Thursday 25 February 2016

Walking through old Brownsville with Alfred Kazin

I have a weakness for post-war books about Jewish Brooklyn, describing with acriby the old and the news, the changes between generations while some things still stay the same. It is that combination between sadness and despair and hope that impresses me. 
Kazin's A Walker in the City has not only a clear literary value due to its beautiful and vivid descriptions, but also a sociological and anthropological importance, documenting the life of various generations of immigrants and their interactions with the outside world. It studies with the journalistic acriby people coming and going, the new generation and the old residents, or the social and religious network. 
The success of the residents of Brownsville's part of Brooklyn was confirmed by their departure from here. 'We were at the end of the line. We were the children of immigrants who camped at the city's back door, in New York's rawest, remotest, cheapest ghetto (...)', he described his native neighbourhood. When new people are coming, like the mysterious Solovey family, chosing this place after a life in big cities in France or Italy, there are soon to enter the big family of failures. 
He describes his school years, learning with rigid teachers, or the bar mitzvah preparations, reduced by some learning by heart practice. Although he is a socialist believer, and part of a secular family, he is curiously looking for some chasidim that might be a diversion to the distant religious practices, but there is no one around. But despite this, there is a feeling of togetherness shared at the family table every Friday evening: "We had always to be together: believers and non-believers, we were a people. I was of that people. Unthinkable to go one's own way, to doubt or to escape the fact that I was a Jew. I had heard of Jews who pretend they were not, but could not understand them". As he will outline later on: "Jews were Jews. Gentiles were Gentiles. The line between them had been drawn for all time". In later public appearances, he will said: "I was by temperament created for the idea of revolution, in the sense of making the world over and creating a new society".
The most terrible word is aleyn, alone. "Socialism would be one long Friday evening around the samovar and the cut-glass bowl laden with nuts and fruits, all of us singing tzuzamen, tzuzamen, ale tzuzamen!"
The first American born of the family, he is supposed to over achieve as a confirmation that the efforts of the parents of moving in this strange land, far away from der heym, were not in vain. "It was not for myself alone that I was expected to shine, but for them - to redeem the constant anxiety of their existence". Different perception of der heym shows the dramatic differences between generations and explains the strong American identity of 2nd or 3rd generation of Jewish immigrants. For Kazin, it was a 'terrible word". "I associated with that old European life only pain (...) and hopelesness". 
His life in Brownsville involves going out of the ghetto often searching for books, sharing his long love for reading and literature. As he will later confess: "Literature has been my lifework, my passion and oddly enough my 'profession'". "My idea of heaven is to settle down in a jet with a book, a notebook and a Martini" he said in an interview and he shared to the world his part of heaven through his books and literary analysis. 

Sunday 21 February 2016

Book review: The Gospel according to Judas, by Amos Oz

Amos Oz represents for me a typical case of an author whose writing I like very much, and to whom I am indebted a lot in terms of literary development, but whose ideas are at the very very other end of my own thinking. I've read most of his books and I am always curious about new releases, but it seems that from a book to another, I am more and more disappointed.
The last two days I tried tremendously to finish a book who is greatly appreciated in Germany, Judas, as it was translated, or The Gospel According to Judas, according to some variants. It tells the story of a small microcosmos at the end of the 1950s Israel, made of Shmuel Ash, one of the best portrayed intellectuals in Oz's writings to date, the old Gershon Wald he is hired to take care of and entertain for couple of hours in exchange of boarding, and his daughter-in-law of his deceased son, Atalya Abrabanel. Following the bankrupcy of his parents company, Ash has to leave Haifa and his studies and find some work. Meanwhile, his girlfriend left him and he is left in the middle of a dramatic existential crisis. Atalya, a woman in his mid-40s, whose hands are obsessively described quite often - always as looking older than the rest of her appearance - was the daugher of a deceaed leader of the Zionist movement, who was in favour of a separation of the land with the Arabs. Ash is kind of falling in love with, accompanying her shyly to her pretended different detective work assignments, and the game of feelings is one of the best parts of the book.
Hoping in an eventual return to academic studies, Ash is using his time when not dating Atalya or entertaining Wald, to work to his graduation thesis, about Jesus from the Jewish perspective. The development of his ideas, his references and the discussion about them are actually the main part of the book. The thesis is that, in fact, Judas, is the one who played the most important role in spreading Christianity because he is the fact the one that was the agent of history whose treason made things happened. It seems that Oz himself is trying to come to right terms with his own history - his intelligence involvement with a British sergeant and his constant position since 1967 on behalf of Palestinians. The interpretation of Judas' personality resonates with the various discussions about the Abrabanel's radical separation from Zionism, with his final pledge against the very creation of a Jewish state. 

How far you can go?

The questions are: What are you about to do in order to achieve your ideas? What you do when your dream is fulfilled: you keep dreaming or you build another dream? 
In an interview for Israel Hayom with Eshkol Nevo, Oz explains that: 'sometimes, the title of traitor can be wear as a badge of honour', giving as diverse examples as Ben Gurion who accepted the partition plan, or Rabin or Ariel Sharon. He said that 'This book emerged from the pit of my Jewish stomach for all haters of Israel, for all those who creed Judas and drove the dagger into us and burned down the synagogue with the Jews alive inside it'. However, the problem is that the interpretation of the traitor cannot be separated from this new version of Judas and this is simply hard to digest. With a couple words and using his authority of star writer, Oz just turn everything in his favour. I can understand that he tries to publicly explain his own history and image in Israel but still, this sounds very false and in fact, excuses any treason, because, of course, the reason behind it was more noble than it looks at the first sight. Somehow, there is no middle way here: those who are weak and leftist will clap their hands and find a new rationale while those who understand why they are doing this, will never accept it. End of the story.

Deceived by the dream

'Israel was born out of a dream, or an entire spectrum of dreams. Every dream that is fulfilled leaves behind a taste of partial disappointment. The only way to maintain the purity of a dream is not to fulfill it. This holds true when it comes to building a house, writing a novel, traveling the world or fulfilling a sexual fantasy. Israel is a dream fulfilled, and thus necessarily leaves behind a slight taste of disappointment, despite the fact that it is still a fascinating fulfillment of some of the dreams', he said in the same interview. In other words, his apparent detachment and extreme positions that can be assumed as a traitor's are in fact the cri de coeur of too much love and intellectual instability.
With words, everything can be explained and justified, whatever the reason. Should it be a moral limit to it? Here to, it is a matter of choice and, after all, of intellectual honesty. 
This book was expected sooner or later, but left me very deceived because it just prove once again some personal assumption that great minds are not necessarily honest. 

Thursday 11 February 2016

The thing with lashon hara

I hate to spread lashon hara or to be part of any gossiping, but when I am myself the subject of such an encouter, it makes me feel really sick. Night after night, I keep thinking hard, sometimes with tears in my eyes, what I did wrong. Why I have to be singled out, again, and bring people to lashon hara? Why people that I know are good just gave up to the temptation of spreading half-truths? 
It happens often that I just want to stay in my corner, my face in my siddur and forget about everything around me. But it is not possible and it should not be that way. How you can make mitzvot when you are isolated in your cubicle? I have to go out, talk with people, try to help and then, out of nowhere, it happens again. Someone is annoyed but something he or she - most often she - pretends I was doing or doing wrong. And this comes from someone that it is not even part of my daily group of acquintances or friends. Someone that is not close enough to give me a call and ask me directly: Listen, I think you did wrong, or I do not agree with what you've done. As simple as that. If you really care and want to help me how other way it is than to talk to me? Every time it is the same pattern. I just feel excluded from a conversation that concerns me and only me. 
Oh, and once I am told about someone that has something against me by people who were shared directly or second-handly the great information, I am left to deal with another big problem: How I should really react to this? The natural reaction is to pick up the phone and clarify the issue directly. But anger is such a deadly poison...As I know myself very well, my words can harm much more than the words threw against me. Do I want to really hurt? Is this wise to do it? I keep running in my head imaginary dialogues with the person, that varies from excuses for doing imaginary mistakes to harsh replies from the buttom of my heart. 
How I end up in fact? In most cases, I am trying to forget, keen to be more careful the next time, sad and unsure if in fact it is not better to stay in my corner longer the next time. But I know I will not, so I suppose that life should just keep going on... Till the next time. 

Sunday 7 February 2016

Jewish Life Berlin: Westhafen Memorial

I was in a big hurry and a bit nervous as I was in a completely new and not friendly looking part of Berlin when I stumbled upon a spectacular monument near the Westhafen S-Bahn train station. A singular presence on the bridge, in the middle of almost nowhere, with unhappy people crossing the bridge. 
I made a short stop, looked around in order to be sure that there are not unusual - yes, this is the word that I wanted to use - people around, get the camera out of the pocket and made 2 short pictures and run away.
As I had found later, this memorial was inaugurated in 1987, for remembering the 30,000 Berlin Jews deported from the nearby Moabit freight depot. After Grünewald, Moabit was the second station for the 180 transports of Jews to death from the German capital city to the camps spread all over the country and the occupied territories. The memorial is located on the Putlitzbrücke that connects Moabit with Wedding. Volkman Haase was a famous sculptor, with many public works sharing a special strength, but this seems to be his only Shoah-related work.
The German railways - then Reichsbahn, today Deutsche Bahn - in the Shoah was concealed long time after the war was over and its atrocities made public. 

Saturday 6 February 2016

Jewish App Review: Eshet Chayl

I am relatively new in the world of apps and smart phones in general, and due to my very limited time, I am trying as much as possible to do things fast and invest a minimal amount of time in unuseful phone distractions. However, I am always looking for smart apps and things that can make my (Jewish) life better. 
A couple of days ago, an announcement of the Eshet Chayil app pop-up on my social media feed and decided to give it a try. I downloaded it for free. Launched the 25th of January this year, it is available for both iPhone and Android. I tried the Android version.
The installation is very easy and within a couple of minutes the app was on my phone. It does not have a special design or graphics. It was published by Sephardic Press, under the category of Women's Prayer Apps and it follows the laws and customs of the Aleppo Syrian Community. However, it does not have any references to the customs as such. It is published in Hebrew, with English explanations and translation. It has minimal functions, such as Zoom, Bookmarking, Fullscreen.
The content of the app is relatively basic, with the usual prayers for every day and holidays - although there is a special mention not to use the app on Shabbat, I am still not very happy with the idea of having the Shabbes and yom tov prayers on the phone at all. Another issue I have is with praying from an app as such - although I come along with the birkat hamazon though - but this is the topic of another post, I hope.
There are also special prayers and brachot for women, such as for going to mikve or for candle lightning or before taking challa. What I really liked in the case of this app was the last section, with the special prayers - on behalf of the husband, during labor, upon entering the hospital, for children material and spiritual success. Even only for these and I still recommend this app. After all, you do not need too much technical sophistication, only a quality yet simple framework and reliable information.