> I believe that Benjamin of Tudela was a real person. At least the people of the town of Tudela which I have visited rather often think he was. It was the first book published by Riopiedras Ediciones (Barcelona). Even figures in one of the UAHC filmstrips. one. It reads like a Michelin Tour Guide so there's not much dialog.
>From what I gathered from reading it, Ben Tudela was a travelling salesman who dealt in semi-precious stones. I don't know how accesible you can make sales pitches to kids but since salesmen are salesmen no matter what where or when their doing the selling, Uri Shulevitz probably didn't have too much trouble with the dialog part. I've given a lot of tours to jewish travelling furniture, textiles and industrial hinge (all sizes from jewelry boxes to container ships) salesmen who come to the big trade show facilities that Valencia offers the discriminating vendor and they all talk exactly the same way. Shulevitz would just have to put a little medieval twist to it and there you go. Besos de Valencia (Spain) Alba Toscano Sinagoga conservador/masorti "La Javura" http://www.uscj.org/world/valencia Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author and are not necessarily endorsed by the AJL =========================================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: Hasafran @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: Listproc @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: galron.1 @ osu.edu Ha-Safran Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org
