Around the World in One Shabbat: Jewish People Celebrate the Sabbath Together

by Durga Yael Berghard

Around the World in One Shabbat takes you on the colorful journey of a single Sabbath all around the globe. From Israel to Thailand, from Ethiopia to Argentina, we are invited to taste the diverse Sabbath traditions that come alive in Jewish homes and synagogues each Friday at sundown. Focusing on contemporary traditions, each spread is a window into the magic of Shabbat in one place. We begin on a Friday morning in Jerusalem as a young boy shops at the Mechane Yehuda with his grandmother for the evening Shabbat meal. AS the cycle of Shabbat progresses, we visit children all over the world preparing for the day of rest, lighting candles and singing songs, telling stories and sharing the blessings of good food and family—finally ending with Havdalah as the first stars shine in the evening sky and a new week begins. Around the World in One Shabbat is a warm and engaging portrait of diversity in a tradition that makes all Jewish people one.

Genres: Jewish, Family

32 pages, Hardcover

First published January 15, 2011

Reviews

[Brynaleh · Rating 4 out of 5]

The illustrations are just gorgeous and the idea behind this book is wonderful. It portrays the diversity and unity of the Jewish people by showing Jewish families celebrating Shabbat all over the world. It shows Jews of all races and ethnicities, including mixed-race families, which was meaningful for our multiracial family. Unfortunately, in its attempts to show the unity of all Jews, the narrative makes itself a bit boring. You would hope that perhaps when the book takes us to Ethiopia it would tell us about the traditional foods served for the Sabbath or what the shul there looks like, or that when we visit a family in Istanbul it might introduce us to some Turkish or Ladino words or special prayers. The book has the opportunity to show not just what we Jews have in common but what makes the different Jewish communities unique, and while it does so in the pictures, in the text it doesn't fulfill expectations, as it really taught our family very little about different shabbat traditions around the world. It also portrays all of the synagogue scenes as taking place in non-Orthodox, mixed-gender egalitarian shuls, which does not accurately portray the international Jewish community in all of its diversity and does not represent our own family's experience of Shabbat. That said, the pictures alone make the book worthwhile. There is too much text for my 3 year old and the text is too elementary for my 11 year old, but the text is great for a 5-8 year old, and for younger kids the pictures can be used as cues for telling stories about Jewish diversity and traditions in the parent's own words. I'm glad this book exists, even if it didn't meet all of my hopes and expectations. It is the first book we've found that depicts Jews as we really look: a multi-hued, multinational community.

[Haim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful illustrations!! It was nice just to see the variety of ways the Jewish families celebrated Shabbat around the world. What was also nice was how Durga Yael Berhard came full circle and ended the book with were she started.