The Boston Chocolate Party - by Tami Lehman-Wilzig & Rabbi Deborah R Prinz (Hardcover)

About the Book

"A story of friendship and a love of chocolate, set against the backdrop of the American fight for independence and Hanukkah's message of freedom"--

Book Synopsis

"A fast-paced picture book that combines the drama foreshadowing the American Revolution, the heroic Maccabee fight for freedom, and Sephardic Hanukkah customs" --Association of Jewish Libraries

"An engag-ing sto-ry about a Jew-ish Amer-i-can past" --Jewish Book Council

" A delightful book about friendship, the Revolutionary war, Jewish history, and of course, recipes" --The Chocolate Professor

Joshua Mendes misses his best friend Isaac, who has moved to Boston. Joshua's Papa is importing chocolate beans to the American Colonies, showing café owners how to make hot chocolate now that the tea tax has made tea too expensive to drink. When Papa travels to Boston, Joshua joins him. Together, they help Isaac's family open a chocolate house, while the people of Boston demonstrate against British tea taxation.

Set against the backdrop of Hanukkah and the American fight for independence, this is a story of friendship, freedom, and a love of chocolate. End notes provide background about the Boston Tea Party, a brief explanation of the holiday of Hanukkah, and a description of America's first Jews, predominantly settlers from Spain and Portugal who came to escape religious persecution and to find religious freedom and economic opportunity. Includes recipes for Colonial-style hot chocolate and bunuelos.

Review Quotes

"A fast-paced picture book that combines the drama foreshadowing the American Revolution, the heroic Maccabee fight for freedom, and Sephardic Hanukkah customs . . . Readers can enjoy this lively historical vignette while feeling proud to see Jews at the founding of our nation." --Ellen G. Cole for the Association of Jewish Libraries

" . . . Combines years of research with the kind of imagination that will have children reading this book over and over. . . .There's even a surprise piece of trivia, showing the kind of cups President George and Martha Washington used for drinking chocolate." --Donald H. Harrison, San Diego Jewish World

"Lehman-Wilzig and Prinz set their story during Hanukkah 1773 in the American colonies, centering Sephardic New England Jews. Protagonist Joshua's friend Isaac and his family have meager resources to celebrate Januca (the Spanish name for Hanukkah), but innovation from Joshua, and chocolate (an alternative to tea!) imported by Joshua's father and his crew, provide help. The Boston Tea Party actually took place on the last night of Hanukah; the (somewhat lengthy) text draws connections between the colonists' "fight for freedom" and the Maccabees'. The muted palette of Combi's digital-looking illustrations lends a historic feel. Back matter provides more information about Hanukkah, the Boston Tea Party, and early American Sephardic Jews--and, of course, recipes. --Shoshana Flax, Horn Book

"Brings history to life and illuminates Jewish culture in colonial times. It's wonderful to read how Hanukkah was celebrated in Newport during the 1700's. It made me feel right at home!" --Rabbi Marc Mandel, historic Touro Synagogue, Newport, Rhode Island

"The Boston Chocolate Party is a child's tale of ingenuity, resilience, and friendship, and embeds these values in an early American history too little known by our children. This book combines whimsy with history in a delicious mix that goes perfectly with a cup of hot chocolate, and a young person's capacity to imagine the past." --William Cutter, Prof. emeritus of Literature, Education, and Human Relations, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion

Any-one look-ing for a new Hanukkah-themed children's
book might take inter-est in a lit-tle-known fact in Amer-i-can his-to-ry:
the famous Boston Tea Par-ty of 1773 took place on the last night of
the Jew-ish free-dom fes-ti-val. Fic-tion-al-iz-ing the coin-ci-dence, Tami
Lehman-Wilzig, Rab-bi Deb-o-rah R. Prinz, and Fede Com-bi invite read-ers to
imag-ine a con-nec-tion between the Mac-cabees' rebel-lion and the hero-ic
upris-ing of Amer-i-can colonists against Great Britain. Indeed, The
Boston Choco-late Par-ty fol-lows Sephardic Jews as they seek free-dom and
pros-per-i-ty in their new home. When unfair British tax-a-tion poli-cies gal-va-nize
patri-ots to protest, the lives of Jews and their neigh-bors inter-sect in
a sur-pris-ing way.

At the begin-ning of the book, Joshua Mendes and his father
are wait-ing for a ship to dock in New-port har-bor. This impres-sive ves-sel
is bring-ing a car-go of choco-late beans for ship-ment to Boston, where
res-i-dents will use them to make a sub-sti-tute bev-er-age for polit-i-cal-ly
con-tro-ver-sial tea. But here at home in New-port, the Sephardic com-mu-ni-ty
is already pre-pared to con-vert the beans into a deli-cious drink, and to
serve it on the fes-ti-val of Janucá (Hanukkah). A cozy scene of
cel-e-bra-tion fea-tures the fam-i-ly enjoy-ing hot choco-late, the fried dough
pas-try buñue-los, and the glow of the chanukiyah placed in the
win-dow. A por-trait of the Ram-bam (Mai-monides) hangs in a place of
hon-or over the fire-place. The pic-ture offers pas-sage into dis-cus-sion
about dif-fer-ent cul-tures with-in the Jew-ish world.

When Joshua final-ly con-vinces his par-ents to allow
a vis-it to his friend Isaac in Boston, the two sto-ries of coura-geous
upris-ing, Jew-ish and Amer-i-can, cross paths. Isaac's fam-i-ly, like that of
many oth-ers in the colonies, is strug-gling. His wid-owed moth-er can bare-ly
put food on the table, let alone pro-vide the extra del-i-ca-cies expect-ed for
the hol-i-day. Per-son-al ini-tia-tive and com-mu-nal aid mat-ter equal-ly when
Isaac's moth-er, with the help of her friends, opens a small busi-ness
ready to serve choco-late to eager Bosto-ni-ans. The food becomes both
a means to eco-nom-ic bet-ter-ment and an act of patriotism.

As Joshua and Isaac look through the win-dow, they sud-den-ly
become wit-ness-es to a dra-mat-ic turn-ing point in the colonies, with
Isaac not-ing that the demon-stra-tors out-side ​"look angry." He com-ments
that the ​"tea par-ty" tak-ing place does not look like a par-ty at
all -- although the authors point out in their after-word that the title
of ​"Boston Tea Par-ty" was not used at the time the protest took place.
Giv-en that this is a book for young chil-dren, the authors choose to make
the con-nec-tion explicit.

Just like any cel-e-bra-tion of Hanukkah/​Janucá, there are
many ingre-di-ents con-tribut-ing to this appeal-ing new book. Jew-ish mul-ti-cul-tur-al-ism,
com-mu-ni-ty sup-port in the face of adver-si-ty, and a thirst for free-dom
all add up to an engag-ing sto-ry about a Jew-ish Amer-i-can past. --Emily Schneider, Jewish Book Council