Who was Gerda Taro?

A small square in the German city of Stuttgart bears since November 2008 the name of the forgotten first war photographer woman Gerda Taro. Taro was also the first woman photographer killed in mission, as she died at 27 years old in 1937 while on assignment covering the Spanish Civil War. The square, situated at the intersection of Ecke Hohenheimer and Alexanderstraße has 9 rotten-looking rectangles where the letters of her name are inscribed in metal on one side, with extensive information and photographs about her on the other side.

Gerda Taro was born Gerta Pohorylle in Stuttgart in a family of Galitian (Polish) Jews that emigrated to Germany. She attended boarding school in Switzerland and shortly after the National-Socialists arrived to power, she got involved in anti-establishment protests and was shortly imprisoned in Leipzig. After this incident, she decided to move to Paris leaving Germany for good. Most of her family will perish during Shoah and she will never meet them again. In Paris, she met a Hungarian Jew, Endre Friedmann, who later took the name of Robert Capa (capa means 'shark' in Hungarian), with whom she got sentimentally and professionally involved. She changed her name to Taro, inspired by the Japanese avantgarde sculptor and painter Taro Okamoto.

She soon got involved with the activities of the French Communists and decided to continue her search for authenticity in Spain, fighting with her camera to catch on film the moments of the Spanish Civil War. She became friend with Hemingway, George Orwell and the future post-war German chancellor Willy Brandt. Taro was working as what much later was called 'embedded' member of the media corp, journalists working and traveling together with one of the 'armies' of the conflict. She was wounded while on a car caming back from an assignment and died later, on the day of her 27 years anniversary. 

Her funeral was organised by the French Communist party in the famous Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris and a monument for her grave was commissioned to Alberto Giacometti. 

Many of her works were kept by Capa and therefore there are not too many specific works left. Her presence into the world was rarely noticed and mentioned despite her pioneering work and artistic achievements. 

What about kitniyot?

If you are Askenazi, you know that besides chometz, there is something else to be fearful to consume during Pesach: kitniyot. Practically, there is not an English translation of this term, but an approximation could be grains, with a Hebrew general translation as vegetables - which does not make any justice to the term, especially not from the religiously accepted point of view.

According to Rambam, on Pesach there is prohibited to consume the 5 kinds of grains: oats, rye, wheat, barley and spelt. Kitniyot are grains that are similar with the five grains - for instance, rice, millet, peas, lentils, but Rambam do not prohibit their use during Pesach. Therefore even flour ground from rice can be used to prepare different mixture.

The early source for the Askenazi minhag is apparently found at Rabbeinu Peretz (a Baalei Tosafot). According to him, the grains similar to those from the prohibited list, plus beans, if boiled operate similarly with the chometz (produced after more than 18 minutes of co-habitation between flour and water) are forbidden for Pesach. 

For instance, in the case of beans, if you put them in the water and wait for them to boil, the process is problematic chometz-wise, the advice being to just throw them into the boiling water. The beans are a completely different category of discussion anyway. Rabbeinu Yechiel, for instance, also a Baalei Tosafot, is said to have been used to eat white beans on Pesach. However, the beans as a general category and specific examples are a very complicated issues, as many of them - for instance, soy beans - were introduced in the last century only, which opened the way to complicated discussion about their presence on the Pesach menu. The same applies to quinoa, which is a relatively new add to the culinary habits. 

The minhag of refraining from consuming kitniyot, introduced by the Askenazi rabbis, was a gezeira (a decree) based on the fact that the kitniyot are prepared in the kitchen boiling them in a pot of water, therefore similarly with the chometz, therefore should not be consumed on Pesach. It is important to mention that this prohibition is not halachic, but a chumra, a strict standard adopted by the community. In addition to this, it also function the rule that if your parents had a certain Pesach eating custom, you can follow it as well. Last but not least, the minhag hamakom - the custom of the place - operates, meaning that if you are living in a community with stricter standards you should follow them. If the community is lenient and your standards are higher, you keep following your standards.

Rabbi Joseph Caro, the author of Shulchan Aruch, add another information regarding the reason of forbidding kitniyot: sometimes the five grains are mixed with lentils or other priducts, because the fields were near to each other and the wind may bring undeserved seeds. The reason is further outlined by the Taz - Rabbi Levi - in his commentary to Shulchan Aruch. The need to check for cross-contamination is required from the Sephardi communities consuming rice on Pesach. For instance, the rice is checked three times for chometz in a room where there are no children to the room, because their noise might distract from a serious search. 

The discussion about kitniyot is never ending and there are many serious arguments pro and against them. More than any other holiday, on Pesach our many differences as communities and individuals are on display and the positive lesson we should learn is about being tolerant and accepting the food alterity of everyone. The care to respect the prohibition of eating chometz on Pesach is a valuable asset we should respect and transmit further to the next generation. Without hate or permanent complaining and disregard for other people's customs. 

The story of Israel Philharmonic Orchestra told to children

Telling to nowadays children stories about the past, especially about history, is quite a challenging task. You need to find your way smoothly towards their preferences and sensibilities and interests, and when it comes to books, the challenges are even higher. However, a good book telling a good story is always a win, and regardless how much your kid loves playing network games on the computer, he or she will always find some time for listening to a quality narrative.

A Concert in the Sand tells beautifully, both through text and very inspiring images, the story of the first performance of what will later be Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, in 1936. Created by the once child prodigy Bronislaw Huberman, it gathered the best European Jewish artists, and their performance in Israel meant bringing back warm memories from the 'old country'. 

Through a very personal story, between a grand mother and her nephew, an entire world is delicately created, without teaching on purpose or aiming to lecture. The historical details are coming along smoothly and the beautiful images helps to fix it in the long term memory.

This book is recommended to any history lover kids. It brings to life a story less known and unjustly forgotten from the history of Israel, whose European culture remains an important asset through decades. 

Rating: 5 stars

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher

Book review: Women's Minyan by Naomi Ragen

I had Naomi Ragen on my to-read list for a long time, but fate wanted that my first real encounter to be not a novel, but a play. Based on a real story of a haredi woman who was blocked from having access to her children, it continues the usual discussion regarding the disregard towards women among some Haredi groups. Although women are celebrated and appreciated for their dedication to bringing children to the world, taking care of the house and most often also working while the men are learning in the yeshivot, the moment when a women is requesting her right to think and decide, the pressure of the community often turns against her.

It is not necessarily the rule, but such things happen and it can be enough to offer inspiration to the writer. I really liked the idea of the physical absence of men in the play, while they continue to be the background noise and the constant reference - both as a source of fear and source of authority - for the women characters assuming that: 'We are just women. There are things we can't understand. We're not on their level'.

The play has a more optimistic note than the reality, as the destitute Chana fights for and wins the chance of being heard, in the front of a 'minyan' of 10 other women, among which her daughters and mother-in-law. The open heart breaks the barriers the men rose for women to keep them weak. 'They enforce marriage and divorce laws that keep us chained like prisoners to men we despise'. 

From the literary point of view, I particularly liked the first part of the play, where tensions and symbolic details are added in order to create a crecendo of expectations. Unfortunately, the closer we are from the end, the slower the pace and the dialogue is less dramatic. 

Although I am fully aware of many of the realities of the daily wife within Orthodox communities presented in the play, I always pledge for nuances and more colours than black and life. However, this play increased my interest to discover more works by Naomi Ragen.

Rating: 3 stars