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"Kashrut is understood as a
way of staying con-
nected to God
in one of the
mundane
aspects of life.
Being conscious of
every bit we put
into our mouths —
mindful and grateful
for sustenance and
I health — is a spiritual
practice. Adding bless-
' ings to family mealtimes
1 acknowledges the power
I and sanctity of the daily,
taken-for-granted miracles of
1 food and love."
At the same time, Diamant is
I direct about helping oarents
understand just how much their
Jewish lives (or lack of one) will
impact their children. While she
clearly supports the idea of send-
' ing children to Jewish day
schools, she encourages parents
to first clarify their own goals and
to understand the limits that such
I schools may entail:
"In a sense, day school is also
'supplementary' in that it is just one
part of the larger project of Jewish
living. If school is the only Jewish
experience in a child's life, she will
learn that Jewishness is something to
be compartmentalized and set
apart from what goes on at home
or in the community.
"As in any school setting, parents
who are involved in the life and the
I mission of the institution set a pow-
erful example that their children
tend to emulate."

■ 111113111111•1• ■ •

411

DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

JN

trAlf.S' AT:

1/19
2001

104

INTERNATIONAL
NEWS PLUS

372 Oullette Avenue • Windsor, Canada

Sammy Spider's First Tu
B'Shevat by Sylvia A. Rouss, with
illustrations by Katherine Janus
Kahn: Published by Kar-Ben.Copies
Inc., copyright 2000, 32 pages,
$6.95.

Yes, Sammy is back, and even
those among us (the many among
us) who don't like spiders will not

be able to resist this
thoroughly charming creature
who teaches us all about the Jewish
holidays.
In the tradition of Rouss and
Kahn's previous books, where
Sammy learns about Pesach and
Rosh Hashanah, Sammy's Tu B'She-
vat finds the colorful little spider
looking to celebrate a Jewish holi-
day, only to hear from his mother
that spiders don't do such things.
Sammy watches wistfully as the
seasons change, as Josh Shapiro
(the human boy whom Sammy so
admires] cares for the garden, as
butterflies drink nectar from the flow-
ers. At last, the Shapiro family pre-
pares to observe Tu b'Shevat, and
Sammy finds a way to celebrate on
own: He weaves a warm blan-
web — around his friend,
the tree. a
This is a wonderful book for
younger children especially with Tu
b'Shevat just around the corner. This
text is the best in the Sammy series,
and the illustrations are bright and
inviting. We can only anticipate
which Jewish holiday Sammy will
celebrate in his next book.

Keeping Faith in the Dust:
The diary of a young
woman at Masada by Fran
Maltz. Published by Alef Design
Group, copyright 2000, 64 pages
$6.95.

There's
some-
thing
odd
about the
very format
of this book:
a fictionalizing
of truth — history — by making up
characters and conversations and
events. Filmmakers try it from time to
time (consider Oliver Stone's JFK),
as do authors. It rarely works, and
it certainly doesn't in this case.
Keeping Faith in the Dust is the
story of three years in the life of
Hannah, who begins her story
when she's 13. She's residing with
her family near the Dead Sea, then
they come to live, and eventually
die, at Masada.
Initially, Hannah is skeptical of
Judaism and all that living a Jewish
life demands. In the end, though,
she delivers a soliloquy that would
even make D.H. Lawrence's sappy
poem about "weep[ing] like a
child for the past" appear tame by
cornparison.
Part of the problem is that it's very
difficult to write about such pro-
found moments; how do you find
the words to tell of men and
women about to take their own
lives, and the lives of their children?
Words are simply too clumsy.
The other issue is that this author,
though well intentioned, simply isn't
capable of handling the material. In
fact, all of her dialogue can pretty
well be described as dreadful.
''Why do we not surrender?"
[Hannah says]. "Josephus, a fellow
Jew, a learned historian, is plead-
ing for us to do so. He knows the