Levinson-Krupp Library

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Levinson-Krupp Library

This library was dedicated 50 years ago to the memory of Rebecca Lewin Levinson and Brannette Mayer Krupp by Justice and Mrs. Bernard Levinson. Over the years the library fell into disrepair, but starting in 2005 was redesigned and updated to accommodate the Rabbi Morris Goldfarb Collection. The library contains books of Jewish interest ranging from religious texts to modern fiction, including a small section of children’s literature. Recent additions include DVDs and CDs. Full catalogue available at: http://templeehi.mysurpass.net.


Levinson-Krupp Library Updates


April 2022

 Book  Author   Info
Laura Arnold Leibman 305.48 LEI THE ART OF THE JEWISH FAMILY: A HISTORY OF WOMEN IN EARLY NEW YORK IN FIVE OBJECTS

In The Art of the Jewish Family, Ms Leibman examines five objects owned by a diverse group of Jewish women who all lived in New York in the years between 1750 and 1850: a letter from impoverished Hannah Louzada seeking assistance; a set of silver cups owned by Reyna Levy Moses; an ivory miniature owned by Sarah Brandon Moses, who was born enslaved and became one of the wealthiest Jewish women in New York; a book created by Sarah Ann Hays Mordecai; and a family silhouette owned by Rebbetzin Jane Symons Isaacs.

Laura Arnold Leibman 974.7 LEI ONCE WE WERE SLAVES

Blanche Moses firmly believed her maternal ancestors were Sephardic grandees. Yet she found herself at a dead end when it came to her grandmother’s maternal line. Using family heirlooms to unlock the mystery of Moses’s ancestors, Once We Were Slaves overturns the reclusive heiress’s assumptions about her family history to reveal that her grandmother and great-uncle, Sarah and Isaac Brandon, actually began their lives as poor Christian slaves in Barbados.

Rosemary Sullivan 940.53 SUL THE BETRAYAL OF ANNE FRANK: A Cold Case Investigation

Using new technology, recently discovered documents and sophisticated investigative techniques, an international team (led by an obsessed retired FBI agent) has finally solved the mystery that has haunted generations since World War II: Who betrayed Anne Frank and her family? And why?


December 2021

Young Adult Hanukkah Books

By Sally, Deborah, and Charlotte

Every Hanukkah time we feature books from our Juvenile collection of Hanukkah books. This year is no different, so along with our wishes for a great Hanukkah, we send the following list of Juvenile books.

JUV HAN HES THE STONE LAMP: Eight Stories of Hanukkah through History by Karen Hesse and Brian Pinkney.

Karen Hesse captures the resilient spirit of the Jewish people through the voices of eight children at Hanukkah. The children—from Tamara in 12th-century England and Jeremie in 13th-century France to Havva in 17th-century Turkey and Ori in 20th-century Israel—are united by love, family, and their cherished stone lamp.

JUV HAN FRE HANUKKAH A Three-Dimensional Celebration by Sara Freedland.

Sara Freedland recounts the dramatic events that took place in Jerusalem more than 2,000 years ago. The book includes a pop-up menorah, traditional songs to sing, and even a pop-out dreidel and coins to play with! A lively way to learn about and celebrate Hanukkah.

JUV HAN ZOR THE HANUKKAH FAMILY TREASURY by Steven Zorn, Rabbi Joui Hessel, and Sarah Gibb.

This very special, beautifully illustrated collection presents the stories of the Maccabees and Judith, a Hanukkah poem by Emma Lazarus, and traditional blessings in Hebrew and English.

JUV HAN HANUKKAH IN A BOOK – published by Abrams Noterie.

Celebrate the eight days of Hanukkah with a unique book that transforms into a menorah to display on a desk, table, or windowsill.

 


November 2021

By Sally, Deborah and Charlotte

The Library is closed, but you may request specific books to be picked up on either Monday or Thursday from 9 AM-noon. Please be patient with us. This month we would like to introduce you to the following new books:

H FIC JEN   THE WOMAN WITH THE BLUE STAR by Pam Jenoff.

Sadie Gault is eighteen and living with her parents in the Kraków Ghetto during World War II. When the Nazis liquidate the ghetto, Sadie and her pregnant mother are forced to seek refuge in the perilous tunnels beneath the city. One day Sadie looks up through a grate and sees a girl about her own age buying flowers.

H 973.4 POR  THE JEWISH WORLD OF ALEXANDER HAMILTON by Andrew Porwancher.

In The Jewish World of Alexander Hamilton, Andrew Porwancher arrives at a startling conclusion: Hamilton, in all likelihood, was born and raised Jewish. For more than two centuries, his youth in the Caribbean has remained shrouded in mystery. Hamilton himself wanted it that way, and most biographers have simply assumed he had a Christian boyhood. With a detective’s persistence and a historian’s rigor, Porwancher upends that assumption and revolutionizes our understanding of an American icon.

H 220.10 SAC  STUDIES IN SPIRITUALITY: A Weekly Reading of the Jewish Bible by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks.

Studies in Spirituality is the final volume to be published of Rabbi Sacks’ Covenant & Conversation essays on the weekly Torah portion. In these pages, we find Rabbi Sacks reading the biblical narrative with profound sensitivity to the depths of the human condition. He inspires us to see models of courage, innovation, faith, fear, the challenges and beauty of family dynamics, healing, the art of listening, hope, personal transformation, and more. His poignant reflections on spirituality return to us the sense of closeness with God that resonated so powerfully with our ancestors – that intimacy which gave them a sense of hope and courage and singularity.

REMINDER: You can access the entire Levinson-Krupp library catalog using this new address in your web browser: https://shaloha.library.site/


October 1, 2021

L’shana tovah tikkatevu. May you all be inscribed for a good year! Once again we are observing the holidays under COVID restrictions, but that makes our greeting even warmer. Even though the Library is not open, we want to share the following books with you.

HH 296.43 MIL  ON WINGS OF HOPE: Reflections on the High Holy Days, by Rabbi Avis D. Miller

HH 296.43 SOL  THIS GRATEFUL HEART: Psalms and Prayers for a New Day by Alden Solovy.

HH 296.43 STE  CHANGE AND RENEWAL: The Essence of the Jewish Holidays, Festivals & Days of Remembrance  by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz.


August 2021

This has been a summer of hope and caution. We hope that the library will be open so that you can access all the wonderful books here.

170 MOR  MORALITY: Restoring the common good in divided times – by Jonathan Sacks

In Morality, respected faith leader and public intellectual Jonathan Sacks traces today’s crisis to our loss of a strong, shared moral code and our elevation of self-interest over the common good. We have outsourced morality to the market and the state, but neither is capable of showing us how to live.

BIO COH  TWO-GUN COHEN: a Biography by Daniel S. Levy

Levy, a staff reporter for Time magazine, presents a portrait of story of Jewish adventurer Morris Cohen, who in a small way helped influence events in China. Born in Russia of Orthodox Jewish parents and reared in England, Cohen was a hustler, card sharp, and con man who was eventually forced to emigrate to Canada. Ultimately, Cohen went to China, where he became the bodyguard of Sun Yat-sen, unifier of modern China.

892.48 SHA  My Wild Garden by Meir Shalev

On the perimeter of Israel’s Jezreel Valley, with the Carmel mountains rising up in the west, Meir Shalev has a beloved garden, “neither neatly organized nor well kept,” as he cheerfully explains. Often covered in mud and scrapes, Shalev cultivates both nomadic plants and “house dwellers,” using his own quirky techniques.


July 2021

We are looking forward to the day when the library will be open again. Until then we are sharing some of our exciting new books waiting to be read. This month we are highlighting the biographies that were added to the collection this year.

 

BIOGRAPHY
CALL # TITLE AUTHOR
BIO The Lady of Hebrew and her lovers of Zion Halkin, Hillel.
BIO COH My future is in America: autobiographies of Eastern European Jewish immigrants Cohen and Soyer
BIO COH Two-Gun Cohen: a biography Levy, Daniel S.
BIO DAW From Left to Right: Lucy S. Dawidowicz, the New York Intellectuals, and the Politics of Jewish History Sinkoff, Nancy
BIO GIN Dissenter on the bench: Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s life & work Ortiz, Victoria
BIO GOR Fierce attachments: a memoir Gornick, Vivian
BIO HEC A child of the century Hecht, Ben
BIO HER Theodor Herzl: the charismatic leader Penslar, Derek Jonathan
BIO HOU Houdini: The Elusive American. Begley, Adam
BIO LEE Stan Lee: A life in Comics Liebovitz, Liel
BIO MIL In my next life, I’ll get it right Mild, Rosemary
BIO ROT Philip Roth. the biography Bailey, Blake
BIO SEN There’s a mystery there: the primal vision of Maurice Sendak Cott, Jonathan
BIO SHC Never alone: prison, politics, and my people Shcharansky, Natan
BIO SON Sontag: her life and work Moser, Benjamin
BIO STA The Seventh Heaven: Travels through Jewish Latin America Stavans, Illan
BIO STE Family papers: a Sephardic journey through the twentieth century Stein, Sarah Abrevaya
BIO VAN My Name Is Selma: The Remarkable Memoir of a Jewish Resistance Fighter and Ravensbruck Survivor Van De Perre, Selma
BIO VIE The sun and her stars: Salka Viertel and Hitler’s exiles in the golden age of Hollywood Rifkind, Donna
BIO WIL Unstoppable: Siggi B. Wilzig’s Astonishing Journey from Auschwitz Survivor and Penniless Immigrant to Wall Street Legend Greene, Joshua M.
BIO WIZ The fixed stars Wizenberg, Molly

 


June 2021

Soon we will be able to reopen the library to everyone. Meanwhile, we are working behind the scenes to catch up with a year of work. We have added books to the collection in every section, but the list is too long to include in one eblast. So, this month we are sending you a list of the recently purchased fiction books awaiting you.

Book Cover Book Cover Book Cover

Recently Purchased Fiction Books at the Levinson-Krupp Library

FICTION
Call # Title Author
FIC ADL The Brothers of Auschwitz. Adler, Malka
FIC AIN The Takeaway Men. Ain, Meryl
FIC BEA Florence Adler swims forever Beanland, Rachel
FIC BLA The guest book Blake, Sarah
FIC BRO Milk fed Broder, Melissa
FIC CAM Beyond the ghetto gates Cameron, Michelle
FIC ELI Hannah’s war Eliasberg, Jan
FIC GOL American Pastimes Goldstein, Sidney P.
FIC GRO The lost shtetl Gross, Max
FIC HAR The book of lost names Harmel, Kristin
FIC HIR My mother’s son Hirshberg, David
FIC HIR Jacobo’s Rainbow Hirshberg, David
FIC HOF Magic lessons Hoffman, Alice
FIC HOP The orchard Hopen, David
FIC ICZ The slaughterman’s daughter Iczkovits, Yaniv
FIC KAG My Son’s Secret Kagan, Roberta
FIC KEL The lost boys Kellerman, Faye
FIC KRA The Children’s Block: A Novel Based on the True Story of an Auschwitz Survivor Kraus, Otto B.
FIC MAS On the landing: stories Mash, Yente
FIC MEY The imperfects Meyerson, Amy
FIC MOL A Jewish refugee in New York: Rivke Zilberg’s journal Molodowsky, Kadia
FIC MOR Cilka’s journey Morris, Heather
FIC OZI Antiquities Ozick, Cynthia
FIC PIC The book of two ways Picoult, Jodi
FIC RAB Prairie Sonata. Rabin, Sandy Shefrin
FIC RAP Evening Rapoport, Nessa
FIC ROS The yellow bird sings Rosner, Jennifer
FIC ROSS Oreo Ross, Fran
FIC SAC City of a thousand gates Sacks, Rebecca
FIC SAR The memory monster Sarid, Yishai
FIC SCO Eternal Scottoline, Lisa
FIC SIN Enemies: A Love Story. Singer, Isaac Bashevis
FIC SOL The book of V. Solomon, Anna
FIC SUL Beneath a scarlet sky Sullivan, Mark T.
FIC TRU Where Madness Lies True, Sylvia
FIC WEI Big summer Weiner, Jennifer
FIC YEH The Tunnel. Yehoshua, A. B.


May 2021

Here we are in the merry month of May and we celebrate Yom Yerushalayim on May 10th and on May 17th we begin the celebration of Shavuot. Temple Emanu-El is still closed and so is the Library but we look forward to the day when it will reopen. Until then we are sharing books that will be available.

Here are the books that we are highlighting for this month.

 

 

BIO MIL   IN MY NEXT LIFE, I’LL GET IT RIGHT by Rosemary Mild.

No subject escapes the sharp eye of Rosemary Mild – wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother. You’ll delight in her Hawaii adventures: “Senior Decade,” brief encounters with the famous, and medical mishaps. Join her as she takes on sailing, skating, Jazzercise, football, and more – and feel for a mother’s heart-wrenching loss. See how Rosemary views her two marriages, the not so good and the good. Discover how she and her second husband, Larry, juggle their seamless fiction-writing tools.

BIO WIL   UNSTOPPABLE: The Unbelievable True Story of Siggi B.Wilzig’s Astonishing Journey from Auschwitz Survivor and Penniless Immigrant to Wall Street Legend by Joshua M. Greene.

Unstoppable is the ultimate immigrant story and an epic David and Goliath adventure. While American teens were socializing in ice cream parlors, Siggi was suffering beatings by Nazi hoodlums for being a Jew and was soon deported along with his family to the darkest place the world has ever known: Auschwitz. Siggi used his wits to stay alive, pretending to have trade skills the Nazis could exploit to run the camp. After two death marches and near starvation, he was liberated from camp Mauthausen and went to work for the US Army hunting Nazis, a service that earned him a visa to America. On arrival, he made three vows: to never go hungry again, to support the Jewish people, and to speak out against injustice. He earned his first dollar shoveling snow after a fierce blizzard. His next job was laboring in toxic sweatshops. From these humble beginnings, he became President, Chairman and CEO of a New York Stock Exchange-listed oil company and grew a full-service commercial bank to more than $4 billion in assets.

641.5 MON  NOW FOR SOMETHING SWEET

by the Monday Morning Cooking Club.

Now for Something Sweet is the result of an intensive search to uncover, curate and celebrate the very best, most cherished sweet recipes from the Jewish community in Australia and around the world, including one outstanding savoury chapter to provide delicious relief from all the sweetness. Alongside the recipes, they recount heart-warming and poignant stories of family, friendship, community and survival. Ranging from the

straightforward to the more elaborate, these recipes are always impressive and often show-stopping. From the simple passionfruit-iced coconut slab cake to a Russian yeasted kulich which is worth the day it takes to make, from quick-bake chocolate-sandwiched romany cream biscuits to the perfect vanilla slice (mille feuille) for the home cook, this book has it all. Step-by-step ‘how to’ guides for a few essential techniques provide a helping hand to those who need it, and the more complex recipes offer a challenge for those who crave it.

We hope that you may soon be able to borrow these and other great books that we have in our Library.

Shalom and Aloha, Sally, Deborah and Charlotte 


April 2021

It has been a year since the Temple and the Library have been open, but we are hoping that with the increase in vaccinations and the move to Tier 3 in Hawaiʻi, we may be open before the year’s end once more.

JUV BIO SIS     NICKY & VERA: A QUIET HERO OF THE HOLOCAUST AND THE CHILDREN HE RESCUED by Peter Sis.

In December 1938, a young Englishman canceled a ski vacation and went instead to Prague to help the hundreds of thousands of refugees from the Nazis who were crowded into the city.

305.80 GRO     BEYOND THE SYNAGOGUE: JEWISH NOSTALGIA AS RELIGIOUS PRACTICE

by Rachel B.Gross.

In 2007, the Museum at Eldridge Street opened at the site of a restored nineteenth-century synagogue originally built by some of the first Eastern European Jewish immigrants in New York City. Visitors to the museum are invited to stand along indentations on the floor where footprints of congregants past have worn down the soft pinewood.

FIC KEL           THE LOST BOYS; A DECKER/LAZARUS NOVEL by Faye Kellerman.

Faye Kellerman returns with an atmospheric, fast-paced mystery set in bucolic upstate New York, full of unexpected twists and turns that build to a shocking and surprising end in the latest thrilling entry of her New York Times bestseller Decker and Lazarus series.


August 2020

By Sally Morgan

Temple Emanu El is closed, and that is why the Library is also closed. However, we are still buying books to keep the Library current once we open again.  Among the new books are:

Book cover Big Summer

940.53 FAL | Shanghai Remembered: Stories of Jews Who Escaped from Nazi Germany by Berl Falbaum | Through word of mouth or information from travel agencies, Jews from various parts of Europe discovered that Shanghai was an open port.

FIC WEI | Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner | A deliciously funny and remarkably poignant novel about friendship, frenemies, and the importance of making peace with yourself through all life’s ups and downs.

641.6 ART | The Dairy Restaurant by Ben Katchor. | Ben Katchor retells the history of where we choose to eat—a history that starts with the first man who was allowed to enter a walled garden and encouraged by the garden’s owner to enjoy its fruits.

940.53 53 FOE | I Want You To Know We Are Still Here | by Esther Safran Foer. | Esther Safran Foer grew up in a home where the past was too terrible to speak. Her parents were the sole survivors of their respective families. The Holocaust loomed in the backdrop of daily life, felt, but never discussed.


April 2020

223.9 WAL |  MEGILLAT ESTHER by JT Waldman

Megillat Esther is commonly referred to as the Book of Esther, but there is nothing common about JT Waldman’s interpretation of this Biblical story. In what may be the world’s first religious, scholarly comic book, Waldman tells the epic tale of exile and redemption in graphic form. When Esther, a Jewish woman, is made Queen of Persia she must keep her identity hidden, all the while maneuvering to save her people from annihilation. This is a story familiar to many Jews who have heard it recounted every year on the holiday of Purim. But readers of all backgrounds will be entranced by what artist Waldman depicts in his interpretation of the text. At once traditional and groundbreaking, Megillat Esther will challenge secular assumptions about the Bible.

 

PUR 296.43 GOO  | THE PURIM ANTHOLOGY by Rabbi Philip Goodman.

THE PURIM ANTHOLOGY is a thoughtful and fun-filled literary feast. This treasury includes The Origin of Purim by Solomon Grayzel, The Esther Story in Art by Rachel Wischnitzer, Purim in Music by A. W. Binder (including an extensive compilation of Purim songs), The History of Purim Plays by Jacob Shatzky, Purim celebrations in Tel Aviv by Mortimer J. Cohen, and Purim in humor by Israel Davidson.

JUV HOL DRU | THE FAMILY TREASURE OF JEWISH HOLIDAYS by Malka Drucker.

A richly illustrated collection of facts, activities, and stories about Jewish holidays and celebrations gathers information from both old and new traditions and features selections by writers including Barbara Cohen and Isaac Bashevis Singer.

JUV PUR SIL | THE FESTIVAL OF ESTHER: THE STORY OF PURIM by Maida Silverman.

This is an admirably simple, clear telling of the rather complicated story of King Ahasuerus, Queen Esther, her cousin Mordecai and the villain Haman with lush illustrations enhancing the storytelling. The book ends with a recipe for hamantaschen cookies and a traditional holiday song.

JUV PUR GEL |  QUEEN ESTHER SAVES HER PEOPLE retold by Rita Golden Gelman.

Based closely on the Book of Esther and featuring childlike artwork that captures the trappings of the period, it is a spirited retelling of the Purim story celebrating Queen Esther’s brave defense of the Jews against the king’s tyrannical prime minister.

 

 

 

 


March 2020

JUV HOL KORN | SADIE’S SNOWY TU B’SHEVAT by Jamie Korngold.

Sadie wants to plant a tree for Tu B’Shevat. But it’s the middle of winter! Her parents and grandfather assure her that a tree can’t take root in the frozen ground. But with help from brother Ori and Grandma, Sadie learns why the tree-planting holiday is celebrated in winter and finds her own special ways to celebrate it.

 

 

FIC JEN | THE AMBASSADOR’S DAUGHTER by Pam Jenoff.

Paris, 1919. Margot Rosenthal has arrived in France with her father, a German diplomat. She initially resents being trapped in the congested capital, where she is still considered the enemy. But as she contemplates returning to Berlin and a life she hardly knows anymore, she decides that being in Paris is not so bad after all. Bored and torn between duty and the desire to be free, Margot strikes up unlikely alliances: with Krysia, an accomplished musician with radical acquaintances and a secret to protect; and with Georg, a naval officer who gives Margot a job-and a reason to question everything she thought she knew about where her true loyalties should lie. Against a backdrop of one of the most significant events of the century, a delicate web of lies obscures the line between the casualties of the heart, making trust a luxury that no one can afford.

 

FIC CZA | THE FALCONER by Dana Czapnik.

New York, 1993. Street-smart seventeen-year-old Lucy Adler is often the only girl on the public basketball courts. Lucy’s inner life is a contradiction. She’s by turns quixotic and cynical, insecure and self-possessed, and, despite herself, is in unrequited love with her best friend and pickup teammate, Percy, the rebellious son of a prominent New York family. As Lucy begins to question accepted notions of success, bristling against her own hunger for male approval, she is drawn into the world of a pair of provocative feminist artists living in what remains of New York’s bohemia. Told with wit and pathos, The Falconer is at once a novel of ideas, a portrait of a time and place, and an ode to the obsessions of youth. In her critically acclaimed debut, Dana Czapnik captures the voice of an unforgettable modern literary heroine, a young woman in the first flush of freedom.

 

929.4 FER | A ROSENBERG BY ANY OTHER NAME: A History of Jewish Name Changing in America

by Kirsten Fermaglich.

This first history of name changing in the United States offers a previously unexplored window into American Jewish life throughout the twentieth century. A Rosenberg by Any Other Name demonstrates how historical debates about immigration, antisemitism and race, class mobility, gender and family, the boundaries of the Jewish community, and the power of government are reshaped when name changing becomes part of the conversation. Fermaglich argues convincingly that name changing had a lasting impact on American Jewish culture. Ordinary Jews were forced to consider changing their names as they saw their friends, family, classmates, co-workers, and neighbors do so. Jewish communal leaders and civil rights activists needed to consider name changers as part of the Jewish community, making name changing a pivotal part of early civil rights legislation. And Jewish artists created critical portraits of name changers that lasted for decades in American Jewish culture. This book ends with the disturbing realization that the prosperity Jews found by changing their names is not as accessible for the Chinese, Latino, and Muslim immigrants who wish to exercise that right today.


 

February 2020

We send our wishes for a happy, healthy 2020 New Year! We have many new books in our collection, but space to share only a few with you. Among them are:

211.09 GOL TOMORROW’S GOD: The Hebrew Lord in an Age of Science by Robert N. Goldman.

What is the relationship between the Hebrew Bible and modern science? To answer this question, Robert Goldman invites the reader on a carefully guided intellectual journey spanning centuries of theological, philosophical, and scientific thought, before arriving at his provocative conclusion.

 

 

 

 

305.89 AUE PRINT TO FIT: The New York Times, Zionism and Israel 1896-2016 by Jerold S. Auerbach.

After Adolph Ochs purchased The New York Times in 1896, Zionism and the eventual reality of the State of Israel were framed within his guiding principle, also embraced by his Sulzberger family successor, that Judaism is a religion and not a national identity.

 

 

 

FIC BLO WHITE HOUSES by Amy Bloom.


Lorena Hickok meets Eleanor Roosevelt in 1932 while reporting on Franklin Roosevelt’s first presidential campaign. Having grown up worse than poor in South Dakota and reinventing herself as the most prominent woman reporter in America, “Hick,” as she was known to her friends and admirers, is not quite instantly charmed by the idealistic,
patrician Eleanor.

 

 

FIC MAN THE SONG OF THE JADE LILY by Kirsty Manning.

A gripping historical novel that tells the little-known story of Jewish refugees who fled to Shanghai during WWII. 1939: Two young girls meet in Shanghai, also known as the “Paris of the East.”

 

 


January 2020

This month, we bring to you some of the many Hanukkah books and CDs that we have in our collection:

JUV HAN JEN | ALL-OF-A-KIND FAMILY HANUKKAH

by Emily Jenkins and Paul O. Zelinsky.

This Hanukkah story is based on Sidney Taylor’s classic books about a family with 5 girls living on the Lower East Side of New York City in 1912 As preparations for Hanukkah are made each girl has a task except the youngest who is banished to her room for getting upset. When Papa gets home she ends up with the best job of all.

 

JUV HAN SIL MEET THE LATKES by Alan Silberg.

Lucy Latke’s family is just like yours or mine. Except that they’re potato pancakes. And also, they are completely clueless. After lighting the menorah and gobbling the gelt, Grandpa Latke tells everyone the Hanukkah story, complete with mighty Mega Bees who use a giant dreidel to fight against the evil alien potatoes from Planet Chhh. It’s up to the Latke family dog to set the record straight. (To start with, they were  Maccabees, not Mega Bees…) But he’ll have to get the rest of the Latkes to listen to him first!

 

JUV HAN GUT HONEYKY HANUKAH by Woody Guthrie

“Latkes and goody things all over town, it’s Honeyky Hanukah time!” In Woody Guthrie’s rowdy, funny celebration of Hanukah, a young boy and his dog move merrily from house to house, gathering up family and friends for a big feast. With an accompanying CD, featuring Guthrie’s song recorded by the Klezmatics, this is a Hanukah book you can dance to!

And here are CDS to add to your Hanukkah pleasure:

CD 71 The Jewish Experience. Chanukkah. Listen to the Western Wind Vocal Ensemble as Theodore Bikel tells the Hanukkah story.

CD 33 A HANUKKA CELEBRATION A Milken Archive

Recording brings old favorites and new discoveries together for a unique American Hanukkah celebration.

CD 37 WOODY GUTHRIE’S HAPPY JOYOUS HANUKKAH

Celebrate Hanukkah with the Klezmatics singing songs Woody Guthrie wrote inspired by the poems of his mother-in-law, the Yiddish poet Aliza Greenblatt.


November 2019

355.8 KEA The Bastard Brigade: The True Story of the

Renegade Scientists and Spies who Sabotaged the Nazi

Atomic Bomb by Sam Kean.

BIO RAP A Well-Read Woman: The life, loves, and legacy

of Ruth Rappaport by Kate Stewart.

940.53 SPI Renia’s Diary by Renia Spiegel with her sister,

Elizabeth Bellak.

September 2019

It is September and that brings us to the Jewish months of Elul and Tishrei when we celebrate the Birthday of the World!   Rosh Hashanah starts on Sunday evening, September 29th, and so begins the time for us to take stock of our behavior and to change that which we know to be wrong. Rabbi Lawrence A. Hoffman has edited a series named Prayers of Awe, we have all of the books in the series, and we will highlight three of these books:

Book Cover - Encountering God.HH 296.43 HOF | Encountering God: God Merciful and Gracious | This volume charts the importance of the Thirteen Attributes of God. It offers perspectives from men and women, rabbis and lay people, scholars and artists, from across the spectrum of Jewish life. They represent the US, Israel, the UK, Germany, France, Canada, and Australia.

 

HH 296.43 HOF | Naming God: Our Father, Our King | One of the oldest and Book Cover - Naming Godmost beloved prayers is Avinu Malkeinu (“Our Father, Our King”). “Our Father, Our King” has resonance also for Christians, whose Lord’s Prayer begins “Our Father.” Despite its popularity, Avinu Malkeinu causes great debate because of the difficulties in thinking of God as father and king.

 

Book Cover - All These VowsHH 296.43 HOF | All These Vows: Kol Nidre | Through a series of lively commentaries, over thirty contributors examine Kol Nidre’s theology, usage, and deeply personal impact.

 

 

 

Pomegranate

On Rosh Hashanah it is written…on Yom Kippur it is sealed. May it be written and sealed that you have a new year that brings fulfillment and happiness, peace and prosperity… all of life’s very best things.

Have a Happy, Healthy New Year!


August 2019

781.7 ROG THE ESSENTIAL KLEZMER by Seth Rogovoy.

Klezmer CoverYou can hear it in the hottest clubs in New York, the hippest rooms in New Orleans, Chicago, and San Francisco, and in top concert halls around the world. It’s a joyous sound that echoes the past. It’s Old World meets New World. It’s secular and sacred. It’s traditional and experimental. It’s played by classical violinist Itzhak Perlman (his all-klezmer album and his all-time best-seller!), the hypno-pop band Yo La Tengo, and avant-gardist John Zorn. It made the late great Benny Goodman’s clarinet wail. It’s klezmer and it’s hot! The Essential Klezmer is the definitive introduction to a musical form in the midst of a renaissance. It documents the history of klezmer from its roots in the Jewish communities of medieval Eastern Europe to its current revival in Europe and America.

 

940.53 FAI THE VOLUNTEER by Jack Fairweather.

Volunteer Book CoverThe incredible true story of a Polish resistance fighter’s infiltration of Auschwitz to sabotage the camp from within, and his death-defying attempt to warn the Allies about the Nazis’ plans for a “Final Solution” before it was too late. To uncover the fate of the thousands being interred at a mysterious Nazi camp on the border of the Reich, a thirty-nine-year-old Polish resistance fighter named Witold Pilecki volunteered for an audacious mission: assume a fake identity, intentionally get captured and sent to the new camp, and then report back to the underground on what had happened to his compatriots there. But gathering information was not his only task: he was to execute an attack from inside, where the Germans would least expect it. The name of the camp was Auschwitz. Over the next two and half years, Pilecki forged an underground army within Auschwitz that sabotaged facilities, assassinated Nazi informants and officers, and gathered evidence of terrifying abuse and mass murder. But as he pieced together the horrifying truth that the camp was to become the epicenter of Nazi plans to exterminate Europe’s Jews, Pilecki realized he would have to risk his men, his life, and his family to warn the West before all was lost. To do so, meant attempting the impossible; an escape from Auschwitz itself.

CD 51  IN THE FIDDLER’S HOUSE

Fiddlers House Klezmer CoverIn his introductory note to this CD, Itzhak Perlman informs us that, more than anything else he has recorded, this is truly his own music–“what you might hear if you came to my house and I decided to jam with some friends.” And jam he does–with some very talented friends indeed. Klezmer music, which combines the folk and religious music of Yiddish-speaking cultures with various musical traditions of countries such as Russia, Turkey, and Greece, is unusual territory for a major label and a superstar artist, but here the combination works perfectly. Perlman, who normally is the star of his recordings, just blends into the whole celebration. The playing of violin, accordion, mandolin, clarinet, and other instruments is stylish, infectious, and at times virtuosic.

296.3 WAR  THE LIBERATING PATH OF THE HEBREW PROPHETS THEN AND NOW by Nahum Ward-Lev.

Liberating Path CoverIn the face of current societal challenges, Nahum Ward-Lev mines Biblical wisdom to illumine a way forward. His book explores the rich territory of social change towards equity and widespread opportunity, as articulated by the Hebrew prophets and lived by Biblical persons. In engaging prose, Ward-Lev offers a fresh reading of familiar Biblical narratives, revealing the liberation themes in these stories. The book then examines the development of these Biblical liberation themes in contemporary prophetic writers including Abraham Joshua Heschel and Martin Luther King. This exploration of Biblical themes clarifies practices for the liberation journey, including prioritizing reciprocal relationships, engaging in dialogue, exercising social and artistic imagination, and nurturing a love ethic in public life. This book empowers readers of all faiths and backgrounds to view current challenges through a prophetic lens and take prophetic action.

 


July 2019

By Sally, Deborah and Charlotte

It’s July and we celebrate the founding of our country on the 4th. From the poem “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus:
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
This is the wonder of America.
From our collection:

808.87 BIR 1,003 GREAT THINGS ABOUT BEING JEWISH by Lisa Birnbach. From the trio responsible for the successful 1,003 series comes 1,003 Great Things About Being Jewish, the perfect humorous book to celebrate being Jewish.

BIO ROS NOT BAD FOR DELANCY STREET: THE RISE OF BILLY ROSE by Mark Cohen. The first biography in fifty years of the producer, World’s Fair impresario, songwriter, nightclub and theater owner, syndicated columnist, art collector, tough guy, and philanthropist, is the first to tell the whole story of Rose’s life.

FIC SIN UNDERGROUND FUGUE by Margot Singer. Set against the tube bombings in London in 2005, Underground Fugue interweaves the stories of four people dislocated by shock waves of personal loss, political violence, and, ultimately, betrayal.

909 MAG MASADA by Jodi Magness. Jodi Magness, an archaeologist who has excavated at Masada, explains what happened there, how we know it, and how recent developments might change understandings of the story.

PLEASE NOTE:

When you borrow a book, please sign out with the barcode number. In the example above, the number 7106 is the barcode number.The label you see on the spine of each book is the call number, not the barcode number.  We need the barcode number to identify the specific book you have borrowed. The barcode is found as you open the book and see a barcode label on the top right hand corner of the page, usually opposite the bookplate. Several books may have the same call number but each book has its own barcode number.

Happy Fourth of July!!
With aloha from Sally, Deborah and Charlotte

June 2019

By Sally, Deborah and Charlotte

June is busting out all over from graduations, ending of the school year, Jewish Holidays like Shavu’ot, celebrations like Yom Yerushalayim and many weddings…And new books and DVDs in the Library. Among them are:

FIC HIR | MY MOTHER’S SON [A NOVEL] by David Hirshberg | MY Mother’s Son is a story told by a radio raconteur revisiting his past in post-World War II Boston, the playground and battleground for two brothers whose lives are transformed by discoveries they never could have imagined.

305.89 MOF | FIRST THE JEWS: COMBATING THE WORLD’S LONGEST-RUNNING HATE CAMPAIGN by Evan Moffic.| This book gives the clearest and most concise explanation of where anti-Semitism comes from, why it continues, and how to stop its resurgence today.

FIC KEL | LOST ROSES by Martha Hall Kelly. | From the turbulent streets of St. Petersburg and aristocratic countryside estates to the avenues of Paris where a society of fallen Russian émigrés live to the mansions of Long Island, the lives of Eliza, Sofya, and Varinka will intersect in profound ways.

 

DVD 277 DANIEL DERONDA .  What are the secrets that surround his birth? A screenplay adapted from the novel by George Eiiot.
DVD 278THE GREAT AMERICAN SONGBOOK.  Celebrating 100 years of American Songs.

It’s hot, so pick up a book or a DVD to enjoy while you are under the cooling breeze of the AC or a fan.


May 2019

We are adding a new category to our collection – YA (Young Adult). This includes books that range in interest to teens and adults. These books are located above the Children’s Collection. Check them out. Meanwhile, we highlight some new books in the library for your reading pleasure.

No Place Larry Mild Cover Honey and Poi Cover Americas Jewish Women Cover
SC BIO MILD 

NO PLACE TO BE BUT HERE: 

My Life and Times by Larry Mild.

Get to know our own Larry Mild as you follow his life as the introverted, chubby youth struggles through his formative years to eventually find success and fulfillment as a technician in the U.S. Navy as a digital design engineer, and, finally, as a mystery author. Track his successes and slips as he attempts to deal with every challenge and blessing tossed his way. It is not only his own story, but that of his family. Join him as he tells how his two wives, three children, and five grandchildren have shaped his life as much as he has  molded theirs. Tragedy is certainly no stranger as he deals with death, cancer, murder, and global terrorism, not only on the written page, but in his own life.

973 SOF

HONEY AND POI: the Origins and Development of Congregation Sof Ma’arav in Honolulu, Hawaii

If you have ever wondered about your neighbor congregation, Sof Ma’arav, the only Conservative Jewish congregation in Hawaii, this book gives you an insight into what makes Sof unique. It reviews the questions that Sof has struggled with during its time: conversion, egalitarianism, religious education, finances and United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism affiliation. Sof’s solutions enabled the congregation, standing alone, to cope with these issues without losing its sense of purpose.

305.48 NAD

AMERICA’S JEWISH WOMEN: A History from Colonial Times to Today by Pamela S. Nadell.

A groundbreaking history of how Jewish women maintained their identity and influenced social activism as they wrote themselves into American history.

 

Nadell recounts how Jewish women have been at the forefront of causes for centuries, fighting for suffrage, trade unions, civil rights and feminism, and hoisting banners for Jewish rights around the world. These women’s lives have left deep footprints in the history of the nation they call home.

 

New DVDs at the Levinson-Krupp Library

Trial Eichmann DVD Cover Tale Love Darkness DVD Cover
DVD 266

The Trial of Adolf Eichmann  

This comprehensive new documentary features detailed accounts of Eichmann’s capture, the drama in the courtroom and behind the scenes, and reactions to the trial from around the world.

DVD 268 

A Tale of Love and Darkness

Based on the international bestseller by Amos Oz, A Tale of Love and Darkness is the story of his youth, set against the backdrop of the end of the British Mandate for Palestine and the early years of the State of Israel.


New Books from April 2019

Sonora Cover Catch-67 Cover Braided Cover
FIC ASS 

SONORA by Hannah Lillith Assadi

2018 National Book Foundation’s 5 under 35 Honoree
A fevered, lyrical debut about two young women drawn into an ever-intensifying friendship set against the stark, haunted landscape of the Sonoran desert and the ecstatic frenzy of New York City. Ahlam, the daughter of a Palestinian refugee and his Israeli wife, grows up in the arid lands of desert suburbia outside of Phoenix.

956.04 GOO

CATCH-67  THE LEFT, THE RIGHT, AND THE LEGACY OF THE SIX-DAY WAR by Micah Goodman.

A controversial examination of the internal Israeli debate over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from a best-selling Israeli author. In a balanced and insightful analysis, Micah Goodman deftly sheds light on the ideas that have shaped Israelis’ thinking on both sides of the debate, and among secular and religious Jews about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

641.57 

RIC BRAIDED, A JOURNEY OF A THOUSAND CHALLAHS 

by Beth Ricannati, MD.

Finalist 2018 National Jewish Book Award in Women’s Studies.

What if you could bake bread once a week, every week? What if the smell of fresh bread could turn your house into a home? And what if the act of making the bread – mixing and kneading, watching and waiting – could heal your heartache and your emptiness, your sense of being overwhelmed? It can.


Contributed by the Levinson-Krupp Library
(Hours: 9 am-noon, Monday & Thursday or upon request)


April 2019

During this cold weather it’s always fun to curl up with a good book. We have lots of new books in the library just waiting to be read. Here is a sampling:

327.12 FRI   SPIES OF NO COUNTRY by Matti Friedman.

Award winning writer Matti Friedman’s tale of Israel’s first spies has all the tropes of an espionage novel. This includes duplicity, betrayal, disguise, clandestine meetings, the bluff, and the double bluff. Yet it’s all true. Spies of No Country is about the slippery identities of these young spies, but it’s also about Israel’s own complicated and fascinating identity. Israel sees itself and presents itself as a Western nation, when in fact more than half the country has Middle Eastern roots and traditions, like the spies of this story.

332.6 BRO RED NOTICE by Bill Browder.

A financial caper, a crime thriller, and a political crusade, Red Notice is the story of one man taking on overpowering odds to change the world, and also of how, without intending to, he found meaning in his life.

940.53 HAL SMALL MIRACLES OF THE HOLOCAUST by Yitta Halberstam & Judith Leventhal.

The authors, both second-generation Holocaust survivors, have culled stories from before, during, and after the Holocaust that demonstrate the full strength and power of the human spirit.

809 TEP  PRINCE OF THE PRESS by Joshua Teplitsky.

This is the story of one of the largest collections of Jewish books, and the man who used his collection to cultivate power, prestige, and political influence. David Oppenheim (1664-1736), chief rabbi of Prague in the early eighteenth century, built an unparalleled collection of Jewish books and manuscripts, all of which have survived and are housed in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. The story of his life and library brings together culture, commerce, and politics, all filtered through this extraordinary collection. Based on the careful reconstruction of an archive that is still visited by scholars today, Joshua Teplitsky’s book offers a window into the social life of Jewish books in early modern Europe.

ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE: A NOVEL by Anthony Doerr.

A stunningly ambitious and beautiful novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.

 

THE NIGHTINGALE by Kristin Hannah.

A love story and family drama set at the dawn of World War II.  With courage, grace, and powerful insight, bestselling author Kristin Hannah captures the epic panorama of World War II and illuminates an intimate part of history seldom seen: the women’s war.

 

FORESKIN’S LAMENT by Shalom Auslander.

Shalom Auslander was raised with a terrified respect for God. Even as he grew up and was estranged from his community, his religion and its traditions, he could not find the path to a life where he didn’t struggle daily with the fear of God’s formidable wrath.

Don’t forget to check the DVD collection, too!

Happy Reading,
Sally, Deborah and Charlotte
 
Remember you can see what’s in the library on the shaloha.com website

January 2019

Live every moment of 2019 and feel blessed to have the opportunity to see another day in paradise. Happy 2019 from all three of us!

Among the new books in our Library are:

FIC WOL  THE FEMALE PERSUASION  by Meg Wolitzer

232.9 FRE  WHEN CHRISTIANS WERE JEWS;THE FIRST GENERATION by Paula Fredriksen.

BIO KRU BELONGING; A German reckons with history and home by Norma Krug.

 


December 2018

The massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburg has both saddened and shocked the Jewish community.  The special services held here in Hawaii and throughout the United States have comforted us, and as it is written in Siddur Sim Shalom, “Fulfill the promise conveyed in Scripture to bring peace to the land and we shall lie down and no one shall terrify us.  Let love and justice flow like a mighty stream.  Let peace fill the earth as the waters fill the sea.”

 

From our friends at the Jewish Book Council this thought: In this time of grief (and fear, hopelessness, frustration, anger) we encourage you to find solace through literature.

 

Among the new books and DVDs  in the Library this month are:

 

 

296.09 WEI  

THE CHOSEN WARS: How Judaism became an American Religion  

by Stephen R. Weisman

 

 


343.56

KAFKA’S LAST TRIAL: The Case of a Literary Legacy.

by Benjamin Balint.

 

FIC CER   

THE IMPOSTER: A TRUE STORY by Javier Cercas.

 

DVD 226  OFF WHITE LIES.

DVD 262   RAANANAH: A World of Our Own.

DVD 217  ARRANGED: Friendship has no Religion.

 

  

 


November 2018

We have many new books in the Library. For a complete listing, go to the Temple Emanu-El web page (www.shaloha.com)  Click on Library and in the 3rd paragraph click on the Levinson-Krupp catalog. There you will find the complete catalog of our collection as well as a listing of new books.  For this month, we highlight:

 

FIC NAM  THE RUINED HOUSE

by Ruby Namdar.

 

 

FIC SHT  

LAKE SUCCESS

by Gary Shteyngart

 

 

 

 

BIO WOL   

WOLFSON AT HARVARD

by Leo W. Schwarz

 

 

 

296.4 GOL   

GOING KOSHER IN 30 DAYS

by Rabbi Zalman Goldstein

 

FIC MOR

THE TATTOOIST OF AUSCHWITZ

by Heather Morris

 

The Ruined House – Andrew P. Cohen, a professor of comparative culture at New York University, is at the zenith of his life. But the manicured surface of his world begins to crack when he is visited by a series of strange and inexplicable visions involving an ancient religious ritual that will upend his comfortable life. The winner of the Sapir Prize, Israel’s highest literary award.

 

Lake Success – Narcissistic, hilariously self-deluded, and divorced from the real world as most of us know it, hedge-fund manager Barry Cohen oversees $2.4 billion in assets. Meanwhile, his super-smart wife, Seema, a driven first-generation American who craved the picture-perfect life that comes with wealth, has her own demons to face.

 

Wolfson At Harvard – Harry A. Wolfson, renowned scholar of philosophy, lover of Hebrew language and letters, died in 1974 at age 87. He had spent more than six decades of his life at Harvard and had become one of its most celebrated and devoted sons. Wolfson emerges from this biography as a devoted friend, a dedicated teacher and a spell-binding lecturer.

 

Going Kosher in 30 Days – Keeping kosher is an extraordinary experience with countless physical and spiritual rewards. Set your own pace, advancing through GOING KOSHER IN 30 DAYS one day at a time.

 

A vivid, harrowing, and ultimately hopeful re-creation of Lale Sokolov’s experiences as the man who tattooed the arms of thousands of prisoners with what would become one of the most potent symbols of the Holocaust, The Tattooist of Auschwitz is also a testament to the endurance of love and humanity under the darkest possible conditions.


October 2018

From The Blessing of Renewal by Marcia Falk:

We enter the gates, grateful
for the blessing of renewal.
Let us bless the flow of life that revives us,
sustains us, and bring us to this time.

Among the books in our collection written for the Holidays we are highlighting the following:

 

HOL 296.41 SAC
CEREMONY AND CELEBRATIONS
by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

When did Rosh HaShana, the anniversary of creation, become a day of judgement? How does Yom Kippur unite the priest’s atonement with the prophet’s repentance? What makes Kohelet, read on Sukkot, the most joyful book in the Bible? Why is the remembrance of the Pesah story so central to Jewish morality? And which does Shavuot really celebrate, the law or the land? Ceremony & Celebration reveals the stunning interplay of biblical laws, rabbinic edicts, liturgical themes, communal rituals and profound religious meaning of each of the five central Jewish holidays.

 

HH 296.43 ELK
ROSH HASHANAH READINGS
by Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins

This compelling companion to Yom Kippur Readings helps create a bridge between the words of our ancestors and the meanings, themes and ideas that are the central spiritual agenda of the life of the modern Jew. Drawn from a variety of sources – ancient, medieval, modern, Jewish and non-Jewish – this selection of readings, prayers and insights explores the opportunities for inspiration and reflection inherent in the subjects addressed on the Jewish New Year: sin, repentance, personal and social change, societal justice, forgiveness, spiritual growth, living with joy and hope, commitment to high ideals, becoming our truest and most authentic selves, deepening our capacity to love and savoring the divine gift of life. These readings enable you to enter into the spirit of Rosh Hashanah and the Days of Awe in a personal and powerful way while they uplift and inform. They will add to the benefits of your High Holy Day experience year after year.

 

HH 296.43 ELK
YOM KIPPUR READINGS
by Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins

As Rosh Hashanah ends and you look ahead to Yom Kippur, what do you think about? The familiar melody of Kol Nidre? The long hours of fasting? The days of self-examination? You know that the Day of Atonement is the holiest on the Jewish calendar, but sometimes it just feels long, tiresome and devoid of personal meaning. The readings in this book are for anyone seeking a deeper level of personal reflection and spiritual intimacy – and a clearer understanding of just what makes Yom Kippur so holy.
Drawn from the same variety of sources as the Rosh Hashanah Readings, this selection of readings, prayers and insights explores the opportunities for inspiration and reflection inherent in the themes addressed on the Day of Atonement: sin, forgiveness, repentance, spiritual growth, and being at one with self, family, community and God. These readings enable you to enter into the spirit of Yom Kippur in a personal and powerful way while they uplift and inform. They will add to the benefits of your High Holy Day experience year after year

 

HH 296.43 DAV
BIRTHDAY OF THE WORLD
by Moshe Davis and Victor Ratner

This collection of poetry about the Jewish holidays in enhanced by the etchings of Marc Chagall. A book to savor both the art of the artist and the artistry of the poets.

 

 

 

 

From our DVD collection:

 

DVD 150
ROADMAP GENESIS: THE MAP FOR MANKIND

This is a film documentary that makes the case that the Book of Genesis is a roadmap containing guideposts on how to have a productive, fruitful and fulfilling life that help our society lift itself out of its current decline and return it to prosperity, promise and accomplishment.

 

 

DVD 46
ABRAHAM ONE MAN, ONE GOD

This DVD, produced by A&E, probes deeply into the origins and enigmas of the Scriptures and illuminates one of the holiest men In history.

 

 

 

 

DVD 122
REJOICE
with Itzhak Perlman and Cantor Yitschak Meir Helfgot

Perlman and Helfgot are a great combination. The music is religious and thoroughly enjoyable. The banter between Perlman, Helfgot and Netsky before the musical pieces is delightful. This DVD is great for anyone who appreciates great musicians and singers..

 

 

We thank you for your support of the Levinson-Krupp Library and send our wishes for L’shanah tovah tikkatevu!

Aloha!
Deborah, Sally, and Charlotte

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