Osnat and Her Dove

December 21, 2020
Despite the fact that girls in 15th-century Mosul were expected to do chores—“Reading is for boys”—Osnat convinces her rabbi father, who builds yeshivas, to teach her to read. “You don’t have any boys. If your daughter wants to learn,” she says, “why not teach her?” She befriends a dove, who becomes her faithful companion. As she grows older, she asks her father to seek a groom who will allow her to study Torah, and she helps run her father’s religious school while raising her own children. After her father’s death and, later, her husband’s, she becomes the school’s leader, making her the first female rabbi. As with other religious figures, legends grew up around Osnat, including some in which she has supernatural abilities, and Samuel (The Mystics of Mile End, for adults) recounts some of these, beginning with a hunter’s attack on her dove, which miraculously heals. The story is warmed with lush spreads by Mintzi (The Girl with a Brave Heart), whose intense, saturated hues set the blues of night against the reds and oranges of candle-lit windows, robes, and carpets. A rich portrait of an early female Jewish hero. Ages 4–8.