Cast Out. The History of the Jews of Arab Lands by Lyn Julius

 ´850,000 Jews, more than 99% of the Jews living in Arab states, fled their countries of birth, in one of the largest displacements of non-Muslims from the region after WWIÍ´, outlines Lyn Julius in her 100-page essay published recently with The Jewish Quarterly. Julius, herself a Babylonian Jew, wrote before about the fate and the circumstances of Jews from Muslim lands - in the essay, the Iranian Jews are sometimes without too much academic care for precision included in the category of Arab states, as examples.

The essay is stating the realities of the Jewish communities shaking the myths supported by the zealots supporters of the ´traditional peace´ between Jews and their Arab neighbours. Few decades ago - and sometimes now, in some non-informed peaceniks milieus - it was bon ton to counter the pogroms with the ´tolerance´ between Jews and Muslims in the Middle East, eventually mentioning ´before the state of Israel was born´. But the reality is more nuanced and violent, as co-existence is not the precise word to describe the everyday life of Jews in Iraq, Algeria, Tunesia, Libya or Syria. And this is not necessarily related to the state of Israel.

Julius is quoting the Tunesian-Jewish intellectual Albert Memmi who addressed the Libyan dictator Ghadafi in France in 1973 as follows: ´The state of Israel is not the result of Auschwitz, but off the Jewish predicament at large, including its predicament in Arab countries´. Although the relationship between the state of Israel and its non-European Jews is complex and far from being perfect, but reflects the mentalities of the time. The European Jews were very much integrated into their European societies, like German or French or Polish, and once in Israel they brought with them the prejudices and sometimes the arrogance of their places of birth and education.

I particularly liked the comparative references and the informations about episodes from the Jewish life in Morocco or Tunesia or Iraq. The general framework is relatively unsurprising, but relies on the general knowledge - legal, historical - about the topic. 

Jews from Muslim lands aren´t officially recognized as ´refugees´. The issue of the properties took over by the states aren´t the subject of international/inter-state agremeents, like the Abraham Accords. Their cultural and linguistic heritage is struggling to survive - but the Internet is offering a safe and creative space for revival. 

Documenting and repeating those realities creates a framework for discussion and information. This essay adds historical information to a history too big to have been reached its end.

The Blue Mountain by Meir Shalev translated into German by Ruth Achlama

I was recently looking to update my list of recommended Israeli literature reads and from one reference to another, I´ve got The Blue Mountain by Meir Shalev, translated into German by Ruth Achlama as Ein Russischer Roman.  

I always love a good read featuring kibbutzniks as through the story of beginnings one can better understand the present, especially when it comes to the State of Israel. If they will still belong to the future, it is hard to say, but as for now, the kibbutzim - although in a more capitalistically-oriented form - still exist, and their resilience defines the nation. 

Told by Baruch, the third generation kibbutznik who set up a cemetery, it is a multi-generational story of (now) old people with funny ways of being. The characters are full of humour, wild, over-sexual, they love plants and animals. One bull´s name is Jean Valjean.

The story is going back and forth, with a timeline that it´s often confusing. There is not too much happening, as we are took into the story with the imagination of a voyeur: we are watching what the characters are doing - not that much - how they are getting old and dying. Some episodes are funny, some just life - not always exciting. And this takes about 500+ pages to share.

There are clearly parts of this book that I enjoyed, but concision is not the strongest feature of this book. I had some literary expectations - in terms of story structure, character and plot development - that were barely met, but at least I had a great laughs in the company of the kibbutzniks and their stories. Sometimes it may be enough when you are looking to some inspiration for better appreciating the flesh and blood brave kibbutzniks.

PS: Although I usually appreciate the German-speaking edition houses book covers, this time - a  1860 portrait of the French Catholic Louis Auguste Cézanne by Paul Cézanne - was not necessarily an inspired choice by the Swiss edition house Diogenes Verlag.

Nicht ohne meine Kippa! by Levi Israel Ufferfilge

'Für Antisemiten habe ich überhaupt keine anderen Eigenschaften. Keine eigene Geschichte´.

Levi Israel Ufferlige grew up in North Rhein Westphalia region of Germany. He graduated Jewish studies, was a religion teacher and speaker, and the director of the Masorti Jewish International School in Berlin, and currently he is the rabbi of the community in Oldenburg.

He is also proudly wearing his kippa on the German streets and further sharing his story in an account of his daily life in Germany as a Jew: Nicht ohne meine Kippa! (Not without my kippa!). The book was published in German and as far as I know was not yet translated into other languages.

In addition to the personal and family details, the author is extensively sharing his experience in facing and sometimes fighting against the antisemitism when openly Jewish. There may be voices complaining that there is maybe too much ´love for the Jews´ in this country, but for someone living as a Jew here, the experience is largely contrary to this assumption.

For Levi Israel Ufferfilge, as for many others before him, and many other right now, especially after 7th of October, there are the same challenges over and over again. Although holding official positions - including as a teacher - he is sharing the experience as an individual, without any institutional support or intervention. 

Although I´ve found his experience very relevant as an alternative and realistic version of the everyday Jewish life in Germany, some of the personal details shared weren´t necessarily a contribution to the main topic. But because I was so avid to find out all the possible details of his Jewish experiences as a visible religious person in Germany, that´s it.

Rating: 4 stars

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

Chopping Onions on My Heart by Samantha Ellis

I am always happy to discover new books about the rich heritage of Iraqi Jews, as each book brings more information about a world that once was. Most part of the books I´ve read are generally related to the issues of identity and belonging in the Israel context, Chopping Onions on my Heart. On Losing and Preserving Culture by Samantha Ellis is adding a different identity layer: the role of language in keeping alive a world that exist only in memories.

Iraqi Jews, as many other Jews from Arab lands, don´t have a place to come back for the summer vacations. Children cannot experience the flavors and language inflections of their mother tongue. They cannot build their own memories of the places where they are coming from. Iraq is a place out of reach and for the newest generation - diaspora-born - there is no direct connection with the place. The Iraq of their parents and grandparents doesn´t exist anymore either. 

Judeo-Iraqi is a language that for Ellis, as for many Jews of Iraqi origin living all over the world, may build that bridge to the world as it was once. Ladino or the many variations of Jewish Persian dialects are kept alive by a community of language enthusiasts, some joining the fantastic courses of the Oxford School of Jewish Language that I had the pleasure to visit twice. Ellis herself attended the Judeo-Baghdadi classes. There are even more initiatives lately where people, not necessarily with a direct connection to the realm, do learn, translate, converse in those ´lost´ languages. It´s the power of zachor - as long as we remember them, we talk about them, they will stay alive.

Ellis is following the usual intellectual format of identity memoirs: food, family history, language longing. But although the format is similar with other memoirs, the content is different and this is what enriches the story about Iraqi Jews. Each chapter was a door towards a cultural realm which is about to disappear.

For me, it was another topic that interested me dearly: how can you connect your children to a traumatic heritage. It is all about that life choreography which is so difficult to keep under control and repress without diminishing its authenticity. In the end, everything belongs and depends on the power of stories and their storytellers.

I had access to the book in audiobook format, read by the author. 

Funny, You Don´t Look Like a Rabbi by Rabbi Lynnda Targan

At 50, Lynnda Targan was accomplished PR professional with an intense and busy family life. Not necessarily an observant Jew - in the ´orthodox´ sense of the word - but with a strong Jewish identity. Somehow though, she was feeling she needs and she can do a bit more; both inspire and get inspired herself.

Hence, her search for a new personal and in the end, professional too, pathway: she started to study about Judaism and eventually ended up receiving the smicha - the rabbinic ordination. A trajectory that was not lacking stumbling block, particularly as a woman, and especially as a woman looking for a position of prestige and ultimately, power. 

Her memoir of ´Unorthodox Transformation´ - Funny, You Don´t Look Like a Rabbi is an account of her pursuing and eventually achieving her midlife professional and personal dream. Her insights are very useful for anyone trying to follow a similar pathway but also share a personal story facing the complexities of the contemporary life. With resilience and motivation, even the difficulties of the Hebrew language can be conquered. 

I´ve found the memoir honest, personal and direct. It explains her personal Jewish perspective as well as her lessons learned. At the same time, this book offers some good insights regarding the take of non-Orthodox denominations on a various daily Jewish practices and interpretations and I am definitely curious to learn out more about the diversity within the Jewish diverse practices.

The Hidden Hand by Warren Kinsella

Jewish life after October 7th is sometimes unbearable. Israeli - no matter the age - abroad are literally hunted by rabid individuals accusing them of atrocities; Jewish institutions and events are guarded to teeth; visible Jewish symbols may turn you into a clear victim of verbal and physical aggressivity. Some people may believe in some misinterpreted ´social justice´. But the overwhelming majority is following, as Warren Kinsella remarks in his latest book The Hidden Hand, a seasoned agenda meticulously prepared by states and terrorist organisations with a clear agenda. 

Kinsella, who is not Jewish, analyses the details of the violent communication and public strategies implemented shortly after October 7th leave no doubt about the high level of planning of the operations per se, probably years in advance. The level of mediatic planning and protest strategies with well chosen actors and generous financing, explained in the book with examples, sets the reasons for the overwhelming propaganda war happening in the last three years.

Most of the things exposed in The Hidden Hand are clear and no secret for anyone carefully observing the media messaging and the structure of mass protests all over the world - just visit the regular ´Pro Palestinian´ protest in your nearest town few times and the patterns are obvious as well as the role distribution and the logistics. 

The questions I was left with at the end of the book - even after reading some lines of actions that may lay the ground for a possible challenge of the current situation were: It is too late to change something? Are we condamned to remain in the self-righteous bubble knowing the truth, but nevertheless unable to change anything while helplessly noticing how everything is just getting worse for the Jews - no matter where?

It is hard to be optimistic after the toxic roller coaster of the last three years. Democracies should be taken responsible for guaranteeing the safety of their citizens, no matter the religion. Media should  be reminded of its obligations to inform, and sanctioned when turns into activism. Facts needs to be explained and published smartly using the many social media tools available. 

It is no time to give up.

Dog by Yishay Ishi Ron translated into English by Yardenne Greenspan

´I´m not in Gaza, I´m in Tel Aviv, and there are no shells here, only a dying dog, and no one is helping, no one comes´.

A short and intellectually sharp novel set in Tel Aviv, Dog by Yishay Ishi Ron, brilliantly translated into English by Yardenne Greenspan is emotionally powerful and dramatically realistic. It is a very well constructed story, that doesn´t dramatize, but inserts the elements of drama into the characters in a seamless way. 

Nicknamed Geller - the magician able to bend a spoon with the power of his mind, the main character was wounded during the Operation Pillar of Defense, suffering of severe, untreated PTSD. (The author himself is a survivor of severe PTSD). ´Everyone was so proud of me. They say I´m a hero, but I didn´t feel like one´. Now, he is a heroine-addict, living with other addicts in Tel Aviv. He is befriended - against his will, but he doesn´t have any will anyway ´So I seem friendly to you? (...) I´m a heroin addict. I need drugs, no friends´. - by a woman who lost her son many years ago, living alone with a dog. 

There are short dialogues and short scenes succeeding, sometimes similar with traumatic episodes, only that for Geller - who is only later on named with his real name, Barak, when he is arrested for a framed murder - those episodes are now more than isolated flashes; his whole ife is a long endless traumatic flash.

Depictions are realistic, as well as the life-like setting. It ends - after a crime-story intermezzo - with no promise, but it as the end of a sequence. The end of a tragic story beautifully told.

For me, it was the best Jewish/Israeli-related read of the year so far. 

Israeli Movie Review: Barren directed by Rabbi Mordechai Vardi

Long time no Israeli movie, but the last one I´ve watched, Barren (Akara, the original Hebrew version), directed by Rabbi Mordechai Vardi, offered me enough food for thought for the next weeks.

Feigi and Naftali are a young couple in their early 20s, living in Tzfat by Nafali´s baal teshuva parents. Feigi desperately wants a baby, and so wants her husband, but as he is away for Rosh Hashana in Uman, a wandering wonder rabbis Rabbi Eliahu is hosted in the house. He is manipulating her and sexually abuses her, which creates a big rift in the relationship. 

What I really liked about this movie is the nuanced, empathic and non-judgemental approach of the film director. There is no judgement or critique, it just shows the ways in which faith can mislead and can be abused. The inflexible, non-emotional way of the halacha is faced with the more diverse human realities they may not necessarily match. 

Well played, this movie opens up so many questions while leaving room for human connection and understanding. It also opens up on a topic carefully or rarely touched upon in religious communities, namely sexual abuse. 

A film that would love to watch again at a certain time. I also added this film director on the list of Israeli film directors to watch.

City of Dogs by Leon de Winter translated into German by Stefanie Schäfers

´Lea hatte ein Recht auf ihre Illusionen, auch wenn er selbst keine hatte´.

Jaap Hollander is a very successful brain surgeon, searching for years for his disappeared daughter Lea, during a Birthright trip, in Mitzpe Ramon.  Year after year, he lands in Israel, trying to find out a trace of her. Until one year, he is requested by the unnamed country´s ruler (Bibi) to perform a very delicate brain surgery to the sick daugher of (also unnamed) Saudi prince (MBS). Unlikely to succeed, but he does, which makes him rich enough to invest his fortune in complex searches. However, as he may turn himself into a brain surgery patient he may shortly experience an emotional shift, that may bring him closer to understand his daughter´s closeness to his identity. While recovering, he will stay in Tel Aviv one 7th of October day day taking the sudden decision of taking part to a rave festival in the Negev desert.

City of Dogs (Stadt der Hunde, translated from Dutch to German by Stefanie Schäfers) is a book you need time to digest and even more time to understand. The professor is a cynical, narcissist and macho person, disrespecful towards women, cynical, he is very much aware of his professional value. There is no place for belief in the brain. But the brain is a place of paradoxes, and he will experience it himself, although while in coma fighting for his life. 

There is more than a CV to show when asked ´Who you are?´

I personally enjoyed very much the digressions about brain and brain science in general, but got a bit lost at the fantastic part - with the talking Ibrahim/Avi dog. There are deep, open questioned the book is asking, but the answer is clearly a matter of individual choices. Which makes the book even more interesting. 

Balagan by Mirna Funk

There is a new book by Mirna Funk   and I hurried up to get to read it. As in her previous novels, there is again, an Israeli-German story, rooted in the realities of the two worlds - post 7th of October, built around a well developed plot. And there is also a lot of sex, but the author is, after all, a sex columnist as well.

The main protagonist of the story, Amira, inherited from her grandfather a very valuable art collection, that was stolen from the family during the Nazi times. The realities of becoming millionaire overnight. an upgrade from a status of a survival online journalist, put into motion an expected row of envies and confusion, but also led her to shocking personal and family discoveries, especially about her mysterious grandfather.

Funk is extensively using the experiences of the toxic post-7/10 environment in the German cultural sector to prompt a decision on Amira´s behalf. Sadly, it is a realistic and well-informed assessment, forcing a poisonous terror-oriented ideology into the field of arts that are supposed to be free - and open to contradictions. It is a toxicity going well beyond the arts and culture, hitting in general the public space. There are no nuances, no intellectual acceptance, only ´friends´ and ´enemies´ which already reminds of an old mindset. 

Dealing with current, unfolding events in literature may have a price and although I agreed with the ideas, from the literary point of view it sounded like forcing the characters to adapt to the ideas, limiting their options and character development.

Funk writes about topics no one writes in German: being Jewish, and Zionist, and fully embracing one´s Jewish (and sexual) identity. I wish I could compare with other similar novels, but there is none so far.

Choosing to be Chosen by Kylie Ora Lobell

´The world was too amazing for there not to be a God. It was an absolute miracle. I don´t know why I didn´t see it before. It was just common sense that God existed´.

Even since she was a teenageer, Kylie was devoted to journalism and the written word. Faith (Christian), she lost it during her parents divorce. Then, she went through the usual troubles of teenagers from anywhere in the world: anxiety, a bit of bullying, rebellion. There were boyfriends too, Jewish ones, who left because...well, she wasn´t Jewish. Until she met Danny, in her mid 20s, a comedian disillusioned with religion, that she, following her decision to convert Orthodox, brought closer to faith.

Choosing to be Chosen, the debut memoir by journalist and author Kylie Ora Lobell does not differ too much from other conversion stories. It is no sudden revelation. but a promise. After she went to a free meal at a NYC Chabad, she got drawn not only about the great food - both they were surviving on a menial income - but also the sense of belonging that persisted even when their relationship went through a crisis. She wanted to remain with her current husband and being Jewish was part of their story.

Fact-oriented, carefully written and avoiding the usual fluffy exuberance - she recounts how the first time she went to the Kotel she didn´t feel anything, any connection - Choosing to be Chosen is a story about a choice the author made. She shares her story without trying to be a role model or educator, although I would have been a bit curious about some of her lectures and intellectual sources. But the book is not supposed to be about that, anyway.

Israeli Poets in Germany

There is not too much talk about the emerging Israeli literature in the diaspora: Germany, but especially France, Netherlands, Italy etc. America, yes, it´s the opposite, with many Israeli authors publishing and being appreciated as such. But Europe, for all the good and bad reasons is mostly quiet. Or maybe I need to do better research.

A collection of poetry signed by Israeli authors living in Germany, Was es bedeuten soll (title inspired by a verse from Heine´s Lorelei) - in my own translation What it´s supposed to be - is filling this gap, just opening up the interest - at least my interest - for more. 

The book - with a cover by Köln-based illustrator Noam Weiner - is a collection of works by 13 authors, among which Michal Zamir (who created a Hebrew library and a literary salon in Berlin), Zahava Khalfa, Asaf Dvori or Tomer Dotan-Dreyfus. There are different topics, some dealing with alienation and the loneliness of the life abroad, different voices and perspectives. 

The poems were originally written in Hebrew and translated into German by Gundula Schiffer, a poet herself, and published Adrian Kasnitz´ parasitenpress. 

A Double Crime in Erlangen

Despite the important amount of researches dedicated to the extreme left - RAF, among others - crimes and developments in West Germany significantly less attention was paid to the wave of far right violence who reached its highest peek at the beginning of 1980s. Interestingly, even less was written - at least internally - about the common denominator of the two extremes, who often got professional training for their attacks against Jews and Israel in the same training camps in Lebanon or Iraq, among others.

Professor Uffa Jensen researched a case relatively less covered that may echo however ´the spirit of the time´: the double murder of Shlomo Lewin, an Israeli/German Jew and his non-Jewish German partner Frida Poeschke. Killed in cold blood in their apartment in Erlangen by members of the Bavarian far right movement. 

The book is trying to put together all the elements of the crime, connected with the overall mood in Germany, particularly Bavaria, and the main actors of the far right scene, eventually involved in the crime like WSG Hoffmann. A serious crime that was relatively fast forgotten and superficially analysed and contextualized.

Overall, a very interesting analysis of an episode representative for a very specific mindset with reverberations until today. 

The Yeshiva and the Rise of Modern Hebrew Literature by Marina Zilbergerts

I am reading a lot of OTD memoirs and novels, but very often I had a déjà vu. Every time I delved into stories of dramatically breaking up with tradition, and starting a secular life, while keeping the mental traces of the life before, it sounded like there is a much older story behind it.

The Yeshiva and the Rise of Modern Hebrew Literature by Marina Zilbergerts is connecting the historical and literary dots from past Jewish experiences to current times. The book aims and suceeds offering a new model for understanding the rise of modern Hebrew letters, in the larger context of and connected with the mentality challenges underwent by the majority in the midst of which Jews leaved.

The end of the 19th century Russia marked not only the rise of a new generation of Jewish writers, not few of them former yeshiva students, who will create under the more or less distant influence of thhe Russian intellectual trends, particularly the anti-religious ones. 

´The world of Talmudic study - its practices, themes, and language - served as a rich reservoir of expression for writers engaged in the creation of new Hebrew literatures well into the twentieth century´. 

Most of the anti-religious authors who pioneered the Hebrew literature used to be yeshiva students and although their work grew in the non-Jewish environment, whose topics - modern love, among others - were included into their literary repertoire, they remained anchored into the Jewish religious mindset. Similarly, the OTD literature - mostly memoirs though - is adapting to modern, anti-religious topics, while maintaining the Jewish mindset.

Interestingly, Zilbergerts specifically traces the influences from the Russian literature, with authors references, in the works of Jewish writers in Yiddish and Russian.

The book is well organised and very rich in literary references, particularly from the modern Hebrew literature. My list of classical Jewish writing is growing by the day and such well-written monographies are inspiring me to explore more sources and authors. 

Zionism. An emotional state by Derek J. Penslar

There are many different ways to approach a movement like Zionism and the focus on emotional aspects is clearly one of them. But what type of national-ism/-oriented movement isn´t emotional? Similarly with a religious awakening, a nationalism requests more emotiona connection than rational choice. In moderate dosis it can magnify the individual, offering them a place within the larger community, with at least one function to perform: being counted towards the identity group.

Zionism, at least in terms of theoretical origin, can be placed under the same category of national revival occuring in the 19th century. Canadian-American historian Derek J. Penslar is analyzing it as ´an emotional state´, which may be a very interesting take.

Is Zionism different than any other national mainstream movements? It answers a different national aspiration and clearly is based on a different narrative than, let´s say French nationalism. And although the book has a solid factual historical background, it lacks the deeper connection, including emotional, which makes Zionism slightly different also from the historical point of view. Across centuries, no one prayed to return to Germany or France, but the idea of Zionism pre-existed the 19th century.

The author quotes from Bava Batra 158B: ´the air of Eretz Israel creates wisdom´. I´ve heard a variant of this very often and it shows a thought that goes, including emotionally, beyond the current debate confronting antisemitism and anti-Zionism or the state of Israel in general. Such references would have offer a much realistic overview of a movement that, clearly, is the subject of more emotional interest than any other in the world. Understanding the ´why´ is still something that needs to be answered.

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