Passover Around the World

by Tami Lehman-Wilzig, Elizabeth Wolf (Illustrator)

Introduces children to the many different ways of celebrating Passover around the world, including customs that can be adopted for use in the child's own family seder.

Genres: Picture Books, Holiday

48 pages, Paperback

First published December 26, 2006

Reviews

[Margaret Klein · Rating 5 out of 5]

As we continue to prepare for Passover, this book reappeared. We have chosen as our theme this year, Passover Around the World. This book is perfect, highlighting different traditions and recipes from around the globe. America, Gibraltar, Turkey, Ethiopia, India, Israel, Iran, Morocco. There is so much information in this short volume and it is presented in a fun way. Story, history, traditions, recipes, illustration. Good for adults and kids. And yes, some of this may make it into this year's community seder. It is all designed to get the kids to ask why. WHy is this night different. As the author says, while the story remains the same, how we tell it differs.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Passover Around the World is a bit of a mixed bag, which is disappointing since I really enjoyed Hanukkah Around the World.

Pros: There is a lot of information included about Passover in general, as well as practices in specific regions and by specific ethnic groups. Whether a child is a Jew or a Gentile, there shouldn't be any difficulties understanding this book or learning something new from it. The illustrations are cute. The recipes at the end sound tasty.

Cons: My number one issue is that the slur for the Amazigh people is used instead of Amazigh or Imazighen. I also took issue with how even though most of the countries were ones that still have a Jewish population (of various sizes), almost all of the stories were set in Israel--that is hardly the "Passover Around the World" the title promises. I also didn't think the recipes included with each story were presented half as well as the recipes at the end.

Even though I did learn from it, I wouldn't feel right about recommending it. At the very least, it would need a modern edit to update the language it uses, and a more thorough edit wouldn't be amiss. As an adult, I can recognise the flaws in the book and set them aside from the new information, but this is a children's book, and we really don't need to pass that stuff down to children for them to need to unlearn later.

[Julie Ditton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jews are a minority. But within that minority, there are even more minorities. MOst Jews are Ashkenazic of European decent. But there are Jews around the w2orld and this book shows some of the Passover customs that are celebrated. This was a very interesting anthology that gave the reader a peek at some of those customs. The book title is a bit of a misnomer. Many of the stories did not actually take place in the country of origin. Several of the stories centered on an Israli family of that decent who still practiced that heritage. although there may be a very small Jewish population in some of those countries, most of the Sephardic, Mizrahi, Beta Israel or Cochin Jews are in Israel or other countries. Therefore I appreciated that many of the stories took place in Israel.

[Linden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book describing the traditions of passover from around the world.

[Jodi Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pesach begins on the 14th of Nisan. I am currently preparing for this holiday and am compiling my own Haggadah (prayer service book) following the proper order/steps of a Pesach Seder: Kadesh, Urchatz, Karpas, Yahatz, Maggid, Rachtzah, Motzi, Matzah, Maror, Koresh, Shulchan Orech, Tzafun, Barech, Hallel and finally, Nirtzah. PJ Library, a highly acclaimed national program, gifts high quality, age-appropriate Jewish children's books and music each month to Jewish families with young children (go to www.PJLibrary.org to learn more). A representative from this organization, recently sent me a box of children's books that included this chapter book titled "Passover Around the World" by Tami Lehman-Wilzig. I found this book extremely engaging. From the very first page, I felt compelled to continue reading until the last page was reached. The information and pictures in this text were clear in its presentation and extremely fascinating to read about. Jewish people everywhere get together to remember Pesach every year; Lehman-Wilzig states to her readers that "the story is always the same, but the customs can differ from country to country." In this book, the different customs that exist in America, Gibraltar, Turkey, Ethiopia, India, Israel, Iran, and Morocco that pertain to the Pesach Seder is shared with the readers. My favorite country to read about was Turkey; it is customary for parents to not just tell the story of Pesach, but to reenact the story for their children. I can definitely see how this custom would be a nice addition to anyone's Pesach Seder. Reenacting the story for the younger generation is a great way to teach new information in several ways, so that your audience has more of a chance to absorb the Maggid (the Pesach story) being shared. In other words, we are all different and we all learn in different ways; it seems to me that this approach would reach multiple learning styles at your Seder.

This book is geared to children 7 years of age or older. There are so many possible activities that can be done following the reading of this chapter book, "Pesach Around the World." I think it would be really interesting to help students to put together their own Haggadah to be used in their own home on Pesach. I would give the students the order that the prayer service goes in, as listed above, and provide them multiple resources for each step when applicable so that they can choose what page to incorporate in their personal Haggadah. This activity encourages the children to not only think about the important parts of a Seder, but be an active participant in creating a prayer service that works for them. To encourage students to take this task seriously, once the Haggadot have been assembled, they will be "judged" by a team of teachers and the top two students selected will mail a copy of their Haggadah to a Jewish publisher for publishing consideration. Another activity that might help students remember the material shared in this book is to have each child interview the oldest member of their extended family such as a grandparent about what their experiences were growing up and observing Pesach. Then, the child can transcribe the interview and write a short paragraph about how the customs of their family is the same or different than the ones read in this book. I am so glad that I read this informational text and I look forward to integrating it into my curriculum when I teach about Pesach in the upcoming weeks.

[Hannah]

I would say this is about 90% great. Like, I would totally buy this for people. Adults and kids alike. It's so interesting, and it's another example of nonfiction with interesting factoids that is being wasted by not making up a bigger (or any) portion of children's historical fiction.

Demerits given for what I am, again, 90% sure is misplaced, lazy accents in two Ladino words, ostensibly used to help English speakers pronounce it properly, but like Spanish, ACCENTS ACTUALLY CHANGE MEANING AND PRONUNCIATION, and you can't just throw them wherever you want because you don't respect it enough to learn how to do it without this "help." Demerits also for being a little too heavy on the families who have made aliyah, which is weird especially when you consider that side notes say things like "There are still 30,000 Jews left in Tehran," which should be sufficient numbers for you to construct a fake narrative of a Jewish child living there without needing to make it a family of Persian heritage currently living in Israel.

But really. So many cool things in this book!

[BookOfLife]

Hear an interview about Passover Around the World with author Tami Lehman-Wilzig on The Book of Life podcast's March 2007 episode at www.jewishbooks.blogspot.com.