The Story of the Jewish Bund. Here Where We Live is Our Country by Molly Crabapple

Inspired by the story of her great grandfather the artist Sam Rothbort and looking to connect worlds, Molly Crabapple spent around seven years researching The Story of the Jewish Bund. Worh to mention the word ´story´ and not ´history´ which shows already the limitations and the subjective point of view this book was researched and written. 

Don´t take me wrong: the book is very well researched and is sharing a lot of atmospheric and subjective episodes from the history of the Bund that are rarely remembered those days. The Bund belongs to a period of hardship in the European Jewish history, where they grew up alongide with other intellectual and ideological Jewish movements - like Hashomer Hashair, and various brands of Zionism. 

While the book is so focused in documenting lifes of Bundists, it misses several points when it comes to connecting the Bund with the general history of ideas at the time, and their eventual ideological motivations. However, it is doing the very ´faux pas´ when connects instead with currrent ongoing events trying to present the Bund - currently belonging to the history books, as an example of Jewish dissent. 

As a historian, I find largely dishonest to try such an intellectual juggling, as it does not add arguments, but diminishes the credibility of the approach. It may follow a Marxist flow of thought but nevertheless  completely irrelevant from the historical point of view.

I enjoyed discovering the troubled story of Bund and especially of some Bundists, but my interests ended within the given space. I don´t see any connection with the present and I see no future, and Bundism ended with the world it belonged. 

Also, if you hear the audio version of the book, just a warning: the pronunciation of some foreign - Yiddish or not - is horrendous, the worst music for the ears.

And the Bride Closed the Door by Ronit Matalon translated into English by Jessica Cohen

 

There is no better way to get from afar into the life of a country than through its literature. But when it comes to translations, the edition houses will most likely paid for those with a chance of profit. Which means books covering topics appealing to the general audiences more than the locals. And thus, the local flair is lost for the sake of general interest.

This applies in most cases of Israeli authors in translation, but my observation is that for the case of women writers there is a significantly high interest in covering women voices, beyond the biased editorial borders. Which is a huge advantage for the honest reader, here for the sake of literature not for confirming his or her political expectations.

Ronit Matalon is an important name of the contemporary Israeli literature,even being considered one of the most important Israeli novelist of our times and her And the Bride Closed the Door, translated into English by Jessica Cohen has a timeless relevance. Author of nine novels, a Jew of Egyptian origin growing up in a poor immigrant neighbourhood, she often gave voice to the Mizrahi identity in a non-identiy biased way though, being the recipient of many prestigious literary prizes. And the Bride... is her last book published during her lifetime. 

This book is a novella, about a chaotic event, when a bride refused to leave her room during her wedding ceremony. That´s the event allowing the characters, mostly Mizrahi, but there is also an Ashkenazi hypochondriac, among others, to reveal themselves, in the most absurd and nonsensical ways. And, in between lines, you have the Israel that you don´t see on the news: making new names, always ready for a challenge. And there is the humour with situation one cannnot stop from viewing or thinking about. Matalon gives space to the multiple actors of the everyday life in Israel: the Russian (psychologist specialized in remorseful wives), the Palestinian (fireworker). There is also a trans cousin, which is pretty normal in Israel - being trans, not the cousin part. Also, not forget about how important weddings are in Israel, as social and personal events.

This book left me with the desire to read more by Matalon, but also to start reading more Israeli authors, preferably in Hebrew. 

 

Advice for the Kosher Traveler

With only one week left from the period of three weeks when one may restrain from joyful activities like travel, it is the right time to consider you next journey. If you are a kosher traveler there are so many things to keep in mind though.

Compared to few decades and even years ago, the kosher traveler may encounter less - although enough - struggles while on the road. There are ways and apps to recognize kosher products and Chabad houses are spread all over the world - including in remote places, but with an interesting travel potential like Congo or Vietnam. 

Mordechai Hasofer´s book Guide for the Kosher Traveler, published in English and Hebrew by Gefen Publishing House  offers guidance and lots of details about specific circumstances a kosher traveler should consider for a better yet kosher-safe experience, particularly when staying in a rented facility or during flights. 

The language is clear and so are the information, appealing to both the mid-experienced and beginner kosher observant. It covers rather general circumstance than individual cases, turning the book in a convenient travel companion, no matter the destination. However, some specificities are always welcomed, but this should be kept in mind by the travel themselves. 

For instance, Australia and New Zealand, do not permit entry of non-local foods, which may present some difficulties for anyone planing to bring some tasty food supplies from Israel, for instance. I am sure the author - originary from Australia - may know those rules, but once you start with specific details, you may just need more than one book to deal with.

The book has less than 70 pages, and is available both in English and Hebrew and also includes a list of kosher and non-kosher products to check.

It is a very useful and practical book, recommended also for anyone looking to better understand the stringencies and rules of kosher.

Rating: 4 stars

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

Whose is This Land?

 

Tuvia Tenenbom is back, this time with a book about his experience living in the midst of settlements. The book was recently translated into German from English by Michael Adrian. 

Only listening to the words ´settlement´ and ´settlers´ people cannot contain their disgust. Everyone seems to have something negative to say about those ´monsters´ and trouble makers, dangerous criminals poisoning the fragile peace in the Middle East. 

Genuinely curious, but informed enough for not getting trapped into various ideological temptations of all colours and directions, he is touring some less or well known settlements (not Gush Etzion though, which I was very keen to re-discover though but wel...priorities), living together with people labeled as ´settlers´ and their supporters. I forgot to add that this is happening during the recent war with Iran so he had to experience live the absurdity of the fireworks from Nablus celebrating the rockets sent by the mullah, oblivious to the fact that rockets may not make a difference between Arabs and Jews. 

But in addition to the irony and the fun which are part of his approoach, there are many seriuous thoughts to consider that cannot be ignored, such as the genealogy of places that cannot be ignored and the back and forth of politicians. The fact checking of No Other Land is a welcomed step against all the more or less naive admirers of a non-documentary.

The book is very much focused on documented realities and individuals and their stories, but found it a bit too long, with way too many personal intermezzos. However, I cannot wait to see what could be Tenenbom´s next editorial project. Really cannot wait...

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