Books by "Renée de la Torre"
4 books found
Between 1391 and the end of the 15th century, numerous Spanish Jews converted to Christianity, most of them under duress. Before and after 1492, when the Jews were officially expelled from Spain, a significant number of these conversos maintained clandestine ties to Judaism, despite their outward conformity to Catholicism. Through the lens of the Inquisition's own records, this groundbreaking study focuses on the crypto-Jewish women of Castile, demonstrating their central role in the perpetuation of crypto-Jewish society in the absence of traditional Jewish institutions led by men. Renee Levine Melammed shows how many "conversas" acted with great courage and commitment to perpetuate their religious heritage, seeing themselves as true daughters of Israel. Her fascinating book sheds new light on the roles of women in the transmission of Jewish traditions and cultures.
This book examines the critical role that teachers play in supporting at-risk student populations to stay in school and successfully complete their graduation requirements. Thompson addresses how high schools may support marginal students in achieving success by the implementation of teacher self-efficacy and a positive classroom environment. The study identifies ways in which administrators at all levels can support teacher’s professional development and student success through reinforced accountability and consistency. The study also addresses how to grow and strengthen students to not only to stay in the traditional school setting, but to ensure the process will prepare students to be academically, socially, and emotionally ready for college and a career. Fostering this environment requires collaboration and teamwork from teachers, administrators, and parents. Students will demonstrate academic achievement when the school environment is positive, equitable, safe and rigorous.
Through the poetry of Bouena Sarfatty (1916-1997), An Ode to Salonika sketches the life and demise of the Sephardi Jewish community that once flourished in this Greek crossroads city. A resident of Salonika who survived the Holocaust as a partisan and later settled in Canada, Sarfatty preserved the traditions and memories of this diverse and thriving Sephardi community in some 500 Ladino poems known as coplas. The coplas also describe the traumas the community faced under German occupation before the Nazis deported its Jewish residents to Auschwitz. The coplas in Ladino and in Renée Levine Melammed's English translation are framed by chapters that trace the history of the Sephardi community in Salonika and provide context for the poems. This unique and moving source provides a rare entrée into a once vibrant world now lost.
Spoiled by her father and brothers since witnessing the car-accident death of her mother, Babysister, a young black woman in her twenties, sets her sights on her best friend's man, Darren Forrest Wilson, and learns a lesson about the value of friendship. A first novel. Reprint.