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Winter 2003

Real Books for Real Students
By Gila Gevirtz

The Jewish people has a long history of diversity, and in no period has it flourished more than today. There are Jews who are scholars and Jews who are laborers; slender Jews and plump Jews; Sephardic, Mizrahi, and Ashkenazic Jews; Reform, Reconstructionist, Conservative, Orthodox, and unaffiliated Jews; Jews from traditional families and Jews from nontraditional families. Behrman House is committed to publishing books that reflect this diversity; committed to publishing real books for real students in real classrooms. Books with an accurate and sensitive view of today’s Jewish community help broaden all students’ understanding of what it means to be Jewish in the 21st century. A special needs child who reads Let’s Discover Shabbat and sees the illustration of a girl in a wheel chair participating in an oneg Shabbat, is affirmed as an integral part of the community and its celebrations. A child of color who opens Rediscovering the Jewish Holidays and sees the African-American girl and Asian boy reading from the Haggadah, is affirmed as having a credible place at the seder table. By seeing boys engaged in nontraditional tasks, such as cooking and child care, girls ably leading prayer services and reading from the Torah, single-parent families observing an array of mitzvot, such as giving tzedakah, praying, and hosting Hanukkah guests, and overweight teens and elderly adults taking their place as confident, Jewish leaders, all children are likely to develop a more inclusive and realistic view of today’s Jewish community. These images, and many more like them, are found throughout Behrman House books, in places as varied as Shalom Ivrit, Making a Difference, Welcome to Israel, The Book of Jewish Holidays, and Hineni. They are there to enrich the nurturing learning environments you and your teachers create. They are part of our commitment to help you meet the needs of all your students. Gila Gevirtz is Executive Editor at Behrman House. You can contact her at gila@behrmanhouse.com.

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