It seems Olomeinu ranks really high in readers’ memories of yore
In the years before weekly Jewish publications produced separate children’s sections, Olomeinu was a child’s only connection to the Jewish world at large. In 1970–71 the magazine serialized a five-part story entitled “That Day.” It was a true account (just one that hasn’t happened yet) of a group of regular yeshivah and day school students experiencing what will happen when Mashiach arrives. As a third-grader in Yeshiva Tifereth Moshe, the story captured my imagination and created a longing I still feel to witness those days.
The lessons we learned from Mendel the Mouse by Ruth Finkelstein were second to none. The magazine took us on trips to Eretz Yisrael, which seemed so far away back then, and introduced us to the people living there. Mador Ivri taught us about gedolim using simple Ivrit. Moreover, ahavas Yisrael permeated the pages — no difference was attributed to the color or material of different yarmulkas.
My brother and I never threw out our copies of Olomeinu and I continued collecting them even after I graduated high school. They were an excellent source of material for my weekly Queens JEP Release-Time students while I was learning in beis medrash.
As a fourth-grade rebbi in the 1990s at the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County, I have a collection of close to four decades of Olomeinu labeled and encased by decade sitting on a prominent shelf in our seforim shrank. They were read by our children in the 2000s and now hopefully our grandchildren will read them as well. Olomeinu is timeless.
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