New Book Trailer: I is for Israel - An ABC of Peace

I wrote a new book about Israel!  It’s a little different from some of what I’ve written before – it’s a rhyming book about peace and coexistence called I is for Israel, which I wrote in response to a book that just came to my attention recently called P is for Palestine.  Rest assured – my book is better. :-)

I invite you to watch (and maybe even like!) this trailer:

I kind of vowed that this trailer would be one of the first things I’d get around to doing once the wedding was over and done with.  To find out more about the amazing process of creating this book, please see this post on my other blog.

Or – just check out the book itself!

Tzivia / צִיבְיָה

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And now for something (a little) different…

One reasons I haven’t been blogging so much lately is that I went back to school last year to finally start working my way towards a master’s degree.  This winter, I did a course in Creative Nonfiction, and for the final project, I was supposed to write a narrative essay informed by the techniques of creative nonfiction, as a genre, as well as by graduate-level research into a subject of interest.

So I thought: “What could be more interesting than Israel?”  Obviously!

I have been sharing some thoughts here all along about the idea of politics, and what it means to get political when it comes to the situation here on the ground, and I figured I’d pull it all together into a sort of story of a nice Canadian who is reluctant to deal with politics but who has been forced to due to living in Israel.

If you’ve been reading here for a while, you’ll know that politics is not what I do naturally, or best. 

So much so, perhaps, that when I tried to write a serious post on Palestinian identity, one person nastily took it upon him/herself (I’m guessing HIMSELF, for some reason) to comment, “Better to stick with tips on a successful Aliyah than playing the political game.” 

Like I said,

Things that are weird in Israel #16: Book covers

Maybe it’s just me?  Or maybe you’ve wondered about this, too?

Read on and let me know in the comments.

I’ll start by saying I love a great book cover.  It’s almost the most important part of the book. 

Sure, we’d all like to think we don’t judge books by their covers, but really… we do.  Of course, the inside is MOST important, but you’re never going to get to the inside if the outside is lousy.

Am I right?

Which is why book covers in this country continue to perplex me.  Astonish me.  Surprise me with the depths of terribleness to which they are allowed to sink.

To give you a sense of how awful things are, here is a fairly random sampling of some books in translation, so you can compare them to their English equivalents.

REVIEW: Hebrew through story with author Leah Broderson

Looking for a not-so-painful way to improve your Hebrew?

I always am.  For an olah, my reading is okay.  For an Israeli… it’s lousy.  I struggle through my daughter’s third-grade readings for school – with great difficulty.  Ouch.  It’s very humbling.

Everybody recommends reading newspapers, but it’s not the easiest way.  Every Shabbos for months, I’ve stumbled through the free Friday paper, trying to bring my reading up to a passable level.  

It seems like I have to pull out the dictionary for every other word, and many articles are full of useless jargon and abbreviations.

Now, I have a better way. 

I’ve found a Hebrew reading “coach” who is tough without being impossibly demanding:  Leah Broderson and her two books of Hebrew short stories.  Each of these little stories is less than a page long, and each illuminates some aspect of life in Israel: a place you might want to visit, a historic figure, travelling around Israel and the types of people you meet here.

 

Her books are called להיות ישראלי / lihyot Yisraeli, “To be Israeli” and אני ישראלי / ani Yisraeli, “I am Israeli.”

Essentially, they’re primers, the simple story books we give to kids learning to read – except that they’re written with grownups in mind, covering topics and anecdotes suitable for an adult reader.

Beyond required reading: REVIEW of Catch the Jew, by Tuvia Tenenbom

Catch the Jew! by Tuvia Tenenbaum (Gefen Publishing House:  2015) is not only required reading, it's enlightening reading.

Did you ever wish there was somebody who could talk to ANYBODY who would run around making sense of the Middle East so you don't have to?

I know I have.

And then, did you wish they'd make it fun to read so reading all about it didn't feel swallowing taking some kind of dull, boring medicine?

I’ll tell you the truth:  I wasn’t looking forward to reading this book.  I picked it up in a bookstore because it was only 70nis.  For an English book of this size, that’s a great price.  “That’s a lot of book!” I thought, excitedly.  But then I realized that it was about Israel, and politics, and it had a goofy cartoon on the cover, and I groaned inside.

(The cover for the Hebrew version is a little less goofy, but also strange…)

But once I started reading it, reluctantly, once I’d read everything else I had on hand, I was immediately sucked into Tenenbom’s world.

You might not like what Tuvia Tenenbom has to say, or who he rubs shoulders with in his new book Catch the Jew!, but if you're interested in Israel and Judaism today, you'll want to read it anyway.

Tenbenbom, born and raised Hareidi in Israel, but who has lived as a non-religious Jew in the U.S. and Germany most of his adult life, is a modern-day chameleon. 

The mighty “drowning in English books” book sale – buy these books for ₪10 each!

Most of our reading is in ebook form these days, but on Shabbos, we still have to have REAL books to read.  Somehow, over the last 18 months or so, this has added up to a LOT of books. 

I’m asking ₪10 per book, but if you want more than one, feel free to make an offer.  ANY offer, seriously.

This is a whole hodge-podge, not just Jewish books.  I hope you’ll find something you’re looking for on the list.

Within Israel, I will send you the book(s) of your choice PLUS the cost of mailing (I have a scale here; email me and I’ll weigh the ones you want and calculate postage).

Local meetup is 5nis in the Haifa/Krayot region, at central meeting spots including the Kiryon and Lev Hamifratz.  (If you can get to Kiryat Yam/Kiryat Shmuel, I’ll hand you your books for free.)

Here’s the entire list, sorted by title.  All titles are paperback unless otherwise noted.  Most are in good used condition.  If you see a book here and it’s not crossed out, it’s still available.  Feel free to ask about any individual book.

Two great new reviews for “Welcome Home” – my husband’s aliyah book.

I was shocked to see my husband’s aliyah book, Welcome Home:  My first six months living in Israel was getting lukewarm, and okay, a couple of frankly BAD reviews on Amazon.

There are some great ones, but some people sounded really disappointed.  Here’s why:  people expect books on Israel and aliyah to be Very, Very Serious books.

This is NOT a Very, Very Serious book.

If you want an Israel or aliyah book that’s going to reinforce your choices without laying some kind of heavy philosophical or spiritual trip on you, then you’ll probably enjoy his book, too. 

Have you told your kids about shemittah?

You might know already that here in Israel, this is a shemittah year.

Shemittah is the 7th year of a 7-year cycle found in the Torah, and all year long, Torah-observant farmers aren't working their crops in the usual way.  Yet thanks to a few modern loopholes, many of us, even here, are just buying fruits and vegetables the normal way.

I've been studying shemittah for the last couple of months with a wonderful group of KShmu ladies, using a book called (surprisingly enough!) Shemitah, by Rabbi Yosef Tzvi Rimon.  (There are lots of ways to spell Shemittah!)

If you live in Israel, your kids may find out about shemittah in school if they’re old enough.  But for younger kids, there’s not really any way to find out what it’s all about (at least, not that I could find). 

When I lived outside of Israel, I knew nothing about it… let alone knowing enough to share some of the main ideas with my kids.  We read about it when we read the weekly parsha, and that was that.

The laws of modern shemittah observance can be complicated and daunting for adults, but it really does boil down to a few simple principles.  And my favourite thing to do once I’ve learned something, is to turn around and find a way to transform it into a kids’ book.

So I’ve taken some of what I’ve learned, from Rabbi Rimon’s book and other sources, and turned it into a short, sweet rhyming song. 

(think, "This is the way we wash our hands..." but with a few fun poetic twists and turns)

Here’s the result… a little book called Sharing Shmittah, a “learn-along” song for the whole family.

Children’s books by Jennifer Tzivia MacLeod – Israeli delivery order page

All prices include shipping within Israel.  If you’re outside of Israel, please buy directly through Amazon.

See below for the full list of books.  However, there are 4 special deals you may be interested in:

• Jewish Monsters 2-pack ($16)
• Holiday Animals 2-pack ($15)
• Hashem’s Amazing World 3-pack ($24)
• Pick your own 4-pack ($35)

Use this handy gadget to buy, or scroll down for more details.

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Select one:

Holiday Animals 2-pack $16.00 USD Jewish Monsters 2-pack $16.00 USD Hashem's Amazing World 3-pack $24.00 USD PICK YOUR OWN 4-pack $35.00 USD Single $6 Book $6.00 USD Single $8 Book $8.00 USD Single $10 Book $10.00 USD

Book / Package Name

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Jewish Monsters two-pack:

Chanukah Monsters plus Shabbat Monsters – $16

Holiday Animals two-pack:

Penguin Rosh Hashanah plus Panda Purim – $15

Hashem’s Amazing World three-pack:

Zoom! A Trip to the Moon, Baby! Life Before Birth and Buzz! A Teeny Tiny World - $24

Pick your own 4-pack:

Any four books listed below – $35

Individual Books:

Most illustrated, 8.5”x8.5” square full-colour paperbacks are $10 each.  Smaller books are priced individually.

	Captain Steve:  A story of coming home - $10
	Elijah and the Priests of Baal - $10
	Ezra’s Aliyah - $8
	Hashem’s Amazing World:  Baby!  Life before birth - $10
	Hashem’s Amazing World:  Buzz!  A teeny tiny world - $10
	Hashem’s Amazing World:  Zoom! A trip to the moon - $10
	Hashem Never Forgets - $8
	Holiday Animals:  Panda Purim - $8
	Holiday Animals:  Penguin Rosh Hashanah - $8
	Jewish Monsters:  Chanukah Monsters - $10
	Jewish Monsters:  Shabbat Monsters - $10
	The Marror Man (b&w interior, fully illustrated) - $8
	Naomi Shemer: Teaching Israel to Sing (b&w interior, short chapter book) - $6
	No Santa! (b&w interior, chapter book) – $8
	One Chanukah Night - $10
	The Seven Day Manuscript Machine:  Edit your children’s book to perfection in under a week - $10
	Seven Special Gifts - $8
	We Didn’t Have an Etrog! - $10
	What Maya Wants to Be - $8

Wanna see something cool? (hint: it's a book, but it's not by me)

Know what this is?

It’s a book.  But more importantly, it’s OUR book.  Well… I will actually bow out here and admit that it’s my husband’s book.  All I did was edit the thing and write an intro. 

It’s like the difference between being a midwife and actually giving birth yourself.  The lines get blurred a little; you’re both exhausted and covered in goop by the end of the process, but ultimately, I must hand the credit back to him.

Here’s the book description:

How do you write a book about something as momentous as moving to Israel? One Facebook post, one bus ride, one limonana at a time.
In this remarkable journal of one family's transition to a new land, you'll see the daily side of the holy land revealed for all its laughter and tears.

How to help Israel: share its stories – with kids.

Does your Judaism include Israel?

Are you sharing it with your kids?  If not, you should.

I’ve been Jewish for a while, but I’ll honestly admit: for most my life, being Jewish didn’t include Israel, at least, not all that much.  Israel was more of a presence in the background than a daily thing for me.

If you don’t live here, you probably have a million reasons not to spend much time thinking about Israel:

• it’s so far away
• its history is too complex to think about
• its politics are too convoluted to have an opinion about
• it’s a difficult and dangerous place to live
• it’s boring
• Hebrew is a hard language to learn
• it’s full of religious people
• it’s full of non-religious / anti-religious people
• it has nothing to do with me

All of the above – I’ve learned, now that I live here – are both true and untrue, by the way, which is part of what makes this place most fascinating.

If you have kids, your attitudes about Israel will rub off.  But even if you’re still wrestling with it yourself, they can still receive a good, solid Israel education.  I sent my kids to a religious Zionist day school, which helped take care of some of the issues in  my own list.

Choosing books that share the realities of Israel and its history in an honest way is also essential. 

Free-BEE! Free Kindle book on Amazon.com

My favourite price in the world:  free.  And my favourite thing in the world:  a kids’ book.  (Yes, one of mine.)

I don’t usually cross-post, but in this case, I’m making an exception so I can get the word out across all my sites:

Please Like, Share and pass along this deal.  FREE UNTIL AUGUST 14 ONLY!

Learn a little about Israel's modern history and its most beloved songwriter in this short kids' chapter book! This week (Aug 10-14), my book "Naomi Shemer: Teaching Israel to Sing" is FREE for Kindle.

CLICK HERE TO BUY THE KINDLE VERSION FREE UNTIL AUGUST 14.

I started writing this book when my daughter, named after Naomi Shemer, was a baby… but only finished it last year, when she was 8.  A long time in the making, but I think it’s worth every second.  (And I loved reading it to her and telling her about the amazing lady for whom she’s named.

Acclaimed in her lifetime as the "First Lady of Israeli Song" and the author of unforgettable classics like Jerusalem of Gold (Yerushalayim shel Zahav), Naomi Shemer is almost unknown in the English-speaking world. With its engaging, straighforward narrative, this book opens the world of Naomi Shemer for the first time to English-speaking children and their parents. Come find out what made her special.

(I'd also love to get some reviews up, so if you and your kids read/enjoy it, please leave an honest review to help others.)

Here are some shots from the paperback version of the book:

Enjoy!

CLICK HERE TO BUY THE KINDLE VERSION FREE UNTIL AUGUST 14.

Tzivia / צִיבְיָה

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Coming soon to Israel… my books!

Just ordered a whole bunch of my books on the slow boat from CreateSpace, the publishing company I use.  This is GREAT NEWS for any friends and fans here in Israel, because once they arrive, I can remail them to you at a significant savings over what it would cost to order these yourself.

These prices include mailing within Israel!  Since the price to mail is the same up to 200g, I will take $1 off the price if you order any two books – or two of the same.

Outside of Israel, please check out this great twofer offer for my newest books!

(Click any cover to see full information and look inside the book on Amazon.  To order, email me at Jay3fer “at” gmail “dot” com.)

Cover	Description	Price
Naomi Shemer:  Teaching Israel to Sing	Acclaimed as the "First Lady of Israeli Song" and the author of unforgettable classics like Jerusalem of Gold (Yerushalayim shel Zahav), Naomi Shemer is almost unknown in the English-speaking world. Come find out what made her special.	$7
The Marror Man	"Run, run, as fast as you..." Think you know the next line? Maybe not... as you'll discover in this lively Passover twist on a classic tale.	$7
What Maya Wants to Be	There are so many things Maya wants to be when she grows up... what will she choose? Or does she really HAVE to choose?	$9
Hashem Never Forgets	Faigy knows how old Buster is in dog years. But if a thousand years is like a minute to Hashem, then how old is Buster to Hashem? This is a story about memory, both ours and Hashem's, as Faigy learns that Hashem never forgets and always loves her... even after a thousand years.	$9
Seven Special Gifts	Come meet the Seven Species! These five special fruits and two grains, the Shivat Haminim, are listed in the Torah in the book of Devarim.  Now, these seven special crops come to life, with rhyme and full-colour illustrations, revealing the true plan behind Israel's delicious bounty!	$9
Zoom!  A Trip to the Moon	Come explore Hashem's amazing world by flying OUT of this world in a fun, fantastic erev Shabbat adventure.	$9
We Didn’t Have An Etrog!	What? No etrog?? What will we do? It's just not Sukkot without a lulav AND etrog! These children have worked hard to grow their etrog... but even hard work isn't enough without a bit of patience and some help from Hashem!	$9
Ezra’s Aliyah	Join Ezra and his family as they prepare for the journey of a lifetime - saying goodbye to family and friends and heading excitedly towards their new lives in the Land of Israel. Addresses children's common concerns about aliyah in a friendly, positive way.	$9

I think these are all great books that I’m proud of.  Happy that I’ll soon be able to share them with folks here.