Russian Silhouette. A Memoir of Activism and Identity by Daniel M. Jaffe

After Russian Studies at Princeton and a training as a lawyer, Daniel M. Jaffe decided to dedicate full time to his writing passion. Russian Silhouette, his ´memoir of activism and identity´, that I had access to in audiobook format, read by the author, is a testimony of his talent. 

It was a right decision to leave the dry world of law and dedicate to storytelling, especially when one has a story to tell. His is intertwined with a significant stage of the world history, especially Jewish history: the increased pressure of the then Soviet authorities against dissident and the stubborn efforts to block any attempts of Russian Jews from leaving the country. 

As a student, a bit naive, keen to improve his Russian skills, Jaffe who is himself Jewish, got to know the everyday life of the Soviet citizens, their deprivations and the enormous risks human rights activists undertook, involving the lives of other family members and friends. Jaffe, and we all, may learn about human dignity and values from those courageous dissidents. In his particular case, it also meant leading him to a more open acknowledgment of his own identity and ultimate coming out both to his family, friends and Soviet acquaintances. 

The story is told with so much humour, despite the clear restrictive circumstances, and relating the reader so directly, that I may be missing the characters at the end of the book. They felt so closed and their fate so tragic, reminding me always about the respect I have towards Russian Jews who often paid a high price for just not forgetting who they are. 

Russian Silhouette is an important testimony adding up to the bibliography about refuseniks nevertheless a story of resilience and accepting authenticity.

Rating: 5 stars

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

The Zelmenyaners. A Family Saga by Moyshe Kulbak translated from Yiddish by Hillel Halkin

A Jewish family saga set in Minsk, currently Belarus, The Zelmenyaners is a tragi-comical story of the inhabitants of a Jewish hoyf - or a courtyard, in Yiddish - faced with the violent settling of the new Soviet-driven reality. The hoyf is where the news are brought, where people go through as they come or as they go. There is always someone there ready to register the news. 

I laughed a lot, but also realised the diquieting signs of the new times coming. I knew what it will happen to many of them, what the newly order will bring to those Jews, other than the blessings of electricity and radio. It is the last breath of a world long gone. While reading the book I was able to imagine that hoyf and the interaction between the inhabitants, as well as their humour, fearlessness and most importanlty, their joy of life. 

The book was lately discovered and published in 2013 with an introduction and notes by Sasha Sanderovich. The book was initially serialized in the local Yiddish-speaking media of the time, hence the structure of the book chapters, that indeed look like separate story installments.

Kulbak, a former talmid at Volozhin Yeshiva in Belarus and primarily a poet, was killed at the Stalin´s orders during the Great Purge of Belarusian intellectuals when he was only 41. After the death of Stalin he, altogether with the other murdered intellectuals, was rehabilitated by the Soviet authorities. 

The Very Best Sukkah by Shoshana Nambi illustrated by Moran Yogev

Sukkah, as many other Jewish holidays, offers a beautiful display of traditions and customs, adapted to the local histories and natural resources.

Written in a children´s voice, the multi-awarded The Very Best Sukkah written by Shoshana Nambi and illustrated by Moran Yogev published by Kalaniot Books takes us to Uganda. Shoshi and her brother are preparing for the celebration, trying to get the first prize of the most beautiful sukkah. Everyone in the village is taking part to the challenge, decorating it with local fruits like bananas, passion fruits, mangoes or jackfruits while adding a local touch to the design and colours. Everything is so beautifully described - and illustrated - that I can almost feel the smell of the village preparing for the feast. It made me so curious to taste the traditional kalo bread, made with cassava and millet flour, apparently a typical local staple. 

But then there is some unhappy natural incident taking part, with most sukkahs being destroyed, and everyone is leaving the competition spirit - nothing bad about it, by the way ´as long as everyone is sharing kindness toward each other´ - for more solidarity and community spirit. The most beautiful lesson of sukkah, where each of us stands for all, surrounded by family and friends and the taste of century-old traditions.

Since the first half of the 20th century, there is a community of around 2,000 people practising Judaism situated mostly in some villages in the Eastern part of the country. (I will not delve into halachic discussions and evaluations right now) Shoshana is the first female ordained rabbi by the Union of Reform Judaism originary from Uganda, currently serving an assistant rabbi in Los Altos Hills California.

The Very Best Sukkah was one of my best Sukkot-related reads for children in a while, a lessons in solidarity, as seen through the eyes of a child, beautifully told and illustrated.

Rating: 5 stars

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

Sisters of Fortune by Esther Chehebar

At the beginning of Sisters of Fortune by Esther Chehebar, Fortune is sharing her thoughts and worries about her life as she is about to get married. Her two other sisters, Lucy and Nina, are far from this moment, but until the end of the book, there will be a reversal of events during which the sisters will start writing their own love and life stories.

Set in the midst of the relatively clustered Jewish-Syrian community, this book is beautifully told, with a very vivid language - I had access to the book in audiobook format, excellently dramatised - that makes justice to the less represented world of the Syrian Jews. (The author explained herself why she wrote this book in this interview with Lilith. )

Through the story of the sisters´ parents we hear the echoes of the usual immigrant story struggling with acceptance, but it gets the colours of Aleppo or Damascus, and the longing for the food, language and a very special way of life and seen things. I was only a bit surprised to read how modern and emancipated the girls were, being allowed to ´date´ for long, spend time alone with their boyfriends and even come late at the break of the sun. Ah, and they also wear jeans. It sounded a bit too much for an obvious observant Syrian Jewish family. 

The three sisters, particularly Fortune, are however submitted to the expectations of their community, where there is also gossip and lots of idle talk. Fortune decision to break up the engagement and assume the freedom of making her own mistakes - without being ostracized by the community and her parents - was for me the favourite part of the story. 

Literarily, I enjoyed how the alternate stories of the sisters operate by fragments, with details resurfacing a bit later, without being explained into detail, so that we, the readers, we can figure out by ourselves what may have happened.

Rating: 4.5 stars  

Next Stop by Benjamin Resnick

 

Next Stop, the debut roman by rabbi and writer Benjamin Resnick, is not the kind of book to start your Jewish New Year round of readings. 

Set few decades into the future, the book is set into a world where the state of Israel was swipped into a black hole and the Jews in America are gathered into a ghetto-like area called Pale - a direct reference to the Pale of Settlement, a region that was assigned between the 18th and 20th century within the Russian Empire for the Jews where confined with limited mobility outside the area.

The events unfold through the eyes and experiences of Ethan and Ella. He, a writer, she a photojournalist with a son, Michael, that will be send in the end out of Pale with a children train transport. The crisis is deepening from a day to another, with mysterious holes consuming airplanes, among which the one where Ella´ sister was. 

I am not a fan of sci-fi or apocalyptic stories, but the depiction of antisemitism - both verbal and its violent form (no iron dogs, but still...) - hit the chord we are experiencing in Europe and North America and far beyond in the last three years. If there is something to keep in mind - over and over again - after reading this book, is the permanence of hate against Jews, combined with the inevitable rays of light brought by solidarity of humans in moments of crisis.

It is a dark read, patched with hope and humour at times.

 

Passage from Aden by Sarah Ansbacher

Israel is a country of stories par excellence. Stories of remote past, survival and just human connections. Sarah Ansbacher, a writer whose passion for stories I featured before, gathered her encounters with the visitors of Aden Jewish Heritage Museum in Tel Aviv where she works, adding so much colour and information about the life of a community who remains only in the memories of those who once left there.

This book is however not only a good source of information for anyone looking to learn more about the Adeni Jews. It also bring into the context of Jewish life, stories from all over the walks of Jewish life, but also those from just curious non-Jewish visitors, from all over the world, from Germany to America.

I loved the brievity of the stories, focusing on the main encounters, while elegantly covering so many topics and encounters, including the Jewish geography and unexpected connections. In most cases I recogized the enormous human web and stories that make Israel such an inspiring place.

Unfortunately, I haven´t visited the museum so far, but I promise to add it on my list the very next time I am back in Tel Aviv.

The Story of the Jewish Bund. Here Where We Live is Our Country by Molly Crabapple

Inspired by the story of her great grandfather the artist Sam Rothbort and looking to connect worlds, Molly Crabapple spent around seven years researching The Story of the Jewish Bund. Worh to mention the word ´story´ and not ´history´ which shows already the limitations and the subjective point of view this book was researched and written. 

Don´t take me wrong: the book is very well researched and is sharing a lot of atmospheric and subjective episodes from the history of the Bund that are rarely remembered those days. The Bund belongs to a period of hardship in the European Jewish history, where they grew up alongide with other intellectual and ideological Jewish movements - like Hashomer Hashair, and various brands of Zionism. 

While the book is so focused in documenting lifes of Bundists, it misses several points when it comes to connecting the Bund with the general history of ideas at the time, and their eventual ideological motivations. However, it is doing the very ´faux pas´ when connects instead with currrent ongoing events trying to present the Bund - currently belonging to the history books, as an example of Jewish dissent. 

As a historian, I find largely dishonest to try such an intellectual juggling, as it does not add arguments, but diminishes the credibility of the approach. It may follow a Marxist flow of thought but nevertheless  completely irrelevant from the historical point of view.

I enjoyed discovering the troubled story of Bund and especially of some Bundists, but my interests ended within the given space. I don´t see any connection with the present and I see no future, and Bundism ended with the world it belonged. 

Also, if you hear the audio version of the book, just a warning: the pronunciation of some foreign - Yiddish or not - is horrendous, the worst music for the ears.