Every Saturday, Goldie Simcha invites a diverse group of friends from her apartment building to share a Shabbat meal of cholent. Tommy Santiago, Signora Bellagalli, Mr. Moon, and the Omar family appreciate the Jewish stew and its similarities to foods from their cultures, as well as the special Shabbat feeling of community and friendship around Goldie’s table. When Goldie gets sick, her neighbors work together to create a Shabbat meal for her with their own ethnic foods.
Mara Rockliff packs a lot of learning into this picture book — from the traditions of eating cholent and Shabbat preparations to diverse last names and food selections from around the world to the concept of welcoming the neighbor. Kyrsten Brooker uses oil paint and collage in the joyful and clever illustrations; the ethnic menu items, for example, stand out in collage. Goldie’s cholent recipe is included at the end of the story.
Paula Chaiken has worked and volunteered in a variety of capacities in the Jewish world — teaching in religious school, curating at the Spertus Museum, and serving on the boards of her JCC and Temple — for more than twenty-five years. The author of I Know Grandpa (Timber Grove Press, 2015), she also runs a boutique public relations consulting firm.
