Best Hanukkah Jokes for Your Purim Shpiel

 

It is never too late to exchange some Hanukkah jokes. With Purim just around the corner - and one month afterwards Pesach - that´s the perfect timing for getting ready for some warmhearted ´hahaha´. Not that ´hohoho´, obviously.

I don´t know too much about what kind of jokes - if ever - kids are laughing at - I bet there may be some memes involved anyway - but the jokes in this book do have the naive touch of the old times. So old that I may feel myself shamefully old for even remembering those times.

Making jokes and keeping the smile, no matter what, it is important for your health. What´s also funny is that you can make your good old Jewish jokes, and therefore, through laughing, one can also learn some good Jewish history and religious stories. Maybe it will be a bit difficult to explain them to the very young generation, but some funny drawings included in the book may be useful in just getting into the funny spirit.

It is never too late for a joke, even when Hanukkah is quite a couple of months away.

Rating: 3 stars 

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review but the opinions are, as usual, my own

No one Wants You to Disappear

 

One morning, Israel wakes up with its Palestinian residents disappearing out of nowhere. 24 hours after, there is still no trace of them, and it seems there is no security danger to cope with either. The Book of Disappearance by Jaffa-born, Hebrew University of Jerusalem educated Ibtisam Azem - translated into English by Iraqi poet Sinan Antoon who also translated Mahmoud Darwish- explores exactly this premise: what will happen if suddenly all Palestinians in Israel disappear unexpectedly. 

The story is told through the inter-twinned stories of Ariel, a Jewish journalist, and Alaa, a young Palestinian who converses with his grandmother in the diary he left after disappearing. They are neighbours on Rotschild Boulevard and Ariel ends up by translating Alaa´s testimony and taking over his home, whose locks is planning to change at the end of the story.

Although the writing is good - in its political satyric take - and the details are realistic, any book that imagined the disappearance of a group of people only to narrate the same ideological truism about various interpretations of the ´occupation´ it does not have any of my sympathies. It just extends the ´either or´ mindset, creating a mentality that in any way will improve anything but the high level of hate and intolerance, taking away any chance of building a new world, outside the one based on a hyper-historical narrative. 

Remembering Baghdad

´We are part and parcel of Iraq and I will not let go´.

Remember Baghdad, currently available on Netflix, documents the 2,500 years of Jewish history in Baghdad through the eyes of five families currently living in London. Although the traces of Jewish history are everywhere in Iraq, particulary in Baghdad, few people may remember nowadays the 140,000 Jews that were forced to leave the country.

Formerly a center of the Jewish world, Iraq is coping with a decade of dictatorship, war, civil conflict and foreign involvement. The film brings to life family stories and memories, businesses that were left behind and political projects - such as involvement in the Communist Party, were some of the former members got later involved in similar projects in Israel.

Like in the case of Persian Jews, Iraqi Jews nourish kind memories of their former country. It is a love for a country were they used to live or about whom they dreamed about with the dreams of their parents and grandparents. 

The film is using both documentary sources about Iraqi Jews and the making of the Middle East and Israel during and after WWII and direct interviews, as well as ground research in Baghdad and Irbil. It is balanced, nostalgic and keeps the distance from the subjects in order to let them unfold their stories, and the testimonies about their contribution to the local economy and culture.

Until the time will come for the Jews of Iraq to be able to visit again the places where they or their parents and grandparents were born, documentaries like Remember Baghdad are here to make everyone aware of their presence and memories. One day...