Folktales for Rosh Hashana

To celebrate the Jewish New Year, even in lockdown, I began retelling traditional Jewish folktales, giving them all a Rosh Hashana twist. Better yet, I’d make them all about Chelm, the famous town of silly people. (These humorous stories are free on Youtube at https://youtu.be/CJSn1II35jw and ready for bored kids to enjoy). As I collected these, I thought I’d also compile a list of the stories already available in this holiday season:

FOLK STORIES FOR ROSH HASHANA

Certner, Simon “The Angel Who Repented” 101 Jewish Stories.

Frankel, Valerie Estelle “Honeybees of Chelm.” Chelm for the Holidays, Kar-Ben, 2019.

Goldin, Barbara Diamond. “The Shofar.” One-Hundred-and-One Jewish Read-Aloud Stories.

Jaffe, Nina. “Never-ending Story” The Uninvited Guest and other Jewish Holiday Tales. Illus. by Elivia Savadier. Scholastic, 1993.

Gordon-Zaslow, Debra “The Journey of a Lost Princess” Chosen Tales: Stories Told by Jewish Storytellers. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson, an Imprint of Rowman & Littlefield, 1995. pp. 126–131.

Hautzig, Esther “If Not Still Higher” The Seven Good Years and other stories of I. L. Peretz. Philadelphia: JPS, 1984. pp. 71–77.

Kimmel, Eric A. Even Higher! A Rosh Hashanah Story Illustrated by Jill Weber