Monthly Archives: November 2022

 Yes, Hanukkah is just around the corner. Here are some new story books - and some other favorites - to entertain and inspire young children this holiday.

 NEW!

Your students have learned to decode Hebrew - great! 

And they're also learning about Hanukkah. 

Bridge their excitement and new Hebrew skills in a meaningful way with Shalom, Reader: 57 Hebrew Activities to Show What You Know. This resource introduces students to a family and its pets, and follows them through simple stories and scenarios that are familiar to children, such as holiday celebrations, school, family, time, and the weather.

There's an entire chapter built around Hanukkah that includes:  

• Hanukkah vocabulary
• A short guided conversation with a friend in Hebrew about what they eat and drink during Hanukkah

Why do we keep telling the story of our people from one generation to the next?

Each time we retell stories from the Bible, we learn something about ourselves and our relationships. These stories also encourage critical thinking skills in our students and help them understand important Jewish values that continue to guide us today.

There are many Bible resources that help children explore the deeper meaning and shape how they live that learning in the world.

For example, if the curriculum is focused on early Torah stories, you can use a core text such as The Explorer’s Bible or Teach Me Torah. Then engage new perspectives by layering in other elements, like a storybook

Saralee Siegel can do extraordinary things with her super-nose.

She also loves to cook and help out in her family’s restaurant.

In the latest story in the chapter book series, A Donut in Time: A Hanukkah Story, Saralee is stunned to learn that she's not the only one in the family with a superpower. Her great-grandmother Gigi also had a magical sense of smell. And when Saralee makes Gigi's Hanukkah donut recipe, the scent creates a portal in time.

Soon Saralee finds herself face-to-face with a young Gigi – and she's not the fierce, unstoppable person Saralee imagined. Gigi is ready to give up on her dreams. Saralee needs to help her find courage, or the future will be changed forever.

This is the third book in the Saralee Siegel series, written by Elana Rubinstein and illustrated by Jennifer Naalchigar. Eac

Sigd is a unique holiday of the Ethiopian Jewish community, celebrated exactly 50 days after Yom Kippur. This year it falls on November 22-23.

Sigd is recognized as a state holiday in Israel. Yet very few American Jews know about it.

The holiday is celebrated on the date thought to be when God was first revealed to Moses. Traditionally on Sigd, members of the Ethiopian Jewish community would fast and walk together to a mountain top. Members of the community would recite Psalms and remember the Torah and their desire to return to Jerusalem. In the afternoon they would descend the mountain and end their fast with a feast and dancing. 

In recent decades, the Ethiopian community in