ANOTHER SCHWARTZ TO WEAR CHIEFS RED – Last week the Chiefs signed free agent right tackle Mitch Schwartz, who spent the past four years with the Cleveland Browns.
He is the brother of Geoff Schwarz, who played here a couple of years ago and spent some time in the Jewish community doing such things as visiting HBHA and lighting Chabad’s annual Hanukkah menorah. According to the Chiefs website, Schwartz is one the league’s best right tackles. On the website, Schwartz said his brother Geoff enjoyed living here. “He loved the coaching staff. He talked about how much he loved living here. The quality of life (in Kansas City) is a really big thing, and knowing you’re going to enjoy going to work every day.” We can’t wait to meet you Mitch!
JERSUALEM POST’S GRAPEVINE — On Friday, March 4, Sybil Kaplan got a mention in the Jerusalem Post’s popular Grapevine column by Greer Fay Cashman. Cashman hailed Kaplan’s book, ‘Wonders of a Wonder Pot, Cooking in Israel Without an Oven.”
“For new immigrants and people on sabbatical, the book was a godsend, because the Wonder Pot, a staple utensil in every Israeli household, enabled baking and roasting on top of the stove — and the results were every bit as good if not better than using an oven. The Wonder Pot disappeared from the market for several years but recently returned, so Kaplan’s book, which was revived by popular request is sold privately. She subsequently wrote ‘Israeli Cooking on a Budget,’ which was published by the Post in the days when it also operated a publishing company, and it remained in print for 12 years.
“In August 2015, Kaplan published her autobiography, ‘Witness to History, Ten Years as a Woman Journalist in Israel’, set against the history of Israel in the 1970s. Like so many immigrants, even today, she had to hold down several jobs to make ends meet. She was the first public relations director of the Encyclopedia Judaica. Later she went on to be the first public relations director of the David Yellin College of Education becoming a Government Press Office-acquired representative for The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle — for which she still writes. She also wrote the midweek recipe column for the Post from 1976 to 1980 as well as several other shopping columns, food features and book reviews. She returned to America for a long period, but for the past few years has been living with her husband in Jerusalem.”
‘THE BOOK THIEF’ CELEBRATES 10TH ANNIVERSARY — Publisher Alfred A. Knofpf is celebrating the 10th anniversary of award-winning author Markus Zusak’s international bestseller “The Book Thief,” with a special edition of the novel. It contains 14 pages of bonus content including marked-up manuscript pages, original sketches and pages from Zusak’s writing notebook, as well as a letter from the author and a new jacket.
Originally published in March 2006, “The Book Thief” received immediate critical acclaim and rose to the top of the New York Times bestseller list where it has remained for the last 10 years, selling more than 10 million copies worldwide. In addition to the glowing praise, the novel received numerous awards, including the Book Sense Book of the Year Award for Children’s Literature, a Michael L. Printz Honor from the American Library Association, and the Sydney Taylor Book Award from the Association of Jewish Libraries, which recognizes the best in Jewish children’s literature. “The Book Thief” has since gone on to become a book selection of Community Reads programs across the country and was released as a major motion picture in 2013 starring Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson.
Set in Germany in 1939 and narrated by the poetic voice of Death, the book introduces Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich, who scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist — books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids, as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement. This remarkable story explores the power of words and their ability to incite, to destroy, and also to heal. In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, Markus Zusak has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.