The lyrics of the Yid­dish folk­song ​“Hob ikh mir a mantl” (“I Had a Lit­tle Coat”) describe a worn-out gar­ment that shrinks until it dis­ap­pears. The noth­ing that is left, the song affirms, actu­al­ly remains in the form of the song itself. Jen­nifer Stem­pel and Libi Axel­rod have cre­at­ed a new vari­a­tion on this theme, which has been explored in sev­er­al pic­ture books, includ­ing Simms Taback’s clas­sic Joseph Had a Lit­tle Over­coat. Using a dis­tinc­tive Cuban set­ting, With a Nee­dle and Thread adopts a slight­ly dif­fer­ent premise. Instead of cel­e­brat­ing the para­dox of cre­ativ­i­ty, the book shows how a grow­ing Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty pools its resources, allow­ing a dimin­ished piece of cloth to con­tin­ue its usefulness.

As Stem­pel explains in her after­word, both Ashke­naz­im and Sephardim are rep­re­sent­ed in Cuba’s Jew­ish cul­ture. Gov­ern­ment restric­tions on reli­gious prac­tice, eco­nom­ic scarci­ty, and the rel­a­tive­ly small num­ber of Jews are all fac­tors that have encour­aged coop­er­a­tion and cre­ativ­i­ty in order for Judaism to thrive. Inter­gen­er­a­tional ties are strong in this sto­ry, which begins with the bond between a young girl, Romi, and her grand­moth­er, a tal­ent­ed seam­stress. Axel­rod por­trays the old­er woman instruct­ing her grand­daugh­ter as they each care­ful­ly move a piece of fab­ric under the nee­dle of a sewing machine. The community’s fes­tive meals require a beau­ti­ful table­cloth. Whether serv­ing as a bar mitz­vah tallis or a wed­ding chup­pah, no cloth, no mat­ter how worn, goes to waste.

Romi’s abuela often reminds her that in Cuba, any need may be filled with lo que sea, a Span­ish expres­sion mean­ing that what­ev­er is at hand can be inven­tive­ly used. Of course, the premise that scarci­ty leads to thrift is hard­ly unique to Cuba, but Stem­pel and Axel­rod have cho­sen to empha­size the spe­cif­ic ways in which one Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty has adapt­ed to chal­lenges. Scenes of joy­ous rit­u­als depict com­mit­ment and joy. A cou­ple embraces at their wed­ding, a boy’s grand­fa­ther presents him with a tallis from Poland, and a meal fea­tures the tra­di­tion­al dish known as ropa vie­ja. (A recipe is includ­ed in the back­mat­ter.) Although the lit­er­al mean­ing of this meat and veg­etable stew is ​“old clothes,” the name is like­ly a ref­er­ence to its tossed-togeth­er left­overs trans­formed into a deli­cious meal. The line of peo­ple who have patient­ly assem­bled, eager to con­tribute actu­al scraps of cloth to aug­ment a small table cov­er­ing, will also trans­form some­thing tat­tered into a beau­ti­ful whole. Inge­nu­ity, tra­di­tion, and lo que sea have pro­duced a won­der­ful outcome.