Lefferts Jewish Community Library

the best jewish movies?

2011-11-06T11:46:00.000-08:00

Did you know that you can borrow movies from our library? The Lefferts Library has a small but fabulous collection of movies with Jewish themes. From comedies like The Frisco Kid and Keeping the Faith, to dramas like Everything is Illuminated, to classics like Fiddler on the Roof, we have something for everyone-- with no rental charges and no late fees!

We're always looking for great movies to add to the collection. What are your favorites? Leave a comment, or stop in and let us know. If you need inspiration, check out this great list, published in Moment magazine.

high holiday resources for kids

2011-09-18T10:53:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again. Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot are all just around the corner. Help make the holidays accessible and meaningful for your children. All of these titles are available in the Lefferts Library.

Rosh Hashanah
New Year at the Pier: A Rosh Hashanah Story
The World's Birthday
Happy Birthday World
When the Chickens Went on Strike: A Rosh Hashanah Tale

Yom Kippur
Sound the Shofar!
The Uninvited Guest
All About Yom Kippur

Sukkot
Tikvah Means Hope
Night Lights: A Sukkot Story
Why Does it Always Rain on Sukkot?
Leo and Blossom's Sukkah

Stop by and check them out! Shana Tova!

jewish publications online

2011-08-28T10:41:00.000-07:00

Image: Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington

The Lefferts Library subscribes to several magazines which focus on Jewish news and issues (The Jerusalem Report, Moment, Midstream, The Jewish Review of Books)*, but for more news, culture, and information, check out these publications online.

*Do you have suggestions for others? Leave a comment or send us an email at lefferts.library@gmail.com

The Jerusalem Post: One of Israel's premier English language newspapers

The Jewish Daily Forward: News, arts, culture, with a progressive bent. Also in Yiddish!

Tablet Magazine: "A new read on Jewish life"

Reform Judaism Magazine: Articles about holidays, spirituality, and Israel

Jewcy: Young and irreverent

Lilith Magazine: A Jewish Feminist journal

What's your favorite source for Jewish news online?

50 essential works of jewish fiction

2011-06-12T11:12:00.000-07:00

This is interesting. The online magazine Jewcy has published a list of The 50 Most Essential Works of Jewish Fiction of the Last 100 Years. Do you agree with their selections? How many have you read? Many of their selections are available at the Lefferts Library, so do stop by if you'd like to bone up on your essential Jewish fiction reading.

While you're browsing at Jewcy, check out their list of Top 10 fiction books of 2010. We just added their choice for #1, The Instructions by Adam Levin, to our library collection. I'd like to purchase a few more from this list. Which would you most like to read? Leave a comment and let me know!

new books: fiction

2011-06-05T10:52:00.000-07:00

Over the next few weeks, I want to share with you some of our newest books and DVDs that have just been added to our library collection. Please stop by and check them out!

To the End of the Land (Knopf/Random House)
David Grossman; Jessica Cohen, trans.

Acclaimed Israeli author Grossman serves up a powerful meditation on war, friendship, and family. Instead of celebrating her son Ofer’s discharge from the Israeli Army, Ora finds her life turned upside down and inside out when he reenlists and is sent back to the front for a major offensive. Unable to bear the thought of sitting alone waiting for the “notifiers” to bring her bad news, the recently separated Ora decides to hike in the Galilee, where she will be both anonymous and inaccessible. Joined by her estranged best friend and former lover Avram, a recluse who never recovered from the brutality he experienced as a POW during the Yom Kippur War, she narrates the story of her doomed marriage to Ilan and her often arduous journey as a mother. As the tension mounts, she talks compulsively about Ofer, as if telling his story will protect him and keep him alive for both herself and for Avram, the biological father he has never met. As Ora and Avram travel back and forth through time via shared memories, the toll exacted by living in a land and among a people constantly at war is excruciatingly evident. Grossman, whose own son was killed during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, writes directly from the heart in this scorching antiwar novel. --Margaret Flanagan, Booklist

The Invisible Bridge (Knopf/Random House)
Julie Orringer
National Jewish Book Award Finalist

Even if this weren't her first novel, Julie Orringer's Invisible Bridge would be a marvelous achievement. Orringer possesses a rare talent that makes a 600-page story--which, we know, must descend into war and genocide--feel rivetingly readable, even at its grimmest. Building vivid worlds in effortless phrases, she immerses us in 1930s Budapest just as a young Hungarian Jew, Andras Lévi, departs for the École Spéciale d'Architecture in Paris. He hones his talent for design, works backstage in a theater, and allies with other Jewish students in defiance of rising Nazi influence. And then he meets Klara, a captivating Hungarian ballet instructor nine years his senior with a painful past and a willful teenage daughter. Against Klara's better judgment, love engulfs them, drowning out the rumblings of war for a time. But inevitably, Nazi aggression drives them back to Hungary, where life for the Jews goes from hardship to horror. As in Dr. Zhivago, these lovers can't escape history's merciless machinery, but love gives them the courage to endure. --Mari Malcolm, Amazon.com

The Instructions (McSweeney’s)
Adam Levin
National Jewish Book Award Finalist

Levin’s enormous first novel is narrated by a hyper, megalomaniac prodigy, a 10-year-old boy named Gurion ben-Judah Maccabee who has skipped grades and been expelled for violent behavior from three Chicago schools. He is now in the CAGE program for problem students at Aptakisic Junior High, and even more determined to incite rebellion, if not an all-out holy war. Gurion is tough, wily, ferociously fluent in Jewish theology, an avid fan of Philip Roth and Jewish humor, verbally pyrotechnic, and bizarrely charismatic. His father is a civil rights lawyer who gets trampled by enraged Jews for defending a neo-Nazi; his mother is a former Israeli soldier, a mental health professional, and black. Spurred to assemble his children’s army by anti-Semitic hate crimes and the ongoing bloodshed in the Middle East, Gurion does not deny that he could be a potential messiah. Levin’s mammoth, riotous, Talmudic, impossibly excessive yet brilliant, mesmerizing, warmhearted, and hilarious work of chutzpah takes place over four feverish days but encompasses the whole of Israel’s battle for existence and the Jewish quest for home and peace. --Donna Seaman, Booklist

Nemesis (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Philip Roth
National Jewish Book Award Finalist

The fourth in the great and undiminished Roth’s recent cycle of short novels follows Everyman (2006), Indignation (2008), and The Humbug (2009), and as exceptional as those novels are, this latest in the series far exceeds its predecessors in both emotion and intellect. In general terms, the novel is a staggering visit to a time and place when a monumental health crisis dominated the way people led their day-to-day lives. Newark, New Jersey, in the early 1940s (a common setting for this author) experienced, as the war in Europe was looking better for the Allies, a scare as deadly as warfare. The city has been hit by an epidemic of polio. Of course, at that time, how the disease spread and its cure were unknown. The city is in a panic, with residents so suspicious of other individuals and ethnic groups that emotions quickly escalate into hostility and even rage. Our hero, and he proves truly heroic, is Bucky Canter, playground director in the Jewish neighborhood of Newark. As the summer progresses, Bucky sees more and more of his teenage charges succumb to the disease. When an opportunity presents itself to leave the city for work in a Catskills summer camp, Bucky is torn between personal safety and personal duty. What happens is heartbreaking, but the joy of having met Bucky redeems any residual sadness. --Brad Hooper, Booklist

last minute pesach resources

2011-04-17T10:53:00.000-07:00

knitted seder plate from tikkunknits' knitted seder flickr page (a must see!)

Passover starts tomorrow night. If you're still looking for the perfect hagaddah, I've got 2 great options for you:

1. Stop by the library today from 10-1. We have all sorts of hagaddahs, from traditional to alternative, that are sure to enliven your seder.

2. Check out this great online option: diyseder.com - create your own customizable hagaddah with just the right level of detail for your family and guests. From a straightforward list of blessings (in English, Hebrew, and transliterated) to in-depth commentary, to connections to current events and modern struggles for freedom, there's something for everyone here. I just created a hagaddah for my family's seder, and included lots of coloring pages for the kids who will be present. I highly recommend it. (I also love this coloring page, available for download- google "passover coloring pages" for many more.)

Chag Sameach! Check back soon for updates about the new books we're adding to the library this week.

support the library!

2011-04-10T11:18:00.000-07:00

We love serving the community. Here are 5 ways you can support the work of the Lefferts Library:

1. Spread the Word
Do you enjoy the library? Do you look forward to reading the latest issue of The Jerusalem Report or finding great movies to watch? Do you and your children enjoy our kids' section and holiday programming? Perhaps it's the comfy chairs and free wifi that bring you in? Spread the word! Tell your friends, your neighbors, or the person next to you on the treadmill. The more community members we can serve, the better.

2. Get Connected
You can use the library and benefit from our offerings no matter where you are. Even when we're closed, our online resources are available to you, and to everyone. "Like" us on Facebook, browse the online catalog, and visit this blog for news, reviews, and information about events. We love to hear from you- send us an email at lefferts.library@gmail.com

3. Help us Grow
Our collection is always expanding, as we search for the best new books, movies, and magazines for adults and children. Visit our amazon.com wish list to see what we hope to add, and consider giving the gift of a book for the community to enjoy.

4. Return Those Books
Since we operate without issuing library fines for overdue books, we rely on our community to return library materials in a timely way. If you think you may have overdue items, please contact the library or bring them back as soon as possible. We are so happy for our books and movies to be checked out and enjoyed-- please share that opportunity with others by getting those overdue books in.

5. Come Visit!
The best way to support the library is to use the library. Do stop by during our open hours-- we look forward to seeing you!

passover resources

2011-04-03T11:38:00.000-07:00

Passover is just around the corner!

With the first night of Passover only 2 weeks away, now is the perfect time to stop by the library and find all of the resources you need to help you have a festive, meaningful holiday.

Tradition and History
What is Passover, anyway? Why is it such an important holiday? What is the significance behind the Seder ritual? For answers, check out Seasons of Our Joy by Arthur Waskow or The Book of Our Heritage by Eliyahu Kitov. For an accessible introduction to the more mystical elements of the holiday, try Kabbalah Month by Month by Melinda Ribner.

How and Why
Are you leading a Seder this year? Are those old Maxwell House hagaddahs not cutting it anymore? Stop in and browse through our collection of hagaddahs. From traditional to creative, pared-down to in-depth, there's sure to be one that insipires you. Some that I'm finding inspiring this year are A Passover Hagaddah with beautiful watercolor illustrations by Leonard Baskin, and The Santa Cruz Haggadah, which connects the story of Pesach with modern struggles for freedom around the world.

In addition to hagaddahs, we have a selection of books to help you create meaningful rituals for your family and guests. Creating Lively Passover Seders by David Arnow is a guide to doing just that. Pesach for the Rest of Us by poet Marge Piercy is a lovely guide to the symbols of the holiday.

When Do we Eat?
You want cookbooks? We've got cookbooks! For perfect, kosher for Passover dishes, try the New York Times Passover Cookbook or The Complete Passover Cookbook by Frances R. Avrutick. While you're at the library, be sure to take a look at Joan Nathan's latest work, the beautifully photographed Quiches, Kugels, and Couscous: My Search for Jewish Cooking in France. With mouth-watering reicpes for salads, meats, and vegetables, it's a great source for a Seder showstopper.

For Kids
One of the best ways to introduce children to the meaning and magic of Passover is through books. Reading about the Passover story before your seder will help your child have a deeper understanding of why we do what we do on Passover (which is the point of the seder, right?). The library has a beautiful collection of Passover books for children of all ages, from Tomie dePaola's board book, My First Passover, to engaging folktales (The Magician's Visit), and stories of the warmth of family and home (Matzah Ball Moon). We have arts and crafts books as well, for festive holiday preparations and celebrations.

If your seder tradition includes children drifting away from the table to watch TV, why not show a Passover-themed movie? Borrow The Prince of Egypt or The Ten Commandments from the library, and keep those kids happy while the grownups continue the seder. If TV isn't in your Passover plans, a basket of Pesach-themed books near the table will help keep kids engaged and entertained.

All of these titles are available in the library now- stop in and we'll help you find everything you need for your Passover celebrations.

exploring the world of judaism- audio archive

2011-03-27T13:00:00.000-07:00

Did you know that recordings of Congregation Rodef Sholom's Exploring the World of Judaism lecture series are available to listen to or download-- for free! From historical and cultural perspectives to spiritual inquiry to political discussions, there is something for everyone.

Discover the rich and varied collection of topics and speakers here.

welcome!

2011-03-27T12:29:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Lefferts Jewish Community Library, and to our blog. Here you will find book reviews, announcements about special events, and other cultural and educational resources. We hope you'll stop by the library and visit!