How to use this Page

A few weeks ago, amidst the deepening refugee crisis from the war in Syria, many people and organisations around the world came together for the Continue reading ... →

Add a Comment

 

The Grand Mosque of Paris: A Story of How Muslims Rescued Jews During the Holocaust
by … Continue reading ... →

Add a Comment

As soon as I spotted the Social Justice Challenge button dotted all over the blogosphere, I knew that I would have to come up with some very good arguments not to take it on… so you will now find said button in our side-bar and here is my first post as an Activist for this month. If you haven’t already, I really do recommend you read this post, which explains the workings of the Challenge much better than I ever could… I will just say that this is a Challenge to do, as well as to absorb…

Launching January’s theme of Religious Freedom, which happens to run parallel to our own current theme of Respect for Religious Diversity, we are asked to answer a few questions:

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of religious freedom?
Peace and harmony – when we all learn to respect the right of each individual to follow (or not) the religion of their choice without fear of persecution, the human race will come close to achieving them. And education also comes to mind – because children (and adults) need to find out about the different world faiths, and learn to value both the diversity and shared values that they have at their heart.

What knowledge do you have of present threats to religious freedom in our world today?
I have some awareness of religious intolerance across the world – but I’m not going to go into it here…

Have you chosen a book or resource to read for this month?
With my sons, I’m going to read Many Windows: Six Kids, Five Faiths, One Community by Rukhsana Khan with Elisa Carbone and Uma Krishnaswami (Napoleon, 2008) and The Grand Mosque of Paris: A Story of How Muslims Rescued Jews During the Holocaust by Karen Gray Ruelle and Deborah Durland DeSaix (Holiday House, 2009), both of which I have already read… I haven’t chosen something new for myself yet… if I hadn’t recently read Wanting Mor (also by Rukhsana) , I would choose that…

Why does religious freedom matter to you?
It is a human right.

Add a Comment

Continuing with our current December/January bimonthly theme of Respect for Religious Diversity, we have added two new book reviews:

The Grand Mosque of Paris: A Story of How Muslims Rescued Jews During the Holocaust, by Karen Gray Ruelle and Deborah Durland DeSaix (Holiday House, 2009);

and Let There be Peace: Prayers from Around the World, selected by Jeremy Brooks and illustrated by Jude Daly (Frances Lincoln, 2009), which is also our January Book of the Month.

Both of these are superb books and would be perfect for sharing with children as part of the Social Justice Challenge, whose theme of Religious Freedom for this month happens to coincide with our own – I’ll be posting properly about this demanding and potentially hugely rewarding reading challenge soon…

Add a Comment

It is very exciting to hear that Wanting Mor by Rukhsana Khan (Groundwood, 2009), whose interview we feature in our new PaperTigers update, and who recently wrote a moving and insightful guest post for our blog, has won the The Middle East Outreach Council’s 2009 Middle East Book Award in the Youth Literature section. I reviewed Wanting Mor earlier this year and can’t recommend it highly enough! Congratulations, Rukhsana!

The Picture Book Section was won by The Butterman by Elizabeth Alalou and Ali Alalou, and illustrated by Julie Klear Essakalli; and The Grand Mosque of Paris: A Story of How Muslims Rescued Jews During the Holocaust by Karen Gray Ruelle, illustrated by Deborah Durland DeSaix (Holiday House, 2009), received an honorable mention – I recently received a copy of this beautiful book and will be reviewing it soon…

For a full list of winners and commentary, go to the “Middle East Book Awards” link in the sidebar on the MEOC website…

Add a Comment

The Grand Mosque of Paris: A Story of How Muslims Rescued Jews During the Holocaust Karen Gray Ruelle and Deborah Durland DeSaix

This book outlines how the rector of Paris's Grand Mosque helped save Jewish lives during the Holocaust. Mainly, what the Mosque did was give Jewish people who looked North African new identity paper as Muslims. Other Jews they helped smuggle through the Mosque, through the catacombs, and then out the Seine where they could often take a boat leading to a free area.

The details of this story are sketchy, which the authors discuss in the back matter to the book. The Mosque wouldn't let them access their library and most of the information is taken from a documentary made in 1990. It will be interesting to see what information would come out if someone were allowed to use the Mosque's library. The back matter is excellent, containing a glossary, bibliography and recommended reading/watching list. The bibliography and recommendations are broken into media types (Books, Articles, Movies, etc) and those that are appropriate for younger readers are asterisked. Additionally, on the recommended list, after each citation the authors list in parentheses who the audience is for that item.

The books is illustrated entirely in oil painting with no photographs, which isn't my favorite but I'm under the impression that there aren't many photographs around that would adequately illustrate the story.

Overall an interesting addition to Holocaust literature for younger readers.

Book Provided by... the publisher for Cybils consideration

Links to Amazon are an affiliate link. You can help support Biblio File by purchasing any item (not just the one linked to!) through these links. Read my full disclosure statement.

Display Comments Add a Comment