The Kosher Bookworm: Chanukah gift book list

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By Alan Jay Gerber

Issue of Dec. 12, 2008 / 15 Kislev 5769

No, that wasn’t just a nip in the air; it’s really cold outside, which means Chanukah is just around the corner. In addition to the delicious delicacies we have come to expect, Chanukah brings gifts of all shapes and kinds. And you can only guess what kind of presents the Kosher Bookworm has to suggest –– books, of course. What else would this literary columnist recommend?

My list this week will include selections for people of all age groups and varied interests.Despite the range, they will all have one thing in common: a passion for things Jewish.

“From Krakow To Krypton: Jews and Comic Books” by Arie Kaplan (Jewish Publication Society, 2008) is my favorite.

This rather zany tome deals with American comic books and of the deep involvement of Jews in this unique literary and artistic genre. The book, over 200 pages, spans from the creation of comic books in 1933 to the underground comics of the 1960s to the advent of popular films based upon their iconic characters. Within this time frame was the golden age, 1933 to 1955, that included Famous Funnies, Action Comics, Superman, Captain Marvel, The Shadow, Detective Comics, and plenty of other favorites for those old enough to remember.

One interesting facet, especially from 1938 to 1941, deals with how comics were utilized in what was to prove the build up to World War II. These artists spared nothing in their own war against Hitler.

The second part of the book deals with what the author calls the Silver Age, spanning from 1956 to 1978, which he subtitles the growth and development of Jewish comics.

In this section he highlights the fact that many comic characters play or star in Jewish roles, something that would have been considered impossible in an earlier era. We can attribute this to the growing comfort level Jews began to experience within American society. This will eventually be reflected in other literary genre and in the political arena.

The author concludes with what he calls the Bronze Age, from 1979 to the present and includes a chapter entitled “A Graphic Approach To Jewish History.” One thing is certain: this ain’t the Jewish history that you learned as a kid.

This book is real fun, especially if you have a healthy sense of humor and an imaginative sense of history.

However, when approaching it, we must consider that the Jewish creators of comics used this skill to vent their hatred of bigotry and anti-semitism. For many of them, this was their only outlet to strike back at those who were tormenting their people and in many cases their families and close friends.

If you keep this in mind, the seriousness of this book and the art it describes will come into better focus. Accordingly, this is a thinking person’s book, and all readers of this column are thinking people.

The book also comes with a time line, a bibliography and an index that serves the reader well. Also noteworthy is that the Krakow in the title refers to the author’s grandmother’s home in Europe. It is to her memory, Adele Pomeranc, a”h, that the book is dedicated.

Another book, a serious and deep commentary on the Chumash, also takes a different tact from what we have come to expect from so-called traditional commentators.

“A Rational Approach to Judaism and Torah Commentary” is written by Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin (Urim Publications, 2006). A musmach of Baltimore’s Ner Yisrael Yeshiva, Rabbi Drazin deals with each and every parsha in the Torah as a unique entity. Each chapter is a self-contained literary unit. However, there is a unitary theme that runs throughout this book. The author highlights the rational and non-mystical aspects of our religious tradition of commentary.

According to the author, he seeks to understand the Torah’s textual meanings and lessons by putting forth sharp and rational questions about each pasuk and then answering them from a variety of sources drawn from Chazal, the classical medieval perushim, down to our own times. Even ancient Greek philosophers and modern day scientists are drawn into the fray, their ideas challenged and answered, al pi das din v’Torah.

Rabbi Drazin’s English is simple but elegant with not a wasted word or phrase. This economic use of language is one of the strengths that helps carry this book, something that is lacking in similar works by other writers. For this alone we are indebted to the author.

I look forward to reviewing his upcoming books on the Rambam and his ongoing translation and commentary on Onkelos, with Bereishis, Shemos and Vayikra already in print. You get a strong hint of these works in the current book under review.

Our concluding author for this week is a name that we all know from the past three decades, a famed author of quality children’s books, Yaffa Ganz.

Yes, Ganz is back with a just released “Four in One” reprint of her previously out of print classics, “The Gift That Grew,” “Yedidya and the Esrog Tree,” “Me and My Bubby, My Zeidy and Me,” as well as a book on Torah riddles, “Teasers, Twisters, Stumpers.”

All four of these children’s classics can now be had in one volume, published by Feldheim. In addition, a new book in the Mimmy and Simmy series, entitled “Raise a Rabbit, Grow a Goose” is now available.

Hopefully, other Ganz classics will soon become available for your children’s reading pleasure and will make for great Chanukah gifts for the kids and to their yeshiva libraries.

Until next week, keep warm, stay healthy, enjoy a good book, learn and have a Shabbat Shalom from the Kosher Bookworm.