Foreword is forewarned...

What is that Hebrew book doing on Albus Dumbledore's shelf? Mahogany and black and gold: do you see it up there? Between the Philomagus histories and Father Kenseki's Fiat Lux? How on earth did an English schoolmaster come across a single volume of the rare Mikraot Gedolot haSeter? Who on earth dropped the gold to buy him such a rare and expensive volume... and why did the miserly giver stop at one instead of treating the illustrious defeater of Grindelwald to the whole boxed set of five?

This charming little drabble by RangerDov about a sefer on Professor Dumbledore's desk set me thinking about the Jewish magical experience in the world of Harry Potter. In the award-winning fanfiction "Goldstein," Laazov takes us on an epic journey of faith and open-mindedness alongside Potter's black-hatted yeshivish classmate Anthony/Yehudah Goldstein. Poor Yehudah feels so terribly alone at Hogwarts, without a single other Yiddishe neshamah to keep him company as an Orthodox Jewish wizard. But one of these days, out Yehudah is going to grow up and go out into the world, and he's going to find out that he's not the only one... What sort of world might be out there waiting for him?

Turn the electronic page for some world building in the marvelous universe of J.K. Rowling, wherein Dumbledore introduces us to some of his old friends. And yes, young Goldstein will appear in the epilogue four years from now. But that's not going to be for a while, so you should finish your degree and get some parnassah in the meantime.