A new exhibit of Jewish children's literature
has lullabies, an "olive-skinned lad"
and even space aliens.

Far left Sarah Spitzer, 5,
spends time with Mikki
Maoz (Mickey Mouse),
while Andrew Aerni
prefers the more esoteric
Chaim Nahman Bialik.

Above: Jamie Lowen, 5,
has a little dreidel, but it
wasn't made out of clay.
It's Hag Ha-Or by Levin
Kipnis.

not. It would be the hard heart that didn't see
the charm inAlefBet, published in 1921, writ-
ten and illustrated by Eliezer Steinbarg and
Arthur Kolnik. It is filled with drawings of danc-
ing stick figures, a laughing teapot and a fly
dangerously close to the nostril of a sleeping
Than.
Other, gentle humor is the inevitable prod-
uct of time. No doubt I Am a Hebrew sounded
fine when it was published in Vienna in 1931.
But did someone from this planet actually write
the introduction, describing the book as, "for
the children of Israelites, with pleasant and
beautiful illustrations"?
And while literature may be timeless, works
in the collection often reflect the decade's po-
litical realities and social climate — not to men-
tion the fashions (you'll see plenty of women in
the flapper-like hats of the 1920s, girls with
bobbed hair, and boys in shorts and knee socks
from the '40s). Books published in pre-state Is-
rael, and up through the 1950s, often picture
farmers happily working the land, no doubt
singing even as they sow. A number of works
from the 1920s tout the glories of Zionism and

promote Theodor Herzl as a hero.
A 1945 Haggadah, published in New
York, was one of the first attempts by an
author to discuss, in a children's book, the
fate of Jews in Europe. Under the head-
ing, "This Year's Slaves," it shows Jews be-
ing beaten by the Nazis.
Several years earlier in Berlin, Jews
published a book chronicling the adven-
tures of two boys named Dan and Gad.
They're upbeat stories about Eretz Yisrael,
written to prepare children for a new life
outside Germany.
Also included: collections of poems by
Isaac Leib Peretz; Chaim Nachman Bia-
lik's tale of King Solomon and the Queen
of Sheba; the last-known copy of a chil-
dren's primer, in Yiddish and Hebrew, pub-
lished in 1837 in Hanover; and Breakfast of the
Birds, one of the first Jewish children's books
printed in the United States.
Written by Judah Steinberg and dedicat-
ed to Solomon Schechter, Breakfast of the
Birds was published in Philadelphia in 1917.
It is an endearing tale of friendship between

Left: Benjamin Siarto, 6,
reviews Herman
Fechenbach's Alef-Bet,
while Allie Tuchklaper,
also 6, gives thumbs up
to Kaminsky's Mein Alef-
Beys.

children of the enslaved Israelites in Egypt
and the carefree, but selfless, birds.
They meet one day as the men and women
are forced to go do Pharaoh's work. "The lit-
tle children were left at home; forlorn and
lonely, they stole out of doors to look upon the
sun." ❑

