The Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture congratulates its grantee, Czulent, the Jewish young adult association in Krakow, on receiving the BolognaRagazzi Award for its Yiddish children's book. The award is the main prize at the Bologna Children's Book Fair, one of the most important international events dedicated to the children’s publishing and multimedia industry worldwide.
Czulent's publication, Majn Alef Bejs, is a book of Yiddish poems for children, appearing in both Yiddish and Polish, which teach Polish children the letters of the Yiddish alphabet. In the competition, the book, written by Jehoszua Kaminski and illustrated by Urszula Palusińska, won first prize in the non-fiction category. The jury asserted that their decision was unanimous and undisputed, see below from Bologna Children's Book Fair website:
NON FICTION
Non Fiction - winner
A stunningly produced alphabet of Yiddish poems, this book instantly united the Jury as the outright winner for the Non-Fiction category. The strikingly muscular imagery is executed in a manner that is reminiscent of woodblock printing, featuring bold, flat colour and crude surface texture. Each spread is beautifully designed in terms of weight and distribution of shapes on the page. This is a striking, graphically literate work that is both modern and traditional in feel. The large scale of the book perfectly accommodates the drama of its contents and every aspect of its production has been given the utmost attention.
Majn Alef Bejs was published by Czulent as part of the A Majse series, which also includes – A Majse and Jontew Lider, with Jewish tales and holiday songs for young children. Through stories and poems, children learn both the spiritual values of Judaism and the history of the Jewish people. It is a non-commercial project: the books are distributed free of charge for over 1,000 Jewish families throughout Poland.
More about A Majse/Fairy Tales project>>
More about Czulent:
Czulent Jewish Association was established in 2004 as an independent association of young Jews in Krakow. Association members have different interests and views but share the belief that Jewish identity is something precious that needs to be nurtured and strengthened. The Association is open both to those who are inclined to religion and to those whose Jewishness has a secular dimension, because the foundations of the association are pluralism, diversity, openness and tolerance.
Visit the Czulent Association >>
A Majse/Fairy Tales project is supported by:
Taube Foundation for Jewish Life & Culture
Ministry of Administration and Digitization
The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
The Dutch Jewish Humanitarian Fund
The Kronhill Pletka Foundation
Sigmund Rolat
The Morris J. and Betty Kaplun Foundation
