Stories of our Jewish Friends + Family by Jan Annino

  
         
            Stories of our Jewish Friends + Family 

            This week is a special time for students and families who think about Jewish families.  It is a time of remembrance of those who survived, and who didn't survive, The Holocaust. (Also targeted: Polish people, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, the Roma people, the physically or mentally disabled, children who had a black parent, and, select others.)

           My heartfelt connection to The Holocaust began with great sobs and shock in reading The Diary of Ann Frank in school and in learning about the fate of the people in the secret annex.

            To balance my sadness fortunately I played with a school pal, Susan Entenberg, when I was nine and ten. Not only did her older sister let us listen to her Beatle records, but there also was an extra unintended joy in visiting and staying overnight. 

                       

            Her mother explained that the family’s strict Kosher kitchen was too easy for children to mess up, simply by placing food and dishes in the wrong pantry or area. A rabbi would have to come in and a ceremony would re-consecrate the kitchen. I remember coming home and announcing that I wanted to be Jewish. No kitchen duty for children. And such sweet treats to eat. Yum! In recent years my hubby & I attend our neighborhood's cultural Jewish Festival weekend, where we load up on favorite Jewish foods. If the weather is good, we can walk. But then, we can't carry so many goodies home.

           

            This year’s days of reverent Holocaust Commemoration are April 16-19. At a particular moment in Israel, the entire nation is asked to stop activities and assist in the remembrance.  Indeed, all over the world people will find ways to remember, such as several March of the Living events in Europe.

            Our family has previously visited  The United States Holocaust Memorial, which provides a reliable source of important information.

            Here in my hometown,  special services with Christians and Jews together are offered during the year and this week is no exception. Last weekend, my husband and I were fortunate to attend a small talk at the WordofSouth books event that showcased excellent student art, solicited from students of all faiths, by our hometown Holocaust Education Resource Council.

                                                             

            With encouragement from my writing group, I submitted a Jewish topic picture book manuscript that I had worked on for a couple of years. My story is inspired by real life. In it an observant Jewish girl is thrilled by the approach of Easter, although this girl’s excitement naturally mystifies her visiting grandpapa. By the end of the story, we see what goes on at Easter for her and -  her grandpapa’s reaction.

            It is helpful to me that I have friends & colleagues of Jewish heritage to consult,
but I am especially fortunate that one of my regular writing critique partners who is Jewish
strongly encouraged me, Christian, to submit to KAR-BEN. This publisher brought out a popular picture book on The Holocaust. The Whispering Town is a picture book that beautifully tells a child's role to help defy Nazi's in Denmark. It is uplifting to read.

                                                      

            KAR-BEN is a respected imprint of Lerner and well-regarded for publishing Jewish-theme topics. Favorites of mine from the KAR-BEN house include not only The Whispering Town, but also,  Feivel’s Flying Horses, Goldie Takes a Stand and Rifka Takes a Stand.
           

            If you are pulled to writing on Jewish themes you will naturally be reading the best in books for young readers. Some resources:

KAR-BEN

SYDNEYTAYLOR BOOK AWARDS

JEWISH BOOK MONTH – about mid-November thru Hanukkah

              Another resource is the comprehensive, 170-page HITLER YOUTH by renowned nonfiction children's author and former teacher, Susan Campbell Bartoletti. While focusing on the
Nazi activities that few children and teens escaped conducting in pre-war and wartime Germany, the book also documents the brave children who resisted the Nazi activities. Learn about 16-year-old Helmuth Hubener, who was beaten in a Berlin jail, tried, and at age17 in 1942, executed. The teen created a Nazi resistance movement within Germany as adults were managing to do, also risking death, in the rest of Europe. Other students who clandestinely worked against Hitler are documented.

            May this never happen again. But, recently, we attended a university talk where the terrorism of the killers known as ISIS was compared to Nazi Germany. My response is to remain informed, hug children & help train them up in the good ways.  I find hope in writing poems, stories & books of quality, for young readers.