{"id":112017,"date":"2024-04-05T17:00:21","date_gmt":"2024-04-05T15:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=112017"},"modified":"2024-04-05T13:17:48","modified_gmt":"2024-04-05T11:17:48","slug":"09-00-91","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=112017","title":{"rendered":"Author Won\u2019t Back Down After Receiving Hate for Publishing Children\u2019s Book About Jewish Heritage Amid Gaza War"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Author Won\u2019t Back Down After Receiving Hate for Publishing Children\u2019s Book About Jewish Heritage Amid Gaza War<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

Shiryn Ghermezian<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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The cover of \u201cUnder the Rockets\u2019 Glow: Shira\u2019s Journey to Courage.\u201d Photo: Screenshot<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

A first-time children\u2019s book author who has been targeted with thousands of hate messages and negative comments and reviews online for publishing a book that highlights the Jewish people\u2019s heritage amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war said he\u2019s not letting the backlash have an effect on him.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s Israeli soldiers who are putting their lives on the line to protect the land of Israel. If I take a little bit of heat online, it\u2019s the least I can do if this is actually bringing value to people,\u201d Roman Sandler, 34, told\u00a0The Algemeiner<\/em>\u00a0on Wednesday. \u201cI see the hate as kind of a corroboration that I\u2019m on the right track because if you\u2019re not pissing anyone off you\u2019re not doing the right sort of thing. You\u2019re not doing something important.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The father of three self-published a children\u2019s book in January titled\u00a0Under the Rockets\u2019 Glow: Shira\u2019s Journey to Courage<\/em><\/a>. It\u2019s about a young girl named Shira and her father, who teaches her about her Jewish heritage and history, from Abraham to modern-day Israel, to help her find courage one night as rockets rain down outside her bedroom window. The story concludes with Shira falling asleep, feeling safe while dreaming about a world full of peace.<\/span><\/p>\n

A portion of all proceeds from the book will be donated to the victims of the deadly\u00a0Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in southern Israel<\/a>, during which the terrorists slaughtered 1,200 people and took hundreds of others as hostages back to the Gaza Strip. The book is also dedicated to victims of the massacre and soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces who are \u201ccurrently risking their lives to defend Israel and subdue evil in our midst.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Sandler, who lives in California with his family, told\u00a0The Algemeiner<\/em>\u00a0that he was inspired to write the children\u2019s book after having a hard time explaining the gravity of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war to his five-year-old daughter, and not being able to find any decent resources to help her understand the situation. The author, whose wife has Israeli roots, also wanted to help children understand \u201cthe first principles of who we are as a [Jewish] people, why we\u2019re in Israel, our connection to the land, and why it\u2019s worth fighting for,\u201d he explained.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t think I did anything that controversial,\u201d Sandler added. \u201cBut I think that even the sole point that the Jews have a stake to the land of Israel is unfortunately a controversial point.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In February, the children\u2019s book garnered the attention of Jewish actress and former\u00a0Jeopardy!<\/em>\u00a0host Mayim Bialik, who praised it in an Instagram\u00a0post<\/a>. After the\u00a0Big Bang Theory<\/em>\u00a0star posted about the book on social media, sales for\u00a0Under the Rockets\u2019 Glow<\/em>\u00a0went up tremendously, but Sandler and the book also began receiving hate messages from anti-Israel activists. The book was additionally review bombed on Amazon and Google, which dragged down its ratings, and Sandler was sent thousands of threatening messages on social media.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think just the fact that Mayim [Bialik] posted it as comforting to Israelis in present times just automatically to the pro-Palestinian movement makes it a bad thing because [to them], it can\u2019t be comforting to Israelis and say the Jewish narrative without somehow infringing the Palestinian narrative,\u201d Sandler told\u00a0The Algemeiner.<\/em>\u00a0\u201cI think that\u2019s how they see it, unfortunately.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Across TikTok, Facebook, X\/Twitter, and other platforms, Sandler was called \u201cgenocidal zionist scum\u201d; compared to Nazis; and falsely accused of promoting genocide for writing a \u201cpropaganda children\u2019s book to indoctrinate israeli [sic] children with hateful lies, while tens of thousands of Palestinians die at the hands of this brutal illegal occupation.\u201d His book was described as \u201cZionist trash\u201d aimed at \u201cradicalizing Jewish kids\u201d and \u201cglorifying ethnic cleansing.\u201d It was also labeled as \u201cZionist propaganda designed to brainwash you and your little ones into supporting genocide.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Photo: Screenshot<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLying to kids about Israel\u2019s barbarity is a Zionist tradition,\u201d wrote one X user. Others encouraged pro-Palestinian individuals to leave negative reviews online for the book. However, most of the negative reviews left on the book\u2019s Amazon page are from unverified purchases, Sandler noted, meaning they were written most likely by online users who have not even purchased and read\u00a0Under the Rockets\u2019 Glow<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite all the negativity that Sandler\u2019s book has faced, many parents online have thanked him for writing a book that has helped their own children.<\/span><\/p>\n

One Amazon reviewer, a parent from Israel, said the book has helped \u201ccomfort my children with their trauma\u201d and \u201cgive them strength and hope\u201d when Israel experiences rocket attacks.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis book is beautiful and heartwarming, speaks about how we need to be brave and courageous, just like all of our Jewish ancestors as they faced similar hardships, and reminding them of our beautiful history of survival,\u201d added the Amazon reviewer and verified purchaser. \u201cMy kids love reading it now eveynight [sic], and I often hold back tears reading it [to] them, trying to smile and be positive for them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOct. 7th is a dark day that is hard to explain to our kids,\u201d said another reviewer and verified purchaser on Amazon. \u201cBut I think [Under the Rockets\u2019 Glow]<\/em>\u00a0can give strength to the young Jewish children (and their parents!) in the US who have seen such a\u00a0rise of antisemitism<\/a>\u00a0here that it often feels dangerous and scary. Thank you for helping provide that strength for our kids and helping them understand the Jewish people\u2019s [connection] to the land of Israel.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Under the\u00a0Rockets\u2019 Glow<\/em>\u00a0has also been praised as educational and helpful in having kids understand the Israel-Hamas war.<\/span><\/p>\n

Photo: Screenshot<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Sandler has no immediate plans to write another children\u2019s book but is not ruling it out, despite the negativity he\u2019s faced with his first publication.\u00a0Reflecting on all the positivity surrounding\u00a0Under the Rockets\u2019 Glow<\/em>, he said, \u201cI think a lot of people are very glad this book exists, just because there is so much hate out there. [The book is] something that can say their story and provide context to their children in such hard times.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

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Under the Rockets\u2019 Glow: Shira\u2019s Journey to Courage\u00a0<\/em>is available to purchase on Amazon as well as some independent Jewish bookstores in New York and Toronto, Canada.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Author Won\u2019t Back Down After Receiving Hate for Publishing Children\u2019s Book About Jewish Heritage Amid Gaza War Shiryn Ghermezian The cover of \u201cUnder the Rockets\u2019 Glow: Shira\u2019s Journey to Courage.\u201d Photo: Screenshot A first-time children\u2019s book author who has been targeted with thousands of hate messages and negative comments and reviews online for publishing a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112017"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=112017"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112017\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112027,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112017\/revisions\/112027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=112017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=112017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=112017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}