Review: Beneath the Stars
Beneath the Stars
by Rivkah Yudasin, illustrated by Jacky Yarhi
Hachai Publishing, 2023
Category: Picture Books
Reviewer: Jeff Gottesfeld
Buy at Hachai
In February and March of 2003, I was in the city of Tver and the village of Vishniy Volochek, Russia, to adopt my son. I lived with a Jewish family there for a month,. I am connected to some of those folks to this day. To a person, they talked of Russian Jewish history and the dark days of official oppression. This wonderful book, ostensibly an easy-reader aimed at Orthodox Jewish kids, makes those little-known-days-to-kids-today immediate for every reader. It deserves serious Sydney Taylor Award consideration. I mean, really serious consideration.
Author Rivkah Yudasin, backed by the realistic and compelling art of Jacky Yarhi, tell a story from the youth of revered rabbi Yitchak Zilber. The reader feels the threat of Stalinist denunciation as teen Zilber joins a furtive 6:00 a.m. minyan, and leins from the Torah for the first time since his bar mitzvah. We’re aghast that there was such pressure and inducement for neighbors to denounce neighbors, that barely a Jew would dare build a sukkah (certainly not Zilber’s father, whom the government knew was a rabbi) , and the determination of father and son to sit in one on the first evening of the holiday. Our hearts – and kids’ hearts, once we give them a little context – will pound in suspense as the devout pair go from Jewish home to Jewish home with utmost caution, looking for a sukkah in which to sit. When they succeed, and Zilber recalls that the traditional spiritual sukkah guests of Abraham, Isaac, and right through David, it is our success. In every instance, Yarhi’s art is precise. The look that Zilber’s mother offers to father and son as they are about to depart on their quest mixes both pride and fear, for example. It’s wonderful.
Jewish content? The whole book is Jewish content. There’s a glossary of Hebrew and Yiddish terms that are woven seamlessly into the text. If a Jewish kid knows nothing about how the Russian Communists coupled with just ordinary antisemites, wanted to squeeze the life out of our people and faith, this book is a must. If they do know, this book is still a must.
In February and March of 2003, I was in the city of Tver and the village of Vishniy Volochek, Russia, to adopt my son. I lived with a Jewish family there for a month,. I am connected to some of those folks to this day. To a person, they talked of Russian Jewish history and the dark days of official oppression. This wonderful book, ostensibly an easy-reader aimed at Orthodox Jewish kids, makes those little-known-days-to-kids-today immediate for every reader. It deserves serious Sydney Taylor Award consideration. I mean, really serious consideration.
Author Rivkah Yudasin, backed by the realistic and compelling art of Jacky Yarhi, tell a story from the youth of revered rabbi Yitchak Zilber. The reader feels the threat of Stalinist denunciation as teen Zilber joins a furtive 6:00 a.m. minyan, and leins from the Torah for the first time since his bar mitzvah. We’re aghast that there was such pressure and inducement for neighbors to denounce neighbors, that barely a Jew would dare build a sukkah (certainly not Zilber’s father, whom the government knew was a rabbi) , and the determination of father and son to sit in one on the first evening of the holiday. Our hearts – and kids’ hearts, once we give them a little context – will pound in suspense as the devout pair go from Jewish home to Jewish home with utmost caution, looking for a sukkah in which to sit. When they succeed, and Zilber recalls that the traditional spiritual sukkah guests of Abraham, Isaac, and right through David, it is our success. In every instance, Yarhi’s art is precise. The look that Zilber’s mother offers to father and son as they are about to depart on their quest mixes both pride and fear, for example. It’s wonderful.
Jewish content? The whole book is Jewish content. There’s a glossary of Hebrew and Yiddish terms that are woven seamlessly into the text. If a Jewish kid knows nothing about how the Russian Communists coupled with just ordinary antisemites, wanted to squeeze the life out of our people and faith, this book is a must. If they do know, this book is still a must.
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