A final goodbye -

It is with great sadness that we have resigned from Lefferts Library. This decision, based on both political and funding issues, has been a difficult one. But please know that it has been our great pleasure to clean up and develop the collection and begin to catalog it online -- and, most importantly, to make new friends and engage in meaningful dialogue about books with you, our patrons. We will miss you!
Fondly, Linda Bennett and Lisa Katz

Check out these new books!

Israel is Real by Rich Cohen
Review by Publishers Weekly (June 8, 2009)
Reading the Bible and Jewish history "both literally and symbolically," this eclectic and passionate, wide-ranging history of Israel and Zionism by the author of Tough Jews decodes the story of Jonah in the whale's belly as the Diaspora Jew in Nazi concentration camps. Cohen catalogues the accomplishments of first-century Jewish scholar Jonathan ben Zakkai in the way Willie Dixon catalogues a man's deeds in a blues song, and summons Kierkegaard and Allen Ginsberg as he muses about Abraham, a crazy old man willing to murder his son to earn God's blessing: "Everything in Judaism is a repetition of this scene," Cohen asserts. Of Herzl, he says it was his career writing whimsical newspaper essays that made his mind fluid and open to the vision of Zionism. He sees Ariel Sharon as a tragic Shakespearean character who was driven to dismantle the settlements in Gaza out of a great love for Israel. Finally, Cohen does not believe that the Holocaust justifies the state of Israel-or that Israel needs to be justified. Cohen's idiosyncratic yet often lyrical take on Israel is sometimes exasperating but always deeply felt and refreshing. (Aug.) Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.



Business Mensch: Timeless Wisdom for Today's Entrepreneur by Noah Alper
Publishers Weekly Annex (September 14, 2009)
Alper, the founder of Noah's Bagels (recently sold to Einstein Bros. for $100 million), offers uplifting business wisdom from his own rocky path to success. After an early nervous breakdown and a failed business (selling Israeli products to born-again Christians), he found his way to traditional Judaism and started a small bagel shop in Berkeley, founded and run on the Biblical injunction to "lech lecha"-to embrace one's journey while contributing to the community through volunteerism and "tzedakah"-justice. Alper writes with fervor about the necessity of ethical business dealing and the power of integrating life experience and spirituality into one's path as an entrepreneur, and-especially in these trying economic times-honing the ability to innovate, adapt, and evolve. This earnest book shines with Alper's conviction, business savvy and decency; while he acknowledges the joys of a financial success, he ends with his eyes on the prize: "What's important is providing for your family, conducting yourself with integrity and living a life of meaning." (Sept.) Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information

A big thank you!

Thank you to the Schane sisters who gave some of their allowance to help the Lefferts Jewish Community Library. What a mitzvah! Thank you Katya (age 9) and Maya (age 8). Our new hours moving forward for the month of November:

Sunday November 1 - 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Sunday November 15 - 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Friday November 13 - 3 p.m. - 5 p.m.
Friday November 27 - 3 p.m. - 5 p.m.

Also looking for some great reviewers! Did you enjoy the last book you read from our library? Are you interestd to see what other people enjoyed reading? If so type up a quick review of the book and send it to me and I'll post your review on the blog. Or better yet, write it up on an index card and bring it into the library or put it in the drop box. I'll post it on the blog.

Remember the library is a hospital for the mind.

WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Without your help, The Lefferts Jewish Community will be closing its doors November 1st due to lack of funding in November. For the past three years we have been open to the public, 6-10 hours per week. We have cleaned up the library, weeded books, and catalogued much of the collection online, as well as purchased many great new adult and children's books, magazines, newspapers and DVDs. Due to budget issues,The JCC and Congregation Rodef Sholom want propose to cutting us back to 5 hours of paid work per week - total. This isn't enough time to successfully run a library. We need your help! If you are interested in donating money to keep this library open or have suggestions for how we can continue, please contact Michael Kamler at Congregation Rodef Sholom or Judy Wolff-Bolton at The JCC.

In the meantime, for the month of October we are open Fridays from 3-5:00 and Sundays from 9:30-1:30. Thanks for your help.

- Lisa Katz and Linda Bennett

Check out our new DVD's

We are building a DVD collection. Come check out what we have!

Life is Beautiful
Europa, Europa
Defiance
Schindler's List
The Frisco Kid
Paper Clips
Everything is Illuminated
Munich
The Pianist
The Goldbergs
Yentl
Molly's Pilgrim
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Ushpizin
Lost Embrace
Shanghai Ghetto
Waltz with Bashir

just to name a few....

Fall Hours

FALL HOURS:

September: Sundays Sept. 6 & 13 9:30-1:30 p.m.

Fridays – Sept. 4, 11 & 25 3-5:45 p.m.

October: Sundays Oct. 4, 11, & 18 9:30-1:30 p.m.

Fridays – Oct. 2, 9, 16, 30 3-5:45 p.m.

November: Sundays Nov. 1, 8, 15, 22 9:30-1:30 p.m.

Fridays – Nov. 6, 13, & 20 3-5:45 p.m.

December: Sundays Dec. 6, 13, & 20 9:30-1:30 p.m.

Fridays – Dec. 4, 11, & 18 3-5:45 p.m.

The Late Lamented Molly Marx by Sally Koslow

A great book full of mystery, suspense, humor, love and emotion. Molly Marx has just died a very suspicious death, and she is now in the afterlife, or “Duration”, where she is watching her loved and not-so loved ones continue on with their lives: Annabel, her 4 year-old daughter, Lucy, her crazy twin sister, Kitty, her piece of work mother-in-law, and her husband, Barry, the plastic surgeon, who takes more than a professional interest in his female patients. But, was her death an accident, suicide or murder? As the police interview all the people in her life, Molly relives the years and days that lead up to her sudden death.

The World to Come by Dara Horn

A million-dollar painting by Marc Chagall is stolen from a museum. Benjamin Ziskind, a thirty-year-old quiz-show writer is the thief. But, why are Benjamin and his twin sister trying to evade the police? Instead, they find themselves recalling their dead parents and their stories about trust, loss, and betrayal. What is true, what is fake, and what does it mean? Eighty years before the theft, these questions haunted Chagall and the enigmatic Yiddish fabulist Der Nister ("The Hidden One"), teachers at a school for Jewish orphans. Both the painting and the questions will travel through time to shape the Ziskinds' futures. This is a fabulous story that interweaves a real art heist, history, biography, theology, and Yiddish literature.

Book Reviews

Summertime is almost over! Get ready for the High Holidays, which are just around the corner. We have new books to choose from. Come check out some great new fiction.

Children picks!
I am God’s Paintbrush is really a very beautiful board book that encourages parents and children to explore the meaning of God and spirituality for all faiths. The award-winning author, Sandy Eisenberg Sasso, has adapted this book from her picture book, God’s Paintbrush. In this pint size book she takes a few vibrant illustrations and some text from God’s Paintbrush and puts them into a smaller version for smaller hands. The language is simple with words written in colors to match the illustrations and the simple images are done in bright watercolors. While both books use images from everyday life with a multicultural approach, they are taken from the point of view of a child. For example some pictures depict a child hugging a stuffed toy, children singing, clouds moving in the sky or a family eating at a restaurant. God’s Paintbrush is a lengthier text where Sasso poses questions to the readers to make them think about their own answers, the board book, is more about using color, song and text to help a child find meaning in the world. Both books are useful in engaging children in discussion about the world. Both of these books are not to be considered religious books but rather spiritual book guides for the young and very young.

Adult Reviews!
The Rabbi’s Daughter by Reva Mann
Riva Mann is a journalist and daughter of a prominent London rabbi and granddaughter of a chief rabbi of Israel. Unfortunately she lives the life of a promiscuous woman hooked on drugs and sex. In her 20s she decides to move to Jerusalem where she enters an ultra-orthodox woman’s yeshiva, marries a born-again American Jew through an arranged marriage only to find her new husband is an obsessive and separatist Hasid. Her life changes for the worse once she realizes that being Orthodox is not the way she wants to live her life. The story of dysfunctional family, youthful rebellion, and eventual self-awareness, Reva Mann’s fast-paced and humorous memoir leads the reader through the different stages of her life including her unhappiness and the graphic details of drug and sexual activity as well as a woman’s struggle to balance religion and spirituality.

Sarah’s Key by Tatiana De Rosnay
In a story that parallels two different time periods, Paris, July 1942 and Paris May 2002, de Rosnay explores France’s willing complicity in the brutal annihilation of more than 11,400 Jewish children and women during World War II. Sarah, is a ten year-old Jewish girl, arrested with her family by the French police in the Vel’ d’Hiv’ roundup of July, 1942, but not before she locks her younger brother in a cupboard in the family's apartment, thinking that she will be back within a few hours.
Now it is May 2002 and it is the 60th anniversary of “Vel’ d’Hiv”. Journalist Julia Jarmond is asked to write an article about France’s past. Through her investigation, she stumbles upon a trail of long-hidden family secrets that actually connect her to Sarah. Julia finds herself compelled to retrace the girl's ordeal, from that terrible term in the Vel d'Hiv', to the camps, and beyond. As she probes into Sarah's past, she begins to question her own place in France, and to reevaluate her marriage and her life.

More reviews to come!