Jews of Iran

 

There are many ways in which the life of Jewish communities are influenced or just co-exist in the realm of the societies they operate. The daily life, adjustment of food preferences, intellectual references can intersect, interact and communicate  at different extent and during specific timelines. 

With a history dating back to the Babylonian exile, the Jewish communities of Iran in present times are relatively less known from the anthropological and generally scientific point of view, for obvious reasons. Although not necessarily against the regime, books about Jews in Iran are almost impossible to publish within the country, which contributes to the lack of factual information and therefore the open gates for manipulation by the regime propaganda.

Hence, the precarity of information goes two ways: within and outside the country.

Jews of Iran. A Photographic Chronicle, with a foreword by Lior B. Sternfeld and words by Parvaneh Vahidmanesh is a selection of the photos taken by Hassan Sarbakhshian while travelling among the Jewish communities of Iran for two years at the beginning of the 2000s. Shortly after, Sarbakhshian fled the country. Vahidmanesh as well left Iran after writing the book, being accused of having published a tool of propaganda for Israel, a crime punishable by death by the mullah regime. This shows if one needed any more explanations the perils of affirming the Jewish identity in Iran outside the official propagandistic narrative.

´The photos reveal one of the most beautiful and complicated untold stories of our time. It shows that behind those giantstate and regional confrontations, there are people who live in the figurative and literal middle´, said Lior Sternfeld in the foreword.

Visually at least, based on the photos, there are so many local elements to be taken into consideration when talking about Iranian Jews now, but unfortunatelly there accompanying text describes without any critical/analytical take on the information presented. 

Maybe the right time will come - sooner than later - when such analysis will be possible, accompanying a wider and truthful documentation of the life of Jews in Iran. Until then, the photos included in this book can be considered an interesting and unique ground for a further discussion.

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

Books featuring Jewish life in Germany

I´ve recently read two books in German featuring Jewish authors and public figures that may show the diversity as well as the particularities of being Jewish in Germany.

München-based author Dana von Suffrin collected 16 stories by Jewish authors who are sharing either their experiences or a literary work inspired by their identity. Among them, Eva Manasse, Maxim Biller, Zelda Biller, Adriana Altaras, Linda Rachel Sabiers or Lena Gorelik. Given the literary representation it largely set the ground for a discussion about Jewish literature in German language, that could be a source of both debate and dissent, but interesting nevertheless.

The other collection, edited by Andrea von Treuenfeld, is essentially aimed at offering a voice to young Jews in Germany, sharing their experience, their encounter with antisemitism and the diversity of their life and identity experiences.

This was by far my favorite book, because it shows the future of Jewish life as well as the topics of actuality that may be generated of the different relationships to identity. The authors do come from different ways of life: were born in Germany or in Israel, or they have Israeli parents or are patrilinear Jews or are second generation of ´contingent´ Jews, discovered religion later in life or are keeping the traditions no matter of their halachic background. 

This book is equally interesting for researchers and historians aimed at understanding the Jewish identity in Germany in the 21st century as it offers many new directions of study and analysis.

Hostage by Eli Sharabi translated into English by Eylon Levy

A couple of weeks back was chatting with an American-Jewish writer who just returned from Israel and on her storytelling voice she was rhetorically asking how the cruelties of 7/10 were possible? What monsters can do what the Hamas terrorists did to women, children, other humans?

Hostage by former hostage Eli Sharabi, translated into English by Eylon Levy is a testimony that can be only compared with the similar Shoah testimonies. It shows a permanence of the evil, generated this time from individuals growing up in a fanatic cultish ignorance or cultivating the same ignorance for the sake of illicit political and economic power. 

For 491 days, Sharabi, who is of Moroccan-Yemeni origin and an Arabic speaker, was kept barefoot, moved from one tunnel to another, humiliated, starved and ´offered´ to convert to Islam - as it happened to other captives as well. He was submitted to psychological terror, being lied they were abandoned and that Israel will be soon destroyed. 

Those fanatics for whom Titanic is a great newly released movie, clapped their hands for Iran, and predicted a massive Islamic take-over of the ´West´. They nicknamed Sharabi Abbas, as in Mahmoud Abbas or by his nom de guerre, Abu Mazen, whom they despised. 

Sharabi and his other fellow hostages nicknamed their guardians as well, based on their physical features or behavior. It was their distraction in between the verbal and physical aggression they suffered, and their deteriorating health situation. Food, as in the Shoah memoirs, plays an important role in the survival strategies. But bravely, the solidarity won in the front of the efforts of their captors to create dissent in the group, due to the food rations. Every Friday evening they recited the Shabbes songs, and the next day the Havdala songs. They prayed in the morning. Another example of strength and survival.

Sharabi found out the day of his liberation that his brother, Yossi, also took captive from kibbutz Be´eri was killed. His beloved wife and daughters were killed on 7/10 and although he imagined this scenario, he was informed about only upon his return to Israel. 

It is so much tension in this book and you feel overwhelmed by the weight of the dramatic realities of the last two years. I think we should not try finding an answer about the human nature and how was it possible, but to find the best ways to never allowed such a cruelty to be committed. It is like the post-WWII history is written over and over again. 

I´ve had access to the book in the audiobook format, extraordinarily read by actor and coach Geoffrey Cantor. 

Book Review: Hunting in America by Tehila Hakimi translated by Joanna Chen

The unnamed woman character of author and poet Tehila Hakimi´s debut novel Hunting in America, translated into English by Joanna Chen (here is an interesting dialogue between the author, the translator and the Jewish Book Council about the book) got promoted to the American branch of the Israeli company. A three-year contract as product manager, and the promise of a new life.

She moves, learns from the mistakes of addressing her colleagues in a very direct frontal way, not getting used with the tasteless food, and got invited by her direct supervisor to hunting. Weekend after weekend, this will be her intermezzo that makes the difference between work and non-work. And as she advances into the experience of the hunting her life takes a dark edge. Her job is unsafe, she is getting involved with David, her supervisor and hunting partner. 

First and foremost, except hunting - Hakimi brought the topic as a common bridge between Israel and USA - there is nothing else happening to the character´s life. (and here there are again similarities between the two cultures). The daily work instills importance and relevance to the day, consumes the energy. What else is left ? Therefore, the confusing experience of the hunting, where deers may acquire human features. Can you imagine the exhaustion of being took out of the safety of the office and the project management tasks? Work is an alienation (and the protagonist is fully alienated from herself during her intensive working episodes, manifesting her eating disorder) but not-work is a hallucination.

The timeline of the story is mixed, with the episodes leading to her American chapter being mixed with the accounts of the present time. The counting - ´on my first hunting in America...´ - split the story into different benchmarks. It is like an effort to make sense of a lonely life, who does not exist outside the work framework.

This is a short novel, that I´ve listen in few hours as audiobooks, read by Sharone Halevy - her use of the right Israeli accent at the right time in the story added more authenticity to the audio-reading.  

I´ve found the angle of the book very interesting, but sometimes a book built around a thesis may have shortcomings in terms of other elements, such as character development etc. But it is a concise explanation of the idea and would definitely love to read more by Hakimi, especially her poetry, hopefully in original.

Rating: 4 stars

Writing About 7/10

It is very difficult to write about ongoing traumatic events. The trauma of 7/10 is unfolding, although today more than two days ago there are more chances to see a closing - although not an end of it. 

Recently I attended at the International Festival of Literature Berlin a discussion about writing after 7th of October, with Ayelet Gundar-Goshen, Julia F. Tzaisler and Yaniv Iczkovits. Gundar-Goshen, who is a clinical psychologist by profession, and was asked to offer assistance to those affected by the events, outlined that right now, the trauma the Israeli society is experiencing is still ongoing since two years. Healing requires at least a closing of the current state of affairs, meaning the return of the hostages and end of the ostilities.

Therefore, it is hard to read and think about the future of Israel when the past is in the making. The hope, that toxic hope that poisons sometimes our senses, requires a balance that only books can offer. Hence, an overview of three books I´ve read in the last years related to the 7/10, in German and English.

I classified the three books in a past-present-future timeline, although this does not reflect exclusively the sequence. But, we humans we need structure and categories to organise the world, even in the midst of the most terrible catastrophies. 

The Past: Israel.7. Oktober by Lee Yaron, translated into German by Maria Zettner, Sigrid Schmidt, Cornelia Stoll

This book by award-winner journalist Lee Yaron is my favorite approach on the current events so far. In 10 ´human stories´ she brings to the life of the written word personal histories of victims of the massacre. It is an enormous but worth every word of it, of oral history. It keeps the memory while outlining the diversity of destinies and the precious lives that were lost.

Rating: 5 stars

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

The Present: Fenster ohne Aussicht by Dror Mishani translated by Markus Lemke

When 7th of October happened, crime author and literature professor Dror Mishani was in Toulouse. His diary of the time covering those first moments following the massacre until 10th of March 2024 were collected in a Tel Aviv diary translated into German as Windows without View (the translation belongs to me). Exactly as a windowless window, the words - his, his students´ - are hardly finding their way. For a while, he is not writing crime novels, he cannot do it right now, but took notes of the reflection of his memories and thoughts, with snipets of information, about this new society. Literature makes not sense, and his refuge are old prophets´ and the Ilyad. 

Rating: 4 stars

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

The Future: Fire by Ron Leshem, translated into German by Ulrike Harnish and Martin Lemke

Ron Leshem, the author of Fire - in the German translation, Feuer. Israel und der 7. Oktober - overviews Israel´ strategic mistakes, including regarding Sinwar, from the perspective of a future that must be focused on healing the trauma. It is a personal and society trauma, as Leshem had family members who lived in the kibbutzim and eventually got kidnapped. His insider knowledge combined with his analytic skills - he was a former intelligence officer gives a realistic chances of a difficult future yet not impossible to fathom. 

Rating: 4 stars

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

Adama by Lavie Tidhar

´They´re good boys, but bad things happen in war´.

 

The Hebrew word ´adama´ - earth, do include the word ´dam´ - blood.

Lavie Tidhar´s noir story of Israel, is subversively embracing a different, less romanticized narrative of the country. An inter-generational story that does not act according to the usual back and forth towards the memory lane, with gangster kibbutznik women following revenge until death do us apart. I laughed and had second thoughts and even checked some references that were obviously fictional, intentionally confusing the reader.

In Adama the kibbutzim and their inhabitants are everything we wished they are, and what some of them really were: fierce, boiling revenge, breaking up every single rule, breathing freedom. Tidhar moves with a joyous irony through fragments of Israeli history, with fine irony and historical references made in full honesty.

Ruth, the matriarch of kibbutz Trashim - ´rocky ground´, not ´trash´, but who knows - a fictional location placed in the North of Israel, is the perfect new Jew. A Holocaust survivor from Hungary, hard as stone, fierce. She hates Zohar Argov. Unstoppable even when touched by early setting of dementia. But some things simply cannot be forgotten. 

I always despised the Romantic view on kibbutzim. Pioneers, hard working, patriots. They were all of it and a bit more. Tidhar, a prolific science fiction writer and pulp fiction consumer, instilled life in the usual stereotypical kibbutznik. And how I love the gangster touch of it. After all, history is made by people, people like Ruth and the boys hidding weapons between the freshly harvested vegetables. 

The book is the second installment from the Maror Trilogy, and it was only my personal choice to start with the second one. I will continue with the reviews of the other two books at a later time.

Rating: 5 stars

No Other Land

I am terribly late in terms of catching up with latest films and cultural productions from Israel that got a certain notoriety. Those times are hard for the truth and what really appeals abroad may be rather what the audiences are expecting to hear and see. Definitely not the truth.

No Other Land was extremely praised and I wanted to keep my mind clear from various toxic views on a conflict that is commented from abroad and rarely shared from inside. 

Basel and Yuval, one Palestinian and another Israeli are witnessing the constant demolition of Palestinian homes in the village of Masefer Yata in the West Bank. Watching the movie and seeing how the IDF is repeatedly destroying the houses rebuilt overnight and sends the inhabitants in a precarious cave-based habitations you can hardly control your hate against the IDF. Women fighting barehands, children growing up in the middle of the rubble, men took to prison, Yuval recording everthing, Basel looking forward in this hopeless world. Terrible times and precarious existences.

It´s really sad, but you know what is also sad: half-truths or undocumented affirmations. No one producing this movie seems to really care to offer a bit of background about why we have this situation, what exactly in bureaucratic terms creates this unclear property situation. In no normal country in the world is it possible to start building without construction permit. 

And you know what is also sad: that the Palestinian living there, do have authorities to represent them, to have their rights defended using the democratic tools. No authorities to check out and negotiate new legal arrangements and laws allowing people to live in houses instead of caves, giving the chance to someone like Basel who studied at the university to get a job. 

Yuval and Basel may do a great job documenting, but decision making is somewhere else, in the place where people taking decisions may be. Until there will be no responsibilities taken and people in charge with clarifiying the legal framework, children will continue to waste their childhood in the middle of the rubble.

Indeed, there is No Other Land, but don´t expect others to do for your land what you are not doing yourself for it. And it is not about the ´resistance´.

Satmer kidnapping in Argentina?

Last evening, I watched the shocking life story of Chanie Werzberger that was previously presented in series by Ami Magazine. She is a fantastic strong woman, that despite the tragedies she went through, she is able to embrace the day with resilience and emunah. Her story was recently published by ArtScroll and I am definitely curious to find out more about all the details of her life.  

There were many thoughts that stayed with me or developed shortly after watching the interview. The story itself, and the way in which Chanie is telling it, is traumatic. 

Born in Argentina in a non-religious family, when she was 4, her parents separated. Her mother was a bohemian and apparently used to leave her and her sister (6 at the time) alone at home for long amounts of time, including by night time. Following a phone discussion with the Satmer Rebbe in NYC - there is a significant number of Satmer Hasidim living in Argentina, result of post-WWII immigration, a community Askenazi by name and Sephardi by customs -, decided to kidnap the girls and take them to the US. It took Chani 21 years to meet her mother again. The mother´s side on the story is not known as for now.

During their stay in NYC, they were hosted in different foster families across NYC - she doesn´t say it but probably it was a way to lose their trace - , and joined their father lately, living in precarious, rat-infested basements. They received new names. 

It takes a lot of courage to share such a story, and although she is not accusing anyone for what happened, this is a clear example of parental alienation and it is no wonder that the religious argument was used as a subterfuge for the kidnapping. Altough I may have a more radical critical take on the situation, I deeply respect this pious courageous woman.

The events took place almost six decades ago therefore also the rules and awareness about such cases was lower. The fact that her father got the support of Satmer Rebbe is another level of interest though, that may require a bit of more journalistic inquiry. If it was so easy to bring two girls from Argentina and alienate them completely from their non-religious family, what about from other countries, or from the USA? Satmer used to be very active in Yemen from where they brought Jews to the US and integrated into the sect, so maybe there is much more to search about this case, and maybe many similar others.

Hopefully, to be continued...

About Lies

Anyone with an ounce of observation skills, interested to take the pulse of the daily life on the streets of Berlin may have notice that in the last two years a different mood is growing. Yeah, Berlin remains a party city and people love to dance on the street, but this time they do it in the monotonous pace of screams to ´globalize the Intifada!´ I give the benefit of doubt that many of those in trance when hearing it were not even born during the time of the Intifada, and some really don´t have anything to do with the Middle East - except some T-shirt they got for free with the bold Palestine word on their chest - preferably red. But there are many who actually know it very well, and they may fantasize about playing its game. Those who may produce the T-shirts and may hand some financial support to those in need, laying idly near the Shisha bars of Neukölln. 

Jüdische Allgemeine editor-in-chief Philipp Peyman Engel wrote recently a book about Germany´s Existential Lies - Deutsche Lebenslüge in original, the English version of the translation belongs to me - which sums up facts and figures, experiences shared and lived. In Berlin, in Israel, in Ruhrgebiet - where he was born. Experiences from his mother´s country of birth, Iran.

I don´t think this book is for the German Jews, they may know and see by themselves, no matter how distant from the daily practice may be. But the Germans themselves, they may want to read about the duplicity - those...´yes...but´ just for the sake of playing right while hiding the truth (it is just me or the practice of taroof is taking too much over our public lives, no matter where - hint, see the current ceasefire between Iran´s mullahs and Israel). 

Instead of creating a debate, a dispute, some truths on the table, due to some cacophonic screams that will make the most aggressive bazaari hide of shame - bazaari people are lovely and hardworkers, don´t take me wrong - that diverted the discussion into a direction that really do not matter for the discussion - if Payman Engel´s mother was or was not member of Baha´i when for most of the people heating the debate this name says much less than a Mai Tai they order to drown their existential self-doubts - we may be skipping the chore of the book. Is that true? Is life for Jews in Germany becoming more threatening after 7th of October? Is it fair to expect the Jewish citizens of Germany to enjoy life or only if you screem ´Free, Free´ waving the flag of a country murdering its own citizens you have the right to breath without fear?

What about reading the book, taking notes, create some bullet points, read some history books or hire some people to do it for you, bring your friends from all over the river and seas and discuss. Use arguments, examples, counter-argument, you name it. Instead, we are missing another occasion of self-reflection and all we are left with are the loud screams of mediocrity.  

Long Island Compromise by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

´First generation build the house, second generation lives in it, third generation burrns it down´.

It took me months until this online library loan was available which made me even more curious to get my eyes to this book. And, as in the case of the stellar debut by Brodesser-Akner, Fleishman is in trouble, I wasn´t disappointed.

An inter-generational family story, taunted by trauma, and an incident that marked the family - the kidnapping of the family father, a story inspired by a true story that took part on Long Island decades ago - Long Island Compromise is a novel of modern Jewish life in America. 

The author´s fantastic storytelling reminded me of literary sagas of Jewish life in the goldene medine, and it maintains a certain classical storyline, to which (limited) elements of modernity are added. You felt through the story at the end of the 1990s, but a bit far from our turbulent times, but I wasn´t bothered because the ambiance was although authentic, not necessarily relevant for the story. The meeting between worlds happens in a very smooth way, despite the tormented life of the characters themselves. 

What really mattered was the stories of the main characters, written over and over again, based on myths or impressions or desire to be different. As Rabbi Weintraum said in the book: ´all families are a Bible story into themselves´.

The stories intertwins with modern or old trauma, personal or generational. It may get subliminally transferred into addiction - sex or drugs - deep depression, identity crisis. Each wants to be out of it, but it falls over and over again. Jenny, the youngest, is the most categoric, as she focused her depressive thoughts into anti-capitalist attitudes. But her grandmother´s voice will come from the background: ´Thus money you hate, it´s all that stands between you and the gas chamber!´. (The book has a realistic critique of the income inequality, without falling into the trap of any ideological take).

People who once were poor, may know how to avoid the curse again, and the (happy) end of the story, with the drama-free acceptance of life - including the terrible secret that saved the family during the Holocaust - is a victory of life. 

I enjoyed the story and the ideas shared. Long Island Compromise is a contemporary intelligent Jewish story you shouldn´t miss. 

Rating: 4.5 stars

That Black Hasidic Lady by Sara Braun

´Even since I can remember, I was always a spiritual type of child who would have thoughts and experiences more so in feelings instead of words´.

 

Few days back I stumbled upon an interview the brilliantly kind Frieda Vizel did with Sara Braun, a Jew of colour from the Netherlands who decided to become Hasidic. Being Black, with a non-Jewish father, with a non-religious background, some may assume that she will face a strong resilience, particularly if she wants to join insular groups, but in her case, it was rather the opposite - with some limits though, such as shidduchim etc. 

Usually I am writing more about people who left the religious communities, the so-called off the derech phenomenon - which do usually receive a much wider acclaim, but in fact I am equally curious about the other way round. People who left their secular upbringing behind and willingly took upon themselves the strict rules of observance - and received as a bonus a warm knitted community as well.

That Black Hasidic Lady is the book Sara Braun wrote summarizing her personal story. Illustrated with beautiful photos of her and her equally beautiful family, it is an account of how a girl who grew up in a Dutch village, aware of her Jewish heritage, although in a non-religiously committed way, got to know and embraced herself the Hasidic way of life. 

Trained as a soprano, but with an entrepreneurial mind - she tailored wedding gowns for a while while in NYC - she got accepted - as a guest or as a family member, by Hasidic families, most probably Satmer way of Kiryas Joel. She does not mention the name of the group, the only Hasidic sects being explicitly nominated is Chabad - how can someone avoid them anyway - and Belz, to whom she is connected via her maternal side.

´Everything was just about family, community, good food and creating beautiful memories with God at the center´. This sentence clearly resumes what many people were longing for before joining Judaism or who are becoming religious - any religion, in fact. It is the feeling that some people who left the fold will always miss.

The book in itself though was kind of disappointment. In need of extra proofreading and structuring, it leaves you with the feeling that you still haven´t understand too much about her - although her video interviews are more assertive: What exactly was her relationship to God and observance before? How does she ended up suddenly with a non-religious guy from abroad when she was surrounded by Godfearing Jews? How did they negotiated within the marriage the religious observance - which was at the very opposite ends. Why did she returned to Europe though? What exactly meaned her ´radicalized´ observance, which specific minhag ? What about the relationship between her children and their father? How do they navigate between two different worlds? For a while she writes about her husband and suddenly he is ´ex-husband´...She went to the States at 18 as she always dreamed of, which is cool, found a job as an au-pair, and left the job but in any case one needs a valid working permit, including EU citizens. And so on and so forth.

There are also some spicy references about men she met who expected sexual favour from her, but everthing is related within the limits of modesty.

To sum up, That Black Hasidic Lady adds up interesting information about what does it mean to be Jewish - by birth - woman and black in religious communities - there is a lot of prejudice, but there is more than that - but also explores a personal journey of finding one´s place in the world. 

The book is a bit disappointing from the literary point of view though, compared to the videos I´ve watched. A slight editing would have changed and improved everything.

Operation Bethlehem by Yariv Inbar translated by Dalit Shmueli

´Daniel stared at his instructor and thought how convincing deception could be´.

I´ve recently read some good and very good books written by former spies, and the insights of their everyday lives, especially in fiction, brings a note of genuine creativity. But not all spies are easily allowed to share their personal details, even if they are long retired. They remain valuable assets for their institutions, who are, partially at least, continue to keep control over their life.

Yariv Inbar, whose Operation Bethlehem, translated into English by Dalit Shmueli, was awarded Jewish Book Council´s Jane Weizman Award, is a former Mossad operative with a taste of spy thriller. Due to the sensitive nature of his missions, his books needs to be first approved by the censhorship´s office of the service, a practice common for other intelligence institutions such as CIA. According to the same rules, the author is using a pseudonym.

Given the above mentioned limitations, Operation Bethlehem may have less spy core compared to your usual espionage thriller, written by civilian authors. However, out of limitations comes the diamond, which is the main character of the story, Daniel, a French Jew who immigrated to Israel and joined the Mossad, with an explosive personality that may take him on slippery ways, risking careers and operations. Through the twists of the operation on enemy territory - Bethlehem - Daniel is initiating on his own, there are remains of a love story with another Mossad operative and also a curious archeological take, fully in sync with the role of archeology in the everyday life and identityy representations in Israel. 

In the end, the story may be too sugary coated for my taste, but it´s worth reading it if you are curious to get a full immersion into a fragment of the everyday life of a spy. Once a spy, always a spy.

Rating: 3 stars