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With many delightful illustrations, this book, by Jack Lefcourt (KTAV Publishing House, Inc., 2009) provides an enjoyable tour of 4,000 years of Jewish history. While meant for school-age children, it is entertaining for adults as well and is a good family book to read together to learn Jewish history.

The story starts in around 2000 B.C.E. when Terah, his son Abraham, Abraham's wife Sarah, and nephew Lot started out on a long journey headed west from Babylonia. Did you know that "Hebrew (Ivrim)" meant "the people from the other side of the river"? Abraham's family crossed the Euphrates river and so became the first "Hebrew."

Rather simply presented, the book covers all major events in Jewish history including anti-Semitism, Zionism, the Holocaust, and the independence of Israel in modern times. The illustrations are humorous even when drawing violent mobs accusing Jews of poisoning the wells during the 14th-century plague epidemic and are appropriate for children.

The book may also be helpful for gentiles as a quick reference to acquire an overview of Judaism -- is it a religion, people, language, or experience? It was also interesting to review European history from a Jewish perspective. As a Japanese woman, I was impressed by the fact that nearly half of the book was devoted to the pre-Christian age. Japanese history started only after the 6th century when Prince Shotoku established the capital in Nara.

More interestingly, the author quoted scholarly research suggesting that ancient Japanese may have been one of the 10 lost tribes of Israel because of some striking similarities between Jewish and Shinto practices, e.g., Jewish tefillin vs. Shinto tokin, the shofar vs. shinto conch shell trumpet, and Ark of the Israelites vs. Shinto Mikoshi. It sounds romantic that a lost ancient tribe of Israel traveled across the vast Asian continent and finally reached the islands of Japan crossing the sea. I can certainly add even a more striking similarity: Jewish mothers and Japanese mothers!

Kinue Weinstein is a native Japanese speaker and contributes travel columns and recipes to The Jewish State. She currently resides in New Providence.