Shmelf the Hanukkah Elf
🕮 The new picture book Shmelf the Hanukkah Elf by Greg Wolfe was brought to my attention by Rachel Kamin and Kathy Bloomfield during the 2016 Association of Jewish Libraries conference in Charleston, SC. They had some major concerns about the message it conveys to young readers, and they were so impassioned about it that I sat down with them to record their conversation. I later contacted author Greg Wolfe to invite his feedback, but to date have received no response.
Rachel has left a review of Shmelf on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and GoodReads. Please read her review and add your own comments at those locations and/or here at The Book of Life.
Rachel reached out to Bloomsbury with her concerns about this book but the only response she received was that they “stand by the book as a celebration of Hanukkah and Jewish culture.”
Kathy Bloomfield is the Executive Assistant to the Clergy and Communications Manager at Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation, Bethesda, MD. She is the President of AJL's Schools, Synagogues, and Centers Division, and a twice-past member of the Sydney Taylor Book Award Committee. She is a book reviewer for AJL Reviews, and she blogs at ForWordsBooks.com.
Kathy's and Rachel's comments are based upon the advance reader's copy received by Rachel in her capacity as AJL Reviews Co-Editor.
CREDITS:
Produced by: Feldman Children's Library at Congregation B'nai Israel
Supported in part by: Association of Jewish Libraries
Theme music: The Freilachmakers Klezmer String Band
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Comments
Andria Warmflash Rosenbaum
A Grandma Like Yours/A Grandpa Like Yours,
Meg Goldberg On Parade
It is possible that children will feel more included this way, because this is the way I was raised by my secular Jewish parents, who did not want me to feel left out. But in my case, upon reaching my teens, I figured out who I was and actually blamed my parents for choosing that route and accused them of lack of pride in our Jewish heritage. They agreed with me that it was just a stupid thing to do and that their embrace of Christmas rituals (a tree, stockings, going to see Santa) was a lapse of their own parenting and they really had no excuse for it other than fear of their kids being left out of things. It was all strange, because most of our family friends were Jewish also.
So I understand some of the reasoning behind co-opting what are secular American rituals around the Christmas holiday, but they still are Christmas rituals and have nothing to do with the rich and rewarding rituals of Jewish life.