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After Shabbat dinner this Friday, I was reading The Yankee at the Seder to our kids for the first time — wow, this is an incredibly beautiful and moving story, gorgeously illustrated. It’s simple: just after Lee has surrendered, a Jewish family in Virginia hosts a Jewish Union soldier for Seder. I don’t easily get choked up and am not the teary-eyed type at all, but with this story of people putting aside resentments and grudges to celebrate Passover with a wandering Jewish lad from the enemy’s side I had to stop many times and put my voice back together again because it kept cracking while my eyes clouded. I’ve never had this experience before with reading a book aloud. I discovered it thanks to a roundup of kids’ books in the online magazine Tablet.

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