Learning to be Jewish in Germany

Dmitrij Belkin is one of the few of the so-called 'contingent' Jews who arrived in Germany following chancellor's Kohl decision to open the country to people of Jewish origin from Russia. Although the venerable leader of the Jewish community in Berlin Hans Galinski requested that only those who are halahically Jews - mother is Jewish - to be allowed, the political interest prevailed and in the end where accepted all those with a 'Jewish' heritage, which complicated at a great extent the overall distribution and identity of the newly created community.

Dmitrij Belkin arrived in the South of Germany from Ukraine as an adult, keen to continue his studies and learn - including German. Wandering from an absorption center to the other, meeting his new German neighbours or other people with migration background, Belkin is becoming aware not only of the new realities of the country he is about to become part of, but also of his Jewish identity. Actually, it is not the first time when I hear that someone is becoming more interested and focused on his own Jewish identity since living in Germany. It has to do not only with the memory of the Shoah, but with a certain Jewish reality that you cannot ignore and sooner or later, becoming part of this - even only intellectually - will happen. Even if you are an outsider, observing this reality means that there is a minimal interest for it and it may be enough for making a fire out of the sparke later. 

Ironically and self-ironically, engaged or just observing, Belkin is going through all the stages of becoming a public Jewish intellectual in Germany - including by doing his conversion to Judaism. He is taking note of the different Jewish communities in Frankfurt/Main or Berlin, is becoming involved in various projects and improves his German and academic credentials. He is part of the newly Jewish experiences in Germany and his full of humour memoir is really worth reading it if you want to better understand a different Jewish mentality and perspective.    

Book Review: When We Danced on Water, by Evan Fallenberg

Two artists, Vivi and Teo, she in her 40s, he in his late 80s, she an artist still looking for her creative identity, he, a national brand nd the creator of the ballet school in Israel, meet in a coffee in Tel Aviv. Vivi is the waitress there and he is usually having his coffee there. Slowly slowly, they are connecting not only through their creative searches, but by their individual personal stories.

I couldn't leave the first half of When We Danced on Water, by Evan Fallenberg and I cannot clearly mention one single reason for that. The writing flows beautifully with extraordinary descriptions of dance and debates about art, but there is also the impulsive artistic ambiance of Tel Aviv that I miss so much once in a while. 

But as I was advancing through the second part, my disappointment grew as I started to see story flaws everywhere. First, Vivi's Berlin failed love story: it takes place too fast, seems just to fill up some narrative space before the most important story - which actually occupies the most place - Teo's, takes place. On the other hand, Teo's story, which takes place during the war while he is kidnapped by a sadistic German official with whom will share a villa in Grunewald for a couple of years, apparently the same villa where Vivi lived during her Berlin adventure, would deserved a larger space and is what really matters in the story. It would have been worth a book in itself. 

The last quarter is also taking place too fast and looks equally artificial. The events leading up to the end seemed for me just added up details with a kitschy soap opera taste. I grew up more and more disappointed, although sparkles of brilliance were still spread all over the book, such as Vivi's artistic idea to recreate life stories based on pictures, material memories, in addition to personal narratives. 

When We Danced on Water is a book that has many interesting ideas and make you think about the destinies of the characters, but personally would have expected a more coherent story. Although, after so many literary approaches, writing a fiction novel with episodes taking place during Shoah is becoming more and more difficult and requires a lot of creativity to produce a good yet literary balanced story.

Rating: 3 stars

Letters to My Palestinian Neighbour by Yossi Klein Halevi

An experienced journalist, religious Jew supporter of the two-state solution with knowledge of the Palestinian society and Islam, Yossi Klein Halevi wrote a wise book aimed at explaining Zionism to the 'Palestinian Neighbor'. In a poetic language, infused with wisdom and moderation, he is offering his version, neither right or left. 

The book - that will soon be translated into Arabic - is a confession - 'sharing my faith and my story' - from the bottom of the heart and I wonder if or ever we will ever experience such an open testimony from the Palestinian side. I would be really happy and curious to read such an account. 

'I see your present in this land as an essential part of its being', he is writing to his 'neighbor' that brainwashed by the ideological rulers is inclined to think that rather the Jewish neighbors do not need to live in their ancestral land any more. Despite the obvious  conflict of narratives, Halevi shows that it might be a common language of understanding, which may lead, one day, to a wise life under the same generous sun.

As neighbours, we don't have to love each other or be the best friends in the world, but at least to learn how to not harm each other in any possible way. Unless the two of them are not using the same language and are willing to talk and stop hating the other. After all, you only have one beautiful house to share.

An inspirational reading for the moderates of heart and mind.

Rating: 4 stars

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

Book Review: The Diamond Setter by Moshe Sakal

A book about multiple loves, deep-hidden secrets and the slow evolution of the Middle East into a story of deep hate, The Diamond Setter has a powerful story - 'inspired by true events'. The intricated memory legacies of a Jewish family from Syria forced by the unfriendly political circumstances to emigrate to Israel are explored under a sexual angle, but it is obviously more to the story than that. Connecting the love story dots with a diamond of impressive value brings a charm worth a 1001-night. 

From the historical and reality point of view, the stories about the 'marvelous' co-existence between Jews and their Arab neighbours in the Oriental lands - compared to the pogrom-ridden European stories - are often the results of a delusional projections aimed to mould into a reality that never existed. The novel rather focuses on a particular family story, without too much emphasis on the environment therefore avoiding the pinky kitch of co-existence 'stories'. And if not for some post-modern interruptions in order to let the author's voice to rearrange the game of plans between reality and fiction, it would have flow admirably too.

There is an impressive cast of characters, with the women being the most complex participants to the story. 

But the past is past and the idea of trying to re-create the initial circumstances and events is as wrong as believing that love has borders - although, there are so many cultural, linguistic and intellectual barriers that can easily break the love. Rather, there are specific circumstances at a certain moment that create the opportunitiy of a certain situation - and relationship - but those circumstances are unique and most likely impossible to reiterate. The reality changes permanently and so the people under the pressure of events and ideological/educational pressures. The Middle East that was described in the 1920s-1930s is completely different nowadays and the changes will rather be dramatically new than reproducing a reality that once was. Nowadays, more than ever, we are part of a greater complex continuum which moves towards a different - greatly unknown - forward than back to a past. 

Meanwhile, the human capacity of telling beautiful stories will always remain.

Rating: 3 stars

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

The Meanings of Shabbat Shira

On the ever Shabbes before Tu B'Shvat, I always try to put some grains in the trees, for the birds to have after their return from the warm continents. This is done before the Shabbat Shira - the Shabbat of the song - stars, which happens this week. But there is more meaning to it than feeding the birds and here are some of them. 

Shabbat Shira is taking place when the Parsha Beshalah is read, with tells the story of Kriat Yam Suf, when Hashem splitted the Red Sea for the Jewish people. A song was sung by the people of Israel, epitomizing the strength given by Hashem to the Jews against their enemies, a song where Gd was praised out of pure joy. Miriam, Moshe's sister, danced and played the tambourines, as an expression of gratitude towards the victory given by Hashem to the Jews against the powerful armies of the Pharaoh. 

According to the Maharal of Prague, when the Red Sea split, fruits grew in the trees and children picked them to feed the birds, who sang and danced together with the Jews - Shirat HaYam. In the memory of their kiddush Hashem, it is customary to feed them the erev Shabbes before. This is a beautiful niggun inspired by the songs of birds on the hills around Jerusalem. 

Following some traditions, birds are fed wheat, and Chabad followers eat kasha on this Shabbes, as a symbol of the manna fed to the Jews by Hashem. 

Especially in the more liberal synagogues, it is customary to celebrate this Shabbat with music and dance, as a way to outline the importance of songs in the Jewish tradition, which comes in different colours and musical tones. 

Discovering a Forgotten Artist, Fritz Ascher

Villa Oppenheim in Berlin, which hosts besides a permanent art collection by local artists also a museum dedicated to the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf neighbourhood, offers until the 11 of March a retrospective of Fritz Ascher, a Jewish-born artist. Originally, the villa, which can be visited for free, belonged to the banker Alexander Mendelssohn and his wife, Marianne, but since 1911 was sold to the then town of Charlottenburg. 

Fritz Ascher, an artist whose value was recognized and supported by Max Liebermann, that survived the WWII into hiding, offers an impressive emotional display of styles and outburst of colours. Most of his works were lost during the bombings, many of the works presented being part of private collections. During the war, he concentrated solely on creating poetry, with his poems being reproduced on the wall near some of the paintings. 

Encouraged and recommended by Liebermann, he studied at the Königsberg/East Prussia Academy, his painting being a mix of influences from various styles, from Goya in his late Golem paintings or Munch - with whom he met in 1914 in Oslo, to the German expressionism of the Blaue Ritter or the Neue Secession of Liebermann. 

Ascher was born in a Jewish family, his father Hugo Ascher being a dentist that co-founder a dental technology company specialized in the development of artificial enamel. As the Mendelssohns, whose house hosts the exhibition of Asher, he decided in 1901 to baptize Fritz and his two younger sisters. Their mother, Minna Luise, born Schneider, stayed Jewish. Once the NSDAP came to power, the the troubles of Ascher started regardless of his assumed - or not - religion. The family villa in Zehlendorf was expropriated and since 1942 used as barracks. Fritz himself was banned from exercising his profession and was labeles as 'degenerate' and 'politically suspect'. He was twice arrested and brought to Sachsenhausen and Potsdam and saved from longer imprisonement by friends who intervened on his behalf. Warned in time that he was on a list of arrests, he was hid by Martha Graßmann who supported him throughout his life afterwards. After the end of the war, he slowly returned to painting, but he remained a recluse refusing many public teaching opportunities. He was burried in Wannsee cemetery in 1970, but the gravesite does not exist any more. 

A Corrupt is a corrupt is a corrupt

When someone is corrupt, it does not compensate that he or she is a good parent or had good grades or has a large family to feed or has a bright strategic mind. The compensation of midot rarely works, meaning if you give a lot of charity, it doesn't absolve you from the fact that you mistreat your employees. Even if he prays three times the day, a thief is a thief and he must pay accordingly.

The news that an Yid is not more in a federal prison and he can return to his family, although he is not pardoned - the decision of being freed does not vacate the conviction and the substatial restitution remains - is a good news for the family and those who love him. But instead of a humble attitude for finally being able to walk free after 8 years - the severity of the punishment is one thing, but the facts are facts regardless what the law said and they happened for a long time without anyone to try to stop it before the police raided the precincts of Agriprocessors - I've watched in shock dvar Torah moments and never ending celebrations and a bit of Gematria explanations. No way that Moshiach is coming any time soon...