Book Review: Lot Six by David Adjmi

I am for a long time very conflicted about when exactly someone may consider his or her life experience rich enough for writing a memoir. I am not radically opposed to the idea that someone before the retirement age has a life eventful enough to turn it into a 1 person personal story, but given the amount of such accounts I came across in the last years and months, I will be very cautious in considering that all those experiences are worth writing about and nevertheless reading them.

After such a skeptical, arrogant even start, let´s talk the book. Lot Six by David Adjmi is a finely written account of the author´s struggle in and out the very conservative - not necessarily strictly religious in the classical Orthodox sense of the world - Syrian-Jewish community in NYC. In my experience, the Syrians are one of the most insular Jewish communities, with a very different and highly exclusivistic attitude towards other Jews, for historical and sociological reasons that I will maby discuss on another occasion.  

The book is not one of those Off-the Derech books, about an Orthodox Jew that left the fold for becoming an atheist, opposed to his previous community. Instead, it is an account of a process of coming at terms with an identity, sexual as well, reinventing a new destiny, but without necessarily opposing the old world. From this perspective, the story appeals too much to audiences that are ready for this kind of accounts, without a dramatic ending - he still stays in contact with his family, although he is dismissed and run away himself from the yeshivish world. 

Adjmi remains connected to his disfunctional family which struggles with money. His family is broken way before the official separation of his parents: his father is a con, he and his siblings are struggling with depression and his mother is rather psychologically absent. ´People in my family talk about killing themselves all the time´. 

Although the family is not strictly religious, rather normally Jewish, they sent him to a yeshiva, where his religious experiences are rather peculiar. There is anything special about his Jewish heritage that remains his background story because, as we many of us know, you cannot divorce it easily, if ever.

Personally, I´ve found the part dedicated to the search for his own literary voice more interesting and revelatory. It made me curious to read some of his plays that are inspired by his personal encounters and life experiences. But as much as I consider it is important to share a personal experience and story of reinvention and transformation, eventually helping other people going through similar experiences to raise and find their voices, sometimes I felt that all the information was enough for a long article at the first person, but definitely too long for a full book. As I had access to the book in audiobook format, I´ve found the book experience even longer...

Rating: 3 stars

Some Details about Operation EXODUS

There are some murky details of how Jews from the Middle East - Arab lands and Iran - were took out of their countries through non-Israeli projects. From the Jews in Yemen that were brought to America by the Satmer and the Iranian Jews by the Chabad, there are some details that are not always too kind with the individuals that were the subject of attention. But more about this maybe on another occasion.

Escape from Iran is a book by Sholem Ber Hecht, emisary of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, about the details of Operation EXODUS, aimed to help Jews from Iran escape the Islamic Republic. Hecht, at the time of the operation (1979-1980) rabbi of the Sephardic Congregation of Queens in Forest Hills visited Iran at the beginning of the Islamic Revolution. 

There, he got to know the situation of the Jews there, that, as any other religious communities during the Shah, were under the pressure of secularization. A network of Jewish schools were operating in Tehran and Shiraz, among others, through the ETEHAD, created by the Alliance Israelite Universelle who was active in the Middle East and Northern Africa and Turkey, as a Zionist, not religious, French-speaking educational project. Another Jewish education project was developed through the Otzar HaTorah network funded by Rabbi Isaac Meir Levi, familiar with the Jewish refugee from Poland that were hosted in Iran during WWII.

Chabad helped around 1,800 Jews from Iran, mostly young people, to escape to America - until the embassy was still open. They got the I-20 visas - student visas - and were further directed to various Chabad religious institutions and yeshivot. Those young people were becoming part of the religious sect outreach.

The author mentions briefly a short conflict between Chabad and Agudah Israel - which reunites the the orthodox denominations - on this topic, but what exactly happened is not openly disclosed. Agudah Israel had and has its own policies regarding the Iranian Jews.

Escape from Iran is an interesting account for someone looking to find out more about the story of Jews in this country, but must be considered as part of a specific context and tailored religious projects. Escaping a religious dictatorship that puts spiritual and physical lives in danger is an outstanding gift, but there nothing such a free lunch.

Rating: 3 stars

The Rabbi of 84th Street

´All creatures - high and low - get equal treatment´.

How mentally reconforting is to read stories of personalities impressive by their modesty and sense of measure. Once upon a time, such behaviors where was really worth talking and writing about, not the extreme and the exageration and the lack of middle way.

The Rabbi of 84th Street written by the journalist Warren Kozak is the animated biography of a real ben Torah, Rabbi Haskel Besser. An extraordinary life of an astonishing modest person. Astonishing for us, in our times, the 2020s. But when Rabbi Besser lived - he died in 2010 - his way of being was so typical of the old countries those outstanding Jews were coming from. 

Rabbi Besser was born in Poland, but extensively travel and learned through Europe, particularly Berlin. With part of his family, he luckily escaped to Israel where he settled for a while before moving to NYC where he spent the rest of his life. It was a personal decision based on his needs and personal considerations: ´His heart was in Israel, but there was also a lack of personal space there that did not fit his personality. In New York, one again, he found the best of both world. He could be as Jewish as he wished, and he could also embrace the freedom of America along with the culture of this great metropolis´.

Strong on his belief and opinions, he opened his heart and house to Jews of all denominations and orientations. Elie Wiesel or Adin Steinsaltz shared Shabbes meals with him and his family and he influenced Ronald Lauder, whom he met when he was ambassador to Austria, to get more involved in Jewish projects and education. Being in contact with non-religious topics and people, as well as with non-Jews were not considered a threat rather an opportunity to discover more about the world that Gd has created. ´We found out that you could be dressed in a modern way and understand the secular world and still be very religious´.

A living testimony of Jewish history, Rabbi Besser never ceased to be travel sharing his story or connecting with Shoah survivors, both in Berlin, Germany in general and his native Poland. Doing chessed and being considerate towards any human being is an obligation that stories like that of Rabbi Besser remind us that no matter where the world turns, we should never give up on being good. 

Rating: 4.5 stars 

About the Question of Antisemitism

 

In this collection of essays about antisemitism - then and now - Delphine Horvilleur is exploring the usual topics related to the everyday hate and discrimination against Jews, but also is adding some specific Feminist touch.

Antisemitismus is a reality that does not have anything to do with a specific historical, geographical or other situation. The Jews are either too much - thus, they may possess something the other, the majority, do not such as money and wealth and priviledge - or too less - case in which they are portrayed as ´parasites´. They are accused of being different or being apart - as in the story of Purim - or being mixed with the majority in order to subvert it. The list is endless and has a stubborn persistence. 

What Horvilleur adds is the assumption that the lack of proper democratic development and particularly a male-dominating society may create the conditions for further spread of antisemitism. A society more open and tolerant towards recognizing women´s right may rather counter such manifestations as per definition more tolerant and inclusive. 

Although such an idea expands the repertory of topics related to antisemitism, it does not make fully justice to the topic in my opinion. Women are equally perpetrators and agents of antisemitism and the book does not include a proper qualitative evaluation of the extent of such an approach, for instance any statistics if there is a radical split of a gender-related antisemitism. In lack of such premises, I rather take it as a wishful thinking, but I keep being skeptical about it because my everyday experience with antisemitism did not show any relevant gender-based difference in terms of negative opinions about Jews. It´s good to keep this in mind for further consideration though.

Horvilleur is the France´s third female rabbi and is an active journalist and opinion maker, associated with the reform movement within the Judaism.

I´ve read the book in the recent German-language translation from the original French.

Rating: 3 stars

Movie Review: The Septembers of Shiraz

I am rarely interested in watching the movie installment of a book, but some books are better told more than once.

Septembers of Shiraz by Dalia Sofer is a book featuring the drama of a Jewish jewellery businessman in the aftermath of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, based on personal accounts. Sofer, an Iranian Jew, grew up herself during those years and explores this experience in her books. Her latest, Man of My Time, was one of my favorite reads this year for the maturity of the writing and the complexity of the approach of another topic set up in Iran, without the Jewish narrative this time.

I watched the movie based on Septembers of Shiraz on Netflix, part of the monthly subscription. The film is directed by the Australian-Aboriginal writer, actor and director Wayne Blair, with an exceptional distribution of actors playing very well their roles: Adrien Brody, Salma Hayek, Shohreh Aghdashloo among others.

As an observation, the film follows the original script based on the book although it gives to it a strong socially-oriented touch. It made sense and the references were inserted in a smart way. The only thing I was largely skeptical about was the frequent use by the Arabic ´yalla´ by the Revolutionary Guards, long before Iran started to mix into the Arabic-speaking lands (the events are taking place in the months of 1979, therefore, slightly implausible.

At a certain extent, there is a grain of sad reality in the confrontational reality created those months: the gap between the very rich and priviledged and the very poor and with no chance to challenge their condition. The relationship between Farnaz, Isaac´s wife, and her home keeper has a revelatory dynamic of the lack of content of the social relationships at the time of the Shah. Therefore, once the social and political realities changed the representatives of the less priviledged were able to state with the same cruelty afflicted to them by SAVAK´s torturers: ´now it was our turn´.

Besides the strong social message, the moral dilemma present in the book is maintained and the characters - no matter which side of the self-rightousness are - complex and beyond the black and white portraits. 

The cruelty is explicit and raw but it is the kind of violence that is far from being gratuitous. It is the sign of the new times which, after a generation swallow undefinitely almost everyone. 

Rating: 4.5 stars

The Story of the Shanghai Sukkah

I love to read Jewish stories about less-known episodes of Jewish contemporary history, especially in relation with Asia, topics that are still not enough explored nowadays.

Shanghai Sukkah by Heidi Smith Hyde, with illustrations by Jing Jing Tsong was published by the resourceful Kar-Ben Publishing which is a top inspiration for intercultural and cross-cultural children books. It is inspired by the Jews who fled Nazi Europe - particularly Germany - for a safe heaven in Asia. With the help of the Japanese diplomat Chune Sugihara, dispatched in Lithuania since 1939, many Jews were able to secure a visa to Japan and from there, they flied to Shanghai, where most of them settled in the city´s poorest part. 

In Shanghai Sukkah, Marcus, recently refugiated from Berlin with his family, is longing for his friends and the life he left behind. He is learning in a yeshiva together with other children from refugees families. One day, he meets Liang, with whom he learns to communicate through the language of friendship, which overcomes the language gap.

Liang invites him to the local Moon Festival, and helps Marcus to set up a Sukkah as he never had before. No matter the language and the place, friendship is always the right answer to everyday life challenges. 

I loved the open perspective of the book. It teaches about how much we can learn from the others and how important is to value friendship, no matter the cultural background. Sharing our own traditions and cultural habits is very important, especially for children, as it teaches mutual respect and understanding. The illustrations are also beautifying the story, with simple pastels-like background. Although the Shoah is slightly mentioned, it is also a noteworthy reference for the book, although in a way which can be eventually better explained to children.

Rating: 4 stars

Tracing the Terrorist Money

Terror knows no border and fighting it on all fronts requires besides resilience and concentration, creativity too. 

Harpoon, by Nitsana Darshan-Leitner and Samuel M. Katz is an account of the tremendous efforts deployed by the Mossad to track and subsequently block the financial support for terrorism. Initiated by the legendary Meir Dagan, the unit was designed to deter by any means the sources of wealth for various terrorist network, particularly those operating in Israel. 

The initiative was, among others, an answer to the dramatic outburst of terror in the 1990s. A new global paradigm was generated in the region, with powerful state actors willing to support generously the creation and maintaining of entities involved in acts of terror. The mission assigned to the specialists gathered by the Harpoon was to understand those new terror trends and besides the typical operations aimed to eliminate the perpetrators, to stop the flow of money. The philosophy that eventually was replicated after 9/11 by CIA as well (especially through the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program - TFTP), was that once the money will be disrupted, the blood shed would stop. 

Interestingly, the book offers significant insights into the financial aspects of the terror acts, by deconstructing it piece by piece. For instance, ´(...) the suicide bomber was the final link in a long supply chain of men, machines, and infrastructure that cost tens of thousands of dollars´. Drug and cigarettes smuggling operated through networks in South America (Venezuela, for instance) helped to finance terrorist activities within the state of Israel. Undermining those operations and disrupting the daily activities, including through the elimination of their heads of operations, jeopardized the possibility of organising and perpetrating acts of terror. 

An ingenious way that lead to the financial distress of the supporters of terror was the legal action against states and entities on behalf of the victims of terror attacks. Especially American citizens in Israel targeted by terrorist attacks in Israel and abroad were helped to get court decisions leading to blocking of bank accounts and financial assets of terror supporters. 

The insider perspectives brought by this book are very interesting for better understanding the practical aspects of the fight against terrorism those days. In a complex world, it requires sophistication and creativity to counter evildoers. Harpoon is such an example of good and smart practice. 

A New Episode of Jewish Medical History in Germany

During an early walk in Berlin today, I´ve discover another trace of Jewish medical history: In the front of one of the entrances of Wilmersdorf City Hall, there is a small square bearing the name of Julius Morgenroth, one of the creator of chemotherapy.

Julius Morgenroth was born in a Jewish family in Bamberg, in 1871. He studied in Freiburg, Würzburg and München. Between 1906 and 1919 he was the director of the Bacteriology Department of the Pathology Institute within the Charité. Following positions involved heading the newly created Department of Chemotherapy within the Berlin Institute for Infectious Diseases - nowadays known as Robert Koch Institute in Berlin.

Morgenroth worked closely with another fellow Jewish scientist, Paul Ehrlich, Nobel Prize winner as recognition for his works in the field of immunology. He created Rivanol, a medical substance used until today, as wound desinfectant, and studied extensively the effects of quinine against infections. 

Nowadays, we refer mostly to chemotherapy as part of the anti-cancer treatments, but originally this type of method and medication referred to the substances acting specifically against pathogenic infections. Ehrlich, as well as Morgenroth contributed regularly to the development of this field of study building up the basis for the current development, which is still a work in process.

The more I discover about the Jewish contributions to the history of German medicine the more frustrated I am by the lack of systematic information in this field. Obviously, the Jewish presence into the history of medicine is a topic that deserve a better historical treatment.

How to Desintegrate. To be Full Again

There is so much to say and write, on an intellectually critical note about how the Jewish life in Germany was set up but there are not too many intellectuals to create a critical mass against the mainstream.

On my side, I will mention one single event: it is the day when it takes place the so-called Long Night of Religions (Lange Nacht der Religionen). Once the year, usually somewhere at the end of the summer, for one night, the places of worships in Berlin are open to visitors. People come in large groups to visit various churches, mosques and synagogues. On one of those occasions, I was in the synagogue, for the end of Shabbat. Suddenly, a group entered the praying space, started to look around taking pictures (although they were told that Orthodox people on Shabbes don´t fancy such hobbies). They stayed longer for the seuda shlishit - the third required meal on Shabbat. Happy, they took another batch of people, observing how Jews are eating and singing and clapping their hands. They are alive, you see, let´s call it a day!   

Max Czollek belongs to a new generation of Berlin Jews. Born in Berlin at the end of the 1980s, he went through the full cycle of Jewish education. He doesn´t owe anything to anyone, in order to confirm his status as a Jew. He´s out of the everyday instrumentalisation of his identity for absolving the guilt of the majority. 

Desintegriert euch! is an honest account of the institutionalized game with memory on display in Germany, with Jews playing the main role according to a script which legitimizes the Leitkultur - dominant culture. It is a scenario which outlines what belongs and what not to Germany and where the Jews need to offer a ´perspective´ to the majority for excusing their historical excesses. For instance, let´s the Jews say their opinion on Luther´s antisemitism and call it a debate. 

There is a script for everything, but issued by the majority in order to push the minorities to conform. The Gedächtnis Theater - theatralisation of the commemorations - re-enacts the Shoa, among others, in a way which disconects the time slots. I´ve often heard young Germans complaining that ´enough is enough´ and it is about time to stop talking about the past, that past that ended up with the murder of 6 million people. Does AfD appear in a void? What about the neo-Nazis who are part of the everyday life for decades? My questions that owed me a dismissal.

But there is a lot more in the book and even a lot more to be said about how you are expected to think and behave as a Jew - and a non-German member of a minority group - in Germany. I am glad the circle of conformity is being broken. Itis about the time to take the floor.

I´ve had access to the book in audio format, read by the author.  

Rating: 5 stars

 

Movie Review: Love&Dance

 Ends of the week are for easy movies.

Love&Dance (2006) directed by Eitan Anner features fragments of the life of Russian Jews living in the Israeli city of Ashdod. Most of them are conforming to the stereotypical life and representations of this community: alienated, longing for their life as it used to be, unrooted. 

But there are their children too, making the best of a life at the margins of the society, running out of poverty and psychological abuse and complicated family contexts. In Love&Dance (original title in Hebrew is Sipur Hatzi-Russi) the focus is on a group of children preparing for a dance competition. They have dreams that are going beyond the peculiar life they share with their parents: they want to go out of country, maybe visit Tel Aviv too, as some never went out of their city. Dancing keep them busy, out of their small boxes of houses, away from the everyday family struggles they are forced to witness. 

The film is played in pairs: from the children dancers to Chen´s parents and the tormented dance instructors - former world champions in Russia struggling with debts, alcohol abuse and failure in the new countries. The adults are lost in their unfilfilled potential and have-been feeling while the children assume, at least by taking their life seriously, the role of the adults. 

Although the subject is easy and the representation is straight forward, lacking any complexity but only a level of everyday life realism, the actors - especially the children - do have a good play, who magnify and beautify the story.

I watched the movie on Amazon Prime, part of the basic monthly subscription. Love&Dance was also shown at the Moscow International Film Festival. 

Rating: 3 stars

Book Review: A Seat at the Table by Joshua Halberstam

Each story of leaving religion is different and the phenomenon is not new. New are only the outreach possibilities and the multiple ways people who left can tell their stories.

The OTD stories were probably less dramatic in the time of Potok. But going off the derech is obviously not a new phenomenon. Nowadays the cases are just amplified by the social media and various e-publications.

A Seat at the Table. A Novel of Forbidden Choices by Joshua Halberstam tells the story of Elisha, a 17 years old boy, from a Hasidic family in Boro Bark. Like the author of the book, he is scion of fine rabbinic families, refugiated to America from the old countries. The story takes place at the end of the 1960s, when America was at a crossroad of mentality changes, with the anti-war protests and Flower Power movement taking over the country. 

An anthropology student, Elisha is struggling to discover the world through his own eyes and make sense. The Hasidic masters and writings he grew up with are his guidance, but in a world which does not exclude the secular path. His switch is never permanent and, as many of those who left a world behind, they are never completelly cut out from their past. The familiarity of reciting a bracha or the felling of being at home when being around the family table at a Seder. However, some decided that being in both worlds can be possible, pursuing a secular life suits better his or her expectations about life. Refusing to be judgemental and leaving the doors always open, instead of a stubborn rejection of the family ties with the rebel(s) is in line with the deep message of the Hasidism, the one before it was distorted and turned into an ideological sword cutting the ties with those who do not conform.

I enjoyed the slow pace of the book, as well as the drama free plot and the positive message. Although not all the characters are equal and I would have expect more deep understanding from Elisha, the story is enjoyable and in many respects relatable. 

I may confess that I´ve discovered A Seat at the Table while randomly browsing for some easy readings but it kept me busy and was interesting enough to be worth a blog review.

Rating: 3 stars