The Book of Life

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST      🕮    Sonia Levitin , author of over 40 books for children and teens, has turned her award-winning 1987 novel The Return into a a musical stage play. RETURN chronicles an Ethiopian Jewish girl's walk to freedom in Israel via Operation Moses. After hearing The Book of Life's "Black History Month, Jewish Style" episode , with its feature on the Abayudaya of Uganda, Sonia emailed to tell us about RETURN, and this podcast interview is the result! Scroll down to watch a video of the musical number "Falasha" from the play, RETURN.   CREDITS: Our background music is provided by The Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band . Books and CD's mentioned on the show may be borrowed from the Feldman Children's Library at Congregation B'nai Israel . Your feedback is appreciated! Please write to bookoflifepodcast@gmail.com !

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST       Richard Michelson was a May 2007 guest on The Book of Life, talking about his baseball-related story Across the Alley . Now he's won the 2009 Sydney Taylor Book Award for his picture book, As Good As Anybody: Martin Luther King Jr & Abraham Joshua Heschel's Amazing March Toward Freedom , and we've brought him back to t alk about this new title. We also have a repeat appearance by graphologist Arlyn Imberman . She analyzed author handwriting on our September 2008 episode , and returns to talk about the handwriting of King, Heschel, and Michelson. Rabbi Gershom Sizomu , the first black sub-Saharan rabbi, joins us to talk about the Abayudaya people of Uganda, his CD Sing for Joy , and Be'chol Lashon ("In Every Tongue"), an organization that supports the diversity of the Jewish people. CREDITS: Our background music is provided by The Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band. Books and CD's mentioned on the show may be borro