Yenta The Chanukah Dreydl
Diana Levine
Paperback
(Bookstand Publishing, Oct. 14, 2010)
Hello, I am a dreydl, a spinning toy children play with on Chanukah. But did you know that in Biblical times children played with dreydls all year? In those days, the study of Torah was forbidden in school. Still, there was Torah study. The Roman officials were tricked into thinking that there was none. However. The children brought their dreydls, a favorite toy at that time, to school with them. When word came that the officials were coming, the children would get out their dreydls, so when the Romans arrived, all they saw was children playing with their toys. My name is Yenta. You never heard of a dreydl having a name? A yenta is a person who talks about other people. My family gave me that name last year when I got angry at them for celebrating Chanukah as a Jewish Christmas and spun out of the house to try to find out why my family felt they needed to imitate someone else's holiday.
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