"Ma'ase Be'Zkena U'VeDov" – "Omanut" Publishing, 1922

"Ma'ase Be'Zkena U'VeDov" – "Omanut" Publishing, 1922
"Ma'ase Be'Zkena U'VeDov". Frankfurt am Main (Moscow-Odessa): Omanut, Gamliel Library, 1922.
A folk tale for children translated and adapted by Simcha Ben Zion. Illustrations:" Chavurat Tzayarim". [9] leaves. 31x22.5 cm. Very good condition. Minor damages to binding.
"…' Ma'ase Be'Zkena U'VeDov' is a problematic booklet – a severely criticized legend adapted by S. Ben Zion. The legend first printed in the Ben Ami reader, appeared in Eretz Israel shortly after Ben Zion immigrated to Eretz Israel (1905), and re-appeared again and again throughout the years, almost in all Hebrew readers. "Rav Ze'era" writes this critic: 'The legend 'Ma'ase Be'Zkena U'VeDov': Why does it appear in readers for Hebrew children? The educational purpose of legends is to cultivate healthy imagination… but the images must be from the same world in which the child grows. In the Jewish world, do we see bears attacking children? This is not a legend for the Hebrew nation nor for the world in general, but it is a typical Russian tale…'. The illustrations in the booklet' Ma'ase Be'Zkena U'VeDov' are difficult to recognize and we have no real knowledge of the person who drew them. They portray an old woman with farmer's garb with a kerchief askew behind her ears portraying that this is not a plain Ukrainian farmer's wife but a Jewish woman. The children, on the other hand, are dressed in city clothes, and the boys do not even always have their head covered. The children's ages are not realistic, and in one illustration, children too small are together with children too big. In the same illustration, there is a combination of logic and illogic and here and there a comical element, and a lot of crudeness…". (From: Ayala Gordon, Hebrew illustrations, Nachum Gutman Museum, Tel Aviv, [2005], page 110).