Feast of Lights

by Ellen S. Jaffe

In Feast of Lights, author Ellen Jaffe illustrates the importance of love and family heritage in a beautifully written tale of discovery. Twelve-year-old Sarah has a lot to contend with this holiday season. It is the first Hanukkah since the death of her little brother, and Sarah is having a hard time convincing her parents that they should celebrate as usual. When her father refuses to participate and her mother busies herself with other things, it is left to Sarah to polish the old ancestral menorah in readiness for the traditional lighting of the candles. To her great amazement, when she lights the candles and watches them burn, the “miracle” of Hanukkah transports Sarah into another world.

Night by night, hypnotized by the flames of the candles, she is drawn into this world from the past — a ship crowded with immigrants, a traditional synagogue in Eastern Europe, an old store in Toronto's Kensington Market. Sarah realises that these nightly voyages take her into the life of a particular family that includes a young girl also named Sarah. When her parents are also touched by the spell of the menorah, they join her in seeking out Sarah's great-grandmother Ruth, the living link between past and present.

Tender and authentic, Jaffe's Feast of Lights, is a celebration of Hanukkah, a tribute to Toronto's multicultural heritage and a comforting guide for any young girl coming to grips with loss and mourning.

About the Author: Ellen Jaffe's previous books include two collections of poetry, a stage play adaptation of Margaret Laurence's Jason's Quest, and Writing Your Way: Creating a PersonalJournal, published in 2001 by Sumach Press. Jaffe brings insight from her background in child psychotherapy to Feast of Lights, her first novel for young adults.

176 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2007

About the author

Ellen S. Jaffe was born in New York City, 1945, and is of Jewish-Russian descent. She graduated from Wellesley College, attended Columbia University in Theatre Studies, and received an M.A. from New York University in Education. Jaffe worked with the "Voice of the Children" writing group and also at WBAI-FM radio. She lived in England for 7 years, and completed a program in Child Psychotherapy at the Tavistock Clinic. She moved to Ontario in 1979, where she has worked part-time as a therapist, and taught writing workshops in various schools, several times awarded "Artist in Education" grants from the Ontario Arts Council. A finalist in the CBC Literary Competition (poetry) in 1996, Jaffe has given readings in Hamilton, London, Toronto, Woodstock, and Ingersoll, Ontario, and also in Vancouver; a few poems have been heard on CBC-radio. She tied for fourth place in the Short Plays for Schools contest sponsored by CAN-BAIA in 1996, and her play Jason's Quest, adapted from Margaret Laurence's novel of the same name, was produced in 2001 by Adventures in Children's Theatre. She has received awards for her books from Arts Hamilton and has also been awarded other literary prizes. Ellen is available to teach writing workshops and courses for children and adults. She is a member of The Writers Union of Canada, The League of Canadian Poets, and CANSCAIP, and has also been a volunteer on TV-Ontario's Regional Council. She has one son, Joe Bitz, born in 1980. Ellen enjoys travel, and has dual US-Canadian citizenship.

Reviews

[Allison ༻hikes the bookwoods༺ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book as part of a holiday reading challenge. It was really nice to experience Hanukkah with Sarah and her family. This is a heartwarming story about family, healing, and a very special menorah.

[Three O'Clock Press]

Celebrating Hanukkah is bittersweet this year for twelve-year-old Sarah Goldman and her parents, who are mourning the recent death of Sarah's little brother. But when Sarah lights the candles on the menorah, she finds herself transported magically back to the times of her ancestors. For eight nights, mesmerized by the candle flames, she is drawn into the past: a ship crowded with immigrants, an old synagogue in Eastern Europe, a store in the Kensington Market of old Toronto. When Sarah realizes that she is meeting her own relatives from the past, a wonderful transofmation begins to occur . . .