Emanuel and the Hanukkah Rescue by Heidi Smith Hyde

Emanuel and the Hanukkah Rescue Reviews

• 
  Abigail

  Set in eighteenth-century New Bedford, Massachusetts, this Hanukkah story centers around a family of crypto-Jews - Jews who were forced to convert to Christianity (usually Catholicism), but who secretly maintained their own traditions - and how they came to publicly profess their true faith. The eponymous Emanuel, who admires the whaling captains who frequent his merchant father's shop, and who has never known anything but freedom, presses his Portuguese-born father to publicly display the family's menorah, during the Festival of Lights. His father, used to the secrecy required in Europe, refuses, until Emanuel stows away on Captain Henshaw's ship, and all aboard find themselves in terrible danger. It is only then that he, and the rest of the (secretly) Jewish community of New Bedford relent, using their menorahs to guide the ship home, after a storm knocks out the lighthouse.
  
  Emanuel and the Hanukkah Rescue touches upon some fascinating themes - issues of religious persecution and freedom, questions of identity and having pride in one's heritage, and notions of bravery, and how we define it - but in the end I was left wanting more. I enjoyed the story, and applaud the message of standing up for what is right, and refusing to live in fear, but I had trouble suspending my disbelief, while reading. The author's brief foreword mentions the community of secretly Jewish merchants who settled in New Bedford, but gives scant details. When did this community declare itself as Jewish? Was it in the eighteenth century, as depicted here? What about religious intolerance in Massachusetts? Of course it would not have compared, in scope or virulence, to that found in Europe, but it was certainly still abroad in the culture. I wish the author had given more historical details, as I was left with many questions...
• 
  Maya

  Oh my goodness, this beautiful and understated story. Why haven't I been reading it all my life? (Okay, since it was published in 2012.)
  
  I'm now off to seek out Heidi Smith Hyde's other books (some of which I've already read; and I just realized that she is local to where I live) and the same for illustrator Jamel Akib, whose use of chalk pastel was a perfect medium to bring this story to life from the page.
  
  On a related note, I serendipitously read "Emanuel" tonight in tandem with Leah Henderson and Floyd Cooper's, "A Day for Rememberin': The First Memorial Day." This story commemorates the first year of liberation from enslavement for people of African heritage after the Civil War. There were some interesting synchronicities resonant herein between the two communities: African folks in the 1860s and the Jews newly arrived from to New Bedford, Massachusetts from Portugal in the 1700s, who had long lived in hiding. Subtle and beautiful patterns being drawn.
  
  Note: The name Emanuel (עמנואל) means "G-D is with us" in Hebrew.
  
  >> Note to Goodreads: The illustrator's name is spelled wrong in your listing: Jamel, not Jamal.
• 
  Elizabeth

  Emanuel and the Hanukkah Rescue is a cute work of historical fiction with great themes of family, pride, fear, and celebrating religious traditions. It makes for a great Hanukkah story, especially for children who prefer their picture books with a bit more adventure than most holiday books have to offer.
• 
  Sherry Scheline

  Wonderful story about not letting fear control you. It’s a great story with multiple discussion topics. Fear, immigration, religious tolerance, family communication and more. Parents do not have to pre-read it, it is fine to read it together as a family.
• 
  Matthew

  This is kind of an unusual Hanukkah book in that it has a maritime theme. A group of Portuguese Jews move to a small New England fishing village called New Bedford. However, they are so used to being persecuted for their beliefs that they keep their Judaism a secret from the members of the community and celebrate all their holidays in secret. The main character is the son in one of these secretly Jewish families, and he doesn't like hiding his beliefs. He stows away on a whaling ship during his family's Hanukkah celebration because he admires the whaling captains' bravery and wants to live like them. Except life on a whaling ship isn't what he expected and before he can disembark from the ship a change in weather makes his experience far more dangerous. This story ends well with both his family and him learning something about being themselves. Cool book. Doesn't dwell on the celebration of Hanukkah too much, which would probably be a welcome change from many Hanukkah books which come off too often as nearly nonfiction readers on the traditions of Hanukkah. I'd read this with kids. They'd like it.
• 
  Bisma Kureshy

  PB-37
  Emanuel's courage and bravery is a model for all the kids who fear something in their lives and are afraid of being judged for their beliefs. Great story!