Dear Safranim, I’ve found this discussion about the interest in Jewish – and Israeli – bios for young people very interesting and am taking these suggestions to heart. Stay tuned.
Happy Hanukkah, Joni Sussman Publisher, Kar-Ben Publishing A growing Jewish library for children [karben_logo_main] A division of Lerner Publishing Group 612-215-6229 [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Visit www.karben.com<http://www.karben.com/> for up-to-date details on award winning titles from Kar-Ben Publishing From: Hasafran [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Dina Tanners Sent: Monday, December 11, 2017 2:18 PM To: AJL-HasafranLists <[email protected]> Subject: [ha-Safran] A partial/beginning list of books with biographies of famous Jews/especially Israelis About a month ago, my ten year old grandson asked for some books about Israelis for Hanukkah. So I started the search, and was shocked to see how few biographies exist for the ages of 10—15. I found a book by David Adler on Golda Meir, one on Ariel Sharon written in 2006 by Norman Finkelstein, and a book on Ilan Ramon. Then I looked at books with short entries about a number of famous Jews in them and found that most of the books were written about 20 years ago or longer. I put out a request for book titles and details and I am including them on this entry as I found that there is a huge interest in this topic as well as of famous Jews in general. Most of the books below are about Americans, but most include Israelis and other Jews—mostly from Europe. They are quite accessible to youth but there is a strong need for updates to many. Jewish Heroes and Heroines: Their Unique Achievements by Darryl Lyman, 1996 I like this book because it organizes the short biographies by topics starting with: Government and Military Service Civil Rights, Feminism, and Jewish Activism Law Religion Biological Sciences Physical Sciences (a very large section) Social Sciences Technology And 8 more categories, ending in Sports and Games Unfortunately few are Israeli. The Israelis including in this book are: Menachem Begin, David Ben-Gurion, Shimon Peres, Yitzhak Rabin, Chaim Weitzman, Naomi Leibowitz, Martin Buber, S. Y. Agnon, Yael Arad, There are also very short paragraphs about the following Israelis: Trumpeldor, Sharansky, Ida Nudel,Yonatan Netanyahu, Benjamin Netanyahu, Yigal Alon, Miriam Ben-Porat, Tehilla Lichtenstein, Hannah Rachel, Eliezer Lipa Sukenik, Joel Engel, Itzhak Perlman, Shulamit Ran, Josef Rosenblatt, Naomi Shemer, A Voice Called: Stories of Jewish Heroism, by Yossi Katz 2010, Gefen Publishing The 32 entries are between four and 12 pages long of which many area Israeli (The Table of Contents can be seen on Amazon) Extraordinary Jewish Americans by Brooks, 1998 It starts with Haym Salomon and goes to Jerry Steinfeld. It looks to me about a good compilation as a start. It would help if it were updated and included people in the sciences and other areas too. The table of Contents is also on Amazon. In the Promised Land: Lives of Jewish Americans, by Doreen Rappaport. 2005 13 famous Jewish Americans and what they did that made a difference--it includes Houdini, Jonas Salk and Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Golden Age of Jewish Achievement by Steven Pease--this book was written for Adults. The table of contents is also available on Amazon and names are by topics. I think it mainly focuses on people in the US. Pride of Our People: The stories of one hundred outstanding Jewish men and women by David Gross, 1979 by Doubleday It was reissued (1991)and cut down from 100 to 36 people. Great Jewish Men by Slater, originally published about 1996 and reissued/Updated in 2012 The entries are listed alphabetically by last name and the table of contents is on Amazon. Israelis include Agnon, Mordechai Anielewicz, (not Israeli but Kibbutz Yad Mordechai is named for him), Begin, Ben-Gurion, Ben-Yehuda, Bialik, Ei Cohen, Dayan, Teddy Kollek, Amos Oz, Rabin, Sharansky, Weitzman, Yigdal Yadin. Thumbnail sketches include these Israelis: Yaakov Agam, Ahad Ha-am, Yehuda Amichai, Yitzkah Ben-Zvi, Abba Eban, Chaim Herzog, Binyamin Netanyahu, Shimon Peres, Ariel Sharon, Adin Steinsatz, Ezer Weitzman Great Jewish Women by Slater, originally published about 1996 reissued/updated in 2015 The entries are also listed alphabetically and the table of contents is on Amazon. Israelis include Sara Aronson, Shulamit Aloni, Yael Arad, Rahel Blewstein, Nechama Liebowitz, Golda Meir, Hannah Rachel Verbemacher, Ida Nudel, Hannah Senesh, and maybe one or two more I missed. There are also 28 pages of thumbnail sketches at the end. The Jewish 100--A Ranking of the Most Influential Jews of all Time by Michael Shapiro, updated in 2000, by Carol Publishing group. (Included Jesus and also others who didn't identify as Jewish or converted to Christianity) Jewish Sports Stars, (Past and Present) 2nd Revised edition by David Goldman (Kar-Ben), organized by 9 sports Jewish Comedy Stars: From Classic to Cutting Edge, by Norman Finkelstein (Kar-Ben) (all from the U.S.) I just found this book and think it is aimed for adults: A Chosen Calling: Jewish in Science in the Twentieth Century (Medicine, Science, and Religious in Historical context) HUC Press, by Noah Efron. Does anyone know anything about it? If one goggles specific topics, it is easy to come up with famous Israelis or Jews in general in different sectors. A great website of Jews in sports is: http://www.jewsinsports.org/ Here is where one can find a list of Israeli Nobel Prize Winners: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Israeli_Nobel_laureates and of Jewish Nobel winners, 22% of the total: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Jewish_Nobel_laureates And here is where one can find a list of famous American Jews by category: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_American_Jews#Academics Here is one from the Jerusalem Post of famous Israeli innovators: www.jpost.com/Business-and-Innovation/Tech/Most-influential-Jewish-innovators-entrepreneurs-403767<http://www.jpost.com/Business-and-Innovation/Tech/Most-influential-Jewish-innovators-entrepreneurs-403767> Here is where I found a list of famous Ethiopian Israelis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Israeli_Ethiopian_Jews And famous Jews or their descendants from the Arab world: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Jews_from_the_Arab_world And slightly off topic but there is a new book about African American basketball players who made Aliyah, and a number of them converted to Judaism: Alley Oop to Aliyah! I hope that this is a good starting point for many and will energize you to look for more. I do think it would be very important for someone to publish a thoughtful compendium for youth of Israelis in modern times that have been important in their fields and be sure that it is a diverse list Dina Tanners
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