Sexuality, gender and the LGBT community are not concepts you would expect to find in a book intended for the ultra-Orthodox community, certainly not one whose target audience is children.
A book called "You Be You: The Kid's Guide to Gender, Sexuality and Family" due out at the end of the month will make this information available in Yiddish for the first time, in a way that has never been done before.
The author of the book (which will sell for $ 18), Jonathan Bernfman, first published it in English in 2019, with the aim of creating a source of knowledge that would be as stigmatized as possible for children between the ages of 7 and 11.
"Many Hasidim who belong to the LGBT community have to deal with discrimination and internal stigma," Bernfman explained.
The children who read the book discover between its pages that there are different types of people and that diversity is something that should be celebrated. "
The illustrations in the book are also unique, and are the only ones in the non-English version that have undergone a change to suit the familiar world of Hassidic children, as a bride and groom, for example, are displayed dressed in traditional Hassidic clothing.
Lily Rosen, the translator of the book into Yiddish, who herself grew up in an Orthodox family, says she hopes the book will reach those devout children who feel lonely and misunderstood, and will help them and the world see, understand and accept them.
"I think it would not be an exaggeration to say that this is a life-saving book," she concluded.
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