an online event by holding a more ambitious 24-hour live video-a-thon, which included video interviews, music and sketch comedy performances, call-ins, and drawings for a large number of prizes given out to anyone who donated $12 or more.

Bonus: Think Outside the Box

Social media provides almost limitless opportunity for being creative. You can think outside the box to come up with all sorts of innovative ways to raise money or awareness for a charity or cause. When Drew Olanoff was diagnosed with cancer, for example, he created Blame Drew’s Cancer, a campaign that encourages people to blow off steam by blaming his cancer for bad things in their lives using the Twitter hashtag #BlameDrewsCancer. Over 16,000 things have been blamed on Drew’s cancer, and he intends to find sponsors to turn those tweets into donations to LIVESTRONG once he beats the disease. Or check out Nathan Winters, who is biking across the United States and documenting the entire trip using social media tools, in order to raise money and awareness for The Nature Conservancy. The number of innovative things you can do using social media to support a charity or spread information about an issue is nearly endless. Can you think of any others? Please share them in the comments.

Special thanks to VPS.net

A special thanks to VPS.net, who are donating $100 to the Summer of Social Good for every signup they receive this week. Sign up at VPS.net and use the coupon code “SOSG”to receive 3 Months of FREE hosting on top of your purchased term. VPS.net honors a 30 day no questions asked money back guarantee so there’s no risk.

About the “10 Ways” Series

The “10 Ways” Series was originated by Max Gladwell. This is the second simultaneous blog post in the series. The first ran on more than 80 blogs, including Mashable. Among other things, it is a social media experiment and the exploration of a new content distribution model. You can follow Max Gladwell on Twitter. This content was originally written by Mashable’s Josh Catone.

Posted via web from The AJL Convention Blog

            Thanks to the tremendous efforts of the Chicago Convention Committee and the co-chairs Shoshanah Seidman, Cheryl Banks, and Rose Novil, the annual AJL convention was a huge success. From the keynote speaker to the last vote at the general membership meeting, everything was perfect. The hotel was well-located just a few blocks from Navy Pier and downtown Chicago and an easy walk to the Art Institute and Grant Park. The weather was comfortable although we did get a few sprinkles. The food was delicious. But most important, the sessions were outstanding!

Most of the sessions were recorded and will be uploaded to the AJL web site as podcasts. Speakers were asked to give their handouts and papers to Leah Moskovits, our Proceedings Chair. She will gather everything and post the official proceedings on the Members Only web page soon. Meanwhile, people have been blogging about the convention through the Convention blog set up by Heidi Estrin. Blog posts can be seen at ajl09.posterous.com. Thank you to all our “on-the-spot” reporters.

New initiatives passed by Council and the membership include continued support for convention attendance through convention stipends, an increase in the AJL scholarship for library students from $500 to $1000, hiring a web design service to revitalize our web presence, hiring a consultant to help put AJL in social media sites, a plan to affiliate with ALA, and updates to our Constitution and by-laws.

New chapters were formed in the Pacific Northwest and Atlanta, and chapters are looking toward chapter status recognition in Austin, Sacramento, and Israel. A one day conference in Israel this fall will draw attention to new efforts to connect to librarians there.

To get a taste of the excitement, check out the Convention pictures posted on Flckr.

B’shalom,

Susan Dubin

AJL President

Professor Peter Hayes (Northwestern U.) specializes in thehistory of Germany in the 20th century, particularly the Nazi period. He did an admirable speaking job, presenting a dark and serious topic while dealing gracefully with the challenges of a late evening audience digesting its dinner and a very noisy, joyful event happening in the room next door. Learn more about Peter Hayes at http://www.history.northwestern.edu/people/hayes.html.

Professor Hayes challenged eight widely-believed “facts” about the Holocaust, pointing out that when the public thinks it knows something, scholarship often has trouble making itself heard. His hope was that the audience at AJL might be more receptive than many others, and allow new ideas to penetrate. Here are the eight misconceptions that, when examined more closely, turn out to be untrue. (From notes scribbled during the keynote address, please forgive any errors.)

1. Anti-semitism played a major role in bringing Hitler to power.

Apparently we’ve put the cart before the horse. “More Germans became anti-semites because they became Nazis, than became Nazis because they were anti-semites.”

2. Killing Jews was Hitler’s goal from the beginning.

The original intention seems to have been to remove the Jews from German-held territory, but it soon became apparent that by gaining territory they were gaining Jewish residents. The more practical way to remove them was to kill them, but the Nazis realized this only after they started taking over other countries.

3. TheAllies could have saved many more Jews than they did.

Anti-immigrant sentiment was very strong at the time, and politicians who pushed for bringing in more Jews would have been voted out of office. Also, 3/4 of the six million were killed out of reach of Allied intervention in northeastern Europe, in a short period of time, while the Germans seemed to be winning the war.

4. Jews could have done more to save themselves.

Jews were a tiny percent of the population in all the countries where they lived, and being more assertive wouldn’t have had much impact on the larger population’s opinions/actions. The Jewish ghetto uprisings that did happen were quickly squashed and didn’t really save lives, so more uprisings probably wouldn’t have saved more lives.

5. Greater solidarity with or sympathy for Jews in Europe would have saved more Jews.

Individual people saved other individual people, but to really raise the numbers you would have needed institutions or governments working to save Jews. More Jews were saved by the collaborating French government than by individual righteous gentiles, just because governments have more power than individuals. But most of the governments in Europe had been taken over by the Nazis.

6. Killing Jews diverted resources and weakened the German war effort.

It didn’t take large numbers of guards or even trains to deal with imprisoning/killing Jews, compared to the number of soldiers overall.

7. Persecution of Jews was driven by greed (ie the desire to take the Jews’ possessions).

Taking Jewish possessions was a side benefit for the Nazis, not their main goal. They got more money by taking over banks in the countries they invaded than by taking Jewish possessions.

8. The Holocaust represents modernity and its dangers.

The image of mechanized murder has been overblown. “Auschwitz was a dis-assembly line, but more like a 19th century slaughterhouse than a modern factory.” Most killing was done with simple tools: a gun, carbon dioxide from a car. And cultural genocide is certainly not a new idea.

Conclusion: the common denominator of all 8 myths is the desire to shield ourselves from the horror, to think that thinks could have been better or to find a place to lay blame. But these are prettifications of history.

–Heidi Estrin

Posted via web from The AJL Convention Blog

If you use Twitter, and you’d like to tweet about the AJL convention, please use the hashtag #AJL09 when doing so. This will allow readers to find all the AJL convention related tweets more easily.

If you don’t even know what I’m talking about, you might enjoy this simple video, “Twitter in Plain English.”

Heidi Estrin

Posted via web from The AJL Convention Blog

The New England regional conference brought together librarians from all over the Northeast. Sessions about social networking helped to expand the topic of maximizing library services through resource sharing. An excellent article highlighting the conference appeared in the Jewish Ledger. Read it at http://www.jewishledger.com/articles/2009/06/24/news/news12.prt.

Heidi Estrin, AJL Public Relations Chair, has established a new blog for people to use at Convention. The blog is very easy to use. The subject of your email becomes the title of your post, and the body and attachments of the email become the content of your post. You can post text, photos, music, video, documents and all kinds of files, emailing it to post@ajl09.posterous.com. The blog can be read at ajl09.posterous.com.

Please look at the blog for a post about a podcast with Convention speaker Mark Blevis about social media. The podcast is also on Book of Life podcast site.

See you in Chicago!

B’shalom,

Susan Dubin

AJL President

The annual AJL Convention will begin on July 5th in Chicago at the Sheraton Hotel and Towers. With almost 200 registrants despite the economy and a terrific program thanks to our hard-working Chicago team, it should prove to be a memorable few days. Here are some highlights that should not be missed:

The CEU this year is entitled: “Promoting Digital Research in the Jewish Library: Resources and Strategies” with  instructor  Michael Kay.

Jewish Authors Luncheon features over 35 authors including several Sydney Tayor Award Winners.

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Peter Hayes will speak at Sunday dinner on “The Holocaust: Myths and Misconceptions”

Special Plenary Session Monday at 5:15: Barbara Schneider-Kempf, the Director General of the Berlin State Library in Germany, speaking on:”Stolen books: The Third Reich’s Exchange Center and the Prussian State Library in the years 1933 till 1945. Aspects of the supply with literature under the control of National Socialism”

Mentor Mingle: Here is the “official” invitation:

You are cordially invited

TO:  Mentor Mingle for all prospective mentors and mentees

When:  Sunday, July 5^th, 2009 at 5:00 PM 

Where:  Parlor C

 Are you a seasoned librarian, library student, or newcomer to a library position? You’ll find that the Mentor Mingle is a golden opportunity to meet new friends, share ideas, and participate in the zeitgeist of the times.  Full-year commitments are not mandatory.  This year we’re inviting members to step forward and be mentors to newcomers for the duration of the Convention.  We’ll pair you with a new member if you haven’t met one already on your own. Are you interested in a greater challenge? Why not consider guiding a new professional throughout the coming year to establish contacts, learn about available resources, and build a long-lasting relationship?  Stephanie (Sara Leah) Gross, Chair of AJL Mentoring, will be on hand with a short presentation about the process, what it entails and some of the benefits of the program.  If you’d like to know more before the event, you may contact her directly at: ajlmentoring@gmail.com.  However, reservations are not required.  Please note: This year we’re hoping to establish mentoring leaders at the local chapter or regional level in order to improve our effectiveness.  Your participation can make a great difference in someone’s career!

Check out all the programmed events and look for new and exciting ways that AJL can help you!

See you in CHICAGO!

B’shalom,

Susan Dubin

AJL President

Over Passover, I traveled to Israel to meet with AJL members, authors, illustrators, and publishers to see if we could reorganize a group there. My first day in Jerusalem, I met with Elhanan Adler at the National Library.

The library was very exciting. They are working on digitizing some of their collection to make it accessible to more people.

I stayed with Anna Levine, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Regional Advisor for the Middle East and Sydney Taylor honoree for her Young Adult novel Freefall . We went to the once in every 28 years Blessing of the Sun at the Kotel.

When in Jerusalem, I also met with Jeff at Jerusalem Books.

He is looking forward to seeing everyone in Chicago where Jerusalem Books will be exhibiting.

Travelling north to Tsfat, I met with Esther Heller from Targum Press.
britney spears circus download

• micardis hct

free jeepers creepers

In Tel Aviv, I met Peninah Moed Koss, who is known in Israel for her picture books about Berale, a lovable snail. In the U.S. her young adult novel Real Time gives teens a thought provoking look at a suicide bomber and his victims. Peninah will be joining us in Chicago this summer and sent a present to each traveler to Convention– a prayer to recite upon arriving safely.

David Elazar and Ya’akov Aronson were also very helpful in making suggestions about how to organize a group in Israel. Many thanks to everyone who met with me and offered me their hospitality and time and ideas. I hope to explore this in more detail when we all meet at Convention.

B’shalom,

Susan Dubin

AJL Presidentnapoleon dynamite divx download watch pok mon the movie 2000 in divx

wall street dvd download

definitely maybe divx download download sound of thunder a dvdrip  The first AJL Northwest Regional Conference took place February 15th in Seattle. The event was organized to generate interest in the upcoming annual convention being planned for July , 2010. The regional conference had teachers, librarians and others interested in children’s literature for a full day workshop featuring guest speakers Lisa Silverman and Rivy Poupko Kletenik. The conference was titled “From Word to Deed: Teaching Our Children Through Literature.” AJL Chapter Relations Chair represented the National Association of Jewish Libraries Council at the conference.

The event was planned by Toby Harris, Janet Heineck, Rita Frischer, and Tessa Benion, Publicity was sent to local schools, synagogues, and libraries and attendees received credit from the Bureau of Jewish Education.

To see pictures of the event, click here.

Congratulations to everyone invloved in planning this outstanding event!

B’shalom,

Susan Dubin

AJL President

• cytoxan
  • watch husbands and lovers in divx

• divx blues brothers 2000

2009 SYDNEY TAYLOR BOOK AWARDS

ANNOUNCED BY THE ASSOCIATION OF JEWISH LIBRARIES

(New York—January 7, 2009) Richard Michelson and Raul Colon, author and illustrator of As Good As Anybody: Martin Luther King, Jr. and Abraham Joshua Heschel’s Amazing March Toward Freedom, Karen Hesse, author of Brooklyn Bridge, and Valerie Zenatti, author of A Bottle in the Gaza Sea, are the 2009 winners of the prestigious Sydney Taylor Book Award. 

The Sydney Taylor Book Award honors new books for children and teens that exemplify the highest literary standards while authentically portraying the Jewish experience. The award memorializes Sydney Taylor, author of the classic All-of-a-Kind Family series. The winners will receive their awards at the Association of Jewish Libraries convention in Chicago this July.

Michelson and Colon will receive the 2009 gold medal in the Sydney Taylor Book Award’s Younger Readers Category for As Good As Anybody: Martin Luther King, Jr. and Abraham Joshua Heschel’s Amazing March Toward Freedom, published by Alfred A. Knopf.  Two very special clergymen, one a rabbi, the other an African-American reverend are raised in divergently different countries yet experience similar levels of persecution and bigotry that will one day bring them together. As colleagues in America’s struggle for civil rights, they march together from Selma to Montgomery in March 1965. Colon’s colored pencil and watercolor illustrations “offer a beautiful complement to the text, describing two unique paths from childhood to adult life – Martin’s in the rich, warm brown-tones of the American south and Abraham’s in cool blues and grays that reminded the illustrator of old World War II movies.  When the two exemplary men join in their march for tolerance, the palettes merge in full color harmony,” comments Debbie Colodny, a member of the Award Committee. This book is recommended for grades 2-5.

Hesse will receive the 2009 gold medal in the Sydney Taylor Book Award’s Older Readers Category for Brooklyn Bridge, published by Feiwel & Friends mickey s once upon a christmas free download . While his family left the anti-Semitism of Russia to build the American dream, Joey Michtom’s dream is to visit the glittering Coney Island. “Crafting a story from the spark of a true event, the invention of the Teddy Bear in 1903, Hesse masterfully weaves multiple themes of hard-work, survival, homelessness, and familial dedication with interlocking and parallel stories of families who live reasonably well opposite those less fortunate living in the shadows below the imposing Brooklyn Bridge,” comments Rita Soltan, a member of the Award Committee. This book is recommended for grades 5-8. Hesse also won the 1992 Award for Older Readers for Letters from Rifka, and a 2004 Honor Award for Older Readers for The Cats in Kransinski Square.

Zenatti will receive the 2009 gold medal in the Sydney Taylor Book Award’s Teen Readers Category for A Bottle in the Gaza Sea, published by Bloomsbury.  “This story about the relationship between an Israeli girl, Tal, and a Palestinian boy, Naim, via e-mail and instant messaging, is honest but hopeful.  Well-written and compelling, the tale of their relationship conveys the confusion, anger, exhaustion, and depression felt by many young people during the 2003 intifada,” comments Susan Berson, a member of the Award Committee. Zenatti’s memoir, When I Was a Soldier, was a 2005-6 AJL Notable Book for Older Readers.

Six Sydney Taylor Honor Books were named for 2009.  For Younger Readers, Honor Books are: Engineer Ari and the Rosh Hashanah Ride by Deborah Bodin Cohen with illustrations by Shahar Kober (Kar-Ben), Sarah Laughs by Jacqueline Jules with illustrations by Natascia Ugliano (Kar-Ben), A is for Abraham: A Jewish Family Alphabet by Richard Michelson with illustrations by Ron Mazellan (Sleeping Bear Press) and Naming Liberty by Jane Yolen with paintings by Jim Burke (Philomel Books).   Aranka Siegal’s Memories of Babi (Farrar Straus and Giroux) was named an Honor Book for Older Readers, and Freefall by Anna Levine (Greenwillow Books) was named an Honor Book in the Teen Reader Category.

In addition to the medal-winners, the Award Committee designated twenty-two Notable Books of Jewish Content for 2009: six in the Younger Readers Category, ten in the Older Readers Category, and four for Teens.  Genesis—the Book with Seventy Faces: A Guide for the Family by Esther Takac with illustrations by Anna Pignataro (Pitspopany Press) and Celebrating with Jewish Crafts by Rebecca Edid Ruzansky with photographs by Roberto Zeballos-Peralta (self-published) impressed the Award Committee with their uniqueness and range. They have been designated Notable Books for all ages. Notable titles, and more information about the Sydney Taylor Book Award, may be found online at www.SydneyTaylorBookAward.org. Interviews with winning authors will be posted on prominent children’s literature blogs as part of a “blog tour” beginning on January 18, 2009; details will be posted on the Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog at www.sydneytaylorbookaward.blogspot.com.

BLOG TOUR

Monday, January 19, 2009
Richard Michelson
Author of As Good As Anybody, Sydney Taylor Book Award winner in the Younger Readers Category
and
Author of A is for Abraham, Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Younger Readers Category
at The Well-Read Child

Monday, January 19, 2009
Ron Mazellan, illustrator of A is for Abraham
Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Younger Readers Category
at Tales from the Rushmore Kid

Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Jane Yolen, author of Naming Liberty
Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Younger Readers Category
at The Boston Bibliophile

Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Anna Levine
Author of Freefall, Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Teen Readers Category
and
Author of Jodie’s Hanukkah Dig, Notable Book in the Younger Readers Category
at Abby (the) Librarian

Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Jim Burke, illustrator of Naming Liberty
Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Younger Readers Category
at The Page Flipper

Thursday, January 22, 2009
Jacqueline Jules, author of Sarah Laughs
Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Younger Readers Category
at Chicken Spaghetti

Friday, January 23, 2009
Deborah Bodin Cohen, author of Engineer Ari and the Rosh Hashanah Ride
Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Younger Readers Category
at Becky’s Book Reviews

Friday, January 23, 2009
Shahar Kober, illustrator of Engineer Ari and the Rosh Hashanah Ride
Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Younger Readers Category
at Into the Wardrobe

Posted by Heidi Estrin at 10:01 AM 0 comments

Labels: 2009, online resource my lucky stars 2 twinkle twinkle lucky stars dvd download , Sydney Taylor Book Award

Association of Jewish Libraries’ Vice President of Publications, Deborah Stern, attended a celebration marking Jewish Publication Society’s (JPS) 120th birthday.

Here is what Deborah Stern, librarian at Mordecai M. Kaplan Memorial Library of Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, said about the event:

“Founded in 1888, The Jewish Publication Society is the oldest nonprofit, nondenominational publisher of Jewish works in English, especially well known for its English translation of the Hebrew Bible, regarded worldwide as the authoritative Jewish translation. Its publications aim to make the rich Jewish literary legacy accessible to all and run the gamut from collaborative, scholarly projects to books for youngsters to enjoy.

Recognizing that the goals of JPS and of AJL have so much in common, the organizations joined forces last year to help readers find the best Jewish resources available among JPS’ own books and those published by others. A link was placed on the JPS home page to a site displaying samples from some of AJL’s annotated bibliographies: http://www.jewishpub.org/about/bibliographies.php watch duets in divx

This year AJL is pleased to be able to salute JPS on its 120^th birthday by being an official sponsor of its birthday celebration. We look forward to continued collaboration with them in our joint efforts to bring Jewish literacy to everyone interested in learning more about the Jewish heritage. L’chaim!”

Author talks, lectures on Jewish literature, panel discussions, and workshops are among the offerings of the newly launched Association of Jewish Libraries Podcast. Available at

www.jewishlibraries.org/podcast, the program provides audio that enhances and enriches the listener’s appreciation of Jewish book culture.

The podcast will include material recorded at the Association of Jewish Libraries annual convention, as well as recordings of Jewish literary events across North America. A wide range of topics will be covered, from the academic to the hands-on, from children’s literature to technology.

“Jews are book lovers, and Jewish librarians even more so,” says Susan Dubin, President of the Association of Jewish Libraries. “The AJL Podcast gives us a way to share our enthusiasm with others, without geographical or scheduling restrictions. Now everyone can learn and enjoy!”

New podcast episodes will be posted every few weeks. Listeners can hear the show online at

www.jewishlibraries.org/podcast, subscribe via iTunes or other feed readers (using the feed http://feeds.feedburner.com/ajlpodcast), receive episodes by email via FeedBlitz, or listen by phone at (651) 925-2538.

Heidi Estrin, Association of Jewish Libraries’ Public Relations Chair has issued the following press release:

                         NEWS RELEASE

ISRAEL@60 READING LIST RELEASED

November, 2008 

The Association of Jewish Libraries has released its new “Israel@60″ suggested reading list, with over thirty titles on Israel for adults and children. The list includes fiction and non-fiction, and offers a brief description of each book. Websites and videos on Israel for adults and children are listed as well.The Israel@60 reading list is available in pdf format on the Association of Jewish Libraries website at www.jewishlibraries.org.”Books about Israel are written from so many points of view, some friendly, some not,” said Susan Dubin, President of the Association of Jewish Libraries. “With the sixtieth birthday of the state of Israel being celebrated this year, we felt the time was right to showcase books with a positive view of the country’s history and achievements.”

The Israel@60 reading list was compiled by Association of Jewish Libraries member Andrea Rapp, librarian at the Isaac M. Wise Temple in Cincinnati, Ohio, and an expert on the topic of Israel. A Judaica librarian for over twenty years, Andrea holds a Bachelor’s and a Master’s Degree in History from Northwestern University, and a Master’s in Library Science from the University of Minnesota. Her article on  Israel-related literature, “Lies in the Library,” was published in Reform Jewish Magazine (summer 2005).

This is an outstanding resource to learn more about Israel!

B’Shalom

Susan Dubin

AJL President free what lies beneath

25th hour movie download
 

Last Sunday I attended the Once Upon a World Award ceremony at the Simon Wiesenthal Center/Museum of Tolerance. This award is funded by Sonia and Lloyd Levitin and presented through the Museum of Tolerance to promote literature for children and teens that exemplify courage, tolerance, and understanding. This year the two award winners were Gretchen Woelfle download solstice dvdrip

• green eyed monster dvd

for her biography Jeanette Rankin:Political Pioneer and Ellie Crowe for her picture book Surfer of the Century: Duke Kahanamoku

• strangers the divx movie online

download sight dvdrip .  On Monday, fourth grade students from two local elementary schools participated in a video conference with the author and a school in Hawaii to talk about Duke download mr mrs smith divx . On Tuesday, two high school classes video-conferenced with the author and a school in Missoula, Montana where Jeanette Rankin was from. What a great experience for all!

It seemed especially appropriate to be discussing Jeanette Rankin, the first woman to be elected to Congress (even before women were granted the right to vote in the greater United States) on a day when the first African American was elected President.

B’shalom,

Susan Dubin, President

Association of Jewish Libraries

Seattle is the 007 the spy who loved me online Evergreen State. AJL is starting to plan our 2010 Convention in this beautiful Northwest location. Consequently, David Hirsch, AJL Vice President/President-Elect, and I traveled up the coast to meet with our local Seattle committee, Janet Heineck, Toby Harris, and Rita Frischer, to check out hotels and lay some groundwork. We stayed at the Seattle Marriott Waterfront and the Fairmont Olympic. Both hotels are downtown, in easy walking distance of many classic Seattle sights. Both hotels are gorgeous and elegant and have great meeting space. We are waiting for the proposals and will go with the one that gives us the best rates (of course!). But either hotel will be a dynamite spot for the Convention and family vacations. Both hotels treated us royally and bent over backwards to impress— the Fairmont even copied our AJL logo in chocolate as a welcome dessert! Check out the photos to whet your appetite for Seattle in 2010…

sandlot the download free While in Seattle, I spoke at the public library in North East Seattle about “Libraries as Bridges.” We were able to generate some interest in the Association of Jewish Libraries and to encourage some of the local Seattle people to participate in helping to plan the Convention (and be involved before and after!). Many thanks to Rita Frischer for arranging the program and to Marion Scichilone, Seattle Public Library Branch Manager  of
the North East Branch for making space available. Meeting in this location emphasized the broad application of this program to anyone interested in  books and libraries.

A very special treat at the program was a visit by an icon of Jewish Children’s literature — Chaya Burstein. She is now living in Seattle and still writing!

“til Next Time,

Susan Dubin

AJL President

fear and loathing in las vegas divx

On Tuesday, May 5, 2009, Heidi Estrin shared the following:

The Association of Jewish Libraries is the “parent organization” that administers the Sydney Taylor Book Award. If you would like to communicate with the librarians and book-lovers who care about the award and about Jewish literature, this is a great publicity opportunity for you.

2009 AJL Convention Ads, Exhibits & Sponsorships

 

44th Annual Association of Jewish Libraries Convention
Sheraton Chicago Hotel and Towers
301 E. North Water Street Chicago, IL 60611
July 5-8, 2009

 

Would you like to reach hundreds of Judaica professionals from around the world? Join us as the Association of Jewish Libraries presents its 44nd annual convention in Chicago July 5-8, 2009.

Our members represent synagogues and schools, major universities, research centers, and other settings. You can participate in a number of ways

• Exhibit products and/or services in the Convention Exhibit Hall
• Advertise in the convention program book
• Sponsor a convention event, with recognition at the event and in the program book
• Congratulate the organization, or members you know, with a message in the program book

You can support the work of this respected and successful organization, while bringing your own work or good wishes to the members’ attention. Information about Advertising, Exhibits, and Sponsorships may be found here.

The deadline for these opportunities is MAY 27, 2009.

Credit card payments will be processed via PayPal.

A preview of some of the info you’ll find at the AJL website…

EXHIBITS

canine tramadol

All single booths will be set with (1) 6 x 30 table and (2) chairs.
Cost = $300 per table
Half-table price = $175
Table with no sales rep [books only] = $125
Double booth (2) tables = $500
Larger booths will be individually priced: contact ajlchicagoexhibits@gmail.com

ADVERTISING

Click here for full ad specs. Please note the special discount on full page ads available to exhibitors.

Page size	Price
Full page	Exhibitors $400, Non-exhibitors $450
Half page	$300
Quarter page	$150
Eighth page (business card)	$75
Web ad placement on AJL Convention web page (to run May 1- July 10, 2009)	$500

Please note we have a new discount offer! If you also purchase advertising for 1 year in the AJL Newsletter (4 issues, beginning in Fall 2009), you can receive a 5%-15% discount on your Convention Program Ad.

SPONSORSHIP
Please contact Shoshanah Seidman at (847) 491-7585 or sseidman@northwestern.edu if you are interested in any of the following sponsorship opportunities.

 

Event	Date	Rate
Keynote speaker: Peter Hayes, Prof. Northwestern University	Sunday, July 5	$3,000
Exhibit Hall Coffee Break	July 6 (am) July 6 (pm) July 7 (am) July 7 (pm)	$3,000 each catwoman download free
Awards Luncheon	July 6	$3,000
Pre-Banquet Reception	July 7	$3,000
Banquet	July 7	$4,000-$6,000
Special sessions: Israel, Yiddish & Israeli Theater, Music, Jewish Art download mike stern between the lines	July 5-6-7	$1,500-$3,000
Complimentary Meals for Speakers and Volunteers		$3,000
Authors Program	July 7	$3,000
Hospitality Suite		$3,000
Reception in honor of Mrs. Barbara Schneider-Kempf, General Direktor, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin	July 6	$3,000-$5,000
Audiovisual	July 5-6-7-8	$3,000-$8,000

breast augmentation hills beverly

On behalf of the Research Libraries, Archives, and Special Collections Division of the Association of Jewish Libraries, I am pleased to announce the winners of the 2008 Judaica Reference and Bibliography Awards:

• mississauga breast augmentation

rocky balboa download free

Reference Award: Hundert, Gershon David. 2008. The YIVO encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe download china strike force online . New Haven [Conn.]: Yale University Press.

Bibliography Award watch charley varrick in divx : Richler, Binyamin, Malachi Beit-Arie?, and Nurit Past?ernak?. 2008. Hebrew manuscripts in the Vatican Library: catalogue. Citta? del Vaticano: Biblioteca apostolica Vaticana.

watcher in the woods the divx

Bibliography Honorable Mention: Lubetski, Edith, and Meir Lubetski. 2008. The book of Esther: a classified bibliography. Bible bibliographies. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press.

I would like to thank the Judaica Reference and Bibliography Awards committee for their hard work: Jim Rosenbloom, Barry Walfish, Daniel Rettberg, Rachel Simon, Philip Miller, and Rachel Ariel.

Please join me in congratulating Dr. Gershon Hundert and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research; Benjamin Richler, Malachi Beit-Arie?, Nurit Pasternak, and the Staff of the Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts at the Jewish National and University Library (National Library of Israel); and our association member Edith Lubetski, and her spouse Meir Lubetski.

Rachel Leket-Mor

Chair of Judaica Reference and Bibliography Award Committee

Association of Jewish Libraries

escapist the divx download