Welcoming Elijah & Gittel’s Journey – A special family Zoom program with author Leslea Newman
Mar 07, 2021 4:00PM
Categories Arts & Culture, Book Talks, Children & Family, DISPLAY ON HOMEPAGE, Holiday, JCA Programs, Literature, PJ Library
Welcoming Elijah – A Passover Tale with a Tail & Gittel’s Journey – An Ellis Island Story
A special family Zoom program with author Leslea Newman
Sunday, March 7th at 4:00 PM EST
Join celebrated author Leslea Newman for a reading and discussion of her two recent books: Welcoming Elijah: A Passover Tale with a Tail and Gittel’s Journey – An Ellis Island Story.
Welcoming Elijah unites a young boy and a stray kitten in a warm, lyrical story about Passover, family, and friendship. Inside, a boy and his family sit around the dinner table to embrace the many traditions of their Passover Seder around the dinner table. Outside, a cat wonders, hungry and alone. When it’s time for the symbolic Passover custom of opening the family’s front door for the prophet Elijah, both the boy and the cat are in for a remarkable surprise.
In Gittel’s Journey, Gittel and her mother were supposed to immigrate to America together, but when her mother is stopped by the health inspector, Gittel must make the journey alone. Her mother writes her cousin’s address in New York on a piece of paper. However, when Gittel arrives at Ellis Island, she discovers the ink has run and the address is illegible! How will she find her family? Both a heart-wrenching and heartwarming story, Gittel’s Journey offers a fresh perspective on the immigration journey to Ellis Island. The book includes an author’s note explaining how Gittel’s story is based on the journey to America taken by Lesléa Newman’s grandmother and family friend.
Advanced registration required by Friday 3/5 at 12 noon. The Zoom link will be emailed to registered participants on Friday afternoon 3/5.
The books will be available to order from our friends at Longfellow Books: https://www.longfellowbooks.com/event/community-event-leslea-newman Limited copies will include a signed bookplate.
The JCA is pleased to offer virtual programs free of charge so that they are accessible to all. Financial support from community members like you makes this programming possible; we encourage you to pay what you can. We appreciate your support, which will help ensure that we can continue to offer programs like these in the future.
The JCA is a member of the Jewish Book Council network.