In the Memory of the Brave Women from Rosenstrasse

Tucked between Alexanderplatz and Hackescher Markt in Berlin, surrounded by modern communist blocks of houses, there is Rosenstrasse, a small square nowadays part of the oldest steets of Berlin. 

On Heidereutergasse it used to be Berlin's oldest and first synagogue, built in 1714 and destroyed during WWII. Since 1905, at Rosenstrasse 2-4 were also administrative buildings of the Jewish community. 

However, this street is remembered for a more dramatic story, outlined by a complex of statues called the 'Block of Women'.

Between February and March 1943, in this neighbourhood took place the biggest spontaneous protests in the Third Reich. The protesters were the women - wives, relatives, mothers - of around 2,000 Jews - mostly men - that were detained here at the end of February 1943 by the Gestapo. Until then, the Jews parteners in mixed marriages were tolerated by the Nazi regime and therefore saved from deportations and murder. 

For around a week, around 600 women protested daily for being allowed to get in touch and the liberation of their loved ones. The peaceful protests were not followed by arrests and most of the detainees were freed - except some that were already sent to concentration camps. There is a movie released in 2003 dedicated to the protests, an outstanding example of civil courage, directed by Margarethe von Trotta.

The impressive block of statues - comprising six elements - is the work of the late GDR artist Ingeborg Hunziger herself with a complex Jewish history. Carved in reddish sandstone, the complex is aimed to outline on one side the tremendous solidarity of the women that were ready to risk everything. The participants to the protests were probably afraid of the consequences but being united keep their going and helped to succeed despite all odds.

The violently broken blocks also mean the deep destruction brought to the Jewish life and culture by the Shoah. On a bench, a couple of meters away from the complex, there is a man sitting spread on a bench. During the War, the Jews were not allowed to sit on benches. 

I've personally find the sculpture sending a very powerful message, with a story in images which is pertaining and leaving strong impressions and memories. Probably one of the most pertinent I've seen in Germany.

Every time I am thinking about those protests and their outcome, I can't stop thinking in terms of 'what if...'. Obstinacy and love, and the acknowledgement of the injustice saved the life of 2,000 people condemned to death. What if...?

Book Review: David Assaf - Untold Tales of the Hasidim

'(...) academics, may they bite the dust'. This harsh statement - especially if you are an academic and this matters for you - is included in the rabbinic ban issued by Rabbi Yisrael Eliyahu Weintraub agaist the works on zoology and science of Rabbi Nosson/Nathan Slifkin. This depreciation of anything that has to do with academic research and knowledge in general is not new and unfortunatelly applies even to the most 'progressive' - for the naives ears and eyes - Hasidic groups as the Chabad which constantly discourge their followers to follow an academic career.

The extensive research of a couple of Hasidic characters done by David Assaf in Untold Tales of the Hasidim is an interesting evaluation in this respect. The tales in question refer to a couple of representatives of various Hasidic dynasties - Ruzhin, Chabad, Satmar among others - with unique life stories that sometimes leaded them against their group and even against their Jewish upbringing. They are the OTD - Off the Derek, term used for the ex-Hasidic men and women that left the fold - of the old times, without the advantage of nowadays widespread online media and the support of organisations like Footsteps helping them have a normal life as part of the general society they are living in.

But even then, complex mechanisms of internal and external censorship operated apparently successfully enough to obliterate from the collective memories those individuals that did not conform to the set of values assumed by the respective religious group. Memory is used not in order to find the truth but to reshape the collective identity. 'The mechanisms shaping and preserving historical memory among groups with a religious, ideological, political or educational agenda (including Hasidim) do not always take an interest in history as it was but rather in a form that can be called history as it should have been. Memory is a prime educational tool, and any unauthorized interpretation can shake the foundations of an ideological world in need of nurture and protection from its enemies'. 

The tales re-told by Assaf, a specialist in Hasidic dynasties and histories in general, recollect a diverse range of situations and personalities: from the conversion to Christianism to Moshe, the son of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Lyady (Chabad), to the curious 'defenestration' of the Seer of Lublin, or the fierce opposition to the Bratslav Hasidim or the curious personality - for his Hasidic background - of Rabbi Menahem Nahum Friedman of Itscan the last scion of the Shtefaneshti dynasty. 

Each story is told from different angles, finely outlining the historical evaluation and interpretation at different moments. 

The book is precious not only for the complex methodology and the fine attentio to detail, but also for taking out of Hasidic historical forgetfulness - for very clear ideological reasons - extraordinary histories. Most of those characters were, in fact, sending a message of a crisis following the dramatic meeting between modernity and tradition. Many of the contemporary untold tales of the Hasidim are in the making. 

Gur vs. Gur

Shortly before the end of the High Holidays, a rumour that was in the air for a couple of months already was confirmed: the Gur/Ger hasidic sect, the largest in Israel and probably the only big one that remain united during its 160 years of existence, is splitting.

The Simcha Torah prayers this Monday, in Jerusalem, were held separately by the adepts of the current Gur Rebbe, the Admor Rav Yaakov Aryeh Alter and those of his cousin Rav Shaul Alter. Rav Shaul Alter succeeded to gather on his side around 250 families, that joined him in prayers in a shul in the North of Jerusalem. Gur is considered to count around 11,000 families, with followers outside Israel mostly in the USA (Brooklyn), London and Canada. 

The fifth rebbe, Yisrael Alter died childless, being succeeded by his brother, Rav Pinchas Menachem  Alter. The current Admor, the 8th rebbe, was born in 1939 and is ruling the dynasty since 1996. 

The conflict betwee the two is boiling for a considerable amount of time. Some might say that in fact it started as early as 10 years ago, when the Admor decided to introduce a new way of learning that in the end leaded to the closure of the Sfas Emes yeshiva whose head was Rav Shaul Alter, a position he took over from his father. The partial confirmation of the big split that was supposed to follow took place early this year, after Rav Shaul was not invited to the wedding of the Admor's grandson in Jerusalem. 

The split is official now, and the communication on behalf of the current Gur leadership outlined diplomatically that everything was done in order to avoid the situation, but to no avail. Now, that the holidays are over, those who followed Rav Shaul Alter are expected to be expelled from the main institutions of the sect, and among others, their children from the yeshiva and the other institutional organisations. The first step towards recognition of the new group will be the state approval for the creation of new institutions, such as schools, yeshivot, but most probably this will last. Gur remains a very powerful force among the Hasidic/ultra-orthodox political entities in Israel, particularly Agudas Israel party. 

Rav Shaul Alter is expected to visit soon the USA in order to get more support, both in terms of new followers and financially. There might be many more members of the Gur keen to join the dissenters, but they will rather wait the next steps and the settlement of the institutional and financial resources in order to avoid risking their status and the incumbent benefits. 

The Gur is considered alongside Toldot Aharon, one of the closest Hasidic sects, with its own bizarre rules regulating the relationships between (married) men and women, and a strict control of the rebbe over the hasid's personal life. Inside testimonies are rare, and when it happens they have a deeply dramatic turn, as it was the case of Esty Weinstein, a former Gur who committed suicide in 2016 following the forced separation from her children, leaving behind a memoir about her struggles within the sect. 

The everyday life of a Gur couple is regulated by takanot - Ordinances on Holiness  - which recommend, among others, very limited sexual relationship (preferably only once a month, after leil tevilah - immersion of the woman in the mikve at the end of the period), minimal contact during the intercourse or requirement to the man to remain partially dressed when having intimate relationship with his wife. Such stringencies create a relatively problematic issue for matchmaking representatives of the Gur hasidim outside the sect. I remember how a couple of years ago, a friend of mine was about to marry a Gur, until she found out about the takanot and run as far as possible from the match.

What exactly the new group will bring, including in this very personal and intimate respect, remains to be known. The time and the next moves on both sides will show in the next weeks and months. 

We're Still Here

The members of the Jewish families that survived the Shoah do have many secrets to share and to be revealed. Some were hidden for ever in the overwhelming sadness of the survivors that left behind with the murdered loved ones a part of their emotions, hearts and understanding.

Tracing back those secrets, recreating the histories that really made history is becoming harder and harder as the number of those who survived is constantly decreasing. 

Esther Safran Foer is one of those 'gatekeepers of the past'. In I Want to Know We're Still Here she is recreating her family history, through travel, intensive research in the archives, oral testimonies and, when necessary, detective work too. The journey tracing her family history back in the Ukraininan shtetl of Trochenbrod was earlier started by one of her famous sons, Jonathan that ended up writing a work of fiction - Everything is Illuminated - turned later into a movie. But Esther Safran Foer has a list of names, pictures and the desire to discover more about the family her father had during the war. His first wife and daughter were murdered and Esther is intensively researching - through interviews and research done in USA, Israel and Ukraine - those particular destinies. 

We say that someone really dies when there is no one to remember him or her. When there is no one to be given his or her name. This is why in the Askenazi - European Jewish - tradition, we give to a child the name of a dead relative. Thus, the name and the spirit of the deceased stays alive. But what happened when there is no trace of your name left?

Esther Safran Foer succeeds in her treasure hunt discovering her lost relatives. Their names are kept alive through her grandchildren. We're still here.

This relevant post-Holocaust memoir is important for the state-of the art of the genealogical researches and research of personal Jewish narratives. It reveals the ways in which the information from human sources and archives can be used, as well as the new connections made possible by DNA tests and use of online databases. It offers an example of how to proceed to post-Holocaust research, navigating through a sea of information in the absence of direct human sources. 

I personally loved the simple realistic style. It allows the memories to take shape in a photographic way. More than once, one can easily see the short movie of specific events or contexts. 

I Want to Know We're Still Here has a unique voice. Similarly with the memories from different corners of the world Esther Safran Foer collects in ziplock bags - earth, stones etc - it is a fragment of life. Life that once was before it become history. But as long as we're still here, it is a history whose memory will not be forgotten. 

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

Personal Histories in Comic Strips

There is no other graphic way to express the tragi-comic historical drama than through strongly visual appealing images. Bring it the broken bodies with blood and enormous hearts taken out of the body, multi-dimensional realities and psychotic thoughts.

The Realist, by Asaf Hanuka - which I've read in the German translation - is an autobiographical comic book about an illustrator living in Tel Aviv. Although some of of the interpretations might be considered as breathing a dramatic pessimism, it is not a wrong-placed feeling. It makes sense to be like this when you feel that life and its masters are faster than you. But I don't think that one should read this book with a sad twist. That's the realism, the title refers to that is the best way to describe this life: you are sinking into debts for reaching a minimum life standards, you work a lot and still unable to make your family happy, you feel under threat of various military attacks, you dream - realistically - that the protests for the unbearable costs of the living are the beginning of a better life (it was just a dream). Besides the personal story, there are other information intertwinned in the story, such as stories of Iraqi Jews coming to Israel or even about some long forgotten bands from the 70s.

I've followed the multi-awarded Asaf Hanuka for too long to remember when and how I actually discovered his works. His illustrations were published in Forbes, Politico and Wall Street Journal, among many others, and he was a contributor to Waltz with Bashir. His twin brother Tomer, is also an illustrator. 

It is fascinating how he succeeds to create through colours and multi-dimensional illustrations fantastic emotional stories. The images are not only alive, but able to transmit feelings - raw, some of them - and strong impressions. There is a strength of the images that leads you into the story without asking. You are becoming part of the story told. For me, it is the perfect way to make comic strips reliable mediums for story telling, regardless what kind of stories do you want to tell. 

Film Review: Menashe

'For me, cinema is about opening worlds and understanding them', said in one interview the film director of Menashe, Joshua Z. Weinstein, a movie that gathered appreciations at big world film festivals, from Berlin to Sundance.. Without being Hasidic himself, Weinstein touched upon in this movie an issue not enough discussed: how it is to be a single dad in a Jewish Orthodox community.

Menashe is a widower, with a 8-year old son, fighting to make it from a day to another,while working as a cashier in a kosher supermarket. A good simple soul that does not want to fully conform in a community where the decisions are taken by others and where is a high pressure to obey to rules, from the way you dress to the way you pray and the number of children you have at home.

Considered unable to take care of his son, he had to surrender custody to his wealthier in-laws, until he is finding a new wife. His dates - arranged by the matchmaker - are a nightmare and it reminds him of his own marriage that was far from being happy. Menashe was married by his father at 22 (relatively late according to the religious communities), with a woman with whom he did not share too many happy moments. In communities where the social pressure is so big, happiness is not a choice: a man should provide continously to a permanently expanding family. As the duty of the woman is to have as many children as G-d allows, the duty of the man is to be successful both in this professional endeavours and in Torah learning.

The movie, spoken in Yiddish, is easy to watch, focused on Menashe's story - played by Menashe Lustig that apparently went through a similar experience. More than the play of the actors - not impressive in my opinion, the story is what captivates, with a warm empathic touch. Indeed, the situation of single/widowed/divorced women in the strictly religious communities is often portrayed, but what is going on with a man in a similar situation is less known. 

Indeed, Joshua Z. Weinstein succeeded to open and create understanding for untold, hidden stories.

'When We Were Arabs', a different approach to Jewish identity

'Arabeness is a personal identity, it is my politics, my inheritance, how I was raised, my relationship and bond to others who share in that legacy, the soil from which I emerge. Judaism is my faith and my understanding of metaphysical things. (...) I am Arab first and last. Judaism is an adjective that modifies my Arabness'.

After all, identity is a matter of personal choice and in the 21st century we are provided with a richness of conceptual frameworks and ideas to create our very specific identity. It is a matter a choice and of taste, after all.

In When We Were Arabs. A Jewish Family's Forgotten History, Massoud Hayoun wrote a memoir about his grandparents story and experiences as Jews living in Tunisia and Egypt. Interesting narratives that completes the landscape of Jewish identities in the Middle East. Which is not that easy as it might be and far from being black-and-white. However, focus to built his 'Arabeness', Hayoun is ignoring some important details while in some cases takes for granted anti-Semitic propaganda from the yellow Arab media. 

He is unhapppy with the 'de-Arabization' of the young Jews from Northern Africa, that followed the directions of the various French Zionist organisations from the end of the 19th century. Those organisations preached - through the French language - a Westernization of those cultures, that affected not only their dressing style but also the state system. Further on the Jews were used to 'colonize' the Muslim world. The critics against 'Westernization' are common at the beginning of the 20th century all over the Far and the Middle Eastern. The 'third-world'/'tiers-monde', to follow the French Marxists discourse has to do with those critics as well. But it is worth to evaluate negativelly those influences. Was it exclusively a one sided approach? What about the fact that thanks to this 'Westernization', the education for girls was made possible? Those details are not discussed at all by Hayoun. 

Hayoun is also excessively using the metaphor of the 'peaceful Arab-Jewish co-existence' in those areas. The truth is that sometimes it worked, sometimes not. Perfect peace was not and when the situation is not evaluated on a case-by-case basis it does not bring any value to an eventual understanding the Arab-Jewish relations in the Arab world. What Hayoun mentions more than once is that many problems appear following the creation of the Jewish state and sometimes even 'Zionist' themselves created such skirmishes in order to speed up the migration to Israel. Nothing, for instance, about the alliances between Nazi Germany and some states and religious leaders in the area. Or, about how the anti-Semitism originated in those areas - yes, it is an example of 'Westernization' that Hayoun aparently missed when preparing his research.  

Plus, there is the clear bias that I've seen repeated ad nauseam about the anti-Mizrahim attitude of the founders of the state of Israel. Indeed, someone coming from a Polish shtetl,for instance, might have had difficulties in understanding the mentality of let's say, a Jew from Yemen, and the other way round. But there were and are so many nuances and special stories that deserve more than being omitted in the sea of injustice and frustration. 

This clear bias affects at a great extent the quality of the memoir, which has a couple of interesting information about the specific Jewish communities in Egypt and Tunisia. Unfortunatelly the 'ideological' parts are unfortunatelly the only coherent ones, as the story of his grandparents is lost among irrelevant details about half-baked cultural theories. And this is exactly why I was interested in reading this book, for revealing the richness of particular communities and the stories of its people.  

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

Ludovic Bruckstein: The Maggid of the Carpathian Jews

Ludovic (Joseph Leib) Bruckstein is quasy unknown in the Romanian literary realm and the Jewish literature in Eastern Europe in general. Born in Munkacs (Munkacevo) and growing up in Sziget (Sighet), in the Northern part of Transylvania (Hungary/Romania), in 1972 he left Romania for Israel. While in Romania, he wrote plays and short stories, and taught at the University, but it looks like his name was completely erased from any literary mention. His writings he published in Israel until his death in 1988 caught the attention of the local literary critics and were mentioned in Viata Noastra/Our Life, one of the main publications in Romanian in Israel. Again, he remains largely unknown in his country of origin.

Istros Books brought Bruckstein into the wider, English-speaking literary world, publishing two of his novellas, The Trap and The Rag Doll. Personally, I didn't know what to expect from this book. I've only vaguely heard about him but couldn't place his work in any context, either regional/local or Jewish in general. 

The novellas are insightful, with a strength of the storytelling that keeps you captivated during the reading while occupying your mind with many general human questions after you've finish. 

The Trap takes place in the context of the humiliations Jews had to deal with daily in his native Sighet. 'How easily a man accustoms himself to everything! Even to his own humiliation' says Ernst, the main character of the story. The friendly town he returned to from his architecture studies in Vienna 'had become a prison with invisible walls, and he had to escape from those walls'. He will survive the war, for ending up deported by the Russians following a completely absurd occurence. But besides the story in itself, written in the cadence of the old Hassidic stories told by the itinerant storyteller or the maggid there is something else that struck me: the fact that most situations and characters are in fact hiding behind the friendly welcoming appearance a darker side. From the beautiful walls of the Palace of Culture to the German polite/distant attitude of the art student from Berlin turned into SS cruel executant or the apparent friendliness of the peasants from the mountains, Ernst is the witness of the historical revelation of the beautiful appearances, of the human lows and weaknesses. It is the experience that people that went through the horrors of the Shoah - as Bruckstein himself - had to live with thereafter. 

The Rag Doll approaches a different topic, but nothwistanding a common occurence in the life of Jews in this part of the world: mixed marriages, when the Jewish member shall give up/hide his/her identity. The lovestory between Theo and Hanna survived the harassment against the Jews during the war but failed when Theo met a much younger colleague at work. Hanna gave up her Friday evening candle lightning as a 'protection' for her daughters. But once in a while, she cannot stand still when she hears the usual anti-Semitic references or longing for her family home and the life with her parents, murdered during Shoah that disowned her anyway after marrying a non-Jew. The precise location of the story is not mentioned but the name of the characters sound Romanian with some Slavic/German sounding ones, typical for the multicultural border areas. 

Those two novellas by Bruckstein are important for the local Jewish history but also for the literary Jewish history in Romania. Hopefully, once the English translation is done, someone will have the idea to translate his works into Romanian as well. 

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