The Extraordinary Life of Ruth Blau

 

A controversial character having played a main role in the denuement of the infamous Yossele Schumacher affair, but with much lesser known involvement in trying to save Jews held captive in the Middle East or endangered by Iran´s mullahs, Ruth Blau had a life bigger than life itself. The biography dedicated to her by researcher of religious extremism Motti Inbari reveals the paradoxes but also the (blind) dedication to the Jewish life she chose as a convert from Catholicism.

Resistance fighter in a France under German occupation, spy - for the French intelligence and occasionally Mossad - Ruth Blau acted guided by religious belief and dedication to her understanding of the Jewish ideals. With the fanaticism of someone who feels his or her religion needs to be showed off, she embraced the extreme views of the anti-Zionist Neturei Karta, although the marriage with the leader of the organisation, Amram Blau, ended his leadership of the organisation.

Based on interviews and unique documents from her personal archives, with the patience for detail of the detective, Inbari drew not only the portrait of a rebbetzin but also an unique destiny of a strong and determined personality. Trying to avoid the fully negative portrayal of her - for some, due to her implication in helping for years the religious relatives of Yossele Schumacher to keep the kidnapped child out of his nonreligious parents; for others, due to her status of convert with aims of leadership within the very male conservative Haredi establishment - he is trying to analyse intentions and aims, personality features and psychological challenges.

This book is an important source of inspiration and information on several topics, such as women leadership in Haredi world, Jewish recent history, psychological profile of religious converts and many more. 

Although I really enjoyed the information and its treatment, I struggled sometimes with the style of the argumentation. For instance, before explaining in detail her role in the Schumacher affair, there are way too many references of what is supposed to come and how although she was, for instance, sincere in her commitment to Judaism, she never apologized for the pain made to another Jew while being part of the plot of kidnapping Yossele. And many more.

I wish someone will make a movie about her life.

Rating: 4.5 stars

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

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

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

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

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

Rating: 3 stars

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

The Rabbi of 84th Street

´All creatures - high and low - get equal treatment´.

How mentally reconforting is to read stories of personalities impressive by their modesty and sense of measure. Once upon a time, such behaviors where was really worth talking and writing about, not the extreme and the exageration and the lack of middle way.

The Rabbi of 84th Street written by the journalist Warren Kozak is the animated biography of a real ben Torah, Rabbi Haskel Besser. An extraordinary life of an astonishing modest person. Astonishing for us, in our times, the 2020s. But when Rabbi Besser lived - he died in 2010 - his way of being was so typical of the old countries those outstanding Jews were coming from. 

Rabbi Besser was born in Poland, but extensively travel and learned through Europe, particularly Berlin. With part of his family, he luckily escaped to Israel where he settled for a while before moving to NYC where he spent the rest of his life. It was a personal decision based on his needs and personal considerations: ´His heart was in Israel, but there was also a lack of personal space there that did not fit his personality. In New York, one again, he found the best of both world. He could be as Jewish as he wished, and he could also embrace the freedom of America along with the culture of this great metropolis´.

Strong on his belief and opinions, he opened his heart and house to Jews of all denominations and orientations. Elie Wiesel or Adin Steinsaltz shared Shabbes meals with him and his family and he influenced Ronald Lauder, whom he met when he was ambassador to Austria, to get more involved in Jewish projects and education. Being in contact with non-religious topics and people, as well as with non-Jews were not considered a threat rather an opportunity to discover more about the world that Gd has created. ´We found out that you could be dressed in a modern way and understand the secular world and still be very religious´.

A living testimony of Jewish history, Rabbi Besser never ceased to be travel sharing his story or connecting with Shoah survivors, both in Berlin, Germany in general and his native Poland. Doing chessed and being considerate towards any human being is an obligation that stories like that of Rabbi Besser remind us that no matter where the world turns, we should never give up on being good. 

Rating: 4.5 stars 

The Story of Queen Vashti still waits to be told

You know that feeling when everyone is elated about something - in this case a book - and all the reviews in the publications that matter are enthusiastic and you are the only one who seems to not get the point. Not that your opinion will change the world, but still, you feel frustrated that it seems you´ve read something wrong or you misunderstood the book and you have no idea what you are talking about or what you are talked about.

Those are the kind of feelings during and after reading The Book of V. by Anna Solomon. I wanted from the bottom of my heart to find time to read this book, as it seemed to make a great point: making justice to Queen Vashti, the first wife of King Ahasverus in the book of Esther who was banished from the court after refusing to show herself naked in the front of the guests of the banquet, as per request of her husband. The midrashic sources - the Biblical exegesis - do have a variety of interpretations about Vashti. In any context, it is Queen Esther who is a winner, the hero and the savior. 

The Book of V. - V from Vashti - tells the stories of three women, at three different periods of time. Vee, the rich wife of a rising senator in the 1970s- which happens to be Jewish - who refused to show herself naked to a party, as per the request of her husband. Lily, from Brooklyn, a writer in waiting, Jewish, who is preparing for the festival of Purim - when the Book of Esther is read. And Queen Esther herself.

The stories of the two women intertwin, while the story of the Queen Esther serves as a background screen for their narratives. But I think the stakes were too high for the two women. Lily´s bland, the usual Lululemon confused NYC woman. Her mother, Ruth, who is dying during the story, a convert to Judaism, seems by far more interesting and with a good literary potential, but she is killed by the author way too fast. 

There is a very big risk took by an author when it plans to re-write such a complex story like the one displayed in the Book of Esther. You are either come with some outstanding new story, or not. A stay-at-home mom from Brooklyn is in any way out of this league. Trying to make everything sound cool and hip involves a high risk of failure. I suppose the story of Vashti still waits to be told. At least for me.

But justice to be done when it´s due: the writing is good and it compensates when the story is less good. 

I had access to the audio variant of the book.

Rating: 2.5 stars

We vs. We

A kid with long peyos is screaming to the Israeli police ´Nazis´ and coughing in their direction. Twitter-sphere is outraged and complain about the ´retard´ child and the overall low intellectual level of the Haredim. As in the case of the measle outbreak a couple of month ago, negative representations of ultra-orthodox, and religious people in general, abund everywhere in the Jewish media and social media approaches.

On one hand, especiall for secular people that probably didn´t have the opportunity to meet a representative of the religious group, the reactions during the terrible Coronavirus crisis are inacceptable. They seem to ignore authorities, built their own state-in-state, their attitude is of sheer disrespect towards the rule of law, while ignoring the risk of spreading the pandemics. Those who are outraged about their attitude might have a certain right to do so, because from outside, it is very difficult to understand why those people behave in this way.

On the other hand, those who had the chance at least once of being privy to the everyday life and customs of the religious people, know that the situation is far from being so simple. The life of the very religious people in Israel and abroad is following completely different patterns than the normal life. And I will only give a couple of examples that hopefully will bring more light into the current situation: most of them do not have access to media of any kind - TV, social media, phones (unless there are kosher, which means certified by a rabbi), radio; they go to schools focused on religous learning, not science or biology; the entire life cycle is governed by the religious order of things, which involves praying three times the day, respecting holidays and strict dietary norms; the deep belief that Torah and prayer and not the medical science or local authorities, are the best weapon against the everyday hardships. Religious people, when they need help and advice, they address their rabbi, not the police or the Internet. Their entire life revolves around their religious time therefore, asking them to stop praying in minyan or avoid going to the mikve is considered an attempt to undermine the very basis of their own existence.

Of course there are nuances to be made, as not all the religous groups reacted in the same way and especially in the context of the coronavirus restrictions, some were faster than the others in realizing the danger - although at least 10 days or more later, which in terms of pandemic spread is dangerously late and it costs lives. There is also a long discussion that I will not develop right now about how and why things are like that.

However, before starting to accuse them of being ´retards´ or attaching to them any other diffamatory attributes, it is better to try understanding the world of the ultra-orthodox. Some do make various comparison with what happened during WWII with some religious communities whose rabbis refused to encourage leaving taking the risk of ending up in the concentration camps. I am not sure that the comparisons are appropriate, as every situation has its own specifics and context. But it saddens me to see so much hate of Jews vs. Jews spread everywhere. 

It´s sad to think about the lives that will be lost because people did not listen to some very basic health requirements. It´s sad to see how children are taught to hate other Jews and disrespectfully cough in their direction. It´s sad to see so many judgemental opinions directed towards people whose life is largely unknown.

But why not use this terrible time of crisis to understand - again - that no one is safer, regardless how much we pray or not. What does it matter in those times is the pikuah nefesh - the preservation of human life overrides any other religious rule, including regarding Shabbat. The opposite of it is a sinful, foolish behavior, the ´piety of madness´. Let´s put hate and madness on hold and focus on life.

Here is an article published in the Forward which says the things for what, often, are when it comes to the stigmatization of Haredi community.

Exile: Portraits of the Jewish Diaspora

What makes us stay Jewish despite all the persecution and hate and forced conversions? Why people still not move en masse in Israel after the creation of the state in 1948 - although many acknowledge the safety net that it offers as the only place where eventually a Jew should be when things are getting ´really bad´ the diaspora?

Annika Hernroth-Rothstein, which defines herself as ´a Jew in the diaspora, a survivor among survivors, and a link in a vast chain that spans across the world´, a journalist and activist living in Sweden globetrotted the world to discover those links that helped us to not break in front of vicissitudes.

Her collection of accounts gathered in Exile: Portraits of the Jewish Diaspora adds up knowledge, information and introduce to the readers Jews from remote, unknown or out of reach places from around the world: Iran, Tunisia, Morocco, Uzbekistan, Cuba, Finland, Turkey, Venezuela or Siberia, among others. Obviously, many places can be openly visited, like in her local Sweden or Finland but it takes time, the good research and the proper connections to really know the people.

I really loved how the author have found the proper voice and background for each of the community stories: in some cases more history was needed, in other cases, the reader was offered a well-deserved introduction into the human network besides the institutional structures (my favorite so far are the stories from the Island of Cohanim - descendant of the High Priest in Jerusalem -, in Djerba, Tunisia and about the challenges encountered by the Jews in Venezuela). 

There are also interesting observations about the life of Jews in Iran ´one of the most elusive Jewish community in the world´, a country that used to save Jews during WWII while nowadays preaching Holocaust denial at its highest levels. According to her account based on her 2-week stay, the Jews of Iran ´are living in a gilded cage with freedoms and rights that can be taken away at the behest of their master with neither notice nor reason´. The forced isolation imposed by the life under sharia law allows the preservation of identity in the most ´Orthodox way´: inter-mariages are impossible (although conversions to Islam are a completely different story), there is plenty of kosher food available and physically aggressive anti-Semitism is absent, with no need of special protection of houses of prayers and Jewish institutions (in comparison with the situation in the liberal Sweden, for instance). 

There are also situations accounted that remind of the eternal diaspora situation, as the dispute in Uzbekistan between Askenazim (Jews of European descent) and Bukharian Jews (or Jews of the mountains as the Jews from this part of the former Soviet Union are called).

I was relatively disappointed about the part dedicated to Siberia: maybe too much discussion about the Russian/Putin connection and not too much about the diverse origin of the Jews that reached this cold remote province. Among others, there were for instance many Jews displaced by the Soviets during the WWII and the anti-Semitic persecutions from other Soviet republics like Moldova and Ukraine, known for their high-percentage of Jewish populations at the time.

My personal wish is that Annika will continue to travel the world and reveal more interesting Jewish stories. We all need to be reminded about those fine and multiple ties that connect all of us.

Rating: 4 stars

Jews in the Gulf?

A couple of years ago, a friend of mine, herself Jewish, told me that she just attended a bar mitzvah celebration in Dubai. With an American or other non-Israeli passport, is not that difficult to enter the Kingdom and I've been more than once told about Jews visiting the Kingdom and about even more who would love to experience the shopping adventures in one of the many high-end malls.

Now, the Jews in the Gulf, discretely and taking into consideration security concerns, are going out in the media light. If the media portrayed them it means also that it is much safer than a couple of years ago to do so and that there is a certain gentlemen's agreement regarding their presence. After all, in comparison with many other monoteistic religions, Judaism doesn't practice and encourage prozelytism therefore, at least from the religious point of view. However, this does not affect the decades of brainwashing of the many generations of locals living here, as well as the people from all over the Arab countries and region living, working or studying here. (More about this in a coming book review)

Is it safe, recommended, good for Jews to live in Dubai, other than for financial reasons? To visit this place, enjoying the lavish high-tech life and architecture? Curiosity is always a good incentive to start something new or completely out of common. I personally have a lot of second/third/fifth thoughts about going to a place officially preaching against Jews and Israel. I'm pretty familiar with anti-Semitism and I don't need any more examples of how far you can go in shaping and spreading a political and social/educational discourse focused on the hate against people that you hardy know. 

Things are changing, especially politically - although from the religious point of view there will be never a sincere approach to Judaism - and countries like Oman, Bahrain are becoming more clear in their tolerance towards Jews and especially Israel. There are some circumstances dictating such an approach, mainly the need to counter the overwhelming influence Iran and its cronies are trying to spread in the region. Which also means that expecting wonders - although we are in the time of Hanukka - is unrealistic. But at least it can plant the seeds of a potential change for good. One day. Not today, tomorrow or in a year.

'One of Us'...

Telling the stories of people that left the Hasidic way of life in New York, the Netflix documentary One of Us is as heartbreaking as such stories could be. 

No parent should be left without his children because a different life choice. No child abuse should be tolerated, regardless how pious the perpetrator looks like for the community. The help organisations like Footsteps in New York offer to those who left the fold to integrate into the new life is tremendous and it is important for people to know that they are not alone. After belonging your own life to a tight community when everyone is part of the whole, finding yourself completely on your own in this big crazy world requires a lot of time and patience and knowledge about how this worl functions. But everything has a price and those finding their way 'off the derech' might not do it alone.

The documentary made by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady last around one hour and a half and features the changes taking place into the lives of Luzer, Ari and Etty as they decide to leave behind their closed communities. Filmed over 3 years, it covers dramatic changes taking place into the lives of the participants, such Etty's defeat in court against her ex abusive husband which leads to her being separated from her 7 children and Ari's recovery from drug abuse. 

The community can be a shield for those who are in and a terrible weapon against those who left. I personally know more than one case of a man who left the fold and man given visitation rights to his children that remained with the observant mother because it happened to be part of an important Hasidic family. But if you are a woman without a supportive family - in Etty's case even her own family testified against her - you are lost. The fact that the abuser of Ari is still in a position where he is close to children that he can eventually abuse is outrageous. Those stories are examples of what is actually wrong and sets limits of things that should not be accepted. 

I personally would have expect some wider coverage of individual stories, that may reflect the diversity of reasons and situations why people leave and what happens after. I know many success stories and people that also managed somehow to keep their parental rights and also cases when child abusers were brought to justice. The stories brought to attention are heartbreaking and interesting but especially for someone not familiar with the phenomenon, it may bring a bit of diversity and shape a completely different perspective.  

Jewish New York - The Remarkable Story of a City and a People

'This volume narrates the history of the New York Jews, with an eye to their distinctive story as well as consciousness of how Jews embedded their particularity within the city's contentious past'. Jewish New York is nowadays a reality of the diasporic Jewish history and present, and this book, based on serious historical and sociological data, might create at least one more topic for a further academic investigation. For instance, the issue of American Zionism, and therefore the ways in which American Jews are positioning themselves in relation with the state of Israel and the everyday political struggles from the country.

The evolution of the Jewish community is analized back in the 17th century, which makes this volume a valuable source of information for recreating a process of creating mentalities and social patterns. It also offers a multi-layered approach, which goes back and forth from the economic, cultural, social and citizens rights perspectives, creating a pretty accurate landscape where people are relocating continously, adapting their habits from the Old Country while maintaining a certain degree of individuality. With more than a million Jews living in New York, the city is considered a symbol of Jewish life in the diaspora but at the same time, at least in the last 2 decades, there are Jewish communities in many other locations in the USA, which increases the diversity of Jewish life. Although the book has the focus on NYC, a short comparison would have even better outline the specificities of the city. Another omission of the book in my opinion is that it ignores the strong Israeli community in the city, which although remains a distinctive group among the various Jewish communities, it has its own dynamic and specific influence on the cultural patterns and habits of the bigger group as such.

The book is a recommended read to anyone looking to become familiar, in an academic way, with the Jewish history of New York, either for academic or pure knowledge purposes. 

Rating: 4 stars

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

'They stole our childhood'...

'When I come in Europe with my family and watched my child going to school I realized that I never had my own childhood. I haven't been to school, I haven't play with other children, I have not toys and did not know to play at all'. My friend, a child survivor, dared to tell me about her life and memories. She haven't talk about this with her own son and avoids to repeat this story in public. 

My mother haven't lived long enough to reach that moment in life when you want to get the memories out of yourself and share it with the others. When the stories are too far away to hurt. But we never understood why she never played with us, why she never had toys and childhood friends. We not even misunderstand her, but we accused her of being cold and not a good mother and not loving us enough. Disappointing us, even in her afterlife.

My big S. said today: 'I was so lucky to be born not too late for getting to know Shoah survivors'. This, coming from a teenager who is still trying to find out herself, first by completely breaking up with her traditions and family customs, tells something about the emergency of sharing over and over again the stories. 

Suffering is incomprehensible and so are the ways of life during terrible times. For my children and the memory of my mother and many other like her whose pain was too big to share it, we need to bear witness. We, the children with toys and school and childhood. 

Book Review: The treasure of Mr. Isakowitz

I have met Jews from Sweden, but never read a book written by a Swedish author about Jews and Shoa. Danny Wattin's book offered me the occasion to correct this omission. 

Maybe the story as such - three Jewish men: grandfather, son and grandson are going to Poland from Sweden to find the whereabouts of a tresure hidden before the war by the grand-grandfather - I fell in love with the writing style. It is a memoir inspired by personal stories, rebuilding fragments of stories during the war, based on stories of relatives and the own research of the author. The style is succint, suple, easy, not-pathetic and (self)ironic. It is the writing of a new generation of post-Shoah writers, quite far away of the events to approach the stories from a non-engaged angle but equally interested as the previous generations to tell the stories and recover the old histories. 

It results an approach that it is not superficial, but different. It remains the interest for the truth and the revenge of memory, but the scale of the voice differs. I am really curious about discovering more authors from this generation and, who knows, maybe some more histories about Swedish Jews too. 

Why the Jewish character must be the bad guy?

I wonder why? Why not the Chinese, the Indian or the Indonesian, just to give some random examples...True is that in every community there are bad guys and good guys and Jews are no exception to that but, besides this reality, the literature creates or emulates certain models and stereotypes which perpetuate certain negative stereotypes, including those with anti-Semitic flavours. 

My recent experience in this respect is the short story part of the Santa Rita Stories, by Andrew J. Rodriquez. It collects various stories based in Santa Rita, a little fishing village in Northeastern part of Cuba. Created as an initition story into life of the little Carlos by the destitute Pedro, it includes various lessons in understanding life and humans. One of them is dedicated to Carlos encounters with the family of Veronica, a girl he worshipped in secret. Everything started with the invitation to attend and accompany her to her fiesta de los quince - celebration of 15-year anniversary, an important moment in the life of a Cuban girl. 

Both Pedro and his parents are warning him that she is Jewish and thus, different traditions apply. But when he received an invitation to meet her father Benny, he has a little nightmare experience. The house is guarted by a huge dog who is ready to bit everyone that is shaking hands with any member of the family. The interior is full of kitsch expensive looking art, besides Jewish symbols. The father, Benny is not only 40 minutes late and impolite, but offers him a dirty deal: to pay him to keep his daughter away from the previous boyfriend till the famous party, which is planned as a way to invite famous local people and climb up the social ladder. He is open with his intentions: 'The pride and joy of elevating our status far beyond the common folk is all I care for'. 

Brave Carlos will not succumb the temptation and will reject the invitation to the party, while keeping a secret relationship with Veronica till her departure to Havana to her aunt for law studies. 

Again, you don't have to tag ethnicity for creating bad guy characters.