Once upon a time, Akiva was all grown up. He had a wife named Rachel. He had a job as a shepherd. And he had a house—well, maybe not quite a house, but a barn full of straw that kept the two of them warm in winter and gave them shade in summer. So begins … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: The Donkey and the Garden
Written in 1940 on the eve of World War II, Emil and Karl is a gripping read. Set in 1938 Vienna, it tells the story of best friends Emil and Karl, both of whom have lost fathers. They quickly lose their mothers as well. Emil is Jewish; Karl is not. One is treated cruelly due … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Emil and Karl
"Bambi, a Life in the Woods, originally published in Austria as Bambi: Eine Lebensgeschichte aus dem Walde is a 1923 Austrian novel written by Felix Salten and published by Ullstein Verlag. The novel traces the life of Bambi, a male roe deer, from his birth through childhood, the loss of his mother, the finding of … Continue reading International Banned Book: Bambi by Felix Salten
English-language retellings of Jewish folktales come from many different source languages, Yiddish, Hebrew, and Ladino (the language of the Sephardic Jews) chief among them. This post will present a round-up of some of my favorite storytelling collections, whether translated or otherwise reworked from the oral tradition. Since I work in a Sephardic congregation library, I … Continue reading Jewish Storytelling Sources
Sephardic Jews and the Spanish Language offers an incomparable lens into the transnational exchanges between Spanish politician, Ángel Pulido, and a handful of prominent Spanish Jews across Eastern Europe and Turkey. Pulido's acquaintances, whom he met during his travels in the Balkans, were the descendants of the exiled Spanish Jews of the infamous 1493 Inquisition. … Continue reading Review: Sephardic Jews and the Spanish Language by Ángel Pulido
A SPANIARD TRAVELING almost anywhere in Europe, especially in the East or the South, typically will have this pleasant surprise: On his train or his ship, or at shops in countries and cities with native languages radically different from his own, he will notice strangers eavesdropping on his Spanish with astonishing frequency. They will listen … Continue reading Excerpt: Sephardic Jews and the Spanish Language by Ángel Pulido
Global Literature in Libraries Initiative 