Book Review: Isidor. Ein judisches Leben by Shelly Kupferberg

 

A well known moderator of Jewish cultural events, Tel Aviv born Shelly Kupferberg published this year her first novel, a literary memoir of her great uncle Isidor Geller. 

First pages into the book, one may believe that the book is a work of fiction, but once the mentions of searching through the letters and diaries and scraps of the past in the Tel Aviv apartment of her grandfather - the Austrian-Israeli historian Walter Grab - we realize that Isidor is in fact a memory reconstruction. Literarilly speaking, it is impossible to fully reconstruct someone´s past assuming a full precision. Indeed, especially placed in a literary context of a family figure, most probably there will be life episodes and testimonies of a high personal, subjective nature therefore fictionalisation has its own place. Personally, I was not extremely pleased with the blurred lines between those approaches - literature and historical reconstruction - but it is a matter of clarity that I am feeling comfortable with sometimes in specific literary contexts. There are also a couple of repetitions about the characters, which although may make sense from the point of view of an unfolding storytelling, still does take some precious storyline time.

Returning to the novel as such, there are elements so familiar to almost all Jewish stories from the German-speaking realm - both in terms of common tragic destiny and, in some cases, assimilation. There are also many details that are resurging more and more boldly lately, especially related to the stealing - concealed for so many reasons - not only of Jewish properties, but of art and valuable objects, as well as book collections. However, the specific personal traits are equally important and do make the stories uniques and worth telling.

Isidor. Ein judisches Leben contributes to the emerging literature in German, by Jewish authors, about Jewish lives before and during the Shoah. The mentions: ´in German, by Jewish authors, about Jewish lives´ are simulataneously important for the sake of authenticity and owning the narrative in a way that does not try to excuse or to edulcorate the facts, but to share stories as they were, instead of fitting into a narrative imposed from outside the Jewish realm.

The outstanding poetic cover deserves a special mention as well, and as usual, I am in awe about the high quality of the covers of German books.

Rating: 3.5 stars

One Hundred Saturdays by Michael Frank

 

For one hundred Saturdays, Michael Frank discussed with Holocaust survivor Stella Levi about her memories of her life in the Juderia, the Jewish quarter of Rhodes, and thereafter, following the liberation from Auschwitz. The fate and history of the Jews from Rhodes, a cosmopolite community connected to both the Middle East, the Balkans and Europe, is relatively less known and even less explored. The book by Nathan Shachar is a noticeable exception in this respect. 

The dialogues between Frank and Levi - now in her late 90s - are however more than an academic reconstruction of a time past. They add on the personal memories of Levi, now the only survivor of her family, already decimated by the Shoah. In comparison with an analytical academic approach, One Hundred Saturdays is sharing a personal, intimate account of an unique, subjective anthropological value. I had the access to the book in audiobook format, which includes some interventions of Levi herself - including singing songs in Ladino from her childhood - , therefore sharing an even more direct personal testimony.  

For us, the young readers, it is a priviledge to have access to such first hand testimonies about one of the many lost Jewish worlds. Those world will stay alive as long they are remembered. The world of the Jews from Rhodes, as well as many other Jews whose world were destroyed by war and hate are part of a bigger history of Jewish culture and memories. 

Rating: 5 stars

Leonard Cohen in the Sinai

 

There are moments across history who define and re-define an era. For the Middle East, Israel and Jews from all over the world, this was the Yom Kippur War in 1973. In less than 20 days, the geographical and especially mental map was rewritten in the sound of the alarm. 

With the usual attention to the finest details, Matti Friedman´s last book explores a relatively less known episode: Leonard Cohen´s presence in Israel during those times. Approaching 40, without a noticeable musical activity in a while, Cohen was languishing for life while in the Greek islands. 

His presence in Israel didn´t change or challenge the already booming musical scene, which allowed him to join for his concerts. But those encounters were testimony of a a new spirit, of a new generation of Israeli, particularly of musicians. 

As usual, Friedman is doing an outstanding research and journalistic investigation, checking on sources, interviewing almost everyone that happened to be around Cohen during his stay. It is an example to follow by everyone looking to investigate a relatively ´niche´ subject.

For everyone interested in the history of Israeli music and especially in Cohen´s life story, Leonard Cohen in the Sinai by Matti Friedman is a valuable resource. I reckon not ready too much - or at all - about musicians and music in general, but this book is at least as captivating as Cohen himself.

Rating: 5 stars

Book Review: When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sasha Lamb

The good angel and the bad - kind of evil actually - angel decide to leave the Pale of Settlement and relocate to the goldene medina in order to find out Essie, the baker´s daughter. Maybe they also wanted a bit of adventure bored by their chevrute studies in the shtetl. Once on the other side of the pond, they observe how the immigrants are badly treated, and the workers in the factories as well, and redefine their identities - gender, angel-like etc..

I am personally in awe about new Jewish literary voices, inserting in the storytelling flow contemporary topics - like gender fluidity for instance - while maintaining a historical and religious background - the old shtetl, the religious traditions. When the Angels Left the Old Country is following the same pathway in a way which is both evocative and creative and even humorous - the relationships between the two angels is both kind and hilarious.

Although the story unfolds in a pace of old shtetl story, the disparate parts of the story and the events occurring in the States - like the social protest and the Feminist outrage - do not match necessarily the story. Instead, it pushes for a social message without polishing the details. The message(s) take over the story and especially from the middle of it, it´s hard to ignore the discontinuity. 

Personally, I had high expectations from the book, as giving a new impetus to Jewish topics in contemporary literature is an interesting project. Despite of having some interesting twists, it ends up too ideological and such a literary touch is always detrimental to the literary quality.

Rating: 3 stars

Disclaimer: I was offered a print version in exchange for an honest review but the opinions are, as usual, my own

´The Beautiful Days of My Youth´

 

Born in Dej, Ana Novac (born Zimra Harsányi) grew up in Oradea (Nagyvárad). In 1944, she shared the fate of the Hungarian Jews, the last to be brought to Auschwitz. She was just a 14-year old girl hence the ironic title of her memoir, originally wroten in French The Beautiful Days of My Youth, which I´ve read in the German translation by the late Eva Moldenhauer. The diary covers her six- month experiences in Auschwitz and Plaszow, a camp in the South of Krakow, and many other small camps in the region. 

Every single memoir and story about Shoah helps to redraw the social and psychological escape of the tragedy. Even if it is mentioning new details about the circumstances and the interactions within the camp, or just shares personal feelings and memories, every single line of a testimony matters. 

Life at 14 means so much for young people. But for a generation of Jews who survived the Shoah - Ana´s parents and brothers didn´t - this formative time was associated with hunger, survival and the cruely of the Kapos. A time that will leave their mind and bodies with trauma for ever.

After being freed, she settled in Bucharest, Romania. In the mid-1960s she moved to Berlin and further on to Paris where she worked in the field of theatre and as an author. 

Her testimonies were not shared with her Hungarian or Romanian audiences and she is hardly known in Romania, although she used to have a relatively active presence in the world of theatre in the 1950s and 1960s - inculding by having one of her plays played on a main stage. Her memoir was published in Romanian only in 2004. The Romanian Secret police - Securitate - followed her - through a mole infiltrating the direct entourage of her then husband, the critic and writer Paul Schuster - and was perfectly informed about her intention to write the memoir. As a Hungarian-Jewish writer and intellectual she was a double target. Her first version of her memoir will be published in Hungarian - as A téboly hétköznapjai - at the end of the 1960s, where she lived for a short time, accompanying her then husband. The memoir was afterwards translated into French by Jean Parvulesco, a Romanian born journalist living in France, as Les Beaux Jours de Ma Jeunesse.

There is more than one generation of Romanians who grew up unaware of the Shoah and how it affected their fellow Jews. Although Novac´s story is related to the Hungarian pro-Nazi government who ruled at the time Transylvania, her testimonies would have raise questions about what happened with the Jews from the Romanian-led territories, which weren´t friendlier towards Jews either. 

The Beautiful Days of My Youth echoes those times and adds more knowledge to the topic, both humanly and historically. Her diary was compared to Anne Frank´s but had a lower literary profile due to the intricacies and anti-semitism of the Cold War politics in Romania.

Where We Feel at Home

 ´Die Geschichte meiner Familie scheint wie ein Pendel zu sein, das langsam zurückschwingt´.

Through personal accounts and family stories, writer and journalist Maxim Leo recreated the history of his family, spread all over the world, as they escaped Nazi Germany. Wo wir zu Hause sind is a (auto)biographical account tracing his family members and their longing for the home they lost.

His parents returned to Germany after the war, in the Eastern part of Berlin, in Lichtenberg, dreaming - as many others - of building the communism. Some of his relatives were involved in building the state of Israel. Other made career and fortune in France or London. All stories are unique as sharing particular experiences. In addition to the content of the stories though, the methods used for the research can be used as an inspiration to anyone looking to remake their family tree, Jewish or not. It relates particularly to third or second generation researches, when part of the archives and testimonies were obliterated for physical and age-related reasons.

The book is rich in details about the Jewish life in Germany before and after the war and the longing of many of the German Jews for the home they were expelled from against their own will. 

Ayuni by Sarah Ansbacher. An Adeni Love Story between London and Israel

 

Once upon a time, when I used to travel often to London for various reasons, someone told me a story about how he - with a Chassidish background - ended up on a shidduch with a divorced Yemeni woman and although he was tempted to advance with the match, his family was completely against, although until now he is still single. The reason was mostly the ´different background´ which sometimes easily translated as a nuanced refuse to accept someone of a more ´Mizrahi/Oriental´ in the family. I don´t want to develop too much, but often such reasons do not lack racist considerations and unfortunately, it could operate both ways.

I completely forgot about the story until I started this Shabbes to read a Jewish Romantic novel set in London, about the love between an Adeni boy and a Chassidish girl, Ayuni - a term of endearment in the Yemeni/Adeni dialect - by Sarah Ansbacher. I don´t remember ever to have heard about a Jewish novel featuring Adeni Jews, therefore I was pleased to read also for reasons related to the pure information about this group.

As part of the former British Empire, Yemeni Jews especially those from Aden, used to have strong trade relationship with London therefore  when the antisemitic attacks intensified, the British passport helped some to move to the UK. This was the story of Ben Aharoni, the young male character of the story, the first generation born on the British soil. He fell in love with Miri, an innocent Chassidish girl who just happened once to be the backup story to her best friend Raizy, while she was casually dating Ben´s friend. Although Raizy will eventually return to the usual dating cycle and will end up marrying a heimische boy, Miri will remain with Ben through which a new world opens up to her: movie theatre, TV set, physical contact with men, a relationship burgeoning before marriage.

And although everyone in this story knowns that this love cannot go anywhere, Ben and Miri included, the two keep adding to their story. Until it is too late to turn back, anyway. The diversity of London Jewish life, observant Jewish life, I dare to outline, is unfolding under our eyes through Miri´s innocent discovery of a different perspective, outside the shtetl - probably around Golders Green. The fact that in the end she will relocate to Israel, where it should be place for anyone, no matter the origin, is symbolic.

I was almost sure for half of the story where the story will lead to, but haven´t expected to happen this way and wasn´t prepared for the spectacular twists either. I was definitely pleased with the ending, after running fast through events in the second half. Ansbacher is treating her characters with empathy, trying to understand their motivation rather than accuse, judge and eventually kill their characters.

Ayuni is a diverse and insightful Jewish love story, that besides introducing the discussion about Jewish diversity - as we are all am echad - it also builds up an entertaining story. Although there may be not many Adeni-Chaddisische couples in London and elsewhere, as one of the characters of the book mentioned, ´it´s a different generation´ and hopefully the old stories of prejudice can win against love - for each other and am Yisroel.  

I am so curious about other Adeni stories that I am about to read her other book, this one seems to be fully inspired by stories of Jews originary from Yemen. I can hardly wait to finish my work chores for today and delve into the book.

Rating: 4 stars

Discovering Jewish Diversity for Children: Almost a Minyan

 

Learning as a child, with love about different customs and approaches to the daily practice is an important step towards embracing diversity at the old age. No matter our own personal choices, acknoweldging and further on accepting that other people may have a different understanding of Jewish practice is relevant for building up a healthy realm of tolerance and mutual acceptance.

Almost a Minyan by rhymes by Lori S. Kline, and illustrations by Susan Simon, published almost five years ago by Sociosights Press can guide pre-school and first grades children towards the path of acceptance. 

A girl is watching her father every day leaving the house early in the morning to pray at shul. She is waiting for the moment when she will be counted as part of the minyan - the ten persons required for a praying quorum within the small Jewish community she is living. As her zayde - grandfather in Yiddish - died, she will replace him, by using the tallit and tefillin who belonged to her grandpa. 

Some may not be used with the idea of women wearing a tallit or kippa or tefillin or being counted as part of the minyan. Many may reject it automatically as a corruption of religious practices. Nevertheless, there are women and communities who do practice differently, including by assigning different, more diverse roles to women. Exactly what Almost a Minyan is outlining, especially by the match between old and new traditions. 

A recommended read, including for your long winter Shabbos days, or as an inspired lecture preparing for the next month of chagim.

Rating: 3.5 stars

An Immodest Story

 

I am always keen to read memoirs, but also novels, featuring individuals, particularly women, who went OTD - out of the Orthodox Jewish path. With more individuals with a strict religious background having access to education and social media, the number of such work exponentially increased in the last decade. Although some may say that no one shows too much interest in portraying ´normal´ happy Jewish Orthodox families - partly truth as well, but do the happy Jewish Orthodox women do have the time and resources to dedicate to such projects (except some women rather belonging to the ´modern Orthodox´ version like Chabad)?

I am particularly interested in stories focused on the conflict between worlds, about the tension the character who left behind a stable world succeeds - or not - to swim through the challenging waves of the modern lives. Despite the patterns that are common to everyone, there are so many nuances that are part of the individual story of each and every one of us, as human beings.

Immodest is the second book by the Israeli author L.E.Einat - Einat Lifshitz Shem Tov.  She is based in Israel and has a BA in History, with masters in guidance and counseling. 

The book tells the story of Perele, a rebelious girl growing up in a big Orthodox family, married against her will with an aggressive man at a very young age, who will get a divorce against the opposition of her community leaving behind not only the abusive marriage, but her strict practice as well. The story has some interesting characters - her mother for example, able to overcome the limits internalised about marriage and women role by her community and makes a step towards accepting her daughter, as well as her mother-in-law, who ends up testifying by her own will in court against her own violent son, although her husband supported him. Perele herself is a well defined character, although she is missing a lot of details that would have make her more relatable, including her everyday Orthodox practice, besides the modesty rules - like, for instance, the fact that there are no details about her own relationship with religion, the ways in which she fills her day as a Jewish Orthodox woman.

The book also approaches the issue of sexual abuse within family, a vague reminder of the excellent and mindblowing Hush. However, this subplot does not necessarily adds on to the main story, being rather presented as a consequence of the lack of sexual education within the community.

What for me was very difficult to grasp for a long time within the story was: 1. Where exactly the story takes place and 2. What Hasidic group it is all about. 

As in the case of Perele´s own story, there are scarce details regarding the location of the story. For many pages into the book, the surroundings are so neutral that they can be in NYC, Marais or Stanford Hills. We are told somewhere that in fact it is happening in Israel, and I may figure out by myself that it could be Bnei Brak - also as it is close from the beach. 

As for the Hasidic group, the riddle is solved somewhere in the second half, as Perele is starting to share her experience with sexuality and the ways in which ´her group´ dismisses any mixture between genders and considers sexuality as a tool for procreation - and no, not all Hasidic groups think the same. Without being mentioned, it´s clear that we have to do with the very strict and cultish-like habits of the Gur Hasidim that do have an important number of followers in Bnei Brak. 

Another discrepancy for me, but maybe less important anyway, is the cover, which shows a woman that one will rather meet in Gush Etzion that in Bnei Brak where she will be for sure considered very modern. 

However, for anyone who wants to read about a story of survival through love and resilience, Immodest is a catching read. Those who went already to such a dramatic family break-up it´s a reminder of all the wounds that will never heal, but also about the chances that open up, once the walled world was left far behind.

Rating: 3 stars

YA Novel with a Jewish Theme: Once More With Chutzpah by Haley Neil

 

It is not so easy to find a good YA novel on a Jewish topic therefore I was delighted to read - in one long setting - Once More with Chutzpah, the debut novel by Haley Neil. The book is interesting for more than one reason - of, let´s say from the point of view of the topic. 

Checking up the usual list of topics interesting to include in a YA novel - grief, coming out of age, coping with dramatic events - the book also has particular elements pertaining to the Jewish topic. Max and Tally are two American twins, embarked on a summer project - not Taglit - to Israel, their first time abroad. Originary from Massachusetts, their father is Jewish - with an Israeli grandmother - while the mother is Catholic. From the very beginning, there is a non-Orthodox take and this covers other topics as well, including regarding the political situation in Israel and the Palestinian issue. Unfortunately, those topics sounded very much just a copy-paste from the ´to do list´ of perspectives usually associated with the liberal American Judaism. 

Fortunately, there are other complex layers that do make the story interesting in the end, both from the specific Jewish character(s) of the book and for the character and narrative development in general. For instance, the diversity of Israel, and the various accepted degrees of observance, as well as a glimpse into the everyday life which is much normal than we may see it portrayed in the media. Additionally, trying to integrate a non-religious Jewish experience as an identity mark, may also bring a diverse view on being Jewish, although this resonates with a certain American experience of it. Antisemitism in the classroom, although gently put in the book, is nevertheless present at a certain extent.

Moreover, the characters, especially Tally and her brother, are experiencing complex situations, dealing with the loss of a dear friend and the survivor´s complex, as well as panic attacks. Therefore, there is already created a net of circumstances the characters are part thereof and most often should find themselves a solution, even though temporarily. From this perspective, the book has a solid coordinated structure.

Once More with Chutzpah is an interesting YA novel with a Jewish topic, although the Jewish part is liberally approached. On one hand it matches a certain experience of Jewish teens in interreligious families, on the other hand, it offers a story with relatable young characters requested to find their own pattern of reaction in situations common to their age and experience. Looking forward to explore more Jewish YA characters, hopefully soon.

Rating: 3.5 stars

The Case for Avital Gerstetter

The recent case of the first German woman Cantor Avital Gerstetter, fired by the Judische Gemeinde after writing an article in Welt criticizing Jewish conversions, although generously spread salt on the wounds of the problematic German identity of Jewish communities, still does not deal with the system disfunctionalities that made possible this situation.

Shortly, Gerstetter, born in West Berlin to an Israeli mother and a German - Jewish convert father - mentioned, among others, how the big number of Jewish conversions, some of them Germans with a brown family past, is altering the structure and in the end, the ´Jewishness´ of the everyday practice, including the regular synagogue service itself.

There are a lot of nuances regarding the motives of conversions, that Gerstetter noticed, and there are also individuals differently changed and challenged by their new identity. There are many people who are converting for the sake of a spouse, for having Jewish children, although shortly after the conversion they may give up any trace of practice. They are many belonging to the ´contingent Jews´, those who emigrated from the Soviet Union, with a Jewish father, who may want to convert according to the Jewish Orthodoxy. Some used to celebrate their whole life Jewish holidays and are familiar with the Jewish values therefore the conversion is just an official confirmation of their belonging.

However, there are situations when, unfortunately, situations when exhaustive knowledge about Jewish practice does not help to build the community spirit that connects Jews no matter their background, orientation and level of kashrut. There are those situations when someone who knows very into depth the rules of kashrut or tzniut may make you feel like a second class Jewish citizen because displaying 1 mm more of collarbone that they learned about during the giur classes. That patronizing attitude that, ´puah, they call themselves Jews but look at them, enjoying their plate full of seafood!´/not fasting on Yom Kippur, never coming to the Shabbes service, driving on Shabbes etc.etc.

Reminding someone where is he/she coming from in terms of original religious practice may not be allowed, but what about keeping in mind that it is wrong to make distinctions between Jews, humiliate someone in public, doing lashon hara etc.?

Who are those people learning with for their giur classes? Who are the persons in charge with their giur? What about the rabbis responsible for their giur?

And what about the trauma of the persecutions and the relationship with the state of Israel as the ultimate place of refuge for a persecuted Jew? 

In some cases may be that people who went through the years of the conversion process themselves supported the new converts. Before the accused article was published leading to her abrupt redundancy, Gerstetter used to sing in the synagogue in Oranienburger Straße whose rabbi herself is a convert, born in a Protestant family. Another convert actively ´converting´ other people, whose case made less waves that the remarks by Gerstetter, Walter Homolka is accused of being part of a network of sexual abuse created by his husband. 

Some may ask why Gerstetter haven´t addressed those issues in the Jewish media that used to generously host Homolka´s achievements? Maybe some of the answers are already stated in the article for the smart and informed readers to figure out by themselves.

In the end, what was not (yet) frontally touched upon is the cause of this problem, mainly a system - not necessarily ´liberal´ or ´reform´-supported - that for very non-religious related reasons allows some conversions instead of others. It´s largely unclear how far this discussion will go, but maybe it was about time to happen, even just for the sake of the historical mentions.

(Hopefully) to be continued...

Moses Mendelssohn: ´We Dreamed of Nothing but Enlightenment´

There is a bitter irony that struck me when I visited the very well documented interactive exhibition dedicated to Moses Mendelssohn at the Jewish Museum in Berlin: Although his whole life he pledged the cause of a liberal Judaism for the sake of diminishing persecutions and antisemitism, for the cause of the integration into the mainstream German society, Nazi actually hated and demonized Moses Mendelssohn. His Jewish Enlightment process, that lead that his children even converted to Judaism being eventually burried in a Christian cemetery while bearing very heimishe names, failed from the point of view of the clear aim endeavoured: to take upon Jews the stigma of being targeted for their religion and religiosity.

The exhibition We Dreamed of Nothing but Enlightment/Wir Träumten von Nichts als Aufklärung, hosted by the Jewish Museum in Berlin, until the 11st of September is however an important journey into the intellectual roots of Mendelssohn, his life benchmarks as well as the complex context of his times (including the economic development of Prussia, requiring qualified and skillful workforce which lead to allow more Jews to be part of the larger society). This was my first visit at the museum under the new direction, and although I grasp that there is a relatively similar (liberal) orientation, at least in the case of this exhibition, it pays more attention to the historical facts and less to the ideological background.

Mendelssohn lifestory and intellectual statements can be read in many ways and mine is just one of them. Well integrated Jews are not safer from antisemitism than the visible self-aware Jews. It may offer a temporary invisibility and illusory safety but a full acknowledgment of being the ´part´ of the majority will never happen. The fate of the Jews from the Soviet Union who gave up every bit of their identity to be Soviet, but ended up being marked as Jews in their passports is another example.

But without knowledge it is impossible to make right choices and the exhibition at the Jewish Museum in Berlin offer enough food for thought for a (sad) meditation of the tragical ending of the Haskala Jews.

Disclaimer: I visited the exhibition free as a journalist but the opinions, as usual, are my own.

Jewish Memoir Book Review: Since Sinai by Shannon Gonyou

´Everything builds slowly and beautifully´.

A practicant Catholic by default, involved in various social and outreach projects, practicing attorney Shannon Gonyou and her husband decided to convert to Masorti Judaism. Since Sinai. A Convert´s Path to Judaism is her memoir documenting the journey in a very considerate, honest and meaningful way.

This book helps not only anyone looking to build up his or her Jewish journey but equally brings understanding of the spiritual process and the decision making to those who may wonder why someone will take the - difficult, in Jewish terms - decision to convert. 

´Mostly though, I recognize that it´s incumpent upon me to build Jewish history with my family today, even if I can´t change the fact that my family´s ancestry and the ancestry of the Jewish people is not one and the same´. As Shannon, her husband and daughter are looking to create their own Jewish stories, they change places and getting to meet a wide range of people - Chabad, from the ´Orthodox´ type, as well as various reform brands of Judaism. The decision to convert was a quest and a journey, without being made under pressure - for marriage purposes, for instance, and Gonyou has a clear and lucid voice documenting her experiences.

People who convert may usually deal with different levels of mistrust and discrimination, but the Masorti choice and the fact that both of them were already married, diminished the occurence of such encounters. I really loved her voice and honest writing, covering issues beyond her search for a Jewish home, such as sexual experiences and eating disorder during her Catholic young years, as well as her personal story with her biological mother.

Since Sinai is one of those books revealing windows into stories that cannot be known otherwise than by direct testimonies. ´The persuasion price of this narrative is that converts can, and do, find a meaningful home in Judaism, and I´m an example of one of those converts´. I wish there will be more such testimonies that will bring more clarity and knowledge about choices some people do, no matter the risks and the challenges, for achieving a higher spiritual everyday life. 

Rating: 4 stars

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

Book Review: Brazen by Julia Haart

´I may be tiny, but I can be deadly´.

I am a consumer of almost everything about the condition of the off-the derech. What is now at the margins, the dissent wave against the various establishments, may one day represent the mainstream. It used to happen with the Hasidim once upon a time as well.

However, after reading quite a couple of such testimonies - and watching some movies as well - there is a given setting which defines this emerging genre, a pattern which at the limit is a easy/cheap recipe stereotypically reproducing itself. Some of its features are: escape from the ´cult´; cutting the ties/becoming estranged with/from the ´old world´ - among which children, siblings, parents and/or spouse; few paragraphs repeated in different forms about the oppressive dress code and the nida laws; excessive search for sexual adventures; getting saved by someone, something, an organisation, literature, the non-Jewish boyfriend. It looks as a cartoonish - cynical - description which unfortunately is what often the ´outside´ world wants to listen. No matter if it is the same old story re-told again and again, important is to have a bit of fun with an escape-game-from the Middle Ages cultish mindset.

There are some noticeable exceptions but unfortunately the more I read the less I am interested in continuing this intellectual adventure. Although, my curiosity is bigger than my literary standards, therefore count on my to review the next OTD memoir.

My latest journey was Julia Haart of Netflix´s My Unorthodox Life, Brazen. I had watched the movie - rather said, punished myself to do it - and was appalled by the vulgarity and exhibitionism. Plus, doing a bit of research, I realized how fake this ´reality´ show actually was. Both Haart and her daughter Batsheva divorced shortly after the end of the series, despite the excessive displays of love and harmony towards their respective spouses. 

I started the book though with an open mind and I appreciated the first part of it, despite the high need of editing and the overall bad and incoherent writing. Plus an inadvertence or two, like mentioning that ´yeshivish´ is a sect. 

Haart was born in Soviet Russia and left with her non-religious parents when she was three years old. Her parents, scientists by background, turned religious - not Chabad though - and with the enthusiasm of the new comers hurried to adopt extreme versions of different religious practices. Although lacking a formal education, Haart used to be a teacher - religious, including - in various girls school. As a Monsey resident, the mother of four felt oppressed by the men-predominant society, parting ways to a world where ´women acquire greatness by proxy´. Her taking off from the religious world took her around 12 years. At 42, she left her husband and started a career as shoe designer, living the fashion glamour while living in hotels by the week and heimische for her children during the weekend. 

The ways in which she fought to keep his children close, despite her more and more extravagant style is meritory and no matter the circumstances, her success had a positive impact on the life of her children - her daughter Miriam and Batsheva are social media stars with fat advertising contracts and following. 

Most probably there is much hidden from her story, that may not suit her ´feminist´ assertions. Less sordid still obsessive, her sexual adventures do not necessarily bring anything spectacular to her story. In 2022, many women do have sex when and where and with whom they want, especially her aimed audience. If they would have been told in a more literary way, maybe there would have been a higher interest, otherwise, a big bored sigh from me. 

Her deep anger for being for over 40 years kept captive in a society not at all friendly towards women - bodies, clothes, their careers other than baby-making - is understandable. But there were people among the religious who invested first a humongous amount of money, without recipes, in her company. 

Haart adds the character of the ´business women´ to the series of OTD life stories. It was partially interesting to get into her story, although I doubt greatly the veridicity of many facts. And a memoir whose authenticity is in doubt ceased for being a memoir at all. 

Stories from a Yeshiva

 ´I don´t remember when I stopped thinking every day would be my last day´.

Gerry Albarelli answered an announcement for an English teacher opening at a school in Brooklyn and will end up teaching for around five years in a boys religious school. He does not reveal in the book explicitly the name of the yeshiva, but it is a Satmar boys´ school, which according to his descriptions - non-judgemental, and this is a greatest merit of the book - looks like a very dangerous and chaotic place. Teachers are surrounded by 3-4 graders and almost lynched; the teachers are beating the children with no regrets and administrative consequences. Only the English teachers are running as fast as they can after a short amount of time.

The boys are rarely speaking English and the teacher doesn´t speak Yiddish but they will find a way to communicate and learn together, in the good spirit of the religious learning. The teacher will create attractive classes, creating stories with the boys themselves distributed as characters. An idea which boosted the interest for the classes. ´They wanted to learn English if only to find out what they were doing in the stories´.

One of the big merit of the book is to elegantly share the stories, without any trace of patronizing. This is what is going to a Hasidic yeshiva in Brooklyn, a secret for many, especially girls.  The non-critical stance is very important, as it avoids the horrible stereotypes easily sliding into the stories about Hasidic life and education in general. But what is the point of writing stories which are biased, stealing from the reader the pleasure of making his or her own opinions about a book. 

Last but not least, Teacha! suggests to educators creative ways to build bridges during the educational process especially in a diverse cultural context. After all, the role of a teacher is to share knowledge and this may happen no matter how different his or her culture his or her culture is compared to that of the students.

Dora Bruder by Patrick Modiano

 

Born in 1926 in Paris, from Jewish parents - father originary from Austria, mother from Hungary - Dora Bruder was killed in Auschwitz in 1942. Modiano is trying to recreate her life from fragments of archives and encounters with the places she and her family lived. There is a race against forgetting, for marking the memory of the deported. 

I feel there are so many untold stories of French Jews, stories of resilience, of resistance, but also hopeless stories, of people killed and disappeared without trace. People who were forced to wear the German-imposed yellow star and betrayed by their non-German neighbours. 2014 Literature Nobel Prize Winner Modiano himself has a complex WWII Jewish history, on his father side. While researching and writing about Dora Bruder, there are episodes from his own life slipping away, as memories or sensations or allusions. 

The I-centered story of Dora Bruder is a story of Paris too. A story of Jewish Paris, of immigration and despair, of a geography of hate and exclusion, but also of everyday life flowing slowly its pace, out of history. It is a history common to many Jews, those hidden in Catholic institutions and maybe never brought back to their families or to their faith. Dora run away from her Catholic school, she was for sure a rebelious girl. 

But fate and what humans made of it, wanted her to die in Auschwitz. She ´disappeared´. There are so many hidden chances and opportunities and failures in a name. Dora Bruder. She never got old. Or had her own children to stroll with alongside the streets of Paris. 

Since 2015, her name was given to a street in the 18th arrondissement. 

I had access to the book in the audiobook format, read by Didier Sandre, an actor that played in J´Accuse too, a film inspired by the tragic fate of Albert Dreyfus. 

Jewish Learning with Jewish Interactive

I am a constant supporter and beneficiary of the extraordinary power of online Jewish learning. Particularly if it happens to live in a non-English, remote community without direct access to diverse source of education, online classes for every age, but especially for children, are a great mitzvah. As an adult, I had the chance to attend various online classes on a big variety of Jewish topics, from the comfort of my home, long before Covid made Zoom calls and online classes fashionable - by default.

The more, the better and therefore I was very excited to get in touch via social media - another blessing on the online connections - by the representatives of Jewish Interactive, a fresh new website offering resources to teachers, school leaders and parents. 

The site is very friendly, both in terms of design - fonts, colours, accessibility - and information. There are games, and books and tutorials about holidays, Israel and the Hebrew alphabet. If you are a parent who haven´t had the chance to attend the Jewish school, you can learn at the pace of your child or refresh your long forgotten memories of Jewish education. Among the topics featured: Hebrew, Parasha, Jewish holidays, Jewish books. 

According to the site´s representatives, the target of the website wants to help any teacher of Hebrew or Jewish studies to create their own content based on the sourecs provided. The content can be accesses in English, but the search can be done in any of the 13 support languages. All descriptions of images, for example, are automatically translated into the 13 languages allowing for searches in those languages.

Jewish Interactive plans to train teachers to become master teachers based on professional courses currently under development. They can create their own lessons and become part of the community. Under the community section of the website, teachers will be able to join and list their bios and expertise, and share their coures. Thus, teachers of Hebrew and Jewish Studies throughout the world will be encouraged not only to contribute but to support and share their experiences. As for now, teaching can be done via Google Classroom. 

Although most of the access to the materials - over 17,000 Jewish and Hebrew games made by teachers - is free, there are also paid options, in case you need a wider access. For instance, for families - up to 5 children - the subscription is of 4.99 USD/month, while for educators - 11.99/month. Especially in the case of educators, the paid option makes possible to use various tools to trace and organise your classes. In both cases, a 7-day full access trial is possible, which is enough time to figure out the advantages and shortcomings, if any. In order to access the resources, either for free or as a paid membership, one needs to set up an account. 

For children and families thinking about making aliyah soon, the section Ivrit Misaviv La´Olam can be used as a good start. Besides language tools, there are also interactive games explaining everyday life in Israel, which can be useful for both children and parents.

Jewish Interactive is browser-based. You can use it from your PC or/and iPad but not phones. All lessons allow the creator to both write and/or voice instructions. Some of the JIGs (Jewish Interactive Games) were created by the specialists from Beit Issie Shapira in order to help the learning process of children with disabilities.

I will definitely continue following the next steps of JI and will clearly encourage my son to improve his Hebrew and Jewish knowledge by using it during the upcoming summer holidays.

Fear by Chana Blankshteyn translated by Anita Norich

 

Yiddish women writers are becoming discovered lately through excellent translations. After the Blume Lempel and Yenta Mash who were relatively known among the Yiddish knowledgeable, the short stories of a well travelled Vilna based author, Chana Blankshteyn seen the light of the English-speaking literary realm, in the translation of Anita Norich. 

For those curious about an Yiddish-English translation of the short stories who gives the name of the volume, Fear, they can practice this exercise offered by In Geveb Yiddish publication. 

Blankshteyn is relatively less known outside her time and Vilna. Contemporary with Isaac Babel, she dies on a natural death in 1943. Her collection of stories was originally published under the title Noveles with a foreword by Max Weinreich and was one of the last Yiddish books to appear in Vilna before WWII. There are only a few copies available right now from this collection, out of which only two in the US. The author who felt at ease with the world and travelled extensively, especially throughout Europe, was eulogized as a writer and a pioneer for women´s rights and the poor. 

The first English volume of Fear recently published includes nine short stories. The story that gives the name to the volume deserves fully to be given the title of the volume because it is an admirable collection of emotions and contrasts, a vibrant episode from the life of a character, full of dramatism and suspense. It is so well written that one may need a break before continuing with the rest of the stories. Almost all the stories though look like sequences from the life of some characters brought together temporarily, as it usually happens in life. After the story ends, we may guess they life continued but it is out of the sight of our literary imagination.

There are mostly women with voices represented in the stories, and they are coming for various layers of Jewish life, especially non-religious ones - although in one of the stories there is a ´comrade rabbi´ requested to officiate a chupa - Jewish wedding - to two secular Jews, one of them the granddaughter of a Hasidic rebbe. There is a world on the move, changing both in social, political and economic ways. Not surprisingly, there is the character of the ´foreigner´, more or less Jewish, who is entangled in relationship with local Jewish girls. The foreigner is the messenger of a globalized world, and so are becoming the relationships too.

The women in the stories are orphans, single mothers by choice and not because widowed, working women, women not interested to have a relationship at all. In most cases, the location of the story is not mentioned - except Paris - and so is their Jewish identity. Although, the references to High holidays in autumn or the month of Tammuz - actually, the only month mentioned; Tammuz usually takes place between the Gregorian June-July and is the month where the 17th of Tammuz fast takes place, which marks the beginning of the three weeks leading to Tisha B´Av; overall, not a happy month in the Jewish calendar - are a reference that we are moving within the Jewish realm. References about anti-Semitism and pogroms do exist too, but one must remember that in this part of the world, such events were rather the rule than the exception therefore they were part of the everyday Jewish reality.

With calm and cold blood, analytically and observing, sometimes from very afar, Chana Blankshteyn is a witness of her times, a literary journalist of a world that soon is about to disappear. We - me including - may be tempted to judge it according to the current literary standards and expectations. But this is a wrong take. Rather, we should open our curiosity towards exploring the Yiddish world of past times. I wish there are more such books brought to the editorial light, they mean more than any historical reference because they are slices of life as it once was.

Rating: 4 stars 

David Grossman: More than I Love My Life (transl. into German by Anne Birkenhauer)

 

Included on the 2022 International Booker Prize Longlist, More Than I Love My Life (transl. into English by veteran Hebrew to English translator Jessica Cohen)/Was Nina wusste (transl. into German from Hebrew by Anne Birkenhauer) is a multi-generational women story. Vera, originally from Yugoslavia, now in her 90s and at the beginning of Alzheimer´s, is back to the feared Goli Otok Island, the Adriatic Alcatraz where she was imprisoned and tortured for refusing to betray her non-Jewish husband, involved in the anti-Tito resistance. The return is part of a movie, her granddaughter Gili is making about her, and her daughter, Nina, who abandoned Gili when she was 3, is also taking the trip.

The novel is inspired by the story of one of Grossman´s confidante and I felt actually that this story has the emergency of writing down before it is too late, before the story is lost. Therefore, although it is far from being a short read, there are some parts which look like they were either wrote too fast, and therefore, not all the details come along together and the characters may have less depth. In other places, the emotional aspects take over the prose and it is not necessarily in the advantage of the writing.

Nevertheless, there is a certain attraction of the writing, as usual in the case of Grossman´s books, although personally I feel like his last books are somewhere floating on a sea of incertitudes and the characters look like unfinished paintings. 

Rating: 3 stars

Get Ready for a Summer of Gazoz

In full honesty, I don´t like - I deeply despise actually - most of gazoz - a word of Turkish origin desining ´gas´ - based drinks. I am not even a big friend of champagne...lame, I know, I know, I know...

But I cannot resist to think about new creative way to drink my summer, especially when my summer - compared with the long friendly Tel Aviv summer - is usually very short. Finding for inspiration that may help improve my hobby bartender skills is always a good idea, especially when one of the author of the collection of various gazoz recipes is Adeena Sussman, the popular chef of Sababa fame. The other author of Gazoz is Benny Briga who brought back in fashion in Tel Aviv the old soda. 

The drinks offered in the book do use a big variety of spices, ingredients, confits and fermented fruits. They are inspired by various seasonal harvest and by the local flora diversity. Fruits are combined with herbs and spices and flowers and as someone almost addicted to everything roses I am sure will dream by night about different drinks including rose petals as their featured ingredient. 

More than the recipes - which are relatively easy, only the ingredients may be a bit problematic to acquire if living outside Israel and the Middle East - in themselves, those sparkling soda glasses do share stories. Think about the rosewater syrup your grandma made for you, all the jams made of the fruits picked up fresh from your garden or the herbs your neighbour decided to share with you. In every glass, besides spices and a drop of syrup, there is so much humanity too.

After all, there may be a ´fizzy power of bubbles´ that I am willingly staying away of it...for now.

At the Death of a Journalist

The death of a journalist is the death of so many potential stories aimed to reveal the truth. When a journalist dies, the hope of representing the voice of the under-represented dies too. The killing of veteran Al Jazeera American-Palestinian journalist Shirin Abu-Akleh, while reporting in Jenin while wearing a Press-inscribed vest is beyond tragic. And nauseating is also the horrible view of the ambush that took place during her funeral the Friday after.

Reporting about and from the Middle East is complex for all the wrong reasons. Reporting from any place in the world should actually be complex, but the ideological and emotional weight of the reporting in this part of the world, particularly when it comes to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians is poisonous.

Journalists die or are under threat all over the world. In one month only, in Ukraine, Russian forces killed five journalists. Others are missing in action. In 2021, 45 journalists were killed in connection with their work, Mexico being considered the most dangerous country for fair and honest reporting. Do we know the names of those journalists? Do we have long-length editorials and media outrage from politicians, diplomats, other journalists, social media users? Rarely so. 

In death, we are all equal, indeed, but when the circumstances of the death are as gruesome than those surrounding the death of Shirin Abu-Akleh, it´s unsatisfactory. I wish all those responsible for the death of journalists should be punished. I wish the circumstances of the death of journalists are investigated and made public. I also wish people make vigils for all the journalists - and academics - rotting in prisons of dictatorships. Are we informed every day a couple of times about the fate of the opposition Belarusian journalist Roman Protasevich and his girlfriend, both EU citizens, who were literally kidnapped from their Ryanair flight? Are people outraged on social media a couple of times the day about them being paraded on the local TVs and forced to confess crimes they never comitted? 

In addition, I also wish myself that the Middle East will be, one day, a normal part of the world, where humans no matter their religion and flag can mourn, report about news, sip quietly their coffee without the need of staining everyhing with ideology and political militantism. It´s suffocating and kills the soul. Something new should happen. 

Book Review: Alef by Katharina Höftmann Ciobotaru

I was very curious about Alef by German-born, Israel-relocated Katharina Höftmann Ciobotaru, as, based on the book descriptions. I feel for a long time that the German- - as well as Hebrew- - speaking literary realm is missing stories reflecting a reality my generation is experiencing: the relationships between young German and Israeli, both on generally human, but also very personal level. Given the complicated historical background, such interactions, particularly the ones involving relationships and love, could offer a very interesting source of literary creativity. Plus, it reflects an enfolding reality both in Israel and Germany for over a decade.

Maja, a 21-year old German from Rostock, meets during a backpacking trip Eitan, a decade older Israeli. The womanizer with a mixed Iraqi and Romanian heritage is falling in love and they start writing their own love story. First, long-distance, after he joins her in Berlin, feels unhappy and following a 6-year break-up, she moves to Israel. His grandparents are Shoah survivors, her relatives do have open Neo-Nazi allegiances and who knows what her granpa did during WWII. She takes a giur  (conversion) classes, after many hesitations, and after some personal hardship in accepting religion she is becoming Rivka and is supposed to give birth to a Jewish child to her husband.

Alef is both a love story and a story of belonging. What one may expect from such topics. Sometimes it may be exactly like this in real life. The love story in itself, the idea of two random people from two remote corners of the world meeting and falling in love is beautiful and this is what alef - beginning, the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet - can be all about. The poetic ending of it - Höftman Ciobotaru is also a poet - was for me one of the best parts of the story. The fact that love - in any kind of story, but especially a German-Israeli one - comes with a heavy historical burden is also properly represented in the book.

However, there are some aspects that did not impress me greatly. For instance, the fact that 48 hours after their meeting, Eitan is asking Maja to convert really made me laugh very hard. Seriously, who will ever do this, especially an Israeli hanging around in India? It sounds so cliché that practically made for me the rest of the story largely and annoyingly unlikely. In general, I´ve found all the part regarding Eitan´s observance as well as Maja´s encounter with Gd largely unrelatable and too much cliché, although I am sure it relates to some of the German readers with an experience of a certain extent. However, it would have been so much place for a more ´natural´ approach, especially because being and becoming Jewish can happen in so many beautiful and non/anti-stereotypical ways. 

Another details that did not satisfy my literary tastes at all were related to the projections of the characters´ encounters. For example, when the focus is on one cast of characters and assumed that the other cast may have a certain involvement as well. It makes everything so predictable, although one may already expect that a love story happens anyway. 

The fact that diferent part of the story are in a complex way developed but without ever coming together it is a minus as well, as it would have make the story even more complex and relatable. 

Alef adds testimonies to the German-Israeli collection of common stories, in a similar vein with Mirna Funk´s books. Still, there is so much yet to be told, maybe in a more natural, Israeli-relaxed kind of way. Looking forward to more such books though.

Rating: 3 stars

Two Inspiring Jewish Books for Children

Pesach is always a good time to connect with family and spend more time with children. Inspired by the story-centered ambiance, it is much easier to continue after the Seder with even more Jewish-related stories, with or without a holiday topic.

This Pesach I´ve had the chance to read to my boy two inspiring and beautifully illustrated stories, courtesy of Kalaniot Books, a unique edition house whose books I hope to have the chance to review again soon. 

The Melody by Oded Burla, translated from Hebrew by Ilana Kurshan

Translated by Ilana Kurshan, The Melody is told in the pace of the old Yiddish stories. Created by the late Oded Burla, the founder of children´s literature in Hebrew, it is the parable of the Jewish connection with Gd. Took by the wind, a melody is looking for the right voice to told its story, but most potential beneficiaries, refused it up front. Until it finally reaches the mother about to sing a lullaby to her son. The mother´s voice embraces the melody putting the son to sleep.

Similarly, Gd tried to offer the Torah to other peoples but only the Jewish people accepted the gift without too much ado. 

The beautiful illustrations are signed by Assaf Benharroch.

A Persian Passover by Etan Basseri

Set in the Iran in the 1950s, A Persian Passover by Etan Basseri is more than your usual Pesach-related kind of story. Although it has reference at customs and traditions typical for a Persian seder - for instance, the haleq and the funny custom of hitting your neighbour during the seder with the leek - it is also a story of kindness and good neighbourhood. 

The super active Ezra is running too fast, stumbles and fells in the middle a puddle, and together with him the precious bundle of freshly prepared matzah for the Seder. After desperately trying to find some available matzah on the eve of the Seder, the generous neighbour next door will share hers, and in exchange the children - Ezra and his sister, Roza - invite her to their family Seder.

It is a kind story, with colourful dynamic illustrations that suit it perfectly, created by the very talented Rashin Kheiriyeh. 

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

Tzili (transl. from Hebrew to German by Stefan Siebers) by Aharon Appelfeld

 

A simple girl from a poor family, situated in an unnamed country - there is a mention of a grandfather in the Carpathian region, and the Danube shore but anything specific -, but in a region whose Jews were wipped out from the face of the Earth, Tzili survived the war while hiding in the forest. The survival instinct helped her and also the survival drove her on her way to Palestine after the war was over. 

The homonymous book by Czernowitz-born Aharon Appelfeld is a non-sentimental story set on the foreground of the Shoah. All her family, except her bed-ridden father disappeared and by instinct, she left the house and either hid in the fields or in the forest, by performing menial works in the houses of local Christians. No one took her for a Jewess, as she always introduced herself as the daugher of Maria, a local prostitute. 

Compared to Katerina, Tzili is more realistic and less reflective on the past. The voice of her own story, she may not have a high self-awareness and her school results were less than mediocre, but maybe this simpleton attitude saved her. She did not think too much, lived her life with a strong will of survival. She may have heard from the village what was going on with the other Jews, but she never looked back, not even to go back to check on her father. Embarking to Palestine is a wise decision because what else can expect her here. 

At the end of the war, she is 15, pregnant with a man, Mark, she encountered while in the forest, another sad soul like her, that left her too without a trace that she loves, and so she loves his family - wife and children - that disappeared. Her human relationships are limited to basic interactions and the shild we may take it as a way to take distance from the rest of the world is just a philosophical artifact of our minds thirsty for human mysteries. In fact, she is just a simple person, with no future and past, just the present.

In Tzili, emotions are created without offering to the reader an emotional writing itself. Descriptions and interactions are the way in which the story takes shape. As a way to write about those terrible times, it helps, although may render the characters empty and cruel.

I had access to the book in an excellent translation from Hebrew into German by Stefan Siebers.

UltraOrthodox

I rarely had the chance to read a book belonging to the emerging Jewish literary genre of OTD-Memoirs with such a gentle and angerless take as Akiva Weingarten´s. Born and raised in the midst of the insular Satmar community in NYC, he eventually moved to Israel languising for knowledge in Bnei Brak while being trapped in the emptiness of a mimetic family life.

With 1000 USD in the pocket, out of it 40 Euro he had to pay the fine for buying the wrong metro ticket, Weingarten arrived in Berlin decided to radically leave behind his past and start anew. Maybe as a doctor. But one can dream when there is no clear proof of academic evaluation, one cannot move forward towards achieving an university profile. Sadly by co-existing in a separate, sometimes antinomic educational system, the members of ultraorthodox groups automatically limit the chances of professional achievement. Of course, there is a subtle way of controlling the knowledge and the information coming in and out the group, a more subsidious kosher filters Weingarten used to promote for a short amount of time, but nevertheless it is a sad reality.

To my knowledge, this is the first such memoir completely written in the German language - Deborah Feldman was first ´famous´ in the English-speaking realm before making a media and publishing career in Germany anyway. Although the explanation of different practices and terminology takes an important part of the book, the focus is on the journey and the search for meaning. Life meaning, once one lives religion and its mental and physical comfort. 

After spending a couple of years in Berlin and graduating from Avraham Geiger Kolleg in Potsdam, Weingarten founded a Besht Yeshiva in Dresden. Named after the initiator of the Hasidism, Baal Shem Tov, the yeshiva is aimed to help people who left Orthodoxy settle in their new life. At the beginning, long before the Shoah, Hasidism was created as a reaction against the ´institutionalisation´ of Jewish institution, represented by the Litvische mainstream at the time. Nowadays, it evolved itself as a very conservative mainstream of Judaism. History repeats itself in a different timeline and with a different approach.

I enjoyed reading UltraOrthodox and I wish the book will be translated into English soon too. It is an intellectually passionate journey that deserves a larger audience, for sure.

Tikkun Olam in Ukraine

Israeli diplomats and institutions are heavily involved in helping and supporting Jewish and non-Jewish refugees and victims of the ongoing war in Ukraine. In a one hour video Zoom organised by the Israeli Consulate in NYC, diplomatic representatives at the embassies in Romania (deputy chief of mission Amir Sagron) and Poland(spokeperson and communications representative Irit Yakhnes) and Ilay Levi, specially dispatched in Moldova shared their experiences and emotional testimonies of what does it mean to be on the forefront of saving lives.

Within the overall frame of the global support offered to Ukraine, Israel - based on the decade long experience of emergency interventions - operates the humanitarian rescue operations. This involves, among others, providing tones of medical supplies, setting up a field hospital - Operation Shining Star with significant support of doctors and health institutions from Israel - aimed at helping people in urgent need of medical interventions. The humanitarian operations involved not only the embassies from countries neighbouring Ukraine, but other diplomatic representations as well. For instance, the six generators delivered via the embassy in Italy, allowing Ukrainian hospital to operate independently from the electricity shortages.

In addition to the consular efforts to rescue Israeli citizens in Ukraine - around 15,000-20,000, not all Jewish, but having an Israeli passport - and the representatives of the Jewish community, Israel, including through various NGOs operating in Ukraine, such as ISRAID, provided general support to people in need, no matter their passport and religion. A significant number of descendants of Righteous Among Nations, non-Jews who saved Jews during WWII, were also allowed the right to relocate to Israel.

´Israel was there´. On the ground, there are human stories of suffering and human solidarity. Pregnant women, children and elderly, with no other option but to be on the road to save their life. During WWII, Jewish refugees often lost their life desperately looking for safety. Now, there is a state ready to help them while doing tikkun olam in an Europe whose heart is bleeding the destruction of war. 

Be Strong and of Good Courage

 

The Israeli leadership portrayed in Be Strong and of Good Courage by Dennis Ross - career diplomat with long experience in the Middle East and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - and David Makovsky depends at a very great extent of the historical context of the founding of the state of Israel. David Ben-Gurion, Menachem Begin, Yitzak Rabin, Ariel Sharon are usually considered the founding fathers and do represent a certain generation. It is a generation that had to operate under enormous pressure and against a conundrum of inimities and challenges, both internally and externally.

The book follows the historical thread and presents various leadership styles and encounters. While maintaining the historical and geopolitical frame, it displays a variety of arguments explaining one decision or another. Each of the leaders described in the book do have their individual leadership style, mostly inspired by the underground and military experiences - particularly Rabin and Sharon. Given the extraordinary circumstances, judging them through ´normal´/peacetime criteria does not make justice to their times. Knowing more about the context, including the diplomatic unspoken background Ross was largely familiar with, elucidates it.

At the end of the book, I was almost tempted to share nostalgic feeling while comparing ´them´ with ´they´, but finally I realized that it is a very big mistake and in fact, the ´average´ politicians of nowadays are a good sign that no one needs warriors in politics and times turned into a more quiet mood. I suppose that the truth is somewhere in the middle of all this.

Be Strong and of Good Courage do shares a lot of details that may help explaining the many missed opportunities of the ´peace process´, but also the various coordinates that allowed the ´settler movement´ to become such a strong voice within the Israeli politics. Some of the reasons may be, actually, of a very practical nature. The different takes on the relationship with the US, from the very beginning until nowadays is important in the context of Israel´s own state- and national awareness.

Although I much appreciated the well documented narrative, and the interesting political stories brought to life, I was largely disappointed by the writing style. Writing about politics and the Middle East, although it retrains the creative capacity of the writer due to the very complex issues that do not allow too much imaginative tropes, it does not mean that it should be bland and literarily unattractive. More than once I had the feeling that I was just offered some disparate notes on events and characters, that were nissing the thread of a real story.

Rating: 3 stars