Book Review: City of A Thousand Gates by Rebecca Sacks

For a long time I haven´t devoured a book on a Jewish/Israeli topic with such a pleasure and curiosity...

I´ve spent my every single free time this weekend listening to City of Thousand Gates by Rebecca Sacks, narrated by Lameece Issaq. I am reading a lot of literature produced in Israel or on Israeli/Jewish topics (the regular blog posts on my blog are the testimony), but I´ve been rarely impressed either by the topic or the literary depictions. This book succeeded though to deeply impress me. 

With an impressive cast of characters, covering a wide variety of individualities, among both Jews and Arabs in Israel, City of Thousand Gates brings people together and separate them, following the unknown destiny´s ways.

The cast of characters is impressive: from the West Bank anglos to the Palestinian academic, the bio mom from America married with an Israeli to the young religious teenager freshly engaged that want to have a taste of the secular dating game. There is also Vera, a German journalist interested to report about Hebron and Palestinian topics, that used to snort coke with Israeli in Berlin and moved to Israel for almost the same reasons Israeli are - or used to - moving to Berlin (minus the price of Milky). There are also Palestinians applying for Israeli passport, checkpoints and tattooed soccer players, both Jewish and Arabs.

Sacks spent a couple of years in Israel, particularly the West Bank, and through the characters, their interactions - ways of talking - and the descriptions of their locations I´ve felt instantly back in Israel. This includes also the various ´anglo´ slangs as well as those used in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. There are real people we are talking about, not some dolls-like inanimated golems brought to life for the sake of answering the market requirements when it comes to topics pertinent to Israel. There are all those contradictions, denial - as in living in a place and gently refusing to ignore its realities and hardships - and the humour, the best medicine for the everyday life under those conditions. 

From the literary point of view, the author manages admirably the art of switching POWs and portraying people through their interactions and human reactions. Although the humanity is what makes us all, members of the human race, the specificities of the geography, history - both global and personal - as well as the language make us individuals with special features and particular reactions to life encounters.

Made up of different short stories with characters whose destinies intertwin - after all, it´s a small country - City of Thousand Gates maps the humans of Israel and their everyday existence in a world where history doesn´t let you breath normally. It may turn grotesque sometimes, as in the case of Emily, that shortly after escaping a terrorist attack, makes a selfie at the location of the explosion. But more grotesque is sometimes the view of people from outside, anyone, misreading facts and looking for symbols where there is none.

Rating: 4.5 stars

Book Review: Jephte´s Daughter by Naomi Ragen

In the Book of Judges, Jephtah (or Yiftah) led successfully the Israelites against Ammonites. In exchange, he made a vow to Gd to sacrifice whatever would come out of the door of his house first. It was his only daughter who showed up but unrelented, he went on with his vow. What a foolish character? What a crazy vow to make and keep, and how contrary to the Akeida of Yitzak when Gd stopped Avraham from killing his only son, whose faith he wanted to test himself. 

Jephte´s Daughter by Naomi Ragen was written at the end of the 1980s. Issues like the way in which women are treated sometimes by extreme men blind to see the many stumbling blocks they built around the Torah, are more stringent than ever. The erasure of women from the public realm is unfortunately a widespread behavior within the Orthodox communities in Israel and abroad, and it jeopardize the essence of Judaism.

The rich scion of a prestigious Hasidic dynasty arrives in Jerusalem from America in a glamorous style - old Sadagura style - to find a husband for her only daughter. All his relatives died in the Shoah and the husband of her daughter is expected to lead further his prestigious dynasty. Himself, he is rather busy with his businesses but is looking for a brilliant talmid of his generation, to head his heritage further. Isaac Meyer Harshen seems to be the right choice and although Batsheva started to have doubts about his real nature, they moved on with the wedding, for reasons of preserving the future. 

Once she moved to Jerusalem, in the ultra-orthodox headquarters of Mea Shearim, in the house his father bought, fully equipped, allowing them to have a relatively carefree life, that Isaac is learning daily in the Kollel, the things are getting worse and worse. Physical intimacy is considered a painful duty, her books of English literature are burned, she is constantly beaten, including during her pregnancy, she has to give up her right of using the common bank account and the modesty dress code is close to rags. Although such an interaction between husband and wife does not represent the way in which observant Jews are treating their wives, such cases, especially among the Gur Hasidim, may be possible. 

But he had just acted the way he thought he was expected to´. Isaac is an interesting character, in his stone heart way of behaving. He is far from being a scholar, was bullied and beat in school himself and is emotionally limited to understand life, no matter how much Torah studies. Clearly, Torah was not meant to be a rigid way of learning, but its study beautifies life. On the other hand, there is the community pressure, the ´fishbowl effect´, when people refuse to think by themselves as they are under a tremendous pressure from outside to behave in ways that the frum society expect them to. 

Batsheva´s drama is being torn between her obligations towards her parents and her religious duties. A brilliant mind herself, she is forced to submit to the instable husband. Once becoming a mother, she sees better what the future can be for her son and what knowledge he can acquire from such a father and his surrounding society - especially the cheder where pupils are encouraged to improve their learning through beatings.

Her radical decision to leave everything behind and move to London was not a break-up from Gd. She is keeping the mitzvot, eats kosher and abstain from any physical intimacy with a man, as she is not divorced yet. Her gentle return to herself is an example how a woman can keep being observant in dignity, while fully accomplishing her human potential. ´Tomorrow, she thought, and for the first time in many years, her days stretched out before her as her own book of clean blank pages full of endless, delightful possibilities´. 

Naomi Ragen succeded to manage a big range of characters, in a dramatic yet harmonious way. The non-Jewish characters of the book do represent a variety of typologies, from the anti-Semites to the simple neutral persons or her good friend Elizabeth who, besides being by principle against Batscheva´s strict upbringing, acts as a matchmaker from heaven. 

From the literally points of view, the book has so many surprising twists, until the very last page. As an avid reader of Naomi Ragen´s books - more to come in the next weeks and months - I´ve always found some interesting and relatable aspects about Jewish life and practice to think about. 

Rating: 4.5 stars

Jewish Movie Review: Leona by Isaac Cherem

 

I was burning to see Leona the debut movie by Isaac Cherem (here is a YouTube Q&A with him), after reading a couple of reviews and the general outline of the topic. It took me a couple of tries and a bit of extra searching, but finally was able to watch it on Vimeo and all the efforts were worth: this movie is one of the best I´ve seen in a long time, especially on a Jewish topic.

The topic: Ariela (Leona, in Spanish), a 25 yo mural artist, belongs to the very strict and closed Syrian Jewish community in Mexico. Under pressure to date and eventualy marry a local Jewish guy, she fell in love with Ivan, which creates a drama in the family and community, with her actively dating mother kicking her out of the house. When they broke up, everyone almost threw a party, but her efforts to find a Jewish partner failed again.  

The story of this relationship reverberates into the identity and history of resilience of the community itself. Shortly after Ariela made public her relationship, a rabbi, a kind of marital consultant, her relatives, her mother, all are trying in different ways to convince her to give up. ´You are with someone who thinks very diferent from us´, she is told. ´Not that different from me´, she answers. 

At the beginning, the dynamics between Ariela and Ivan are set by their different identities: He asks her ´are you very Jewish?´ ´Normal´, she answers, and there is a long silence between them. He shows her the city outside her familiar neighbourhood, sharing with her his food spots and even a bag of lemon sprinkles grasshoppers (some are kosher though).

They broke up after she could not keep her word to introduce him to her family and circle of friends. After all, she was the one who gave up and left her community but it seemed that it was not enough. Or was a deep communication failure between them. But it was over as soon as they started they life together. It hurt a bit to break up, but both of them kept walking their separate paths but this is not the end of the story. 

The Jews featured in the movie are not your typical observant Jews. They do not dress or eat or behave as in Brooklyn, but they have the same cohesive sense of belonging. They are aware of their strength built by their common history and refusal of assimilation. (Actually some Syrian Jewish communities are a bit extra than any other community, by being reluctant to marry other Jews, particularly Askenazim, not accepting converts. Hopefully, one day I will have enough time and serious material to delve more into this topic. Currently in Mexico there are around 16,000 Syrian Jews, with a continuity of over 100 years.) From the point of view of the Jewish law, the Halacha, if Ariela would have marry Ivan her children will continue to be Jewish. But Ariela doesn´t want children, doesn´t want to be married, she has enough of all the ridiculous dates she is set up by friends and relatives. Her divorced mother is intensively dating, with almost the same results (Shidduch crisis, anyone), but she is not considering looking for a solution outside the community. 

Leona raises so many questions both at individual/personal and community level, but leave us to think about them and eventually ask even more and more questions. People fell in love all the time, but it is love enough to leave a community, the exclusivistic club the rabbi in the movie mentioned ? Is love enough for connecting two people, or there is more to it? 

Besides the artistic conception, and the good play of Ariela which is such a natural, carefree yet thoughtful character, the beauty of this movie resides in the curiosity of exploring the inevitable layers of making choices outside the normative. It´s a very beautiful artistic way to ask so many painful questions.

Rating: 5 stars

The Customs of Zayin Adar

Today is the 7th of Adar in the Jewish calendar, or Zayin Adar as it is mentioned in Hebrew, the day when Moshe Rabbeinu was born (in 1393 BCE) and also died 120 years later (1273 BCE). It says that the great tzadikkim are meant to die the day they were born and so it´s the case of Moshe Rabbeinu. Gd himself buried him (Megillah 13b) in an unknown place, on the territory of nowadays Jordan, probably at Beit Peor. Why the place was not known, because of Moshe´s high level of prophecy and the possible danger of idolatry. The people of Israel were on their journey to reach the land Gd had promised and they did not need a reason to stop. They had to follow Yehoshua and reach their destination. ´A generation passes on and a new generation comes´...(Koheles 1:4) 

This week in synagogues the portion Tetzaveh is read, the only one in the Torah which does not mention the name of Moses and there is a long and interesting discussion about what are the possible interpretations of this fact. 

Zayin Adar means for the Askenazi Jews (I would be curious to find out more about similar customs among Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews but as for now I was not able to find anything similar) also a holiday for Chevra Kadisha, the sacred society in charge with the burial according to the Jewish law. Of course people dying on this day will be served accordingly. Symbolically though, it is considered that as Gd himself burried Moshe, Chevra Kadisha is having it´s own break. In some organisation, they may fast - as an atonement for any inadvertent disrespect displayed towards the dead -, followed by a special banquet when funds are collected and commemorate the memory of people deceased in the last year. One of the customs is also to eat fish, a food kabalistically associated with the happy month of Adar.

Cheva Kadisha is a specific Jewish organisation in Eastern Europe whose aim is to prepare the body for burial and prevent the desecration. It should watch over the body (shmira) from the moment of the death until the burial - which according to the Jewish tradition occurs within hours after the death and prepare the purification (tahara) of the body which is traditionally gender-separated. The members, which are traditionally compound of volunteers, have to avoid trivial conversations during the body preparation; it is said that the soul departing the body is watching and might not be get offended. 

Being member of the sacred society is considered a highly religious priviledge, as performing a honor that cannot be returned. The very respected 18th century European rabbi Hatam Sofer was one of the volunteers. In some cases, especially in the USA, where the societies were introduced in the 19th century, they also organise various other services supporting the families of the deceased during the shiva, with minyan for the prayer services, arranging for the meals etc. The members should be knowledgeable in the Jewish law regarding burials and once the year at last they got updates about various new regulations and rabbinical decisions in this respect.

Israeli Movie Review: The Day after I´m Gone by Nimrod Eldar

 

A teenage girl trying to overcome her grief. A widowed husband mourning his early departed wife. The Day after I´m Gone by Nimrod Eldar (2019) is a drama of growing up and out of the young age growth pains, set in Israel. The setting is important because it moulds the uniqueness of the experience and the human interactions - besides the language - but the struggles and emotions caught on the film are universal.

The father, Yoram, is a veterinarian in Tel Aviv, a cynical, calculated, cold person, an overwhelmed parent unable to see what is not obviously seen. He is highly precise when operating big animals in need of medical help, but he is unable to figure out the deep depression his daughter was sinking. Until, one night, a special suicide intervention team knocked at his door based on online hints received that someone in danger of suicide may live in the house (what a great thing it is, although some may say it is an infringement of democratic rights of privacy, still...). They were right, his daughter was laying unconscious in bed after trying to take her life with an overdose, 

Spontaneously, he decides to take a trip together to visit her mother´s family, in an effort to figure out together what it is all about. The dialogues are sparse, exactly as it happends nowadays with teenagers, no matter where they live. The verbal exchanges in the movie in general are very limited, as the nonverbal communication is better framed and insightful. 

My favorite dialogue though is when the girl, recently saved from the ER after her failed suicide attempt, is asking his father what would it happen if she would have died. Precise, put together, the father explains step-by-step the bureaucractic procedures accompanying the death. The daughter looks horrified. Nothing else would have happen, it seems. Not that traumatic dramatic change someone who commits at this age suicide expects to happen. As simple as that. Zohar Meidan, who is playing the daughter, makes a very good role at that, a combination of genuine naivity and struggle to find a self that suits her, playing a game of masks alternating the little curious girl and the woman she is supposed to be but don´t know yet how. Meidan also has experience in playing in theatre. 

The trip was healing, although not in the smooth, seamless way one may expect. In life, things are never happening this way and this is much healthier. Wounds may never heal, love could be lost for ever, but we are still pushed to keep living. The compassion and empathy shared through the dialogues is one way to survive. The other is to entrust people around us. Exactly as the father did to his daughter in the end. Even it was just a little step, it leaves the door to the soul ajar.

Besides the simple yet empathical way such a worned-out - and personally not beloved one - topic as teenage drama is approached, the images, in their sheer simplicity are also inspiring. The beginning and the end of the story are methaphorical projections and an inspired way to enter and leave the movie.

The Day after I´m Gone by Nimrod Eldar was shown at around 30 festivals all over the world and was premiered at Berlin Film Festival in 2019. As for now, the movie is available to stream on mubi.com. 

Rating: 4 stars

A Historical Overview of the Jewish Minority in 19th Century Iran

 

Although very diverse from the methodological and ideological perspective, studies about Jews in Iran, as long as follow a professional frame of academic critical thinking, are an important asset in understanding the relationships between other religious minorities and various political contexts in Iran. 

Daniel Tsadik, PhD at Yale University, and assistant professor at Yeshiva University is a specialist in 19th century Iran and the relationship with the Jewish community. It may be a different kind of study, compared to other cross-century researches dedicated to the topic of Jews in Iran, but although the perspectives - and motivations - may differ when read critically it reveal relevant aspects. The time slot in itself - 19th century Iran - is relatively sparse in terms of archival resources and even the overall number of Jews is unknown (based also on a rather ritualistic approach according to which ´(...) it´s common for the Jews to underrate their population, lest, by appearing numerous and powerful, they should increase the oppression under which they groan´).

An important element which may definitely change and alter the evaluation of this situation is the way in which various religious rulings, approaches, Qu´ran interpretations and official decisions interferred or were locally applied. Lacking a centralized, bureaucratically oriented government, meant also that attitudes and actions towards and especially against Jews were determined sometimes impulsively, based on circumstantial situations motivated not only by religious hate but as well by economic and social motivations. 

The various, many, cases and instances when Jews - as individuals but especialy as communities - are targeted are very important for understanding the scale of the pressure. Iran was and still is a very diverse country in terms of religious and ethnic minorities, and it was so in the 19th century as well. The ´impurity´ warnings, prohibitions and rulings were not always applied fully but Jewish life in the Iran at the time was hard, as hard as everywhere in the world (which is another proof that all those assumptions that only European Jews were affected by pogroms, forced conversions and daily persecutions are largely false). There were blood libels - introduced probably via Christian missionaries, as in Lebanon for instance - massacres (as in Tabriz), daily harassments (as when the water was cut for the Jews in Tehran) or forced conversions (as in Mashdad). Religious assumptions about why and how the Jews are this way were accompanied by daily humiliations and restrictions in terms of dress code and professions allowed. The inheritance laws are a case study in this respect and they affect all the other non-Shi´a minorities living in Iran. Qajar dynasty as later on the Pahlavi dynasty were not kind to the Jews and the challenges took over by the Constitutional revolution at the beginning of the 20th century continued - I dare to say - even until today, when it comes to defining citizenship and nationalism, particularly in relation with religious beliefs.

What the study of Daniel Tsadik reveals is the international element, especially via the international Jewish organisations and individuals, like Montefiori or the Alliance Israelite Universelle, but also through the British direct involvement, on behalf of the opressed Jewish minority. The international networks created are a helpful element in understanding the new international perspective on ethnic and religious minorities everywhere, until nowadays.

There may be some criticism due to the fact that the book Between Foreigners and Shi´s. 19th century Iran and its Jewish minority is, compared to the recent study by Lior B. Sternfeld relatively unidirectional in outlining the problems and predictably, serving a certain ideological take - that everywhere Jews were persecuted therefore the need to have a state of their own where they can/must/shall emigrate. I am convinced that for many, this was a potential solution, as it was for many of them to remain and be part of the larger society. I would have been curious to read more about the cases of conversions and mixed marriages, about institutional connections between religious leaders on both sides and about the local institutional - educational particularly - network. The fact that there is so much left to be said is an proof that the topic of Jews in Iran is far from being exhausted and more academic - preferably ideologically independent - researches are needed in this field, for the sake of the scientific knowledge.

´Happy Times´...

Warning: The movie I am about to write contains very aggressive and violent scenes. Pour les connoisseurs, a Parasite-like movie with an ending on repeat 15 minutes into the story. But this is where the comparisons with the multi-awarded Korean movie end.

Happy Times (Nitra´eh Besmachot, in Hebrew) by the LA-based Israeli film director Michael Meyer . available on Amazon Prime - starts like your average movie about Israelis abroad. A reunion of a mixture of real-estate, tech kind of guys with wives in charge with different committees at the children´s Chabad schools. They get together for the post-Shabbat meals. Usually it´s the Friday evening which really matters, and among the secular Israeli getting together for Havdalah isn´t really a thing, but this film wants to be very different from any movie with Israelis, me and you and many of us ever watched.

They look happy, that kind of happiness brought to you by an expensive villa with a pool, and some common memories from the Army and couple of businesses. The movie is split into scenes, each with a quote from some of the characters. This brings a lot of reason into what is going on: a massacre with each and every one of the participants to the feast gonna die. It starts with...actually does not matter how it starts and how it ends. Anger leads to hate which leads to more anger and even more violence. Until the end of the movie, everyone is a happy psychopat for whom everything can be used as a gun.

The kind Shtisel and one of the protagonists of another Israeli Netflix series When Heroes Fly - which is not bad at all either - Michael Aloni, plays a pretty good role, of just another psycho gathered around the table, a born rebel cousin who´s guilty for at least few of the victims (tip: all are dying in the end). 

This mini-Israel is a stereotypical - but not necessarily untrue - reunion of characters we can easily encounter not only in the rich suburbs of LA: the hippy, the PTSD tech guy, the fornicator macho family father, the mixture of religious background for the very secular life, the racism against the Mizrahim and the blacks, the Chabad. And, seriously, even if you are in the middle of a massacre, don´t let your guest leave without packing fast a plate with some leftovers, after all you are a good Yiddishe mame no matter what.

The violence is never ending, gratuious and the ingenuity of the killing machines getting more and more creative from a victim to another. In the end, it should stop because no one is left. What cannot be stopped though is the running water from the clogget toilet.

Letters from Planet Corona

 

I am glad that after almost one year since Corona entered our everyday vocabulary, there are more and more books dedicated to this topic. Personally, I was looking for some Jewish perspective on life under Covid19, with a specific focus on Israel, but besides articles and comments regarding some very disturbing patterns within the very religious communities, there is not too much to read about. (Although this very topic in itself is worth at least a book or two, I was actually more curious about a ´normal´ religious view, which takes the pandemic seriously).

Until I´ve found Letters from Planet Corona by Chaya Passow. Ironically, the pandemic that altered fundamentally the human interactions and everyday life from all over the world, started around the Jewish holiday of Purim, when wearing masks is part of the custom, aimed to remember that Gd himself was hidden during the trial of Jews faced with the murderous plans of Haman. In the times of Corona, masks are aimed to save us from the deadly droplets spreading the virus. It is a whole everyday life regulated by the Jewish cycle of holidays and weeks - from a Shabbat to another - which is rewritten. There are new habits created, new restrictions and new little things that really matter. 

Chaya Passow is observing in each of the 70 letters included in the volume the new realities on ´Planet Corona´ with a Jewish touch which make a difference and brings an unique perspective to the overall pandemics discussion. As we are far from seeing an end in sight - especially when the vaccination process is not as fast as the one in Israel - such a book helps to find comfort and peace in a world that changed dramatically in the last 12 months. The 70 letters are written from the heart, with kindness and gratitude, and such take may matter more than anything else in this new world. 

 

Book Review: Bread Givers by Anzia Yezierska

´The whole world would be in thick darkness if not for men like me who give their lives to spread the light of the Holy Torah´.

Anzia Yezierska is a chronicler of the poverty and hardships of the first generations of Jews coming to America, the ´goldene medina/the country of gold´ (a diluted version of milk and honey). Her memoir Red Ribbon on a White Horse is a testimony of her personal experience of growing up in a family dominated by a dictator of a father dedicated to religion but neglecting his own family, but also of the struggle for every crumb. Growing up poor in this world is like a sickness which usually occurs sooner or later anyway. 

In the novel Bread Givers, part of her personal story served as an inspiration for some of the characters. As in her real life, the father of the family, Reb Smolensky, is a Torah scholar oblivious to the needs of his daughters and wife. The daughters are his source of revenue and marrying them is a business that should help him survive. For him, women are just an add-on, who may bring some money into the house besides keeping the house lit for the comfort of the learned men. ´Women had no brains for the study of God´s Torah, but they could be the servants of men who studied the Torah. Only if they cooked for the men, and washed for the men, and didn´t nag or curse the men out of their homes; only if they let the men study the Torah in peace, maybe, they could push themselves into Heaven with the men, to want on them there´. Maybe...Surprisingly or not I´ve heard such platitudes more than once in our current times.

Ironically, there are the women characters, all of them, who are more sympathetic and stronger than the men. They are not only ambitious and successful in their endeavours, but also are pretending men to offer them comfort and praise their presence. The switch from the generation of women from the ´old country´ to the ´Americans´ is done. 

The brave main character of Bread Givers is the little Sara who´s running away from a house blackened by poverty and the dictatorship ruling of a narcissistic father. She will be the only sister who will achieve a professional career - as a teacher - and a rewarding relationship, through hard work and resilience. The resilience of people who survived pogroms to move to America and start a new life, but in most cases, those chances happened rather for their children and grand children. 

Literally speaking, it´s clear that the audience of this book has a very different profile as the readership of today, both Jewish and American. However, there is a deep humanity of the characters which appeals across ages and times, including Sara´s late reconciliation with his abusive father and her emotional attitude when faced with the death of her mother that she willingly separated. The way in which the story is told creates a special ambiance and set up a story which is interesting to follow because of its universal human interest.

Every time I am reading books like Bread Givers I feel like a whole history of American Jews is becoming more human and easier to understand. It is a hard history of struggles and hardship that helps to understand how far they succeeded. It´s a sociological and anthropological insight that may explain a lot.

Rating: 3 stars