Three Graphic Novels with a Jewish Topic

I love the language of the graphic novels as suited to convene a variety of topics, including history and identity and religion. Three topics matching perfectly when it comes to Jewish identity. In the last months I´ve read a couple of graphic novels with Jewish topics that I am happy to further recommend.

The Jewish Brigade by Marvano

This book is the second from the series created by the Belgian cartoonish Marvano. Based on true facts - Jewish soldiers hunting former Nazis in Europe at the end of the war - it recreates the ambiance of incertainty and human confusion at the end of the second World War. In few words and many inspired visual representations, there are a lot of stories told in just a couple of pages: how Jews just escaping the camps were killed by their non-Jewish neighbours, the meeting between the Russian Cold War interests and the ex-Nazis, the ways in which former Nazis escaped Europe and their punishment. Enough history and context to make you curious to find out more about it, especially if not familiar with the intricacies of those times.

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

Herzl by Camille de Toledo, illustrated by Alexander Pavlenko

Herzl written by Camille de Toledo and illustrated by Alexander Pavlenko is a story within the story, where a simple human story meets the history in the making. Ilya is a Jew who escaped the pogroms and antisemitism of Europe at a time when Herzl acknowledged the neeed for the Jews to have their own homeland. The drama of the little Ilya is the best argument in favor of such a political move. The text is elaborated and unusually rich for this genre, and the predominantly black/dark illustrations are adding the emotional dramatism to the story. I´ve read the book in the original French language. 

The duo De Toledo-Pavlenko recently published a book inspired by the stories of Isaac Babel which I hope to read it soon.

Jerusalem, Ein Familienporträt by Boaz Yakin, illustrated by Nick Bertozzi

Jerusalem. A Family Portrait - I´ve read it in the German version. Ein Familienporträt - is the result of collaboration between the screenwriter and producer Boaz Yakin and illustrator Nick Bertozzi. Its focus is the story of the Halaby family - originally from Aleppo - living in Jerusalem before and during the creation of the state. The story not only dares to explore a very delicate historical period of time, but reveals so many details that one can rarely find in a ´serious´ history book, such as the story of the Communist Party in ´Palestine´.

Those three books are not only relevant from the purely Jewish history point of view, but there are also important as a way in which historical information can be treated and transmitted through literary/visual support. 

Orthodoxed. A Film by and about Berel Solomon

 

With so many books and testimonies around the web about leaving Orthodox Judaism - in its manifolds and various representations, I often complained that more testimonies about Jews returning to their origins is essential for balancing the facts. Being an Orthodox Jew - Hassidisch, Litvisch etc. - has only a way out and no one wants to go it? In my opinion, it is a false premise, as personally I known many more people who are actually returning to faith, a phenomenon very common among people in their 30s and 40s, in Israel and abroad. There are people who mostly grew up with any or a very limited religious education who in the middle of their life, found themselves lost and in need of guidance. They started alone or as a family, by keeping kosher and Shabbes and learn Torah and create religious families. Without relying on serious data, I may assume that this is a phenomenon predominant among Judaism, as my non-Jewish friends I´ve questioned about similar moves among Muslim or Christian denomination are rather unique and are mostly the result of religious conversions, particularly when it comes to young people.

Last night I was finally offered the chance to see a challenge to the predominant narrative about Jews living the fold, as I watched Orthodoxed - available to watch for free on YouTube - by and about Berel Solomon. Berel Solomon grow up in a culturally Jewish family in Toronto, where, according to his own account, they ate pork chops on the Friday evening Shabbes table. He went to Jewish school and Jewish camps but without a proper religious education. Soon, he become part of a dysfunctional group, got involved in drug trafficking and then got into the nigh club business. He had the mind for business and even launched his own reality show. Until the pressure of his ´empty´ life was too heavy as a burden and he collapsed. 

´Looking for the truth´ he first reached to a Breslov Hassid and ended up - where many baal teshuva end - by Chabad. Diplomatically, he does not mention the group too often, although there is a flash-picture of their 7th Rebbe and he prayed to the ohel in NYC. His rhetoric suits very much the usual Chabadnik enthusted by the return to traditional values and I may say that he sounds a bit too aggressive and show-offish for my taste. After all, the return to religion does not happen overnight and no matter how much one would love to come back to traditional values, technically it is impossible as one needs time to go through the long process of understanding the complex rules of kosher and of Shabbes, among others. But there is a lot of enthusiasm for burning up the stages and starting to catch up with the time of ´unkosher´ life. 

Berel Solomon is now training in Jewish business leadership, and has a religious family. His parents were a bit shocked by his choices - although they seemed not so worried as he was a drug dealer and nightclub entertainer - but nevertheless they got used with his beard, and kapota and kippah. 

Despite my reservations towards any kind of loud declarations of faith, I am glad that a film like Orthodoxed exists and despites its imperfections and shortcomings, it offers a different take on being religious and Jewish in the modern world.

 

Impossible Exodus: Iraqi Jews in Israel

 

Between 1950 and 1951, 123,000 Jews from Iraq moved to Israel, particularly under the pressure of antisemitic turn of events. For the next decade at least, most of them were faced with a different reality that that they might have imagined before: far from being the country of ´milk and honey´, Israel was a pragmatic new state, coping with serious economic and social difficulties, looking for cheap labor force and with a relatively low tolerance towards cultural and social differences. 

Impossible Exodus: Iraqi Jews in Israel is the last volume of a trilogy written by Orit Bashkin featuring the Jewish community in and from Iraq. Very well documented both in terms of history, culture and direct contact with the Iraqi Jews themselves, the book opens up new perspective while countering triumphalistic approaches. ´The Iraqi-Jewish experence in Israel challenges the notion that Israel served as a melting pot for various global Jewish communities´.

There is a lot of material to discuss about in the book. From the extensive description of the conditions suffered by the newly arrived from Iraq, until the disdain unempathic displayed by the Askenazi establishment and the more or less random acts of protest again the measures took, the reader is offered a very detailed insight into the topic. Interestingly for me was the information regarding the connections of Iraqi Jews with the Communist Party in Israel. 

By taking a variety of perspectives - social, political, economic, cultural, anthropologic - the reader is offer a very complex landscape, which far from making conclusions, it re-writes an episode of histoy of both Israel and Jewish communities. It critically treats the data while offering possible explanations of the rift that exists - although at a very low level - between ´European´ and non-European Jews. 

However, the rift is not so black-and-white and rather has to do with specific social discrepancies, as, for instance, within the camps where the Iraqi Jews spent as long as seven years, they met not only other ´Mizrahim´/´Oriental´ Jews, but also Jews coming from Romania or other Eastern European countries. 

Personally, I would have love more comparative approach between, on one hand, the Iraqi Jews in Israel, and the Jews from Yemen or Syria or Egypt, among others. There are a couple of mentions in this respect, but it gives the impression of a special case faced by the Iraqi Jews when, in fact, it was typical for other communities as well.

Nevertheless, Impossible Exodus: Iraqi Jews in Israel is a noteworthy contribution to the current Israel story. By revealing less known and less pleasant episodes of the recent history, it only makes the Israel story easier to understand. 

The Angel and the Cholent

 

Jewish identity and food are connected not only through the limitations and complexities of the rules of kashrut, but through the meanings beyond the immediate food connection. In The Angel and the Cholent, a collection of 30 folktales by Idit Pintel-Ginsberg there is a story about a Jewish woman from Libya who converted in order to join his Muslim husband. The smell of hamin reminds her of the life she left behind and gave her strength to return to her parents.

The tales reunited in the volume are compiled by the Israel Folktale Archives (IFA) named in honor of Dov Noy, at the University of Haifa. Since 2017, IFA´s collection was included in UNESCO´s Memory of the World program. The selection was made out of 180 tales whose plots relate to food. The stories do cover a vast geographical area: from Eastern Europe and Russia, to Morocoo, Libya or Iraq. There is also one story by a Muslim storyteller from Israel. 

The collection is diverse also from the point of view of the characters featured: from the rabbi and the pauper, to the wife and the mother. The story may not be equal in terms of their originality - there is a variant of the ´Love like salt´ story - but for me, the most important part was the commentary, the way in which the specific story was contextualized from the geographical, historical and religious-traditional point of view. In this way, various elements of the text are outlined, compared and explained. 

An important element of The Angel of the Cholent is its particular reading(s) of the food stories: as gender dynamic, as a marker of the interaction with other religious and ethnic groups, as an intricate social system, as a historical mirror of various evolutions within the majority as well. The critical feedback can be further use in other anthropological discoveries centered on food in other cultures and religions as well.

The ubicuity of food in our everyday life is a nourishment for the belly but equally nurtures the soul and the mind in its very personal special Jewish way.

 

Unashamedly Jewish

 

I may confess that my first encounter with Barbara Honigmann´s writing was not an outstanding experience. It may be that I was not prepared - mentally and linguistically - or just it was not a good book. It happens to everyone - both readers and writers.

My second meeting with this German Jewish author and translator living  in France is in fact a collection of discourses held on the occasion of being awarded literary prizes and public appearances, where elements of personal biography, particularly related to her Jewish identity are omnipresent. Written in German, they are inspiringly connecting European Jewish biographies - like Proust and Kafka´s - with personal literary experiences and her own Jewish journey. 

On one side, there are the intellectual references and the arguments for a critique, literary or philosophically. On the other side, there are her own personal/subjective encounters with her own Jewishness - that she assumes ´unashamedly´/unverschämt - as growing up in a secular Jewish family that decided to return from Exile after the war in the Soviet-occupied communist Germany. Some of the few whose family histories did not include Nazis. 

Honigmann writes about different kind of Jews. Jews like Heine or Proust or Edith Stein. Obviosuly, about Kafka too.  ´Western´ Jews that preferred to abandon their identity for joining the majorities, nevertheless Jews. Sometimes, there are the stories themselves that matter. Another time, the intellectual histories.

I may acknowledge that right now, I will not hesitate to start reading another book by Honigmann, particularly for the authentic GDR-Jewish stories, that keep interesting me and whose reliability through personal memoirs is at a certain extent problematic - for reasons that maybe will be able to explain one time.

The War on Women

´Feminism is starting to have its day in Israel, and on a certain level, this is invigorating´.

 There is a war on women in Israel and Elana Maryles Sztokman is documenting its major fronts. 

Women are sent on the back of the buses, women faces are erased from the public space and publications, women voices are cut shortly. Women bodies are under control either it has to do with conversions, dress code, divorce or fertility. There are modesty patrols in the religious neighbourhoods, not only in Israel, but in other religious neighbourhoods around the world as well, such as in the USA or London. There is erasure of women´s faces from Holocaust artifacts - ´a new low in the world of religious misogyny´. 

Although the situation emerged in the 1990s, only in the last five years there is more awareness about the extent of the problem. Most of the turns do not have anything to do with the religious law - for instance, in the case of women voices, the prohibition is for men to hear it, not for the women to stop singing - and in the rest, there are completely out of context rulings. 

The War on Women in Israel documents all those situations, in the smallest details, but also offers insights about the turn that was taken among the women themselves, including the religious ones. There is more pressure against the establishment - religious, state´s - towards reclaiming a safe and respectful space. This is the only way to keep the radicalism in check over and over again. 

Democracy and individual freedoms are not to be taken for granted. Critical voices are needed to maintain the awareness about the need of any power - laic, religious etc. - to respect women. The fact that more and more women refuse the second-class condition they were assigned by men, gives hope. But it is not enough. Never will it be enough.

Children Book featuring Ladino Culture: The Key from Spain by Debbie Levy

I am very happy to discover lately so many events and discussion groups and publications - online particularly - dedicated to feature the Ladino language and culture. I am sure many of them were there already for a long time already and it´s only me who is a late comer in this movement, aimed to feature and outline an unique episode of the Jewish history.

As usual, it started with a tragedy that, as usual, we tried to get the best of it: as Jews were persecuted from Spain, they moved on to the Balkans particularly and especially Turkey. Carrying with them the language and the key of their houses, they contributed alongiside with the other communities to the new definitions of the modern states. I am far from being a naive assuming that life was ever easy for Jews living there, but no matter what, they were able to strive.

The Key from Spain by Debbie Levy, colourfully and beautifully illustrated by Sonja Wimmer, published in 2019 by Kar Ben Publishing is dedicated to the memory of the late Ladino singer Flory Jagoda. A Bosnian Jew with Spanish roots, she carried with her the songs and memories of the lost worlds and was an important supporter of the Ladino revival.

In a language accessible to children - preschool and first to mid-grade - the book convenes in few and simple words both the global and the personal histories: of the Jews fleeing Western Europe but also of the brave Flory who remained faitful to her culture and happily shared it with the older and newer generations of Jews from Ladino families. Children books on such topics are even more important than academic studies about Ladino because it raises the interest among the little ones at an age when they are curious and open to learn about the world, but also about themselves and their families. 

The book also includes a couple of words in Ladino, enough to create a certain level of expectation among the children for learn a bit more.

I am glad that such books exist and I was able to read it to my son. As I was growing up, Ladino was rarely, if ever mentioned and there were, for sure, no pedagogical resources and no children books to make you aware of your heritage. I am glad that nowadays there is a strong support to diverse identities among the Jewish communities, too much reduced before to the Askenazi vs. Mizrahi (with the Sephardim included here for the wrong reason of the mental comfort) duality. 

I hope to have the chance to read soon to my son and review more and more books on Ladino-related topics.

Kafka, the Middle East Version

 

What if Kafka had been lived in the Middle East? Would his writing be even more painful and heartaching? How absurd life can be, especially when humans meet the institutions made by men?

Although acknowleding her disillusioning, Lizzie Doron is far from being an apologetic for one cause or another. At least not in Who the Fuck is Kafka, a personal account of an encounter with a Palestinian writer, Nadim, at a Peace Conference in Rome. I had access to this book in audiobook format in an exceptional arrangement played, among others by Corinne Kirchhoff, translated from Hebrew into German by the late Mirjam Pressler. 

Doron´s first person account can be compared from the point of view of the information with the stories of Sayed Kashua. It starts though as a two-way effort to understand the situation of Palestinians, through coming back and forth from fears to compassion and human understanding. The voice of the author, as an Israeli living in the proximity of the terrorist attacks of the Second Intifada, a mother, daughter of a Holocaust survivor. 

It is important to try to understand the other side, it is the first step towards trust, but it is not enough though. Personally, I want to see solutions, I want to see a future without conflict, but how exactly this future may look like should be the task of people living there. Although now I am more informed about the conflict as I was 5 or even 4 years ago, I am still convinced that peace has two different meanings for each of the two sides. Will it be possible, any time soon, to go out of the kafkian paradigm?

Effingers, a German Jewish Story

 

German-born Gabriele Tergit - born Elise Hirschmann - is a relatively new name for the German literary realm. Her multi-generational roman, Effingers, following a family story of a liberal Jewish family from the 19th century until the mid-20th was published only a couple of years ago.

The family base is in the fictional Kragsheim, but the book also offers an extensive historical and social panorama of Germany during those times, particularly Berlin, through the eyes of the Jewish characters. The book was written in German and finished in 1951. Tergit, the mother of the mathematician Ernst Robert Reifenberg, - whose name was given to a street in Berlin - was born in Germany but escaped the country via Palestine before reaching London where she settled.

Effingers is a very dense novel with many characters who are connecting in different circumstances. Their social mobility and modernity is reflected through their choices and new family connections built on the go. Tergit is a fine observer of the emerging social structures as well as of the Jewish society at the time. In addition to the rich nonfiction bibliography on this topic, the literary contribution is valuable for its authenticity and vicinity to the facts mentioned and the overall social realm. The writer is not only a creator of fictional words but indirectly a witness. 

For a compedium of European Jewish literature, Effingers is of particular importance as an unique - for me, at least - literary saga. A translation of the book into English or French would have offer to the non-German speakers access to an important source of literary testimony about Jewish everyday life in Germany before the Nazi destruction. 

Der gebrauchte Jude

 

Maxim Biller arrived from Czechoslovakia to Germany as an early teen. His Jewish Soviet-born family was forced to leave country after country in order to escape the anti-semitism and political pressures. 

´Ich bin Jude, weil ich keine Russe, Tschecke oder Deutsche sein will´. (I am Jewish, as I don´t want to be Russian, Czech or German - my translation). 

His story is a story of Jewish life in the 1980s, at a time when Jews - Jews coming to live in Germany particularly - were a rare occurrence. Those living there already in public positions - like the literary critic Marcel Reich-Ranicki that Biller randomly interviewed as he 24 years old - were rare and rather were introduced in a ´clean´ narrative of the post-WWII Germany. A rhetoric of the kind: You see, we don´t kill all our Jews, some of them are even allowed to return? From this perspective, there may be some Jews who accepted to be publicly used in this way.

As someone who haven´t lived in Germany those years, such an autobiographical account fills up many details about what really Jewish life meant at the time. I may not say that now it is better or things are improved, but there are different pieces of the puzzle that may come together differently. 

At the same time, the book is also a book about coming-at-age in Germany as a non-German Jew, finding your literary way and thinking at length about having - or not - a place in this complex realm. It is not a philosophical approach too, and there is a lot of Czech-alike humour that is still very useful for surviving Germany, particularly if you take your Jewish identity seriously. 

PS: On purpose I will not mention anything at all about the recent Biller-Czollek ´halachic´ debate

Jerusalem, Drawn&Quartered

´I wanted for someone to hiss at me. I waited for a rock to gaze my temple. Instead, I had dessert´.

For one year, Sarah Tuttle-Singer took the decision to spend as much as possible time exploring the borders and points of contact - if any - of the many quarters of Jerusalem. ´I want to live here in Jerusalem, in the Old City, and move between the quarters and understand each one, and feel a part of each one as much as an outsider like me can´.

I´ve slowly read this memoir, trying to remember the scents and the buzz and the voices of a place where I´ve spent many hundreds of hours, that I miss dearly. But compared to her, I´ve mostly walked the beaten path, moving in circle around the same areas, interacting almost with the same people, having my food fix in the same places. Most of the people, even those living in Israel for ever are probably doing the same. Not daring to threshold their own boundaries.

What Sarah Tuttle-Singer revealed in this year of wandering the beaten roads of the Old City round the four seasons was the divisions that remain but also the search for a different language and a reality that can be perceived from different angles. After all, even the heart of the fiercest Salafist enemy of ´the occupation´ will melt holding in his arms a few days old kitten. 

There is no recipe for peace or hope for one, but it is a journey through reality seen with clean eyes. Eyes who are not searching for Gd or sublime transfigurations, but for human connections and layers of memories. Because there is not only the history - with H - or the conflict - with C - that matters, but how we are part of a bigger story - with simple s - made of all the steps of the people who ever paced those stones. Like her mother, and her grandmother who kissed on a roof. 

Jerusalem Drawn&Quartered is a memoir of finding a place when you do not belong fully, or rather reaching the freedom given by the reality of living in-between languages, worlds, stories. Like the mermaid she tattooed on her arm where else ? in decade-old studio in the Old City. ´Mermaids are a lot like immigrants that way. To others, we are both a little familiar, and a little frightening. To ourselves, we belong in both places, but not really in either´. 

Israel remains a country of people and many histories, of blood, tears but nevertheless of survival. This feeling gives you strength, even in the most hopeless world. No matter what NYT will try to make you believe, it´s one of the happiest places on Earth, one of the places I always feel happy, and I can´t only wait to be back and see with my own fresh eyes some of the places featured by Sarah Tuttle-Singer in this perceptive memoir, including the tattoo parlour.

About ´Fate´ by Zeruya Shalev (translated into German by Anne Birkenhauer)

 

Fate (translated into German as Schicksal by Anne Birkenhauer, who translated among others David Grossman or Yehuda Amichai) is from all the books by Zeruya Shalev I´ve read until now, the most Israel-oriented. All of her books are taking place in Israel and do include elements of the everyday life in the country, particularly terorist threats or the religious context, but the main topics mainly have to do with relationship, betrayal, love and pain (the book before, Pain was by far my favorite, for the complexity of the characters and the surgical precision exploring suffering).

Fate - that was completed during the Covid pandemic - has a completely different spin and is partly inspired by Shalev´s own family history, namely her father´s. After the death of her father, a famous brain researcher, Menachem (Mino) Rubin, her daughter, Atara wants to find out the woman her father was married before, Rachel. Atara, an architect specialized in historical monuments, lives in Haifa (like Shalev herself). Rachel, whose son is a Breslev hasid, met Atara´s father during their time in Lechi, an armed group active during the British Mandate whose aim was, among others, to push the Brits out of the country, with any price. 

Most of the book is an exploration of memory, the ways in which we remember. Memory is an emotional business and its authenticity is at a large extent doubtful. The names of the Lehi members killed are repeated in the story as a mantra. Likewise, the story of the doll stucked with explosive who blew up. For many reasons, the history of Lehi in the creation of the state of Israel is rarely mentioned openly - compared to Irgun or Palmach, for instance. In the account include in Fate, they look like promoters of a Jewish-Arab entente and co-existence, with the only enemy being the Brits, which is a too edulcorated and romanticized version for my taste. I would have loved much more a rough version of a Lehi member, maybe confused, violent, idealistic, but more authentic than by being assigned ideas and intentions that just resonate with current political concerns. This distorted voice is a big pity for the overall representation of Lehi, given that they were, in fact, a very interesting movement, to be understood and placed in the equally complex context of the times.

I had access to the book in audiobook format, read by actressed Maria Schrader and Eva Meckbach. 

Rating: 3 stars 

On Cultural Boycotts

Cultural boycotts, of any kind, are idiotic. Exactly, you´ve read the word right. There is nothing more lame and anti-intellectual and the opposite of being intelligent in general as a cultural boycott. It denies automatically the mission of writing and culture in general, which is, in my opinion, to open minds and hearts through ideas and words.

The media is lately mentioning how Sally Rooney, an Irish bestseller author famous for books like Beautiful World and Normal People and latest Beautiful World, Where are You? is definitely against her last book being translated into Hebrew. Her first books were published by Modan Publishing House into Hebrew but now, her agent confirmed that she opposes a further translation. 

Sally Rooney is a popular Millennial author, writing in a simple way about issues Millenials may deal with. In one of her books a character is going to a pro-Palestinian demonstration. Recently, she signed together with other authors and public intellectuals, a letter accusing Israel of apartheid and called for her (Israel´s) international isolation. 

In fact, Israel´s publishing industry, one of the most vibrant in the Middle East, is doing well, with or without Rooney´s books, that I bet are a favorite read among Palestinian millennials as well, many of them perfectly fluent in Hebrew. 

But people like Rooney do not have - and sometimes do not want it either - time and energy for such subtelties. By embracing the BDS they seems to be happy for apparently fulfilling a role of public intellectuals. Rooney is not the first and probably not the last author with such a stance. In 2012, Alice Walker also refused her book The Color Purple - to be translated into Hebrew. Her bad, but in fact, readers, smart readers in Israel can and will read their books, in many other international translations because eventually they will want being informed, including about those who really don´t want them to exist. Israel is a country where there are many people native-level fluent in many languages, covering, among others, various Arab dialects, Amharic, Persian, French, Russian, German etc.

This is not a literary post where I will evaluate the literary value of Rooney´s books. It does not matter at all, in fact. The decision of boycotting a language - and not other languages from countries where, for instance, women are sent to prison for not being in line with a strict religious interpretation or for their private life choices - is a cheap, very cheap manifestation of a so-called public opinion makers. 

By using her temporary status of literary star for uttering an international politics stance, Rooney is not doing anything outstanding. She is not a hero or a writer turned overnight into an opinion maker. She is a person of temporary talent who is keen to get more points for supporting a very controversial and anti-intellectual movement. It´s not mainstream, it is not bravery. It is intellectual opportunism which is, in fact, nothing close to public awareness or the weight of an intellectual mission. What she - and maybe others - does not help anyone. It´s just an intellectual parody. 

Movies in Hebrew at Izzy Streamisrael

If you are thinking about improving a language, any language, watching movies in the original language with subtitles helps a lot. The language of movies is usually easy, using basic conversational vocabulary, the kind you need to maintain a basic conversation. Additionally, movies are an excellent way to get immersed into a culture. No wonder that the American culture is so well known everywhere as the movies made in Hollywood do have such a widespread audience.

For those who are looking to improve their Hebrew while getting to know different historical and cultural facts about Israel, Izzy Streamisrael offers a good selection.

I tested the service for a week and was overall happy with the results, only that as for now the selection of movie is relatively limited. You will not find very popular Israeli movies, of the kind of those aired at international film festivals but rather popular local series and films. There are a couple of documentaries, but unfortunately none of the old movies.

However, it seems that the list of movies is permanently changing and those who are aired are really unique, of the kind that you hardly hear about it. Which does not mean that they are not worth watching.

The registration process on the platform is very easy: you register an email address, set up an account and a password. It costs 5 USD per month - which is a ridiculous price after all - with a 7-day free access. If you have some time on your sleeves and you love movies, one week is enough to figure out if you want to continue your membership or not. 

The main language of the website is English and one can watch it everywhere in the world. Especially for those looking to a more in-depth connection with Israel, the real Israel with all its goods and bads, Izzy Streamisrael is an easy gateway.

Here are the films that I watched during my trial period.

Allenby St.

The 12 episodes of Allenby St. - in installments of 30 minutes each - are based on the bestseller book of Gadi Taub - unfortunately only published in Hebrew. Taub also created the series and also has an episodic role. The film is following the spirit and the flesh of the book which follows the complicated relationships in the underworld of Tel Aviv, where Orthodox drug dealers meet desillusioned religious girls turned prostitutes, bouncers, merciless mafia-connected security guards and sentimental night club owners. 

The film has an alert pace, a couple of great twists and some good human insights, plus some good actors - like Aviv Alush (maybe they will upload more of his movies on the platform, one day). I watched it over the last weekend and it was definitely worth it. Like the book, it is not for the faint of heart and it contains openly aggressive and violent and sexual content, but it shares a slice of real Israeli life.

Benched

A short movie (22 minutes) directed by Gill Weinstein, Benched features Baruch, a former successful basketball player in the 1970s who became religious, abandoned his career and retired from the city. Now, he is back to visit unannounced her former lover and eventually see for the first time their son that he abandonned. 

I loved the concision of the visual language, as well as the fine tensions created through different encounters featuring the before and after. Although it is not explicitly expressed into words, the gestures, movements of the eyes the oppositions between the old and new life are building up finely. 

Although it is hard to remain non-judgemental, there is a beauty in the dramatic failures and human mistakes.

Ben David

The half-hour short movie by Evyatar Rosenberg, Ben David was my least favorite movie. One Shabak - Israel´s internal intelligence - agent, a religious Jew, is switched unexpectedly from one department to another. His new assignment is to recruit and infiltrate the Hilltop Youth movement, radicalized youngsters living in the settlements, often opposed to the state institutions, particularly police and Army. 

Although the topic is interesting, the intrusive ways of the Shabak agent were annoying and clumsy. Personally, I didn´t connect at all with this movie. Maybe the 30-Minute length was not the right tempo. 

Beyond Courage: The Untold Story of Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust

 

The Jewish heroes of the post-WWII narrative were mostly survivors of the concentration camps. Broken people, most of them unwilling to share their stories, their testimonies - very scarce in words - were part of a larger story of Jews as the unequivocal victims. ´Jews were like lambs to the slaughter´ says this narrative.

However, more and more testimonies collected in the recent decades are rather proving the opposite. In fact, from the very beginning of the Nazi nightmare, Jews rebelled. In France, Netherlands, Belgium, Poland and Eastern Europe, Jews set up groups of resistance, fought to death but at least they died as free people. 

Beyond Courage: The Untold Story of Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust by Doreen Rappaport  offers a significant number of stories about resistance against Nazis as well as networks of support and rescue organised by gentiles - churches mostly, but also individuals, particularly in France. Although the role of the church in ´saving´ in different capacities Jewish children has so many dark episodes, it did saved children from being sent to death. How difficult it was for the parents or surviving family members to find them and take them back it is another painful story of those dramatic times. 

The stories told in the book - who was in the preparation for six long years of research in the archives and dialogues with survivors from all over the world - are representative enough to offer a wide different picture of the Jewish actions during the war. 

Nevertheless, those story do not diminish the trauma of individuals and families who experienced those times and were murdered. There are stories about childhoods broken, about innocent children sent out of their homes, in trains, with a small luggage, not sure if they will ever see their parents again. Stories of teenagers who instead of continuing their education, were forced to learn how to use a weapon to defend themselves. And there is also the pride, against all odds. Of being born a Jew and remaining a Jew, despite all the tragedies and suffering. 

The Untold Story of Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust fills in important historical episodes normally absent from the predominant narrative, which creates a bigger and more realistic context of the period but also of the extent of the trauma.

Book Review: An Observant Wife by Naomi Ragen

 

One year after reading An Unorthodox Match, I am done with the sequel, An Observant Wife which follows the beginning of the married life of Leah - former Lola, a BT (baal teshuva, repented Jew who returned to Orthodox Judaism) - and her husband, Yaakov. I had access to the book in the audiobook format, read by Gabra Zackman. 

Although a sequel, it stands on its own and one can read it independently without the risk of not being able to understand what it is about. There are several useful mentions about the past events taking place in the previous book. I´ve found this book better structured and balanced than the previous one, approaching very stringent topics for the Haredi community in America and elsewhere, such as acknowledging mental health and sexual molesters. 

One of the reasons why I am devouring anything written by Naomi Ragen - actually, I´ve listened to this audiobook in two days and I hardly wanted to take a too longer break curious about what is to come - is that compared to other authors approaching the ultra-Orthodox world with a critical eye she is doing it without the black-and-white perspective. Knowledgeable both in terms of practice and halachic standards, Ragen creates a world of many nuances, human with all its highs and lows. It is more or less how this world - in Boro Park or Kirias Joel or Bnei Brak - operates in real life. Therefore, the characters of her books - An Observant Wife included - look very authentic, you can even represent them in flesh in the front of your reader´s eyes.

Shaindel, Yaakov´s older daughter, who was initially a fierce opposant to this marriage - as usually within a very religious community those returning to Judaism are considered with a very critical eye and may be never fully trusted - is experiencing not only the first teenage awkward rebelious moments, but also a possible beginning of a depression, a sickness that prematurely killed her mother - who could not cope with post-partum confusion and committed suicide, a mortal sin in her conservative community. Her innocent adventure with an OTD - off the derech, a label applied to those who have left the righteous path of Orthodox, observant Judaism - who happens to be the son of her school principal is set by her parents in the context of a larger emotional trauma that may need a professional - psychological support. As the person recommended by the local rabbi and the principal is in fact a sexual predator, Yaakov and Leah are trying to publicly reveal his misbehavior, but they will become the victims of a mafia-like row of attacks against their own physical integrity as well as their professional status. Is this situation ´gam zu l´tova´ - all for good - or they are in fact caught in a complex situation when they have to follow the religious authority?

As usual in Ragen´s books, the characters are complex, able to face the manifolds of their complicated situations. However, there are a couple of details that caught my attention which are slippery. For instance, the description of the first physical contact between Yaakov and Leah which is neither cast or passionate, and is presented as a very awkward encounter which is unusual for two adults that were having relationships before. Another aspect which was out of place was Shaindel´s voice which sounded sometimes inadequate for her age and background: too reflexive and unusually philosophical. Also, in the discussion about Leah´s BT status, there is not a single person who, in fact, may mention that she is a born Jew, no matter how much she sinned before becoming religious. Strangely for communities where the everyday life is regulated by the expectations of holy events - Shabbes, the holidays - there is no clear mention of family reunions around the Shabbes table etc. As for Leah herself, although she is obviously a BT, calling the kids with ´sweetie´ and ´sweethearts´ sounds very goyishe. 

Despite those observations, I fully enjoyed the latest book by Naomi Ragen, for the complexity of the topics as well as for the strength of the writing. An Observant Wife has memorable characters and, as usual in the case of this author, the women, no matter the degree of observance, are strong and can so easily make the world a more nuanced and better place.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Stop Sensationalising Orthodox Jews

 

Non-Jewish yellow media is so hungry for reading accounts of Jewish Orthodox life. With the emphasis of the voyeur, memoirs, accounts and everything that has to do with those ´strange´ habits of the Jews who don´t eat together with the non-Jews, don´t mix with the non-Jews, don´t even buy from them apparently is becoming instant popularity. Those revelatory stories about all those strange stories such as the mikweh and the shaven head and oh, those wigs the observant women are wearing are turning any religious Jew into a naked doll which is turned on all parts and examined to be sure that it actually looks the same like...you know, the other humans.

Mazel Tov by JS Margot - the pen name of Belgian-Flemish journalist Margot Vanderstraeten - is the story of an ´extraordinary friendship´ between the author and a Jewish Orthodox family. The story starts in the 1990s when Margot was hired to help with the homeworks and other school-related tasks the children of a family whose father was working in the diamonds´ sector. Probably at the time there was no Netflix and not too many OTD memoirs so we may a bit excuse the author for being so awkward when meets her employers for the first, second, third...time. 

Those Jews, who are interogating her about her - then - Iranian boyfriend, are always building up walls around themselves and are stuck in their old centuries-old rules. In the end, of course, she is becoming a friend of them but still, it´s nice to have different, exotic friends. Plus, they don´t want to answer her repeated questions about how was it in the war and other intrusions into a private trauma.

To be honest, there is nothing wrong with the tone of the book - which I had access to in the German edition - and it is well written, but the way in which every couple of pages one has to read about how different, and strange and bizarre customs Jews - the Orthodox ones - have, it´s embarassing. It´s not antisemitic, but it is, as they call it in plain German - ´doof´.

Rating: 1.5 stars

´The 100 Most Jewish Foods. A Highly Debatable List´

 

´the salty, the sweet, the dense, the light, the beautiful and the undeniably brown´...

I mostly came to The 100 Most Jewish Foods edited by Tabled editor-in-chief Alana Newhouse for the stories and less for the recipes. With so many recipe books and personal collections, I am rather interested on the stories behind a certain meal or another. But, as often happens during my intellectual journeys, in reality there were the recipes that kept me focused, more than anything else.

Let´s say it loudly...Most of the foods on the list are relevant rather for the East Coast Jews and Israeli, although it also covers other Jewish communities (Yemenite, Syrian, Persian, Georgian). There are chefs and restaurant menus and grocery store supplies that are mostly Made in America/Israel. Jews don´t eat too much bagel in Europe. There are foods that do not say anything to me, like the Hydrox or Bazooka Gum (although I used to crave for the cartoons attached to chewing gum). I am sad that there is no schnitzel although you may try to do an exercise of oral history with any yeshiva bochur to realize how important is this meal in their everyday life. I was happy to discover Adafina - a food of Spanish conversos - or Bialys or Labda and there is even an amba sauce recipe (the shortest way to my heart of stone). It breaks my heart there is not kokosh cake - but the babka the eternal enemy deserves a feature. 

I got the irony of including on the list treyf, burnt offerings and used tea bags but well, would have prefer even more local diversity - what about some Ethiopian Jewish food recommendations? 

I´ve learned, indeed, a lot of details about some less known foods and even some interesting details about how the Soviet-times food policies influenced the eating habits of Jews originary from the Soviet Union. For instance, the fact that the scarcity of food prevented them from a clear separation between Jews and gentiles. 

The authors are chefs, writers, journalists, food afficionados. There is Shalom Auslander writing about chulent with the deep hate I would experience if will ever be requested to write about chopped liver and herring. The contexts and historical details are very important and I know enough now to conclude that most of the basic Askenazi Jewish foods do have, in fact, a German origin. I may add that the tastiest are Hungarian but what can you expect from a book misceviously omitting the queen kokosh...

What entinced me when I was feeling that too much information is just too much information is the writing style of the recipes. So many careful details about the directions are a great exercise of food writing. Recommended to have a look at even if you are not Jewish, Jewish food lover etc. 

The project of The 100 Most Jewish Foods is largely revolutionary despite the controversies that are actually healthy for the discussion. I am planning at a certain point to cook myself some huevos haminados and maybe the Yerushalmi kugel recipe too, and hope to try in restaurants more of the foods from the list that I never or vaguely heard about. At the end of the day, Jews and food are a long story and every 100 foods counted are a blessing for the inquisitive soul. 

All being written, time to prepare my Rosh Hashana menu which is a very far hysterical cry of any description of a trendy, fancy heimishe meals. 

Book Review: The Periodic Table by Primo Levi

 

I don´t remember when I´ve read last something written by Primo Levi. I remember only how shaken I was every time by the very easy way to tell stories, terrible stories. There is a detachment in the pace and the voice of the every sentences that one can achieve only after being overrun by the sadness of the world. After all, there is no hope in the world so let´s take it easy and keep writing stories inspired by this cruel world.

The Periodic Table, which I had access to as audiobook, read by the late Neville Jason, was based on the translation from Italian by Raymond Rosenthal. Levi who experienced Auschwitz and shared his experience in the devastating If This is a Man was a chemist by formation. The Periodic Table is a wise chemical thread of stories of Italian Jews, before, during and shortly after the Shoah, mostly from Piedomont, where the author was originary from. Each story is associated with a chemical substance, with the main element of the story emulating the features of the element. 

I´ve listened to the short stories - listening to the audiobook lasted around 3 weeks, because always felt the need to take a break in between readings and think about the essence and message of the account - careful, looking for both the fiction and the historical background - Shoah, local Jewish history. There is no judgement, no screams, no tears. Just the monotous voice - an excellent audio rendition, by the way - and the collection of senteces after sentences making up the collection. Such an art of storytelling is not taught or learnt. It just comes out of, from the deep ends of the being. 

Stories of Bene Israel

´After all, he was Jewish and that was more important than anything else´.

The everyday traditions of the Jewish communities around the world are such a fascinating topic. Although I love history, nonfiction books featuring one community or another, it is fiction which I love the most. The strength of the creative mind, using nonfictional elements and details in order to generate stories is an unique mind adventure. 

I am relatively familiar with the world of Indian Jews in Israel, being invited to various social and personal events, such a brit mila, but Bombay Brides by the Ahmedabad-based Indian-Jewish author Esther David delves into many stories and carefully curated encounters. 

I had the book on my TBR for a long time and was able to finish it within a couple of long hours this Shabbes. Besides the stories, the graphical look of the book is also noteworthy, with fine graphic portraits aimed to give a face to some of the characters - women - portrayed.

The short stories are interconnected and are mostly based on the building of Shalom India Housing Society in Ahmedabad, a city in Gujarat, with a little bit over 100 Jews living there. The house belongs to the community and most of the stories do take place here and are populated with residents of this Housing Society.  

There is a lot of matchmaking involved, a couple of new comers that converted for love - I may have an objection of someone being given the name Jennifer after converting to Judaism, as the name has a British/Cornish resonance but no Jewish connection at all, but the rest is just fine - but also traditional Shabbes meals and holidays where, surprise, even more matchmaking takes place. There are so many references to the Propher Eliyahu Hanavi being venerated as a Hindu saint and the favorite intercessor for, among others, finding a good match and this is a very specific characteristic of the Jews originary from India as it is said that he may have appeared in the Konkan area - which includes, among others, also Goa, Israelis favorite resort in the country. There are stories about growing old and becoming adult, widowhood and illicit relationships and there are also many children who will start their own stories. The participants do move often from India to Israel and back and there is so much easiness by almost all of them to jump over many obstacles and hardships. 

I enjoyed a lot the adventures and the tragi-comical encounters and I am left with a lot of questions about traditions - would love to be part one day of an Indian Seder - and everyday life of the few Jews still living there.

Was worth including the Bombay Brides on my list of books to read and was worth waiting a bit until getting the book. Getting to know more about those communities is a blessing that books can offer when travel to discover those communities in real life is not (yet) possible.

Concealed: Memoir of a Jewish-Iranian Daughter Caught Between the Chador and America

 

´My parents came from a city and culture that kept girls out of schools and far from written word - a world that firmly believed female illiteracy was a blessing that helped shape young girls into good wives´.

The history of the Jews of Mashhad, one of the most religious cities in Iran is cursed by hate. In the 18th century, Nader Shah, called the ´Napoleon of Persia´, brought around 300 families here, mostly from Tehran. After his assasination in 1747, the antisemitism become rampant and the humiliations the Jews from here were targeted for random attacks and often buying their peace and life by paying protection money (reshveh. in Persian) to local imam. In 1839, a Jewish woman was accused of desecrating a holiday which lead to a wave of mob attacks against the local Jews, an event consigned to history as Allah Daad. Dozen were murdered, Jewish properties ransacked and afterwards the survivors were faced with the choice: death or conversion to Islam. 

The parents of Esther Amini were the descendants of those Jews from Mashhad who pretended they had converted while, in secret, they kept following the laws of the Torah. Her personal account - Concealed: Memoir of a Jewish Iranian Daughter Caught Between the Chador and America - traced back personal histories, seasoned with memories of her life caught between the strict rules of her family and the modern life in an America that her mother which was illiterate, praised for the advantages offered to women.

Compared to other memoirs on similar topics - alienation, living in a small community following anti-modern mindsets, mostly against women - Esther Amini book is matter of factly, collecting mostly facts instead of feelings and describing various family and community dynamics. It follows both a historical, psychological and sociological journey in a non-judgemental, aimed rather to offer realistic descriptions of a situation instead of emotional/psychological revelations. 

I´ve loved both the pace and the tone of the story, and the richness of the details encompassing the small but unique community of Jews from Mashhad as well as their particular interactions with the other Jewish groups, Iranian or other. I was actually hungry to read more about this particular community, but while reading I remembered that in fact I am reading a memoir not a history book so I better appease my hunger for facts elsewehere.

Concealed is a noteworthy testimony of a Jewish Woman which adds concent and colour to other similar testimonies and memoirs. I am happy I finally had the time and the mood to go through the book and will definitely keep in mind many of the fine observations and stories shared.

Rating: 4 stars

The Ambivalence of Yiddish in Israel

 

In all the buzz and confusion and emotions and let´s say it bluntly, hate too, of accusing Israel of all the imaginable crimes in the world, sometimes just because it look intellectually trendy for some, stating how the Yiddish language was oppressed by the ´Zionists´ is one of the frequent intellectual tropes. The other one - that will approach another time - is to scream discrimination against the Jews from Arab lands and Ethiopia who moved to Israel.

As in the case of half-truths and manipulated concepts, there is a certain authenticity to those claims and there are facts that may support those assumptions. However, if done in full academic honesty, there would be many more arguments who will balance such statements, not necessarily to negate them - another ideological-driven stance that does not have anything to do with academic curiosity - but to display a diversity which, in fact, is the real face of things.

Yiddish in Israel. A History by Rachel Rojanski is an investigation into the story of acceptance of Yiddish in the land and later on, the state of Israel. Was really the mainstream Israeli culture ashamed of the its Yiddish writers, of its Yiddish roots? What about the socialist and literary culture of the ´old country´ who shaped so many of the elites - cultural, political - of the Yishuv? Was it Ben Gurion indeed so angry and enemy-like against the Yiddish culture?

The biggest merit of the book, besides using extensive sources covering both the nation-building process and the fine cultural layers covering not only literature but also theater, a chapter in my opinion not enough explored when it comes to its role in shaping Zionism as a nation building process. 

Indeed, the first years of the state of Israel were, as expected, focused on building the nation - economically, socially, internationally, politically, culturally. Part of the ´imaginary community´, both Hebrew and the projection of a citizen with a strong personality, strong enough to leave behind the centuries of persecutions and grow brave enough to not allow any other Holocaust to happen, were important elements. Until the 1980s-1990s, Yiddish - and at a lesser extent, because counting a much smaller amount of active users, Ladino - were not necessarily considered a threat to this new identity in the making, but they were rarely needed for the process. It was not automatically an open hostility towards Yiddish, but it has rather to do with a meticulous planning of nation-building. 

Interestingly, Yiddish was used in the pre-state period of time as an intellectual tool shaping Zionism but in its new revival episode it is associated with those groups and mindsets which, in fact, deny the political and especially religious availability of Zionism - particularly among the Hasidic groups in Israel and abroad, such as Satmer. 

Yiddish in Israel is an important contribution to understanding not only the history of a language - who, not surprisingly for many, is going through such a revival nowadays - but the place of the language within the national identity. Its struggle and ambivalence are part of the process and reading the different stories with a clean, curious, hate-free eye is important for fully acknowledging the phenomenon. The more people would read and know the more - hopefully - will be able to write honestly about cultural changes and phenomenon. 

Oh, and calling Yiddish an authentic language, folksy and humorous is such a promise that, in fact, this language cannot ever disappear, because it reflects a certain state of mind and humanity cannot deprive itself such genuine humanly features. 

This book is a great recommendation to anyone having an academic interest in languages, Yiddish and state-building, particularly Israel. It is well documented, written in full academic honesty and with a truth-seeking attitude, such an important academic skill unfortunately too easily abandoned for the sake of political activism of all kinds.

 

Memories of the Everyday Jerusalem

 

One can miss a city, fully. Its smell, sounds and first and foremost, its people. Every single one of them, because each and everyone of them are creating the city, that special feeling and the memories one can miss.

Jerusalem. The city of sinking sun - in the original German translation from Russian by Jennie Seitz and Friederike Meltendorf: Jerusalem. Stadt der untergehenden Sonne - by the writer and scientist Alexander Ilitschewski has the evocative power of a memory trigger. Ilitschweski which is born in Azerbaijan during the times of the Soviet Union and lives in Israel after studying physics and mathematics in Moscow and a short exile in California is not a tourist. He is walking the streets not like a tourist looking for the excitement of the new discoveries, but with the comfort of the everyday connection to the place. He knows its history which alongside with the everyday connections create a particular human geography. 

Ilitschewski´s writing is precise and informed, empathic and curious. It reveals the beautiful diversity of this city of huge contrasts, where languages and cultures and traditions and modernity meet or sometimes bluntly clash. A beauty which is not aesthetic but based on the soul of the place. A beauty that suits both poetry and prose, gently intermingled in Jerusalem. 

It is a different kind of book with an unique strength and a writing which seems to come as a profound human need. The writing seems to come less as an exercise of self admiration but rather as the result of the pressure to share the story and the experience.

My literary journey back to Jerusalem was intense and punctilious but it was so good to be back, also for the sake of discovering a different way of writing about places. Being personal and directly connected to the place is not a sin, rather the opposite, enriches the quality of the writing.

I am enamorated with the cover of the German edition, a perfect visual rendition of the writing that I couldn´t have enough of.

Understanding Contemporary Left Antisemitism

 

Contemporary Left Antisemitism by David Hirsch questions and exposes the many faces of Jewish hatred based on various examples from the British left. The fact that it focuses mostly on the British example may be considered extraordinary, but in fact based on the author´s sociological approach helps to further explore and identify similarities in the case of other leftish movements around the world.

Everything and everyone is covered in the smallest details: Corby, Ken Livingstone, the intellectuals supporting the academic boycott of Israel and the BDS and pro-Hamas/Hizbullah supporters. However, I would have expected a more historical-contextual approach in addition to the sociological take, as it helps to explain the British antisemitism in its entirety, as a long-term phenomenon instead of just an episode of the left wing orientation.

The book is informative, with reliable data, including the author´s personal involvement in various testimonies and first hand experience of antisemitism, particularly in the academic field. By sharing the experience it offers intellectual support for formulating answers and replies and countering its effects through education and intellectual accountability.

Personally, I am looking for an extensive anaylsis of the French left - from the 1960s onwards - as it offers another interesting example where the socialist ideology meets easily the negative projection of the Jews and the Jewish state. That´s all I want to write as for now.

Conversations with My Body

When women are erased from religious publications and from public life and the calls for a radical separation between the women and men are becoming more and more vocal, books like Conversations with my Body. Essays on My Life as a Jewish Woman by Elana Sztokman are a trustful companion to those women who do not want to give up their rights and dignity.

Approached from very personal angles, but also from an anthropological perspective, the articles are covering a variety of topics burning nowadays in the Jewish world: the oppressive dress code and the body politics, sending women to the end of the bus - literally and symbolically, the overwhelming number of cases of eating disorders among Orthodox Jewish women, the overall limitations women of all ages should cope with during their lives. 

Although the topics repeat themselves, each article brings a new idea or point of view, as the author herself is ready to share more personal experiences and insights. The personal note of most of the articles brings not only authenticity, but has the force of an example empowering women that may want to follow of similar path but are not sure what to expect or how to actually do it. 

The direct tone and openness in sharing her life journey is key in creating awareness about the general topics that affect the everyday lives of Orthodox Jewish women. Over two decades ago, Sztokman decided to uncover her hair, which is mandatory for a married woman, and continued with smaller or bigger steps on creating her own path: as a woman, mother and Jewish feminist. Using a clear anthropological mindset, she makes clear distinctions which help to understand various patterns and mindsets.

Conversations with my Body is an inspiring book especially for those women looking for a Jewish life outside the society models ordered by men and sometimes sheepishly vouched by women. All can start so easily, by taking back the control over our bodies, piece by piece. 

Letters from Cuba

 

An emotional midgrade novel written by anthropologist Ruth Behar, Letters from Cuba shares less known stories about how European Jews ended up in the Carribean island to save their lives from the Nazi-occupied Europe. Inspired by her own family story Behar created a reliable story which appeals to young adults interested in history and in different cultures and traditions. 

Esther, 12 years old, embarked on an adventurous journey from her village in Poland, joining her father in Cuba where he was working hard to save money for bringing his family out of Europe. During her journey and upon arrival, she wrote letters in her native Yiddish to her sister Malka, sharing the details of her new life and their efforts to reunite with their loved ones. 

Through Esther´s pure eyes, it is not only a new world opening, but also the word she just left comes up clearer, especially taking into account the everyday persecution and discrimination Jews were the victims thereof. ´Cubans have been so friendly to me that I almost forgot about how some people hate Jews´. There is an antisemitic villain but the Anti-Nazi Society of Agramonte, her non-Jewish friends created to prevent the island from following into Germany´s path is working hard to counter his actions.

Esther, a brave bearer of a name associated in Jewish history with stubborn defense of Jews against the oppressors who want them dead, is a genuine voice who although fully aware of her heritage, she is happy to share her traditions she is proud of with her non-Jewish neighbours while learning on the go about other cultures. 

Besides teaching young readers about a particular tragic episode of Jewish history, Letters from Cuba offers a curious perspective on world which should continue far beyond one´s teenage years.

For me, it was a first complex encounter with the world of Askenazi Jews refugiated in Cuba. It have shape and made sense of a realm I knew only from cold historical accounts. The image of Yiddish speaking stores and schools in Havana or of the Jewish peddlers selling their products all over the country is unique and rarely present in novels.

Although Jewish presence in Cuba started at the end of the 15th century, during the 1930s the number increased also due to the prohibitive immigration policies in the US. Many ships with Jews who escaped the Nazi regime were turned off from the shores of the ´goldene Medina´ and thus Jews spread all over the Latin America and the Carribean. After the 1959 communist revolution, many of them left, mostly for US and Israel, with around 1,500 known Jews still living on the island. I would be happy one day to have the chance to visit those synagogues and walk the streets of Havana looking for Jewish traces.

Rating: 4 stars 

German Book Review: Zwischen du und ich - Between You and Me by Mirna Funk

 

After Winternähe, I couldn´t wait for the next novel by Mirna Funk. As a passive follower on social media, I watch her energy in approaching tabu topics related to Jewish life in Germany - not only antisemitism - and her intense journalistic activity. She is not the only one, but always feel good to live in a society where there are young resilient voices.

Zwischen Du und Ich - Between You and Me - her newest novel, was worth waiting for. The writing is refined and the plot development gained in complexity. The characters - both the main and the secondary - do have stronger, relatable personality. Lola, the character from Winternähe, is also worth a sentence and a bit in the new book. A hint that maybe she is thinking those books as episodes of German Jewish life?

As in Winternähe, there is a personal plan which naturally interferes with historical encounters, but what really matters this time is the individual story. Nike is a 35 years old German Jewess, who grew up in East Berlin in a secular family. She decided to take a job opportunity of organising a DAAD conference in Israeli while making her aliyah. There she will hook up with Noam, a rather fluid character, a journalist writing for Haaretz - we all know that Germans will rather care about such a reference, Gd forbid to write for, let´s say Jerusalem Post...until he left. 

Both characters are worth a novel but their match was not my best scenario. Honestly, I will not waste a bet on their chances. But what attracts them is a shared trauma and the plot is rather developed to prove how trauma attracts trauma, with all the gratuitous sexual and urologic symptoms and references. At to a certain point I will admit that, indeed, someone with a traumatic past will rather enjoy the company of someone with a shared grief but relationships are much more complex and less casual and with a healing effect too. Smart people with a traumatic past maybe will rather enjoy the company of someone with a less or absent generational suffering. But otherwise trauma ends by controlling us, our future, present and relationships and it´s hard to escape it. Rather, it adds up more along the journey which complicates the DNA structure even more.

But despite those references and failures and the exhibitionism, Zwischen Du und Ich reads very well, the mathematical kind of writing which pondered words and effects creating an unique story. I never read something like that before in German language, because no one had the easiness of doing so as Mirna Funk. It´s such a fresh writing and topic that the eventual misfits are in fact a good sign. A hope that soon, in one or two years, she will write another book. I can´t wait to.

Rating: 3.5 stars