Malka, a Queen in Jerusalem [with Tami Shem-Tov]

In Jerusalem, in the early 20th century, a little girl named Malka—“queen” in Hebrew—dreams of dressing up as Queen Esther. It is the festival of Purim, and all the kids are looking forward to going out in the streets in their costumes. But Malka’s mother doesn’t have time to prepare a Purim costume for her. Feeling sad, Malka wanders around the city until she comes to a big building with a yard, where a man is chiseling a large stone. “You’ve come to the right place!” says the man, Boris Schatz, when he hears her story. He will make Malka’s dream come true: he takes her to the weavery where weavers quickly make her a regal cape, interwoven with golden thread. In the metal workers’ hall, the craftsmen make her a scepter and crown, studded with precious stones. And in another room, she sits on a special chair while artists draw her with great artistry. Then Boris tells Malka about Bezalel, the first art school in the Land of Israel, which he founded in Jerusalem. And when he says goodbye, he adds that he hopes she will be study at his school when’s she’s older.

Malka, a Queen in Jerusalem is the second in the series Pioneers of Culture (following A Concert in the Sand), and it tells about the sculptor-painter Boris Schatz who, in the early 20th century, founded what is now the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design.