In the tradition of the much beloved book, The Keeping Quilt by Patricia Polacco, The Patchwork Torah teaches us how Jews connect across time and place. During the Holocaust, David’s grandfather, a sofer (scribe), saves damaged Torah scrolls to repair “someday maybe.” As David grows and becomes a sofer too, he also holds on to damaged Torahs. His granddaughter asks why there are unused scrolls in his closet and she suggests that he put the undamaged parts of each together to make a ‘patchwork Torah.’
Through its serene, oil-painted illustrations and warm language, The Patchwork Torah demonstrates the importance of cycles in Judaism — the cycle of the reading of the Torah ending and beginning on the holiday of Simchat Torah, the cycle of the generations and re-cycling. It also takes readers on a quick trip across the twentieth century in American Jewish life, from scrap drives to the fight against Hitler to welcoming refugees to Hurricane Katrina.
Recommended for ages 7 – 11 with Holocaust references.
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.
