At the age of 3, Zishe was lifting a nine-pound hammer in his father's blacksmith shop. By the age of eleven, there was not a bar he couldn't bend or a chain he could not snap. This is the unusual story of Zishe, a poor Polish Jew, who became the featured Strongman of circuses throughout the world. Based on the true story of Zishe of Lodz.

At the age of three, Zishe was lifting a nine-pound hammer in his father's blacksmith shop. By the age of 11, there was not a bar he couldn't bend or a chain he couldn't snap. This is the unusual story of Zishe, a poor Polish Jew, who became the featured Strongman of circuses throughout the world. It's based on the true story of Zishe of Lodz.

Little Friedrich Müller was a puny weakling who longed to be athletic and strong like the ancient Roman gladiators. He exercised and exercised. But he to no avail. As a young man, he found himself under the tutelage of a professional body builder. Friedrich worked and worked. He changed his name to Eugen Sandow and he got bigger and stronger. Everyone wanted to become “as strong as Sandow.” Inspired by his own experiences body-building, Don Tate tells the story of how Eugen Sandow changed the way people think about strength and exercise and made it a part of everyday life. Backmatter includes more information about Sandow, suggestions for exercise, an author’s note, and a bibliography.

"Many biographies written and illustrated for young people today are well researched, lively, and present the facts in creative styles and formats. The children's publishing industry is a leader in showcasing a diverse array of people to read about, many of them absent from school textbooks, but all playing important roles throughout history. In Biographies to Read Aloud with Kids, Rob Reid, a recognized expert in children's books, introduces parents, caregivers, and educators to 200 of the best biographies to share with young people ages 4 to 14. The stories of real people, many of whom who overcome hardships and barriers in their lives, can inspire and engross young readers. Some of the lesser-known biographies, such as Robert Smalls, Maggie Gee, and Temple Grandin, are some of the most captivating. Biographies about well-known people often share little-known anecdotes about them, such as Dr. Seuss being voted "least likely to succeed" in college, or that George Washington was so unsure about his leadership abilities when given command of the American Continental Army that he had to read books on military strategies. These stories are among those told in the riveting biographies Reid presents in Biographies to Read Aloud with Kids. Annotations give a feel for the writing style of the author, and selections include picture books, graphic novels, chapter books, and bilingual titles and strongly represent women and people of a diverse array of backgrounds, ethnicities, and color. Reid also interviews with two biographers and a publisher who specialize in multicultural literature for young people about how they choose their subjects and current and future trends in the field."--

A deep dive into the science and psychology of why pushing our physical limits is so impactful—and how we can achieve so much more than we know. Everyone wants to know if they could do the impossible. Few of us will ever try. Alyssa Ages was the strongest she’d ever been, able to flip monster truck tires and walk with 300 pounds on her back. She felt invincible, until the day her body betrayed her, leaving her vulnerable and grasping for control. Rebuilding her strength slowly brought her back to life. She began to wonder: What if strength isn't about how much we can lift? What if it's about how we manage life’s struggles? In Secrets of Giants, Ages, now a mom of two, embarks on an immersive journey to the fringe of the weight-lifting world, the sport of strongman. She hoists kegs and lifts boulders in suburban parking lots, attempts to pull a 50-ton truck using only a rope, and occasionally frightens her neighbors by dragging a sled full of weights down her quiet tree-lined street. She meets a powerlifter-turned-boxer who shares how lifting taught her to become a master of the mundane. A ten-time World’s Strongest Man competitor is brought to tears illustrating how the gym helped him survive an abusive childhood. A pro strongwoman muses on managing setbacks before stepping on stage to deadlift the weight of a baby grand piano. Psychologists, researchers, and coaches offer insights into the fascinating ways that the pursuit of strength can permeate every aspect of our lives, from building resilience and confidence, to finding joy in discomfort, to teaching us to handle adversity. Part personal narrative, part research mission, part reckless midlife crisis odyssey, Secrets of Giants uncovers why physical strength matters, and how it teaches us that we’re capable of so much more than we know.

Containing reviews written from January 2002 to mid-June 2004, including the films "Seabiscuit, The Passion of the Christ," and "Finding Nemo," the best (and the worst) films of this period undergo Ebert's trademark scrutiny. It also contains the year's interviews and essays, as well as highlights from Ebert's film festival coverage from Cannes.

This is the story of a man who was the original prototype of Superman presented against the background of Jewish history and its impact on the Superman culture. It tells the story of Zishe Breitbart who in many respects could have served as a role model for Superman – including his nickname “Superman of the Ages”. He was born in Tsarist Russian (Poland) in the 1880’s and died in Poland in the 1920’s but in between he developed the reputation as “the Strongest Man in the World.” He was also one of the first entertainers to exploit the fitness market. A true story of an exceptions individual. It has been translated from Polish and uses illutrations from the Breitbart family

For the past twenty years, Martin Marty and the editors of Sightings, a digital publication of the University of Chicago Divinity School’s Martin Marty Center, have published informed, accessible, and witty commentary on religion in current events. Featuring more than seventy authors—including Marty himself, Eboo Patel, and Krista Tippett—this book collects one hundred of the best essays that originally appeared in Sightings. Religion in public life fluctuates in temperature, but in the last twenty years, the religious climate has produced some harsh and extreme conditions that make the need for public discussion and understanding of religion more vital than ever. In this volume writers intelligently engage and elucidate many critical trends, issues, and practices of faith in our pluralistic world. Rich food for thought awaits readers here.

Although the study of Jewish identity has generated a growing body of work, the topic of sport has received scant attention in Jewish historiography. Emancipation through Muscles redresses this balance by analyzing the pertinence of sports to such issues as race, ethnicity, and gender in Jewish history and by examining the role of modern sport within European Jewry. The accomplishments of Jews in the intellectual arena and their notable presence among Nobel Prize recipients have often overshadowed their achievements in sports. The pursuit of sports among Jews in Europe was never a marginal phenomenon, however. In the first third of the twentieth century numerous Jewish sport organizations were founded throughout Europe, and prowess in the realm called muscle Jewry by the Zionists was a symbol of widespread pride among European Jews. Some Jewish teams were remarkably successful: the legendary Austrian soccer champion Hakoah Vienna was arguably the most visible Jewish presence in interwar Vienna, and many readers will be surprised to learn that outstanding soccer teams such as Ajax Amsterdam and Tottenham Hotspur are still considered Jewish teams. The contributors to this volume, an international group of scholars from a variety of fields, explore the diverse relationships between Jews and modern sports in Europe.

From the author of Blind, a heart-wrenching coming-of-age story set during World War II in Shanghai, one of the only places Jews without visas could find refuge. Warsaw, Poland. The year is 1940 and Lillia is fifteen when her mother, Alenka, disappears and her father flees with Lillia and her younger sister, Naomi, to Shanghai, one of the few places that will accept Jews without visas. There they struggle to make a life; they have no money, there is little work, no decent place to live, a culture that doesn't understand them. And always the worry about Alenka. How will she find them? Is she still alive? Meanwhile Lillia is growing up, trying to care for Naomi, whose development is frighteningly slow, in part from malnourishment. Lillia finds an outlet for her artistic talent by making puppets, remembering the happy days in Warsaw when her family was circus performers. She attends school sporadically, makes friends with Wei, a Chinese boy, and finds work as a performer at a "gentlemen's club" without her father's knowledge. But meanwhile the conflict grows more intense as the Americans declare war and the Japanese force the Americans in Shanghai into camps. More bombing, more death. Can they survive, caught in the crossfire?