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