Bringing (kosher) Lust into the Relationships

There is a certain interest both within and outside the Jewish (more or less Orthodox) world about the issues regarding physical intimacy and the religious approach to pleasure. Although not always offering high quality advice but rather excuses for looking for marital pleasure, there are books that entered the public space lately aimed exclusively to the Orthodox, practicant young audiences. 

Rabbis and practicant people are becoming experts and utter public opinions about issues that are usually forbidden to mention in the strict environments, such as sexuality. The approach is more common among the 'modern Orthodox', especially a religious group that is trying to adapt to the challenges of modernity. Among them, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach ''America's Rabbi' is at the forefront of this new trend. Boteach was not only very close to Michael Jackson but authored several books aimed to support the need and religious support for a more open-minded manifestation of desire and sexual fulfillment in marital relationships. He even wrote a book about this topic together with Pamela Anderson. Let's skip the part of comments and thoughts about it and jump to the concepts.

Kosher Lust is an interesting although not innovative way to encourage search for intimacy in marriage. Based on various examples both Jewish and non-Jewish, it is clearly targeting a group of practicant Jews more open to the modernity including in its marital aspects. It asks the man to oblige and the woman to openly express and communicate its desires which in the strictly Orthodox environments is relatively impossible as sometimes the words are missing as well as the easiness to express things not common within the community and its sources. The Biblical references are mostly well chosen, but added the author's interpretation that it is not necessarily original. I am also sure that the average liberal Jews will not buy easily the explanation of separating spaces for women and men as well as some details regarding the impure period of time of the month. 

I personally found the book relaxing, useful for changing the shift from the eternal search for love to the simple enjoyment of the moment of lust which makes the marital life much easier. However, I am not sure that would love to read all the book in the series and browse all the variations on this topic. It is a thing good to know but not too know all about it.

Rating: 3 stars

  

Book Review: I Am Not a Spy, by Michael Bassin

As I already mentioned in a previous post, Jews in Gulf States, many in countries until a couple of years only, rabid critics of Israel, are anything surprising or new. Most of them were brought there by contracts in the oil industry or various architectural projects developed in the area, and they succeeded to keep their identity hidden while little by little creating a kind of discrete normality of celebrating Jewish holidays and various events. 

Most of those Jews are mostly for work and getting openly involved in public diplomacy initiatives is out of question, for various reasons - personal security being one of them. However, the young Michael Bassin made a different decision. As a young American Jew he decided to educate himself and then discover with his own eyes and mind the Arab world in order to eventually change the conflict in the Middle East. Obviously the conflict concerns more than the local Israeli-Palestinian conflict as third-part actors from the region are always getting involved with money and propagandistic support against Israel - which doesn't mean necessarily on behalf of the Palestinians. 

Michael Bassin started to learn Arabic and applies to scholarships in Arab countries. He is open about being Jewish even though it means that automatically he is the target of suspicions and various verbal abuses. He has to say more than once: 'My name is Michael and I am not a spy'. Which does not mean that his fellow students will really believe he is not one. Ignorance, brainwashing and the comfort of an easy mind are what convinces more than having an open mind and trying to understand the other person, be it him an 'enemy'. Those students are not better than the people from the poor countryside indoctrinated by thei religious leaders to hate the Jews. Jews are the most convenient enemy in this area and when things go awry or wrong they are the one to target, even many of them never seen any in real life. And someone apparently so nice and genuine as Michael Bassin, they are going through an existential crisis because could a Jew be trusted? A classical circle of hate and denial which is not only specific to this geographical region but I've personally encountered among middleclass Europeans as well. 

After spending more than enough time studying or travelling through the Middle East, Bassin decided to put his experience and language skills in the service of the peace. Where else can he learn better about the conflict than in Israel ? He is enrolling in the IDF, trying to grasp the conflict from inside. And there are many lessons learn from this, including the fact that sometimes, people may come along much better than the news about the conflict shows - for instance the fact that repairing your car in a Palestinian village is saving time and deliver quality to the inhabitants of Efrat. 

I've personally found the first part of the book - featuring the experiences in the Arab-speaking realm more entertaining and interesting - but it could be because I am more hungry for those experiencec than for things that I've personally experienced already in Israel.

Written partly as a travelogue, partly as a memoir, I Am Not a Spy by Michael Bassin is an useful yet easy reading for anyone curious to understand the basics of the tensions in the region and the slim although realistic chances of a certain change in the next decades. 

Rating: 3 stars

Jews in the Gulf?

A couple of years ago, a friend of mine, herself Jewish, told me that she just attended a bar mitzvah celebration in Dubai. With an American or other non-Israeli passport, is not that difficult to enter the Kingdom and I've been more than once told about Jews visiting the Kingdom and about even more who would love to experience the shopping adventures in one of the many high-end malls.

Now, the Jews in the Gulf, discretely and taking into consideration security concerns, are going out in the media light. If the media portrayed them it means also that it is much safer than a couple of years ago to do so and that there is a certain gentlemen's agreement regarding their presence. After all, in comparison with many other monoteistic religions, Judaism doesn't practice and encourage prozelytism therefore, at least from the religious point of view. However, this does not affect the decades of brainwashing of the many generations of locals living here, as well as the people from all over the Arab countries and region living, working or studying here. (More about this in a coming book review)

Is it safe, recommended, good for Jews to live in Dubai, other than for financial reasons? To visit this place, enjoying the lavish high-tech life and architecture? Curiosity is always a good incentive to start something new or completely out of common. I personally have a lot of second/third/fifth thoughts about going to a place officially preaching against Jews and Israel. I'm pretty familiar with anti-Semitism and I don't need any more examples of how far you can go in shaping and spreading a political and social/educational discourse focused on the hate against people that you hardy know. 

Things are changing, especially politically - although from the religious point of view there will be never a sincere approach to Judaism - and countries like Oman, Bahrain are becoming more clear in their tolerance towards Jews and especially Israel. There are some circumstances dictating such an approach, mainly the need to counter the overwhelming influence Iran and its cronies are trying to spread in the region. Which also means that expecting wonders - although we are in the time of Hanukka - is unrealistic. But at least it can plant the seeds of a potential change for good. One day. Not today, tomorrow or in a year.

The Ruined House of Intellectual Self-Sufficiency

'He has never been a pedantic library rat. Scholarship is an art for for him. His light, airy manner suggest a painter or a sculptor working in a spacious, well-lit studio, whisting to himself as he works. Most academics of his generation, products of the ecstasis of the sixties, transliterated their own youthful rebellion into political radicalism, but that did not necessarily lead to methodological creativity. Andrew had never succumbed to the cheap temptation of being a professional rebel or playing the exhibitionistic role of the university enfant terrible. Although well versed in the standard critiques of capitalist society and proficient in teaching them to his students, he had never fallen prey to the anger and bitterness that characterized many of his colleagues. The buoyancy of his ideas keeps them afloat. From above, they can easily shift perspective, sometimes tumbling into creative free fall like Alice down the rabbit hole'.

Meet Andrew P. Cohen, professor of comparative culture at NY University. He is easygoing, divorced with 2 children, dating a much younger former student, enjoying the good life and the high social status conferred by his impressive intellectual and academic achievements. He is not going through an identity crisis and doesn't want to be anywhere else he is already. Moderate, not dillematic and crossed against himself and the rest of the world as the academics portrayed decades ago by Saul Bellow or Philip Roth. He doesn't care about religion more than he should. It doesn't match anyway the average aesthetical outline of the NYC intellectual landscape.

At least, he used to be so until the crisis occurred. His reality started to get intruded by strange creatures from the time of the Temple, Cohanim and their ancient rites, to whom theoretically Andrew belongs too. Only that his temple sits on a different ground or he insisted to believe so. It is not a matter of life and death and the world of comparative cultures doesn't accept a hierarchy. Can you live without a basis, your own, not all the world's cultures?

The fact that often, regardless of educational background one needs a basis to stand is a basic issue, and has often a stereotypical solution. The ways in which Ruby Namdar created his story, the construction of his literary temple is outstanding and although I've often felt overwhelmed by the bias, I couldn't leave the book because of the beautiful writing and images created. The book was beautifully translated from Hebrew which make me curious to look into the original version that it might be a fundamental work of Hebrew language too. The Biblical knowledge is equally outstanding, with Talmudic commentaries and episodes that require dozen of books and additional commentaries to understand.

The Ruined House is a fundamental literary work about intellectual perception and identity and marks a complete new shift into the mainstream contemporary approaches. Its contribution to the history of ideas and Jewish mentalities is an important brick into our Temple after the Temple projections.

Rating: 4 stars 

Winternähe - About Jewish Identity in the German Lands

When it comes to Jewish identity in Germany, I've often read about a lot of topics, all interested but not necessarily relevant for my interests. Many young promising writers lately published their memoirs or novels, in German, about their experiences of being Russian Jewish or mostly from the former communist countries and facing a completely new country with its rules, new language and local communities reluctant to welcome to warmheartly the new comers. 

However, I've been always curious about the experience of local Jews of growing up and living in Germany, not only after the war but especially in the last decades of the 1980s and beginning of the 1990s. I personally know one person that might have some stories to tell but I completely abhor so I better look finding for honest and interesting people. 

I've first heard and seen Mirna Funk a couple of years ago, at a discussion at the Jewish Museum in Berlin dedicated to Israeli-German relations, literature and identity that although it was a bit too leftist in essence, brought interesting topics expressed by young writers and intellectuals. Her book, Winternähe, was not ready yet but the dialogue I've witnessed then made me curious enough to buy the book shortly after publication. 

I will not enter now into the - very important though - halachic debate about how is a Jew, and how the Jews in Germany define themselves. The book has also many autobiographical insertions, at least as I take into account the various public statements by the author herself. The character of the book, Lola grew up in the former communist Germany, with a Jewish father who run away from her and his country as far as from Australia. Her German mother wasn't too family bound either so she lived with her paternal grandparents. In the new, democratic, reunited Germany she is making a life of her own, trying to define herself, in a different way than other people - both Jews and non-Jews - want to define her. She is genuine, a bit chaotic, financially independent to run away from Berlin to Israel - during the latest war - and then to Thailand. She needs to settle to a herself she is not aware how to find it, where to find it and how to clearly define in a readable way for the other people - noth Jews and non-Jews - too. Her ideas and her context are sometimes highly stereotypical, but this is the feeling I've had often when I've tried to delve more into the local Jewish approach. When you go beyond the overall accepted culture of rememberance there is nothing clear to expect and most probably anything good either when it comes to Jewish perception and identity. 

Besides the actuality of the topics raised I also liked the style - I've read the book in the original German language - and the character construction. I only wish I'll discover more genuine German authors writing about as many relevant Jewish questions and issues as Mirna Funk.

Rating: 4 stars

Why I Can't 'Keep Quiet'

Hungary, what you've done to your Jews? You lured them into your high culture and made them believe and trust you, and once they were feeling the exemplary citizens of your empire, you gather them and send them to death...

For many post-Communist years, I noticed how Hungary changed from a promise of freedom and democracy into a brown nightmare. Me, among many others, I was naive enough to strongly believe that Hungary makes a difference among its neighbours and cannot be so vilan, rude and backwarded to end up how everything started, many decades ago: with creating 'guards', attacking physically and verbally its citizens of other religious and ethnic origin. My last visit in Budapest showed me how much things changed for worse, after many bad years before: few of my Jewish friends and aquaintances that are still in the country prefer to 'keep quiet' and assimilate, as they did for years. Those who are brave enough to do not deny their origins are often the target of various incidents, like threats scremed through their phone answering machines or interphone from the street, because their names sound Jewish. 

The outburst of racism and use of inter-war political action models doesn't surprise those who are observing the Hungarian political and social development for decades. Certain historical models and Christian-focused nationalism were used as underground alternative politics during Communism, prepared for an eventual take over after the fall. The liberal intellectuals were hoping the same and at least for the first post-communist years they might have some chances, but they failed because the politicians that represented those ideas failed, for various reasons, corruption being one of them. There is so much to be said about all this, but I am definitely willing to write this time about something and someone else.

A Political Star was Born

In this crazy post-communist turmoil of confusion, a young far-right politician, without any connection with the old regime - as all political parties in Hungary were created by people that at a certain extent raised their voices agaist the establishment but themselves, they were born and breed during the Communism - brave to fanaticism and decided to turn the page of history (or he assumed doing so): Csanad Szegedi. In the forefront of the far-right Jobbik and the ideologue of the Magyar Garda, milice intervetion forced aimed to protect the Hungarians from 'outside' aggressions (Roma people were often the fatal victims of their actions, and often without the authorities doing nothing to arrest the suspects). He wrote a book about his 'healthy Hungarian' family tree, perpetrated the revanchist discourse and often made anti-Semitic jokes. Between 21 and 30, he was on the forefront and didn't miss any occasion - including in the European Parliament where he was one of the 3 MPs elected to represent Jobbik - of being true to himself and playing the extreme nationalism tunes. His brother was also part of the movement.

When he was on the top of his political career, it got struck by the news: he is Jewish. His maternal grandmother is Jewish and she was to Auschwitz. I watched the movie about his changes and soul-searching on Netflix las night, Keep Quiet, featuring among others historian Anne Applebaum who is knowledgeable in this case, and I may say it is pretty disturbing.

It may be that the grandmother refused to talk about her nephews about what happened to her. It is not unheard of in the former communist countries. It may be that his mother also hid the fact that she is Jewish to her two sons and accepted the nationalist education her non-Jewish husband have to her childrend. That they were also baptised and did not have any Jewish relatives and acquaintances to help them keep a awareness about their identity. I've heard and I am familiar with such cases. 

What I did find really disturbing is how this guy, who only a couple of months before was mocking Jewish traditions turned into a speaker about Jewish identity. I knew that he was brought to Berlin to speak at a Jewish event for young people, many of them also from Hungary, a country they left because of the people from Jobbik and Magyar Garda. I didn't think it was worth my time to attend such a speech. Took under the wings of a group that usually put a lot of frame on 'teshuva' and returning of Jewish to tradition - that is doing good deeds in countries like Hungary or Russia - he is almost as strong in his mission of faith as he was before in his nationalist creed. There is a similar case of a Polish former extreme right young activist that was turned back to religion from the same group, but hopefully he is more quiet and decent in his acknowledgment of the changes he went through. 

Maybe his awakening can be used as an example to other people that are going through the same situation to follow and return to belief. But isn't this identity jumping too fast and utterly unappropriate, indecent in its way of lecturing others. No humility no regrets. The guy who was preaching against the European Union and to the return to the deep roots of the purity of the Hungarian soul is now talking in the front of an audience that he abhorred shortly before with the same easiness about Yiddishkeit while wearing a kippah that when he has don it first only a couple of months before was burning on his head. 

The question is not about believing Csanad Szegedi or considering him authentic, far from that, but about the display of this belief and taking his as a trophy to speak in the front of Jewish audiences, some of them people who openly suffered because they never hid their identity. Tshuva (repentance) is an extraordinary process of inner healing that may take years and years to accomplish and doing it under the public lights doesn't help or it is not tshuva at all.

Boychiks in the Hood, an inaccurate Hasidic travelogue

I hesitated for a long time in which category to include Boychiks in the Hood, by Robert Eisenberg, a book I had for a long time on my reading list. 

The book was published in 1996, when Hasidism was rather considered a path of life followed by a rather exotic group of people, and I finished reading it in 2018, when Hasidism is still considered a path of life followed by a rather exotic people, but relatively widely present into the everyday media and literary, also academic approaches. For instance, there are more people who've heard about Satmers and about Jews going to Uman, in Ukraine, on Rosh Hashanah. However, checking facts and adding information to the field of research or to the overall knowledge about a specific topic could be done at any time, as what changed meanwhile since the publication of the book was only the frequency of the information about the topic. People belonging to the Satmer branch of Hasidism will hardly change in their approach to belief in the next 100 years or until Moshiah will come.

Therefore, the book can hardly be considered a research, and there are more than once facts and statements which slightly or roughly contradict the documented realities. For instance: 'A large proportion of the Satmar Hasidim perished during World War II, but not to the same extent as did Polish Jewry. Adolph Eichmann's liquidation machine didn't get around to the destruction of Hungary's Jews until the final months of the war, and then they found little official enthusiasm for the project among their Hungarian allies'. Or the fact that there is a serious connection between Kasztner and the Satmer Rebbe, and although his was a not good, and a Zionist, Kasztner had a contribution to saving Rav Teitelbaum's life. Even at the level of the 1990s, there was for sure enough knowledge, especially among Shoah survivers from Hungary that would help a more refined and serious approach. 

Robert Eisenberg travels from Israel to Monsey, Florida to Antwerp and to Uman to meet Jews of all colours and believes, born religious or religious by choice. They share their experiences mostly by using Yiddish, the 'dead language of Judaism which is so much alive nowadays. There are stories which reveal new and interesting things, or facts that are - again - hardly if ever developed or researched beyond the direct declarations of the dialogue partners. For me, the book is mostly a travelogue, with plenty of comparisons between the people he meet and movie characters, singers and actors, most of them not making any sense for the nowadays non-US reader. 

Although Boychiks in the Hood is an useful reading for anyone interested in Hasidic/post-WWII Jewish histories and stories, it has too many flaws to make it into a top 20 books about Hasidism you should read. 

Rating: 2.5 stars

Book Review: Promised Land by Martin Fletcher

Set in the post-Shoah Israel and featuring the intertwined dramatic stories of two brothers born in Germany, separated by the War and reunited in Israel after, Promised Land grasped very much of the spirit and historical challenges of the young country and its people. 

Peter and Arie Nesher reunited themselves in Israel, each of them carrying the burden of their family that was murdered in concentration camps. Another drama will unite them for ever: their shared love for the Egyptian-born Tamara, a young ola hadasha from a now destitute academic family struggling hard to adjust to the harsh realities of the land of Israel.

Arie is becoming rich, taking the smart advantage of being the first to start or grasp a business opportunity, while Peter will dedicate his life and intelligence to defending the promised land on the secret front of information. The ways in which the personal histories are connected to the mainstream historical and social challenges were described with a highly literary skillfull art. The creative story is developing while taking into account the specific realities, without turning into a history lesson. The facts and characters have a determined, historically-defined context, without limiting the story and this makes the book an enjoyable reading experience for anyone who loves books sets in Israel or interested in historical novels about Israel. 

The story has many interesting turns and keeps you awake and curious until the very end, with a deeply human and balanced perspective on things and people, some of them painful, like the fact of dealing with Germany and Germans and German money after the war. 

What I personally did not fancy at all, whas the coming and going of the story of the brothers in love with the same sister. Was is because of the indecision, the soap-opera touch ? Regardless of the answer, it was not my piece of literary cake.  I also noticed a small mistake, as the brother of Tamara, Ido, was given once the same family name with her husband, although it was not clear they were changed all of them the names.

Promised Land by Martin Fletcher is a passionate reading that brilliantly covers the first 2 decades from the life of the state of Israel. Recommended to anyone that loves contemporary historical novels and a good Jewish story.

Rating: 4 stars

'One of Us'...

Telling the stories of people that left the Hasidic way of life in New York, the Netflix documentary One of Us is as heartbreaking as such stories could be. 

No parent should be left without his children because a different life choice. No child abuse should be tolerated, regardless how pious the perpetrator looks like for the community. The help organisations like Footsteps in New York offer to those who left the fold to integrate into the new life is tremendous and it is important for people to know that they are not alone. After belonging your own life to a tight community when everyone is part of the whole, finding yourself completely on your own in this big crazy world requires a lot of time and patience and knowledge about how this worl functions. But everything has a price and those finding their way 'off the derech' might not do it alone.

The documentary made by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady last around one hour and a half and features the changes taking place into the lives of Luzer, Ari and Etty as they decide to leave behind their closed communities. Filmed over 3 years, it covers dramatic changes taking place into the lives of the participants, such Etty's defeat in court against her ex abusive husband which leads to her being separated from her 7 children and Ari's recovery from drug abuse. 

The community can be a shield for those who are in and a terrible weapon against those who left. I personally know more than one case of a man who left the fold and man given visitation rights to his children that remained with the observant mother because it happened to be part of an important Hasidic family. But if you are a woman without a supportive family - in Etty's case even her own family testified against her - you are lost. The fact that the abuser of Ari is still in a position where he is close to children that he can eventually abuse is outrageous. Those stories are examples of what is actually wrong and sets limits of things that should not be accepted. 

I personally would have expect some wider coverage of individual stories, that may reflect the diversity of reasons and situations why people leave and what happens after. I know many success stories and people that also managed somehow to keep their parental rights and also cases when child abusers were brought to justice. The stories brought to attention are heartbreaking and interesting but especially for someone not familiar with the phenomenon, it may bring a bit of diversity and shape a completely different perspective.  

The 'Lone Wolf in Jerusalem'

Drama, adventure, romance and WWII traumatic memories. The popular novel in Israel, Lone Wolf in Jerusalem, by the decorated IDF colonel Ehud Diskin, wisely uses the troubled political and security landscape in Israel during the British Mandate to recreate vivid stories of the Jewish resistance in the Holy Land. 

The main character is David Gabinsky, a former member of the resistance against the Germans in Belarus, shortly landed in the 'home of the Jewish people' and faced with the harsh survival realities. The different ideological orientations and strategical mindsets of the many resistance groups and different approach of Zionism - explained sometimes but the author in a bit too school-like, pedagogical way - are a good indicator of the current political mainstreams in Israel. Diskin projects also a different image of the Jewish communities in Europe, with insights about the armed resistance against the Germans, a reality not enough approached either in purely historical or literary works placed in that period of time. 

Besides the historical contexts and constructions, the story flows beautifully and there is enough action and romantic touch to inspire and captivate the readership. The love between David and Shoshana is dramatic and moving, with a dynamic written on hearbreaking historical canvass. 

The historical research is well done, which allows the writer to play with the imagination and create unique stories, without diminishing the reality of facts. It is an easy-to-read novel, with a touch of mystery, thriller and historical - also military - dramatism, recommended to history novels readers, especially those passionate about the Middle East, particularly Jewish history.  

Rating: 4 stars

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

A Comprehensive Overview of Jewish History

If you are interested in more than a basic introduction to centuries of Jewish history all over the world and in the Land of Israel, this 'Historical Atlas of the Jewish People is the best recommendation. With contributions of noteworthy experts in Jewish history and the Middle East, such as Saul Friedländer, Raphael Vago, Pierre Vidal-Naquet or Yeshaiahu Leibowitz and Bernard Lewis, it covers extensively a range of historical aspects in a concise, comprehensive way.

You don't have to be an expert in Jewish history to understand many of the aspects featured, but a historical background might be useful though.  

The chronological overview is completed by historical portraits of specific episodes or event. Therefore, it both combines the evenemential history and the focus on specific trends in the history of mentalities. Achieving brevity when it comes to complicated histories is both a success but may have its inerent limitations, as it simply has to leave behind details not considered relevant for the economy of the text. Maps and pictures of various artifacts are adding more visual impact to the historical information and helps to contextualise. 

I personally felt that there are many information missing from the histories of various Jewish communities around the world, while other communities were completely omitted. A Historical Atlas of the Jewish People is not a book to read in a sitting and once. It is a reference that one can use regularly for aspects related to Jewish history. For historians in general, it offers a model of approaching centuries-long in a easy reading way while maintaining the essential academic chore. 

Book Review: The Innocents by Francesca Segal

Either you go to the islands of piety in Golders Green or in some more posh and top-notch circles in the North, Jewish life in London has an unique feature of continuity, community and stability that you rarely feel in other parts of Europe. The characters from the admirable debut novel by Francesca Segal, The Innocents, are real and realistic for their natural belonging to the same school clubs and gatherings from a very early age. Their friends stay with them and they eventually end up marrying up their teen-year sweetheart which involves also a stable economic future in the business of one of the parents'. She used as inspiration The Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton translated into a Jewish context. Ironically Wharton harbored anti-Semitic feelings, visible for instance in The House of Mirth.  

Adam and Rachel are the perfect couple. They meet during a trip to Israel as teenagers and except a limited period of time, they always were a couple. They are preparing to get married and both families are enthusted. Rachel is too, but Adam hopes that once married, they will dare exploring the world, both physically and through the knowledge beyond the limits of things and reality. But in the everyday life of Hampstead Garden Suburb things are happening less randomly. The third generation after Shoah are used with an upbringing of plenty and transgressors are rejected. Like Rachel's cousin, Ellie, free of inhibitions, in the middle of a huge scandal which involved a married rich man and freshly expelled from Columbia after appearing in a porn film. Since he met her, Adam is out of his mind and becoming obsessed with her, which is not nice at all, but as realistic as possible. It is the appeal of adventure and unusual which calls him, although not necessarily what he might want to have for the rest of his life. It is a dream, a projection, an obsession. What a contrast with his wife, Rachel: 'Her world was one in which her own highest aspirations had always been those wanted for her by a community and the concept of innovation at a cost of isolation (or even mild disapproval) wasn't worth it. There was security in their social dictates'. 

Will Adam in his nivety give up stability for innovation? Will be betray expections for passion? Will curiosity win over certitude?

For a debut roman, The Innocents is well-built - although there are relationships between characters left unexplored and not all the characters are equally developed. My first encounter with Francesca Segal was through her second novel The Awkward Age which convinced me only partially. I wish her next novel is at least as captivating as her first.    

Rating: 4 stars

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.