HOW many times have you seen a problem and said, Why doesnt somebody do something about it?
Two Denver women, Barbara Engel and Diane Hochstadt, discerned a problem and did something about it.
Long time teachers of Jewish history in Hebrew schools, they couldnt find a textbook that worked.
So they wrote their own.
That, in short summary, accounts for some 10 years of work.
Their From Ur to Eternity: From Patriarchs to Spanish Inquisition (vol. 1) and From Expulsion to Eternity (vol. 2), with assistance from Norman J. Fischer, EdD., has been released by Ktav Publishing House.
The book is a thumbnail sketch of Jewish history, beginning to end, complete with maps, drawings, photos, charts, in multi-color format, designed to motivate a Jewish teenager to delve into Jewish history.
I sat down with Engel and Hochstadt to learn about their motivation, modus operandi and goal.
Q. What did you learn from writing this book?
Hochstadt: I really learned my Jewish history. Just made me more and more proud. I am really proud to be a Jew. And I really want to make our younger generation proud to be Jewish, too. We are a beautiful people.
Engel: We spend a lot of time teaching our kids how to be Jewish. By knowing your Jewish history, you get this tremendous sense of identity. You know who you are. Even on Shabbos, if you read the Haftorahs about King David, you need to know who came before him.
We learned we were meeting a need even greater than what we thought.
In prayer, we say Mizmor le-David, and the kids dont even know who David was. Isnt that shocking? And shouldnt they know?
Q. What makes your book different?
Engel: First of all, we dont get caught up with minute details. Were teaching the forest, not the trees. We dont spend a lot of time on dates and times and places. We dont get hung up on that kids dont remember them anyway.
Hochstadt: Its very clear, easy to grasp and easy to remember.
Engel: We have a narrative style, with just a little bit of an attitude. Our chapters are eye-catching. Mishna accomplished. Ur you listening? Is Balfour done for? We talk to the reader, to the student.
Hochstadt: We were finding that young people are not being taught Jewish history. And we figured that was because there were no teachable books, current and easy to read. And teachers arent prepared to teach it, either.
And without knowing their history they have no connection to Judaism. It is my belief that that is one of the reason were losing people right and left.
Once kids find out their rich history, theyre not as apt to toss it aside.
Engel: We had a mission: to keep our young people Jewish.
Q. How did you come to write this book?
Engel: We were teachers at Community Talmud Torah. We had 25 years of teaching experience. We were teaching history and couldnt find a good book that was relevant and age appropriate. Or teachable.
So, over the years, we took our classroom experience what worked and what didnt work and decided to write a book.
Hochstadt: We could do better. We had to teach ourselves. We kept buying books. Id find a good one and then Barbara would find a good one. We have 30 to 40 books on Jewish history.
Q. How long did it take you to write this book?
Engel: 10 years.
Hochstadt: We really did research well.
Engel: Norman Fischer wrote the teachers guide. He was a consultant.
Q. When did you write?
Engel: We wrote every day. Whenever we had time.
Hochstadt: Barbara would write a chapter, then I would write a chapter. We would edit each others writing. Then we would get together and rewrite it together.
We had a fabulous outline. Very well organized. We knew exactly what we wanted to accomplish. It took us many months to make up the outline, and we tweaked it as we went along.
Engel: We conceived of two volumes in advance. That was our decision, not the publishers. We started with volume 1.
Hochstadt: We knew there was a big difference between biblical history and the more contemporary history, so there was a natural break.
We felt the school could cover one book in either one semester or a year, and then use the next book for the following semester, or year.
Engel: We were teaching this all along. We knew what a teacher could accomplish.
Q. Did you write the book in order?
Hochstadt: For the most part. The only time we varied is when we talked about the Holocaust and Israel. Because we worked those two in together. Not necessarily chronologically, but they reflected on one another.
Engel: Ours is more of a thematic approach. One of the problems we found with the other history books is they jumped around from century to century. We found that, if managed thematically, we could make it much more clear and understandable.
Q. Did you consult with anyone besides Norman Fischer?
Engel: We had fact checkers. Sue Gerson. And the publisher, Ktav.
Q. Did you use computers?
Both: It couldnt be done without them.
Engel: Even though Diane has a PC and I have a MAC.
Q. How are sales?
Hochstadt: Very good. When I checked a month ago we were number 1 on Ktavs best seller list.
In Denver, its being used at DenverJDS and CTT. The Alliance, I dont know if theyre using it yet. Bar and Bat Mitzvah kids at BMH-BJ are required to read it. Its being used in the Introduction to Judaism class. I dont know about Temple Emanuel.
Our goal is to reach teachers in schools. We believe that is happening.
Engel: But we are finding that adults are really enjoying this book even though it was written for middle school.
Hochstadt: Adults find it a very succinct way of understanding Jewish history.
Q. Is there any future book in the offing?
Hochstadt: We have ideas.
Engel: We havent closed the door.
Q. What do your husbands (Dr. Steven Engel and Robert Hochstadt) think?
Engel: Theyre proud, and enjoying the whole thing.
We would say to them: Dont bother me, dont talk to me. Diane and I would spend whole days together, especially during the editing process. We edited each chapter several times.
Copyright © 2011 by the Intermountain Jewish News
