Osnat and Her Dove: The True Story of the World's First Female Rabbi

Despite the fact that girls in 15th-century Mosul were expected to do chores--"Reading is for boys"--Osnat convinces her rabbi father, who builds yeshivas, to teach her to read. "You don't have any boys. If your daughter wants to learn," she says, "why not teach her?" She befriends a dove, who becomes her faithful companion. As she grows older, she asks her father to seek a groom who will allow her to study Torah, and she helps run her father's religious school while raising her own children. After her father's death and, later, her husband's, she becomes the school's leader, making her the first female rabbi. As with other religious figures, legends grew up around Osnat, including some in which she has supernatural abilities, and Samuel (The Mystics of Mile End, for adults) recounts some of these, beginning with a hunter's attack on her dove, which miraculously heals. The story is warmed with lush spreads by Mintzi (The Girl with a Brave Heart), whose intense, saturated hues set the blues of night against the reds and oranges of candle-lit windows, robes, and carpets. A rich portrait of an early female Jewish hero. Ages 4-8. (Feb.)

Gr 2-4--This loose biography relates the little known story of the first female rabbi, Osnat Barzani, a Kurdish Jew whose knowledge of the Torah and leadership of a yeshiva in ancient Iraq broke gender barriers. In language reminiscent of a fairy tale, a child named Osnat is born in 1590--"almost five hundred years ago, when almost everyone believed in miracles." Born into a family with no sons, and surrounded by books, she convinces her father, a rabbi in the yeshiva, to teach her to read. As Osnat (and her knowledge and reputation) grows, her father intervenes to arrange a marriage conducive to her continued study of Hebrew scriptures. After her father and husband die, Osnat receives a vision in a dream from her father to assume leadership of the yeshiva. Legends of Osnat, such as her healing of her pet dove and of the sick, as well as a supernatural intervention during a fire at a synagogue, are included. There is an author's note, and while there is no glossary, words such as davul and kubbah are clearly understood in context. Gouache illustrations with mostly full-page backgrounds of blue, red and gold depict Osnat's tale, and include religious symbols such as a dove (denoting peace) and the number seven (considered a perfect number in Judaism). VERDICT A vibrant life story, with imagined conversations and brilliant illustrations, that will find a home in every collection.--Ramarie Beaver, formerly at Plano P.L., TX