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Review: Space Torah: Astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman’s Cosmic Mitzvah

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Space Torah: Astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman’s Cosmic Mitzvah by Rachelle Burk, illustrated by Craig Orback Intergalactic Afikomen, 2024 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Stacy Nockowitz Buy at Bookshop.org Space Torah tells the story of astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman, who flew into space five times between 1985 and 1996. In its opening pages, this beautiful picture book brings readers back to Hoffman’s childhood and adolescence, when his dreams of going into space begin in earnest. When he is finally able to join a space mission, he feels profound peace and gratitude in the vastness of the cosmos and thinks about God being up there with him. He even brings Jewish items with him on his missions- a siddur, a dreidel, a mezuzah. On his flight on the space shuttle Columbia, he brings a miniature Torah scroll and as he floats in zero gravity, he performs the mitzvah of reading from the Torah. Space Torah ’s strength comes from the way it shows the deep connection that Hoffman feels between himself a

Review: Matzah Ball Chase

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Matzah Ball Chase by Rachelle Burk, illustrated by Brittany Lakin Apples & Honey Press (imprint of Behrman House Publishers), 2024 Category: Picture Books Reviewer: Chava Pinchuck Buy at Bookshop.org There is, of course, “On Top of Spaghetti.” Then there’s The Matzah Man by Naomi Howland (Clarion Books, 2002), The Matzo Ball Boy by Lisa Shulman (Puffin Books, 2007), and The Ball of Clay that Rolled Away by Elizabeth Lenhard (Two Lions, 2012). This latest tale of silliness and runaway Jewish food has a different spin. The rhyming couplets describe the pursuit of Savta’s matzah ball through Israel, from the amazing Baha’i Gardens in Haifa, to Tel Aviv, Jerusalem (the City of Gold), then to the Judean Desert, the Dead Sea, and Masada. The matzah ball finally ends up in Eilat, the southernmost city in Israel, and playful dolphins take it out in the Red Sea. The moral of the story – make matza squares instead of balls! The use of “savta” as grandmother will alert the reader that the

Review: She's a Mensch: Jewish Women Who Rocked the World

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She's a Mensch! Jewish Women Who Rocked the World by Rachelle Burk and Alana Barouch, illustrated by Arielle Trenk Intergalactic Afikomen, 2023 Category: Middle Grade Reviewer: Stacy Nockowitz Buy at Intergalactic Afikomen In this collection of short biographical sketches, authors Rachelle Burk and Alana Barouch (a mother and daughter team) tell readers about twenty Jewish women of extraordinary achievement. Yes, the book includes Ruth Bader Ginsburg and a few other well-known luminaries, but She’s a Mensch also offers readers a glimpse into the lives of women whose stories are not often told. Some of the stars of the book are people readers have probably never even heard of, such as Australian mountaineers Cheryl and Nikki Bart, a mother-daughter team who climbed the highest peaks of all seven continents. Activist April N. Baskin and scientist Nalini Nadkarni are examples of Jews of color discussed. Each of the nineteen, two-page spreads includes a four-line poem, a paragraph of