It seems Olomeinu ranks really high in readers’ memories of yore

Last Week’s Poll

We suggested a trip down memory lane, and you were all in. And it seems Olomeinu ranks really high in readers’ memories of yore. Join us as we turn the page back.

Pages through the Ages

In the years before weekly Jewish publications produced separate children’s sections, Olomeinu was a child’s only connection to the Jewish world at large. In 1970–71 the magazine serialized a five-part story entitled “That Day.” It was a true account (just one that hasn’t happened yet) of a group of regular yeshivah and day school students experiencing what will happen when Mashiach arrives. As a third-grader in Yeshiva Tifereth Moshe, the story captured my imagination and created a longing I still feel to witness those days.

The lessons we learned from Mendel the Mouse by Ruth Finkelstein were second to none. The magazine took us on trips to Eretz Yisrael, which seemed so far away back then, and introduced us to the people living there. Mador Ivri taught us about gedolim using simple Ivrit. Moreover, ahavas Yisrael permeated the pages — no difference was attributed to the color or material of different yarmulkas.

My brother and I never threw out our copies of Olomeinu and I continued collecting them even after I graduated high school. They were an excellent source of material for my weekly Queens JEP Release-Time students while I was learning in beis medrash.

As a fourth-grade rebbi in the 1990s at the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County, I have a collection of close to four decades of Olomeinu labeled and encased by decade sitting on a prominent shelf in our seforim shrank. They were read by our children in the 2000s and now hopefully our grandchildren will read them as well. Olomeinu is timeless.

Jewish Classics

I would go to the Jewish Youth Library and read all the Marcus Lehman books, week after week, until I had finished them all. I even read the original (and unedited) Bustenai. The intrigue, the danger, the history — I was captivated. And the couple always got married at the end.

The Avner Gold books were also thrilling. We waited in the school library for each one to become available and I savored each word of the plot and dialogue. The Purple Ring — with a name like that, all resistance falls.

Second to None

What about Mendel the Mouse?

“What Mendel says is as good as done

Because Mendel the Mouse is second to none!”

Or am I much too old?

But yeah — nothing like Olomeinu.

Vintage Read

I loved Rabbi Zevulun Weisberger’s stories, especially the Purim ones, the ones with the fixed villain being Mayor Yemach Shemo. They were later included in the Best of Olomeinu books, which many of us would read in the teachers room to while away the monotony of detention….

The comics in the back always had the “color” a little out of the lines and the cars and imagery were always stuck in the ’50s. And of course, Mador Ivri was my first introduction to modern Hebrew. I really learned a lot from it.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 945)