Like a Maccabee


Book Description

Ten-year-old Ben has a lot on his mind: the league soccer championship, a bully at school and having to share a bedroom with his grandfather. But his grandfather's retelling of the Hanukkah story inspires him to be strong like the Maccabees.




Maccabee!


Book Description

Retelling of the story of Hanukkah, the festival that celebrates the victory of the Maccabees over the mighty armies of the Syrian king.




Maccabee


Book Description

The year is 167 BCE. The bloodthirsty Syrian king Antiochus IV has reneged on the promise of religious freedom made to the Jews by his forebear Alexander the Great. Antiochus sets out to abolish every semblance of Jewish religion and culture, replacing it with the revered ways of the Greeks. Hundreds are slaughtered in the courts of the temple as they resist the king s desecration of their altar. Antiochus changes the face of Jerusalem, erecting a gymnasium where the men follow the common Greek practice of exercising nude. Many of the young Jewish men betray their heritage by having their circumcisions surgically reversed to hide their distinction as Jews. One elderly priest determines it would be better to die than see their nation thus corrupted. With his five sons, Mattathias ben Hasmoneus launches a guerilla war against the hated Syrians. Judas, his middle son, proves to be the genius in battle and becomes known throughout Judea as the Maccabee, the hammer. As Judas leads the nation in the struggle for freedom, one of his continuing motivations is love for the woman promised him since childhood but who has been caught in the midst of the conflict. Only when Jerusalem is delivered from the Syrians can she become his. Maccabee draws extensively on the ancient writings of Josephus and the apocryphal works 1 and 2 Maccabees. An additional chapter has been placed at the end of Maccabee,Author s Historical Notes, for those interested in separating the fiction from the actual events.




Like a Maccabee


Book Description

Welcome to a special puppet show. It is about the Maccabees. Who were the Maccabbees? Let's find out.




The Sundown Kid


Book Description

Shabbat is very lonely for a boy and his parents when they move to a small town in the "Wild West," until he begins asking townsfolk if they like chicken soup.




Food at the Time of the Bible


Book Description

In-depth survey looks at what people of the Bible ate, hunted, caught, and more.




Dreidels on the Brain


Book Description

At last a great American Hanukkah story! This very funny, very touching novel of growing up Jewish has the makings of a holiday classic. One lousy miracle. Is that too much to ask? Evidently so for Joel, as he tries to survive Hannukah, 1971 in the suburbs of the suburbs of Los Angeles (or, as he calls it, “The Land of Shriveled Dreams”). That’s no small task when you’re a “seriously funny-looking” twelve-year-old magician who dreams of being his own superhero: Normalman. And Joel’s a long way from that as the only Jew at Bixby School, where his attempts to make himself disappear fail spectacularly. Home is no better, with a family that’s not just mortifyingly embarrassing but flat-out broke. That’s why Joel’s betting everything on these eight nights, to see whether it’s worth believing in God or miracles or anything at all. Armed with his favorite jokes, some choice Yiddish words, and a suitcase full of magic tricks, he’s scrambling to come to terms with the world he lives in—from hospitals to Houdini to the Holocaust—before the last of the candles burns out. No wonder his head is spinning: He’s got dreidels on the brain. And little does he know that what’s actually about to happen to him and his family this Hanukkah will be worse than he’d feared . . . And better than he could have imagined.




Chronicles-Maccabees


Book Description

This volume of the Navarre Bible commentaries unlocks the mysteries of a wide-ranging sequence of Old Testament books: the historical books of Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Maccabees and the little-known but pivotally important books of Tobit, Judith, and Esther. In these books you'll find the rich and instructive stories of Kings David and Solomon, the Babylonian exile, and its aftermath; the heroism of the Maccabees who gave their lives to preserve their faith in God; and the deep faith and awareness of divine blessing that invests the books of Tobit, Judith, and Esther.




Sweet Tamales for Purim


Book Description

Many Jewish families helped settle, diverse communities in the desolate, desert terrain of the wild west. Sweet Tamales for Purimis told from the perspective of Rachel, a young girl, who along with her new friend, Luis plan to create a Purim festival for their town. Their plans for the festival were well underway until the family goat, Kitzel, ate all of the traditional holiday pastries, Hamantashen. Fortunately, Rachel and Luis are determined to find another way to celebrate Purim and the family is able to share their cultural and religious traditions with their new neighbors.




Judah Maccabee Goes to the Doctor


Book Description

As Hanukkah approaches, a caring older brother discovers that it is not an outward show of strength that wins the trust of his little sister, but inner strength as he bravely agrees to have the vaccination that will protect them both from threatening illnesses.