The story of how I wrote Tali’s Jerusalem Scrapbook began with a family visit to our son in Israel in the winter of 2000. He was a college exchange student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and this was just months after the start of the Second Intifada, a time of terrorism and violence. I wrote two books because of that experience. Started on the back of napkins in Jerusalem cafes, I composed a story of tolerance for the children in my preschool class. Thus, the termites on Noah’s Ark became The Littlest Pair, which won the 2002 National Jewish Book award. For slightly older children, I re-imagined my own children living in Israel and dealing with the stress and horror of those difficult years. I decided that a diary or a journal might become the confidant of a child, and wrote Tali’s Jerusalem Scrapbook.
Published in 2003 and the recipient of the Sydney Taylor Notable Books for Younger Children, one reviewer wrote, “While dealing with the subject of terrorism, the author is careful not to divide the population into “good Jews and bad Arabs”, but rather presents a diversity of people, all of whom share Jerusalem and make it the special city it is. The book teaches a lesson in tolerance of different races and cultures, and at the same time, addresses children’s justifiable fears of being hurt in a terrorist attack.” No longer in print, I am pleased to share Tali’s Jerusalem Scrapbook with parents and their children, and with teachers and their students. Click here or on the image of the book.
The Second Intifada, which started in 2000 and lasted until 2005, was a time of horrific suicide bombings by Palestinians terrorists against Israeli citizens and Israeli military retaliation against both Palestinian terrorists and protesters. Over a thousand Israelis and over 3000 Palestinians were killed. Sadly, little has changed for the Palestinians in the fifteen years since that terrible time, and the threat of a third Intifada remains.