The Enemy Beside Me by Naomi Ragen

 

It is always a great pleasure to read and review books by Naomi Ragen, whose characters and topics are allways mind challenging. My latest read by her though, The Enemy Beside Me is reaching a different level, both in terms of topic and complex approach. Set during Corona times between Israel and Lithuania, this is her 13th book. 

Taking over Survivor´s Campaign from her father, Milia Goldstein is a fierce campaigner for revealing the truth about the crimes against Jews committed during WWII in Lithuania. Perpetrated by local nationalists whose memories were brought to life after the independence of the country from the Soviet Union, those do fuel false identities and legitimities. While listening to some of the testimonies inserte into the story about the horrible cruely against Jews, who mostly went unpunished, I could not refrain from thinking about 7/10. What is wrong with this world to enjoy torturing to death innocent children and women?

The wife if a successful surgeon, Milia is faced with the fail of her marriage, as she is revealed that her husband cheated on her with a family friend. A strong woman nevertheless, she is decided to focus on what really matters and accept the invitation to speak at a conference in Lithuania, organised with European money by Dr Darius Vida.

Although there is a kind of burgeoning romance between the two - quite predictable, if you ask me - the strongest part of the book is Vida´s acknowledgement of his own family past. Somehow, Milia is giving him strength to not give up principles over immediate financial or social status. Milia and Darius are both of them fighting for reconciliation, coming from two opposite directions. Their concerted efforts do make this world a much better place.

Ragen treats always her characters with attention, and all of them play their role in the configuration of the narrative. My favorite is Vida, because he shows exactly what we may always expect in our fellow humans, no matter their ethnicity or religion; capacity to change, strength to chose to truth over lie, no matter how hard it is.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Traces of Jewish Life in Ulm, Germany

Travel across Germany allows me always not only to get to learn more about the country, but also to identitfy traces of Jewish life and memory. While in Ulm, I had the chance to discover more details about the tormented WWII history. 

A permanent exhibition an Einstein Haus/Ulmer Volkshochschule, on Kornhausplatz is dedicated to explaining historical episodes of the resistance against Nazi regime.

As for now, I do not have enough historical information to offer a critical outlook to the exhibition as such, but as expected, it features extensively Hans&Sophie Scholl, born here. 

There are also featured another members of the White Rose - the name of the most important resistance movement, at least in this part of Germany - as well as testimonies of Jewish citizens of Ulm. Take them with a grain of salt, but there are many details that deserve a further research.

As in many other German cities, what once was the Jewish quarter was clearly named - Jewish street, or yard. Judenhof in Ulm used to be the centr of local Jewish life from the late Middle Ages onwards. In 1353 a synagogue used to serve the community here. The name served usually to create clear boundaries between Jewish and non-Jewish residents and very often limited the freedom of movements of Jews living there.

As all over Germany, Jewish life got a new impetus in the 1990s, with the arrival of Jewish from former Soviet Union. The community increased considerably in the decade onwards, prompting the need for a bigger religious and community meeting point. Right now, the members count around 450-500, mostly Russian-speakers.

The new synagogue, a cube marked on sides with windows outlined by Stars of David, was inaugurated in 2012, 70 years after the Kristalnacht pogrom. 

It is situated on Weinhof 2 where the 19th century once stood, and is currently following the Chabad orientation. Due to the lack of time, during my visit I was not able to visit the synagogue, but according to the general descriptions of the location, it hosts a community center, a mikwa, a nursery and various educational programmes for children.

 

A Day in the Life...

There are so many books around, not necessarily on fantastic topics, but some may receive more attention than others based on a purely subjective circumstance.

A Day in the Life of Abed Salama by Nathan Thrall received an outstanding ovation and was multi-awarded several distinctions, among which the prestigious Pulitzer. It was named ´the best book of the year´ by several publications. 

I was curious to read the book as well, and I may say that the topic - the way in which a deadly car accident outside Jerusalem reflects the deep divisions in Israel, especially towards Palestinians, was not bad. Clearly, that´s a reality to deal with, that creates a complex mentality context that do balance between death and life. 

It is a tragedy, indeed. But being simplistic is also tragic, insisting on the results before taking into account the causes. Thinking that you are on the good side, no matter what. What it really iritates me lately is the way in which some authors, or public personalities, assume that the reader should not think by her/himself. What about being really journalistic, presenting facts, and not jumping into conclusions? Considering your readers at least as smart, or even smarter than you, thus able to decide by themselves and draw their own conclusions.

That´s all about this book. And any other book and its author underestimating the reader´s intelligence.

9 Months and 1 Day...

 ...since those very first moments of shock and panic...are they all right, why are they not answering, maybe there is just one of those attacks that will be contained shortly after - no worries, we are strong, we are awake and not allowing the enemy, any enemy to destroy us again, to kill our children -, of feeling powerless...

...of being grateful for those few ones who asked how do we feel...

...of checking again and again who´s still alive and who is not answering and who is doing the miluim and who is gone...

...of feeling sorry for being alive, for being safe, for hiding in the attics of our fears...

...of Farhouds and Shoah and pogroms and Intifadas and terrorist attacks and 11/9...over and over again

...of learning again how to tell my children to stay away from them without telling them, to hide their stars, to train to fight, to distrust and still keep being proud...

...of highest security measures I´ve ever seen in the Gallut any kind of Gallut, for police guards on Shabbat and on Pesach and every day at schools and kindergartens and shops and broken glasses (again)...

...for tears and anger and screams and fighting and silence...because words cannot help...of running away from news because anyway, you cannot change anything, no one seems to can change anything, not today, not tomorrow never ever again...

...of seconds and minutes and hours and days and weeks and months...nine months and 1 day since the world will never be the same again...

...of seconds and minutes and hours and days and weeks and months of hope and despair of asking for a sign of life, or hoping there will be not another shiva...

...of simply building your own four-wall world, with a patch of sky, where to throw your curses and screams because no one, literally no one will ever help you, us, me and you...

...of having enough of rivers and seas and everything in between, of spitting on arguments made of poison and bile, of smeared Free Palestine and watermelons and ´Eyes on Rafah´ but not because hostages are kept there and keffieh and ´as a Jew´ and journalists praising them only because they cannot stop from hating us...

...of praying without words...

...of reading the news and seeing the pictures, of couldn´t stop from being anxious and fearing the worse for the world...

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

The Other Jews

How actual is the rift between Askenazim and Sephardim nowadays? More than one generation grew up fuelling the differences, but aren´t now the differences supposed to estompate, as the colours of an Impressionist painting?

Clearly, the new generation of Israeli, born and bred in the country, may not put too much emphasis on those old times´ differences. There are mixed marriages and except Pessach - with or without rice - there are not too many occasions when there is a clear reminder about those distinctions.

But it was not always the same and even nowadays, although praised and integrated as part of the everyday society, being Askenazi and being Sephardi may come to separate ends of the story. Which may turn against the everyday Israeli realities and may also fuel an old antisemitic stereotype regarding whitness myths and colonizer delusions.

Demographically and not only, Israeli society is not purely white. Descendants of people forced to run for their lives from the Arab lands do count in the country that, indeed, institutionally was set for the descendants of people murdered in the European lands. But Israel belongs to the Middle East and it is a success story of the Middle East, not Europe´s. 

Written at the end of the 1980s, The Other Jews. The Sephardim Today (Sephardim, not Mizrahim being considered the politically correct term used to designate Jews from Spain, Portugal, Balkans - such a neglected topic - Arab lands and Iran) , by the late researcher Daniel J. Elazar although it may have a lot of outdated information, it also has the merit of extensively covering the social and political origins of the issue. 

There is a certain note of outrage in the writing, that accompanies the general information about Israel´s ethnical origins as well as the failures, particularly institutional, in approaching the topic - but which country at the time was able to really foresee the difficulties of integration of groups of people with so different cultural and social backgrounds?

I was not very keen of the structure of the book, which outlines the situation of the Sephardim in Israel at the time, followed by a long list of short historical inserts covering communities around the world - although information is outdated, there are noteworthy details regarding the history of those communities, worth researching into depth further on - only to return to considerations about Jewish interactions and institutional and political considerations within Israel.

Looking back at those problems with the eyes and tools of 2024 gives more hopes than some of the conclusions of Elazar´s book. There were mistakes and maybe a one-sided perspective, including in the promotion of one vision of the country, one vision of history, one vision of Zionism, one vision of religious observance. But media, particularly social media, offers alternatives, displays the differences and diminishes the gaps. On the other hand, there is still so much to study and research about those communities and hopefully, will be able soon to present more studies, books and researches on this topics. Because, the biggest power of all times is knowledge, a powerful weapon against ignorance of all kinds and from all directions.

Kissing Girls on Shabbat by Dr. Sara Glass

If you read a certain amount of books, more than the average anyway, on a specific topic or belonging to a well-defined genre, sooner or later you will become satiated with the topic. There is a certain pattern repeated over and over again, with only personal details filled in. Take, for instance, the case of the off the derech memoirs, out of which I´ve read a good bunch of in the last years, as the genre is becoming more and more popularity.

You have the person who does not fit in, the oppressive religious conformity that cannot be tolerated any more, following an illumination-kind of acknowledging the absurdity of some or all religious tenets. Afterwards, there is the fight or the loneliness, faced with the lack of skills for economic survival and very often the struggle to keep the children or the broken heart for not being able to keep them.

However, despite the overall predictability, I will not give up reading those memoirs, because the more repetitive they are, the clearer the certain trends within religious communities - I read in general memoirs of getting out of faith: there is a new generation that may find different ways of positioning towards religion and willingly or not, even the most closed groups will be suprepticiously changed one day.

Take, for instance, the Gur Hasidim, who are practicing very strict marital relationships, considered by many as oppressive: not using the given name for the wife, separate walking ways, discourage of any closeness between spouses unless for procreation. Being born a Gur in America, experiencing queerness from an early age, Dr. Sara Glass succeeded to write her own story: becoming independent, cutting the dependency ties with the community while keeping her precious children.

Manipulated into religion by the sake of her children and the religious background of her family - ´A kosher woman does the will of her husband´ -, she had to play the appearances, even after her divorce, otherwise she may have lose them. The power of the batei din - the religious tribunal deciding, among other, in issues of divorce and child custody - may overcome that of the secular authorities, especially when the woman does not have the proper knowledge and advice for checking the content of the documents she is signing. You are not represented by a lawyer in the front of the religious courts thus the risk of being completely unaware of the legal consequences of the documents signed. Religious communities are tied by trust, obviously, why do someone may need a lawyer anyway?

Kissing Girls on Shabbat that I had the chance to have access to in audiobook format, read by the author, focus less on how bad, backwarded and generally disgusting the community is - as it is the case in at least one such memoir - but on her own story. Her own work to achieve the best version of herself, the engagement trying to help people in a similar situation, her doubts and obsessive fears of being taken away her children. Also, more importantly, the importance of actively being involved in helping distressed people, unable to get over by themselves of their mental health struggle, overcoming generational or recent family trauma. 

It is love not hate or revenge that motivates her life. At 24, she was the mother of two children, at 32 she came out, and established her career as a therapist while being together with her children. Education gives power, including to gently overcome one own´s struggles.

Kissing Girls on Shabbat - whose collage-like cover is also worth mentioning - is a moving testimony of those strengths.

Rating: 4.5 stars