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Shyfrin is the international sponsor of Jewish Book Week, the well-known literary festival held annually in London. This year’s festival, from February 27 through March 7, is being held entirely online.
Shyfrin has long appreciated the importance of books, both in his own life and in Jewish tradition. His parents were devoted readers and amassed a library of some 7,000 books. Eduard himself was a voracious reader and recalls reading daily during breakfast, lunch and dinner.
'From early childhood, I was surrounded by books,' he recalls.
Judaism, adds Shyfrin, has always valued reading and study, not only for its own sake but as a means of ensuring the continuity of the Jewish people.
'The book is the spiritual home of the Jewish people, because we didn’t have a physical home. The spirit of our ‘house’ is stronger than those of physical empires. The great nations – the Romans, the Assyrians, the Egyptians – all disappeared. We are still here, because we have the Book.'
Shyfrin is much more than an admirer of the written word. He is the author of Travels with Sushi in the Land of the Mind, the popular children’s book that received the 2020 Independent Press Award Distinguished Favorite for juvenile fiction, as well as From Infinity to Man: The Fundamental Ideas of Kabbalah within the Framework of Information Theory and Quantum Physics. On February 18 at 6 p.m. GMT (8 p.m. Israel time), Shyfrin will be discussing Travels with Sushi in the Land of the Mind at Jewish Book Week, in association with The Jerusalem Post. The session will be broadcast live on the...