Passover is the most widely celebrated Jewish holiday, especially in America. It is a time of reflection and celebration. It is a holiday that is celebrated at home and is extremely participatory, including every member of the family, not matter how young or old. It is a celebration of our people's freedom after years of bondage. And most importantly, it is a holiday that focuses on joy!
This 2011 transcript from NPR is still one of my favorite explanations of the holiday. Entitled, "Passover 101," you can access it here by reading or listening.
I realize more of you are not Jewish than are, but making some kind of display or sharing a list is a good idea. It's being mentioned in the news piquing interest. Anticipate that interest by having a display of books right in front of them when they visit.
But, how do you do that when you are not aware of the best titles or not that well versed in the holiday itself? What we always do in libraries-- use resources.
In honor of Passover, they asked ten Jewish writers to share Passover reading recommendations here. Take these two books and the ten authors and put up a display, make a list for online use, or just share the link on your digital platforms. You can also use this link to pull up every post they have ever done tagged Passover, including kids' books.
What you should NOT do is pull books about the Holocaust or historical fiction that is set during WWII, most of which is written by non-Jews.
This is one of the main points Robin and I make in our Anti-Racist training programs, do not only put out books that reflect stereotypes. For example, as Robin shares, Black people don't only want to read books about slavery and Jewish people do not only want to read books set during the Holocaust. [But those who do not identify as either want the trauma titles which is a larger issue, one I don't have time to delve into here but do in our training programs. You can also read Read People Love Dead Jews by Dara Horn and apply it to Blacks as well. Very unsettling but totally true.]
Passover goes until the middle of next week, but you can keep the display up through the week. In fact, in general, for displays that are about holiday, you should always get them up before it starts AND keep them up after. People will still be thinking about a holiday right after it ends and you want to still have materials available.
Have a great weekend. If you celebrate a holiday this weekend, I hope you have wonderful time.
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