THE YANKEE At THE SEDER: A New Children’s Picture Book Just in Time for Pesach

THE YANKEE AT THE SEDER by Elka Weber is a new children’s picture book based on a true story at the close of the Civil War.

Apparently when General Lee surrendered to General Grant on April 9, 1865, that was right before the first seder.  And Myer Samuel Levy, a Jewish Union corporal (Fifth Regiment of the Cavalry, Company C), got leave in Virginia for Pesach.

He saw a boy eating matzoh outside a house and asked for some.  The child ran inside and yelled: “Mother, there’s a Yankee Jew outside!”  The mother invited the enemy soldier to stay for the seder.

The book’s text by Elka Weber and the illustrations by Adam Gustavson combine to tell a compelling story.  Think of the seder when we talk about our freedom from slavery – and think of Lee surrendering to Grant at the end of a war fought partly over the issue of slavery.

I highly recommend this engaging story – and the book even includes a photo of Myer Levy’s saber!

In the section of the book “The Real Story,” Weber states: “During the period following the war, the South suffered through difficult economic times.  Many Jews in the North, like the character of Myer Levy in this story, raised money to send Passover supplies to newly impoverished Jews in the South.”

I hope that those of you who will have an amply supplied Pesach seder table will contribute now to the numerous organizations that supply Pesach food to currently impoverished Jews here in the U.S., in Israel, and elsewhere in the world.

Buy this book now.