From Southerner to Settler

 

This is a fact that nothing and no one will change it: if you love the land of Israel and you feel connect religiously with Zionism, there is no other place to be but the land of Israel. There is no other place where one is able to learn the laws of the land and discover the everyday history in the making, but living and breathing there. 

There is a lot of harsh criticism against the ´settlers´, but rarely are took into consideration the testimonies and motivations of people included in this category. As in the case of any mass movement, there are different directions and school of thought, and listening to them may clarify this very important movement in the recent history of Israel.

And even if you are not reading books and making theoretical comparisons, spending some days in places like Efrat or Neve Daniel may put anyone in contact with the passion of people who moved to Israel by passion for the land.

This is how Susannah Schild, author of the blog Hiking the Holyland describes her decision to relocate with her family here: ´For me, Israel became the place where true spiritual pursuit was available, where religion was valued´. 

Her memoir: From Southerner to Settler. Unexpected Lessons from the Land of Israel may serve as an important guidance and explanation. Growing up in a family of established neurologists, she was aiming at raising her children in a less materialistic society. Once moved to Israel, the dissonance between life at home and life outside ended. As a Jew, she and her family were able to walk in the steps of our people, to feel the history of those places, to identify on the spot where history happened: ´an opportunity to really get to know Israel, the physical land of our forefathers and to understand its hidden message´.

The book is written in a relatable direct way, convening clearly the message and the meaning, an important testimony of Israeli and Jewish history.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Book Review: Welcome to Heavenly Heights by Risa Miller

´If the entire planet was a face, the settlements were the brow and Jerusalem was the eye. Or, if the entire planet was an eye, the settlements were the lid and Jerusalem was the pupil´.

Set in the ´wild, wild West Bank´, Welcome to Heavenly Heights by Risa Miller doesn´t innovate too much in terms of choice of setting and narrative: a group of English-speaking (Anglos), mostly non-sabras (not born in Israel) settlers living the Zionist dream. The dream may have different meanings as everyone´s dream is different: it can be cheap accommodation, the excitement of living among likeminded religious people, the deep belief that Jewish history is made. After a while, some of them might decide to return to their other country of milk-and-honey, America, because either they are having enough of ordering their favorite foods from their former homes or it is becoming too life threatening, or bureaucracy won them over. They are successful, religious practicant Jews - converts or from non-religious families too - that want to offer their children a meaningful life in Eretz, The Country.

I had this book on my Jewish reading radar for a long time for two reasons: it is written by a religious woman, the first recipient that won a PEN award, and it covers a topic that it is not properly addressed from the literary point of view. The books I´ve read until now about everyday life in the settlements were interesting, ironic, challenging intellectually and from the point of view of the recent Jewish history, still do not reflect properly the life that I had the chance to know myself. From this point of view, it seems that I still have to wait until either that novel is written. Maybe there are already quality books in Hebrew published already so need to do some intensive search in this direction.

As for the writing qualities, Welcome to the Heavenly Heights (the name of the settlement in West Bank) has noticeable qualities. The slow paced personal stories - set to take place following the cycle of the Jewish holidays - with Purim the best represented - of the small group of settlers are flowing beautifully, but unfortunatelly do not go beyond the simple creative writing setting. The entire book is like a monologue on multiple voices that connects because it is part of the novel setting, but without a literary strength or a strong narrative voice. Each and every piece of the puzzle is beautiful, but once put all together, the overall picture is bland.

Conclusion: Still looking for that beautiful settler novel...

Rating: 2.5 stars

Kibbuzim versus Settlements - The Hilltop by Assaf Gavron

Very often one can read in the media opinions, news and condemnations of the 'settlers', 'settlements' and 'hilltop youth'. Who are they, what do they believe in, what are they fighting for, and against whom?

Kibbutzim versus Settlements

Instead of thinking in terms of religious choice and ideological apologies, the literary setting is the best for an easy immersion into this new 'political soul'. At the very beginning of the state of Israel, the kibbutzim, with their revolutionary communist perfect social and political matrix were the main ideology. Money and children education and daily working tasks were shared among the members, whose membership was accepted only by a explicit decision of the va'ad - local committee. It was a fascinating adventure that fascinated not only the European Jews that escaped the WWII horrors, but also non-Jewish visitors from all over the world, inclulding the ayatollahs' advisor Jalal Al-e Ahmad who even wrote a book The Israeli Republic where he shared his enthusiasm about this political and social setting (more about this book on another occcasion). The members of the kibbutzim were deeply non- and anti-religious. Some religious kibbutzim - or rather moshavim, where a certain form of property was allowed - were later created in order to answer a newly need for religious expression. 

After the 1970s, with an Israel more self-aware and confident in its military strength and political identity, new religious waves, both among the locally-born Jews (the sabras, literally translated as cacti, with their rough character but with a juicy soul ) and the new immigrants, especially from America. Some might say that those ones brought from the exalted Evangelist communities a certain fanatical approach to religious fervor, introducing music and dance and outbursts of feelings as part of their new 'born-again' identity. The traditional Hasidic/Haredi Jews will rather stay away of those. Those 'born-again', among them highly educated intellectuals and rabbis, will rather prefer to settle themselves and their growing families in the 'settlements', communities created in Shomron, Gush Etzion or the late Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip that Ariel Sharon brought to an end in 2005.

Therefore, as the kibbutzim are slowly dying, and they lost their appeal, especially among young people, and many of them even went through a relative 'privatization', they are replaced by the settlements. A religiously-centered Zionism is what for many is the right vision of a country that against all odds insist to exist. Based on the religious learning attributed to the Rav Avraham Isaac Kook - as most of his learning was not written by him and during his lifetime, but collected and turned into volumes by his son Zvi Yehuda - the settlement movement infused a different layer into the original Zionism, with a Biblical basis and a spiritual direction. It is not the time and the place to delve into a deep critic/analysis of it.

Meet the Hilltop people

This was a very basic introduction to the 'settlement' movement as a counter-reaction to the kibbutzim phenomenon, as The Hilltop by Assaf Gavron is mostly building his story along those lines. Gavron, which is considered one of the most important Israeli writers of the 'new generation', wrote part of the book in a cabin in a West Bank settlement. 

His people and their animals - a camel cow (whose milk is apparently kosher enough to feed the holy people) or a dog called Condoleezza - are populating a fictional community neighbouring an equally fictional community called Ma'aleh Hermesh. How they succeeded to settle there, survived and easily escaped several attempts to get evicted, only the complicated kafkaesque Israeli bureaucracy can answer. But when officials - of any kind - are appearing in the book, be sure that you are guaranteed a good laugh, exactly as in the everyday reality. 

The members of the community are equally hilarious and tragi-comical. Gabi, the born again Breslav, Shin Beth informers, teenagers 'bravely' fighting against Arabs in Second Life. Each of the characters present in the book are interesting, but I've find most of the time their interaction rather uninteresting, repetitive and relatively boring. It's like you have a lot of good cards on your hand, but at the end, the final combination is predictable. When the novel is over 400 pages, you might have a lot of good expectations, actually.

However, although the construction is relatively sloppy sometimes, and especially if you have a realistic and direct experience of life in the 'settlements' once in a while it is boring to tears, for someone not familiar with it, it might bring some good information and insights and a comical edge that is obviously missing in the (only) tragical media reports. 

Rating: 3 stars