An Israeli Indiana Jones

Discovering the Israeli graphic novels is like a full immersion - don´t think about mikvah, though - in a free world where words, and colours, and topics of actuality are freely flying over the nest. Not all of them are translated into English or other languages, but they can be easily used for improving your Hebrew, or just learning the language, thus, getting full access of the street language, so important for grasping the pace of the society in general.

Tunnel by Rutu Modan, children book author and illustrator and also one of the co-founder of a group of Israeli graphic artists, can be read as a local variant of Indiana Jones meeting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Archeology is an important discipline in Israel but it also plays an important role in the national building process as the discovery and authentification of artefacts is often instrumentalized in a process where history meets religion meets politics.

The artefact in case here is the hunt for an old tablet from the Babylonian exile raising questions about who wrote inscriptions on an old tablet. Nili, a single mother, returns to Israel and is trying to fight to save the legacy of her father, once a renowed archeologist, now took over by dementia, against the malicious efforts of the rival teacher Rafi - add academic rivality to the story. Also, Nili´s brother,m also an archeologist, is working with the rival teacher.  A hobby archeologist she is startingt o search for the famed Ark of the Convenent, but figured out that the missing tablet may be located in a Palestinian village. 

The next level concerns issues of ethics and morality in the antiquities world trade, as one person may be able to offer the key to the lost tablet, but this Abuloff is not trustworthy enough to be taken seriously.

Every single page and dialogue of this book has something to say about society and conflict, from the location of the artefact and the complexities of the archeological searches. It is not a political satire by purpose but nevertheless it shows how complex life in a conflict zone may be, without taking any specific political side.

The book was also translated into German by Reprodukt. 

Here is an interview with the author about the book and her creative process published by The Tel Aviv Review of Books, worth reading if interesting in finding out more about this book.

The Country I will Show You

 

From the impressive amout of books on Jewish topics I have on my TBR, this last read Das Land das ich dir Zeigen will - in my own translation, The Country I Will Show You - by German author and photographer Sara Klatt, was meditative and slow paced, filled with memories and thoughts about the land (of Israel).

Populated with very diverse characters, many Yekke and their grandchildren in Israel and Germany, the book doesn´t promise too much, but shares fragments of Jewish life, from the post-Shoah Germany to the bubbling techno clubs of Israel. 

There is a lot of connection between characters, although many of them cannot be imagined as there are not too many individual details shared that may help the reader to have a better visual representation of the characters. The fragmentation of the story reiterates the Jewish histories themselves, particularly in the 20th century. 

Compared to books by other German authors, this may not be the best book to date, but has a gentle tone and a way of telling the story that shows love for the land and its many stories.

Rating: 3 stars

Jews of Iran

 

There are many ways in which the life of Jewish communities are influenced or just co-exist in the realm of the societies they operate. The daily life, adjustment of food preferences, intellectual references can intersect, interact and communicate  at different extent and during specific timelines. 

With a history dating back to the Babylonian exile, the Jewish communities of Iran in present times are relatively less known from the anthropological and generally scientific point of view, for obvious reasons. Although not necessarily against the regime, books about Jews in Iran are almost impossible to publish within the country, which contributes to the lack of factual information and therefore the open gates for manipulation by the regime propaganda.

Hence, the precarity of information goes two ways: within and outside the country.

Jews of Iran. A Photographic Chronicle, with a foreword by Lior B. Sternfeld and words by Parvaneh Vahidmanesh is a selection of the photos taken by Hassan Sarbakhshian while travelling among the Jewish communities of Iran for two years at the beginning of the 2000s. Shortly after, Sarbakhshian fled the country. Vahidmanesh as well left Iran after writing the book, being accused of having published a tool of propaganda for Israel, a crime punishable by death by the mullah regime. This shows if one needed any more explanations the perils of affirming the Jewish identity in Iran outside the official propagandistic narrative.

´The photos reveal one of the most beautiful and complicated untold stories of our time. It shows that behind those giantstate and regional confrontations, there are people who live in the figurative and literal middle´, said Lior Sternfeld in the foreword.

Visually at least, based on the photos, there are so many local elements to be taken into consideration when talking about Iranian Jews now, but unfortunatelly there accompanying text describes without any critical/analytical take on the information presented. 

Maybe the right time will come - sooner than later - when such analysis will be possible, accompanying a wider and truthful documentation of the life of Jews in Iran. Until then, the photos included in this book can be considered an interesting and unique ground for a further discussion.

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Books featuring Jewish life in Germany

I´ve recently read two books in German featuring Jewish authors and public figures that may show the diversity as well as the particularities of being Jewish in Germany.

München-based author Dana von Suffrin collected 16 stories by Jewish authors who are sharing either their experiences or a literary work inspired by their identity. Among them, Eva Manasse, Maxim Biller, Zelda Biller, Adriana Altaras, Linda Rachel Sabiers or Lena Gorelik. Given the literary representation it largely set the ground for a discussion about Jewish literature in German language, that could be a source of both debate and dissent, but interesting nevertheless.

The other collection, edited by Andrea von Treuenfeld, is essentially aimed at offering a voice to young Jews in Germany, sharing their experience, their encounter with antisemitism and the diversity of their life and identity experiences.

This was by far my favorite book, because it shows the future of Jewish life as well as the topics of actuality that may be generated of the different relationships to identity. The authors do come from different ways of life: were born in Germany or in Israel, or they have Israeli parents or are patrilinear Jews or are second generation of ´contingent´ Jews, discovered religion later in life or are keeping the traditions no matter of their halachic background. 

This book is equally interesting for researchers and historians aimed at understanding the Jewish identity in Germany in the 21st century as it offers many new directions of study and analysis.