Solly and the Elephant: A Folktale from the Bene Israel of India - Hardcover
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A young man's kindness to a royal elephant saves his life after he is accused of stealing from the powerful Maharaja.
Solly's family makes the best sesame oil in Bombay, India. When he is invited to visit the royal palace one day, he is fascinated by the baby elephant in a parade. He befriends the elephant and sings him his favorite song, the Shema prayer. When Solly grows up, he comes to work as a guard at the palace, until one day he is accused of theft. Despite his innocence, Solly is found guilty and sentenced to be trampled by the wild elephants. But this elephant seems familiar to Solly, and after singing the Sh'ma prayer, he reconnects with an old animal friend.
From the award-winning team of Rabbi Sandy Sasso and Bene Israel artist Siona Benjamin, this eighteenth-century folktale from the Bene Israel community of Jews in India shows how kindness can be repaid where you least expect it.
The first woman rabbi ordained by the Reconstructionist movement, Sandy Eisenberg Sasso has used her career as an award-winning author to change how children and adults think about women in Jewish tradition. Sandy and Dennis Sasso became the joint leaders of Congregation Beth-El Zedeck in Indianapolis in 1977, where Sandy served until her retirement in 2013. A prolific writer, Sasso has written a number of Jewish children's books, winning Publisher's Weekly's Best Book of the Year Award for But God Remembered: Stories of Women from Creation to the Promised Land in 1995 and A Prayer for the Earth in 1996. She is the author of the National Jewish Book Award finalist Regina Persisted: An Untold Story, as well as Judy Led the Way, Sally Opened Doors, Miriam and Her Dancing Shoes, God's Paintbrush, and many other children's books. She has also written resources for parents and a book on midrash. Sasso continues to work with her cohort of fellow first women rabbis from the Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox movements, speaking about their experiences. She lives in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Benjamin, Siona: -Siona Benjamin is a painter from Mumbai, now living in the US. Her work reflects her background of being brought up Jewish in a Hindu and Muslim India. She has a MFA in painting and a second MFA in Theater set design. She has exhibited her work in the US, Europe and Asia. She was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship in 2011 to India and a second Fulbright in 2017 to Israel. Her work has been featured in: The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Financial Times, The Jewish Week, The Boston Globe, Art New England, Art and Antiques, ArtNews, The Times of India, The Jerusalem Post, The Times of Israel and several others. A documentary was made on her work, entitled Blue Like Me: The Art of Siona Benjamin. She also illustrated I Am Hava, The Blue Butterfly of Cochin, On a Chariot of Fire, and Haggadah Shel Erev Rav: The Mixed Multitude Haggadah. She lives in Montclair, NJ.
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