About two weeks ago, the small radical Orthodox party Noam ran a post on its Facebook page decrying an "Everyone and his Family," an Israeli children's book about different kinds of families, including single-sex couples raising children, that is being distributed in kindergartens.
The book, by Yael Mishali and Yehuda Atlas, was published 21 years ago. It describes a family with single-sex parents, a family in which divorced parents remarry, and families raised by single parents, as well as other variations on the "traditional" nuclear family.
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However, the Noam post backfired. Most of the commenters said they were happy to learn that the book existed, and many said that they intended to purchase it. Other posters asked where it was being sold. Authors suggested that Noam might object to their own books, thus boosting sales.
The Noam post excoriated the book for portraying LGBTQ families, mixed Jewish-Arab families, and families of foreign workers in Israel.
"This is what [the Education Ministry] has been giving our children for years. It's time to put a stop to it. In the next Knesset, Noam will remove this book from kindergartens. We need a strong Noam party!" it reads.
In addition, a number of posters asked for the book to be translated into other languages.
Atlas, a respected author, credited Mishali with coming up for the idea of the book and writing it.
"I didn't know Yael until she called me one day and said, 'I've written a children's book in rhyme, and I want to send it to you so you can give me your opinion.' Because I get a lot of requests like that, I considered telling her I couldn't do that, but then I asked her, 'What's the book about?' She answered: 'About pluralism in families – about how there are all kinds of families, not just mom-dad-kids.'"
"She [Yael] sent me the manuscript, and it was a story about a kid who is supposed to have a birthday party in kindergarten and tell [the class] about his family, but he doesn't know what to say. Then the other kids' stories come up, for example, a child of divorced parents. I thought it was a great idea for a really important book, one that would give legitimacy to every kind of family there is. Everyone can and should choose how they want to live, and no one else has the right to force anything on them," Atlas said.
Atlas said he helped Mishali with the rhymes and writing style, and suggested that she make the children in the story older to bring in the difficulties each one experiences with his or her own unique family structure.
Mishali points out that when the book was first published, it was well-received. The first copies were, in fact, self-published.
"Because after a week, the book had disappeared from stores, we went to the printer a few more times until we decided it was too much for us and gave the book to a publisher that would print and distribute it," she says.
"There are a lot of stories about how in the first few weeks, everyone who got a present when babies were born or before starting first grade would receive two or three copies of the book. … Twenty-one years went by and naturally, the book's sales tapered off. The people from Noam have given us the biggest marketing push in recent years," Mishali adds.
