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The Phantom Tollbooth Celebrates 50 Years

Posted by Rachel Broder in Jewish Knowledge on October 19, 2011

To my extreme delight, last week’s New Yorker published an article celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the publication of The Phantom Tollbooth, written by Norton Juster and illustrated by Jules Feiffer, both Jews. The Phantom Tollbooth was easily one of my favorite books growing up, and though I see it on my bookshelf every time I go to my parent’s house, it’s been quite a few years since I took the time to think about Milo.

Milo is a remarkable character in fiction because he is simply mild. Unlike other protagonists, Milo is not particularly passionate or brave. He’s marked as a character unaccustomed to strong feeling, and as Michael Chabon points out in a June New York Times article, Milo’s mild curiosity in the appearance of the tollbooth is unusual. Chabon writes that he himself was a mild-tempered kid, but that as he matured and grew out of his serene stage, he began making choices that were less and less Miloeqsue.

In a lot of ways I think that Milo’s curiosity is something I latched onto early in the novel as a kid. Chalk it up to my Jewish upbringing if you want to, but I was full of questions about the world, and still am. This spirit of inquiry is part of what I also think allowed Milo and Tock to survive generations of readers, and eventually reach “children’s literary classic” status, if you will.

In reading Juster and Feiffer’s comments in The New Yorker, I was again amazed by The Phantom Tollbooth when I learned that it was the child of an idea, a $5,000 grant, and a weekend vacation to Fire Island. As you celebrate the beginning of the new Torah cycle, consider also honoring the anniversary of The Phantom Tollbooth with a re-read!

Children's Books, Classics, Jewish Authors

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`90s Nickelodeon Returns!

Posted by Rachel Broder in Jewish Knowledge on July 22, 2011

Next Monday, July 25^th, TeenNick will start broadcasting classic (yes, classic) television series from the 1990s. Even if you weren’t a kid in the `90s, you were probably a television viewer, so we can all revel in the joy which `90s Nickelodeon will inevitably bring next week. A contributor on Tumblr writes that the idea to re-air the glorious programs of the `90s was presented by interns at Nickelodeon (two cheers for interns!), and I want to extend an enormous thank you to those terrific people who are about to make my dreams come true. The same contributor on Tumblr lists the following shows as those which will air:

- Clarissa Explains it All - All That

- Rocko’s Modern Life – Doug

- Hey Arnold – Are You Afraid of the Dark

- Kenan and Kel – AHHH!!! Real Monsters

- The Adventures of Pete and Pete – CatDog

- Double Dare – Rugrats

- Salute Your Shorts - GUTS

- Ren and Stimpy - Rocket Power

- Legends of the Hidden Temple - The Amanda Show

The shows will air from 12am-4am under programming titled “The `90s Are All That”- inconvenient for some, but great for those of us with a weird sleep schedule and/or DVR. The New York Times explains that the network will rotate shows based on public reception communicated via Facebook, meaning prepare yourself (mainly your fingers for typing) to push for your favorite Nick shows.

Whether you watch for Jewess Amanda Bynes, or the likely Jewish neighborhood in Pete and Pete (the show was filmed entirely in North Jersey, so I have high hopes), there is no doubt in my mind that you will come across Jewish characters, holidays, and values. Think: Rugrats Passover and Hannukah episodes. In a May post, Jewcy writes that, “Rugrats was probably the only mainstream cartoon to even mention Judaism, let alone dedicate a few episodes to it,” which is not surprising because the former president of Nickelodeon, Albie Hecht, is Jewish.

Tune into TeenNick and take a trip down (short-term) memory lane starting next week!

Classics, Events, Television

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Reviving the Classics

Posted by Alx in Jewish Books, Jewish Innovation, Jewish Knowledge, JPS Books on January 28, 2010

We’re going back to basics! As a part of our spring 2010 collection, we have re-launched five of JPS’s classic books! These classic books are for readers of all ages, and we hope that by bringing them back to the shelves, readers will be reminded of some timeless ideas that are essential to Judaism.

Lessons learned in these classic books carry as much weight as ever, containing information that, believe it or not, may be directly applicable to our lives today.

Here is a list of JPS works revived in 2010:

Judaism as a Civilization by Mordecai Kaplan

This book introduced a new way of looking at Judaism, and is considered the origin of the Reconstructionist Movement. Kaplan felt that all Jews – traditional and liberal, religious and secular – could play a part in this “reconstruction.”

2. Book of Tradition by Abraham ibn Daud (author) and Gerson D. Cohen (translator)

This epic on Jewish history from ancient times to the 12^th century eulogized Spanish Jewry and reminded readers of a once-thriving culture. No one before had ever attempted to write such a broad history of Jewish civilization, and this unique book is one of the first examples of Jewish historiography

3. Genesis: The Beginning of Desire by Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, Ph.D.

This epic breathes new life into the stories of Adam and Even, Noah, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac, Jacob and Essau, Rachel, and Joseph. Zornberg brings biblical, midrashic, and literary sources together, illuminating the tensions that grip human beings as they search for an encounter God

4. The Life of Gluckel of Hameln by Beth-Zion Abrahams

Gluckel of Hameln’s memoir is widely viewed as one of the earliest major works written by a Jewish woman and has become a classic. This JPS book is the only English translation of Gluckel’s story from the original Yiddish and is widely considered the most accurate and complete translation available

5. Modern Poems on the Bible by David Curzon

This is a collection of imaginative and engaging contemporary responses to the Bible. Guided by the classic rabbinic genre of midrash conceived 1,500 years ago, Curzon chooses poems from Jewish and non-Jewish writers alike and places them besides the biblical passages that were their inspiration.

After all, Albert Einstein once said: “Somebody who reads only newspapers and at best the books of contemporary authors’ looks to me like an extremely nearsighted person who scorns eyeglasses.” We’ve certainly learned a lesson or two from Albert, so perhaps we should take his advice!

-Emily

American Jewish History, Classics, Education, Jewish Books, Jewish History, Jewish Publication Society, Text Study, Tradition

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Dr. Ellen Frankel Recommends Ten Books About Jewish Folklore and Midrash

Posted by Naomi in Jewish Books, JPS Books on August 27, 2009

Source: http://images.ucomics.com

It’s been a little while, but I think it’s time to revive the recommended books series.

When I was a little girl, I used to love the funny stories about the wise men of Chelm. As with most good Jewish stories, these stories always started off somewhere along the lines of, “The story goes that back in Europe, in the little town of…” But unlike all the other stories, the heroes were not great rabbis, wise tailors, or kind milkmen. The heroes of the Chelm stories were fools. And it is their hilarious misadventures – such as the time the sexton of the synagogue hung the poor box from the ceiling so robbers couldn’t reach it, then built a staircase up to the poor box so the congregants could put money inside – that are the focus of their stories.

PWrbljune24_Ellen_Frankel Dr. Ellen Frankel, JPS’ CEO and Editor-in-Chief, knows the world of Jewish folktales well. A scholar of Jewish folklore, Dr. Frankel has published The Classic Tales: 4000 Years of Jewish Lore, a collection of 300 traditional Jewish tales; The Encyclopedia of Jewish Symbols, co-authored with artist Betsy Teutsch; The Five Books of Miriam: A Woman’s Commentary on the Torah; and many other books besides (including the recently published JPS Illustrated Children’s Bible). So when I decided to an edition of the recommended books series on Jewish folklore and midrash, I looked no further than Dr. Frankel’s office down the hall.

Dr. Ellen Frankel’s top ten books about Jewish folklore and midrash (in no particular order):

1. Jewish Magic and Superstition, by Joshua Trachtenberg
2. Legends of the Jews, by Louis Ginzberg
3. The Book of Legends, by Hayyim Nahman Bialik, and Y.H. Ravnitzky
4. Present at Sinai, by S.Y. Agnon
5. Sisters at Sinai, by Jill Hammer
6. Mimekor Yisrael, by Joseph Bin Gorion
7. Folktales of the Jews, Volume 1: Tales from the Sephardic Dispersion; Volume 2: Tales from Eastern Europe, by Dan Ben Amos
8. The Savage in Judaism, by Schwartz, Howard Eilberg
9. The Forest of Symbols, by Victor Turner
10. The Holy and the Profane: Evolution of Jewish Folkways, by Theodore Gaster

-Naomi

Bible, Book Recommendations, Classics, Jewish Publication Society, Text Study

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Josh Lambert Recommends Ten Lost Treasures of American Jewish Fiction

Posted by Naomi in Jewish Books on July 16, 2009

If you’ve been following this blog, you’ve probably guessed that I’m an advocate for books (and Jewish books) of all kinds – history, philosophy, Bible studies. But, at the end of the day, my absolute favorite books are novels. For me, fiction is where it’s at. There’s nothing better than curling up on a comfy couch with a mug of hot peppermint tea and an engrossing novel… So of course, this book recommendations series wouldn’t be complete without a list of good Jewish novels! I decided to turn to Josh Lambert, author of American Jewish Fiction: A JPS Guide, to provide us with a list of great books.

lambert When it comes to Jewish fiction, Lambert definitely knows his stuff. He received his undergraduate degree from Harvard in English literature, and is currently finishing up his doctorate degree in English literature at the University of Michigan. In addition to writing the JPS Guide to 125 classic works of American Jewish novels and story collections, Lambert has served as the editor of JBooks.com, and has contributed book reviews and essays to the Forward, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Jerusalem Post, and other print and online news outlets. In the fall, he will be starting as a Faculty Fellow in the Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University.

Lambert decided to recommend not just any Jewish novels, but what he calls “lost treasures of American Jewish fiction.” Lambert writes:

As far as I can tell, the following books haven’t received as much attention from critics, scholars, or lovers of American Jewish fiction as they deserve. In some cases, like Millhauser’s and Shulman’s, the attention that the books devote to questions of Jewish identity and experience have been ignored, or even whitewashed. In others, like Caspary’s and Kaufmann’s, the books have been entirely forgotten for no good reason. Some are just fascinating, strange, wonderful books that haven’t ever risen very high on anyone’s list of reading priorities, but which I think merit, and will reward, readers’ consideration. For more information, please take a look at my guidebook, American Jewish Fiction.

1. Differences, by Nathan Mayer
2. Other Things Being Equal, by Emma Wolf
3. Arnold Levenberg, by David Pinski
4. Stephen Escott, by Ludwig Lewisohn
5. Thicker than Water, by Vera Caspary
6. Wasteland, by Jo Sinclair
7. The Amboy Dukes, by Irving Shulman
8. Remember Me to God, by Myron S. Kaufmann
9. Double or Nothing, by Raymond Federman
10. Edwin Mullhouse: The Life and Death of an American Writer 1943-1954 by Jeffrey Cartwright, by Steven Millhauser