Book Review: An Observant Wife by Naomi Ragen

 

One year after reading An Unorthodox Match, I am done with the sequel, An Observant Wife which follows the beginning of the married life of Leah - former Lola, a BT (baal teshuva, repented Jew who returned to Orthodox Judaism) - and her husband, Yaakov. I had access to the book in the audiobook format, read by Gabra Zackman. 

Although a sequel, it stands on its own and one can read it independently without the risk of not being able to understand what it is about. There are several useful mentions about the past events taking place in the previous book. I´ve found this book better structured and balanced than the previous one, approaching very stringent topics for the Haredi community in America and elsewhere, such as acknowledging mental health and sexual molesters. 

One of the reasons why I am devouring anything written by Naomi Ragen - actually, I´ve listened to this audiobook in two days and I hardly wanted to take a too longer break curious about what is to come - is that compared to other authors approaching the ultra-Orthodox world with a critical eye she is doing it without the black-and-white perspective. Knowledgeable both in terms of practice and halachic standards, Ragen creates a world of many nuances, human with all its highs and lows. It is more or less how this world - in Boro Park or Kirias Joel or Bnei Brak - operates in real life. Therefore, the characters of her books - An Observant Wife included - look very authentic, you can even represent them in flesh in the front of your reader´s eyes.

Shaindel, Yaakov´s older daughter, who was initially a fierce opposant to this marriage - as usually within a very religious community those returning to Judaism are considered with a very critical eye and may be never fully trusted - is experiencing not only the first teenage awkward rebelious moments, but also a possible beginning of a depression, a sickness that prematurely killed her mother - who could not cope with post-partum confusion and committed suicide, a mortal sin in her conservative community. Her innocent adventure with an OTD - off the derech, a label applied to those who have left the righteous path of Orthodox, observant Judaism - who happens to be the son of her school principal is set by her parents in the context of a larger emotional trauma that may need a professional - psychological support. As the person recommended by the local rabbi and the principal is in fact a sexual predator, Yaakov and Leah are trying to publicly reveal his misbehavior, but they will become the victims of a mafia-like row of attacks against their own physical integrity as well as their professional status. Is this situation ´gam zu l´tova´ - all for good - or they are in fact caught in a complex situation when they have to follow the religious authority?

As usual in Ragen´s books, the characters are complex, able to face the manifolds of their complicated situations. However, there are a couple of details that caught my attention which are slippery. For instance, the description of the first physical contact between Yaakov and Leah which is neither cast or passionate, and is presented as a very awkward encounter which is unusual for two adults that were having relationships before. Another aspect which was out of place was Shaindel´s voice which sounded sometimes inadequate for her age and background: too reflexive and unusually philosophical. Also, in the discussion about Leah´s BT status, there is not a single person who, in fact, may mention that she is a born Jew, no matter how much she sinned before becoming religious. Strangely for communities where the everyday life is regulated by the expectations of holy events - Shabbes, the holidays - there is no clear mention of family reunions around the Shabbes table etc. As for Leah herself, although she is obviously a BT, calling the kids with ´sweetie´ and ´sweethearts´ sounds very goyishe. 

Despite those observations, I fully enjoyed the latest book by Naomi Ragen, for the complexity of the topics as well as for the strength of the writing. An Observant Wife has memorable characters and, as usual in the case of this author, the women, no matter the degree of observance, are strong and can so easily make the world a more nuanced and better place.

Rating: 3.5 stars

Stop Sensationalising Orthodox Jews

 

Non-Jewish yellow media is so hungry for reading accounts of Jewish Orthodox life. With the emphasis of the voyeur, memoirs, accounts and everything that has to do with those ´strange´ habits of the Jews who don´t eat together with the non-Jews, don´t mix with the non-Jews, don´t even buy from them apparently is becoming instant popularity. Those revelatory stories about all those strange stories such as the mikweh and the shaven head and oh, those wigs the observant women are wearing are turning any religious Jew into a naked doll which is turned on all parts and examined to be sure that it actually looks the same like...you know, the other humans.

Mazel Tov by JS Margot - the pen name of Belgian-Flemish journalist Margot Vanderstraeten - is the story of an ´extraordinary friendship´ between the author and a Jewish Orthodox family. The story starts in the 1990s when Margot was hired to help with the homeworks and other school-related tasks the children of a family whose father was working in the diamonds´ sector. Probably at the time there was no Netflix and not too many OTD memoirs so we may a bit excuse the author for being so awkward when meets her employers for the first, second, third...time. 

Those Jews, who are interogating her about her - then - Iranian boyfriend, are always building up walls around themselves and are stuck in their old centuries-old rules. In the end, of course, she is becoming a friend of them but still, it´s nice to have different, exotic friends. Plus, they don´t want to answer her repeated questions about how was it in the war and other intrusions into a private trauma.

To be honest, there is nothing wrong with the tone of the book - which I had access to in the German edition - and it is well written, but the way in which every couple of pages one has to read about how different, and strange and bizarre customs Jews - the Orthodox ones - have, it´s embarassing. It´s not antisemitic, but it is, as they call it in plain German - ´doof´.

Rating: 1.5 stars

´The 100 Most Jewish Foods. A Highly Debatable List´

 

´the salty, the sweet, the dense, the light, the beautiful and the undeniably brown´...

I mostly came to The 100 Most Jewish Foods edited by Tabled editor-in-chief Alana Newhouse for the stories and less for the recipes. With so many recipe books and personal collections, I am rather interested on the stories behind a certain meal or another. But, as often happens during my intellectual journeys, in reality there were the recipes that kept me focused, more than anything else.

Let´s say it loudly...Most of the foods on the list are relevant rather for the East Coast Jews and Israeli, although it also covers other Jewish communities (Yemenite, Syrian, Persian, Georgian). There are chefs and restaurant menus and grocery store supplies that are mostly Made in America/Israel. Jews don´t eat too much bagel in Europe. There are foods that do not say anything to me, like the Hydrox or Bazooka Gum (although I used to crave for the cartoons attached to chewing gum). I am sad that there is no schnitzel although you may try to do an exercise of oral history with any yeshiva bochur to realize how important is this meal in their everyday life. I was happy to discover Adafina - a food of Spanish conversos - or Bialys or Labda and there is even an amba sauce recipe (the shortest way to my heart of stone). It breaks my heart there is not kokosh cake - but the babka the eternal enemy deserves a feature. 

I got the irony of including on the list treyf, burnt offerings and used tea bags but well, would have prefer even more local diversity - what about some Ethiopian Jewish food recommendations? 

I´ve learned, indeed, a lot of details about some less known foods and even some interesting details about how the Soviet-times food policies influenced the eating habits of Jews originary from the Soviet Union. For instance, the fact that the scarcity of food prevented them from a clear separation between Jews and gentiles. 

The authors are chefs, writers, journalists, food afficionados. There is Shalom Auslander writing about chulent with the deep hate I would experience if will ever be requested to write about chopped liver and herring. The contexts and historical details are very important and I know enough now to conclude that most of the basic Askenazi Jewish foods do have, in fact, a German origin. I may add that the tastiest are Hungarian but what can you expect from a book misceviously omitting the queen kokosh...

What entinced me when I was feeling that too much information is just too much information is the writing style of the recipes. So many careful details about the directions are a great exercise of food writing. Recommended to have a look at even if you are not Jewish, Jewish food lover etc. 

The project of The 100 Most Jewish Foods is largely revolutionary despite the controversies that are actually healthy for the discussion. I am planning at a certain point to cook myself some huevos haminados and maybe the Yerushalmi kugel recipe too, and hope to try in restaurants more of the foods from the list that I never or vaguely heard about. At the end of the day, Jews and food are a long story and every 100 foods counted are a blessing for the inquisitive soul. 

All being written, time to prepare my Rosh Hashana menu which is a very far hysterical cry of any description of a trendy, fancy heimishe meals. 

Book Review: The Periodic Table by Primo Levi

 

I don´t remember when I´ve read last something written by Primo Levi. I remember only how shaken I was every time by the very easy way to tell stories, terrible stories. There is a detachment in the pace and the voice of the every sentences that one can achieve only after being overrun by the sadness of the world. After all, there is no hope in the world so let´s take it easy and keep writing stories inspired by this cruel world.

The Periodic Table, which I had access to as audiobook, read by the late Neville Jason, was based on the translation from Italian by Raymond Rosenthal. Levi who experienced Auschwitz and shared his experience in the devastating If This is a Man was a chemist by formation. The Periodic Table is a wise chemical thread of stories of Italian Jews, before, during and shortly after the Shoah, mostly from Piedomont, where the author was originary from. Each story is associated with a chemical substance, with the main element of the story emulating the features of the element. 

I´ve listened to the short stories - listening to the audiobook lasted around 3 weeks, because always felt the need to take a break in between readings and think about the essence and message of the account - careful, looking for both the fiction and the historical background - Shoah, local Jewish history. There is no judgement, no screams, no tears. Just the monotous voice - an excellent audio rendition, by the way - and the collection of senteces after sentences making up the collection. Such an art of storytelling is not taught or learnt. It just comes out of, from the deep ends of the being. 

Stories of Bene Israel

´After all, he was Jewish and that was more important than anything else´.

The everyday traditions of the Jewish communities around the world are such a fascinating topic. Although I love history, nonfiction books featuring one community or another, it is fiction which I love the most. The strength of the creative mind, using nonfictional elements and details in order to generate stories is an unique mind adventure. 

I am relatively familiar with the world of Indian Jews in Israel, being invited to various social and personal events, such a brit mila, but Bombay Brides by the Ahmedabad-based Indian-Jewish author Esther David delves into many stories and carefully curated encounters. 

I had the book on my TBR for a long time and was able to finish it within a couple of long hours this Shabbes. Besides the stories, the graphical look of the book is also noteworthy, with fine graphic portraits aimed to give a face to some of the characters - women - portrayed.

The short stories are interconnected and are mostly based on the building of Shalom India Housing Society in Ahmedabad, a city in Gujarat, with a little bit over 100 Jews living there. The house belongs to the community and most of the stories do take place here and are populated with residents of this Housing Society.  

There is a lot of matchmaking involved, a couple of new comers that converted for love - I may have an objection of someone being given the name Jennifer after converting to Judaism, as the name has a British/Cornish resonance but no Jewish connection at all, but the rest is just fine - but also traditional Shabbes meals and holidays where, surprise, even more matchmaking takes place. There are so many references to the Propher Eliyahu Hanavi being venerated as a Hindu saint and the favorite intercessor for, among others, finding a good match and this is a very specific characteristic of the Jews originary from India as it is said that he may have appeared in the Konkan area - which includes, among others, also Goa, Israelis favorite resort in the country. There are stories about growing old and becoming adult, widowhood and illicit relationships and there are also many children who will start their own stories. The participants do move often from India to Israel and back and there is so much easiness by almost all of them to jump over many obstacles and hardships. 

I enjoyed a lot the adventures and the tragi-comical encounters and I am left with a lot of questions about traditions - would love to be part one day of an Indian Seder - and everyday life of the few Jews still living there.

Was worth including the Bombay Brides on my list of books to read and was worth waiting a bit until getting the book. Getting to know more about those communities is a blessing that books can offer when travel to discover those communities in real life is not (yet) possible.

Concealed: Memoir of a Jewish-Iranian Daughter Caught Between the Chador and America

 

´My parents came from a city and culture that kept girls out of schools and far from written word - a world that firmly believed female illiteracy was a blessing that helped shape young girls into good wives´.

The history of the Jews of Mashhad, one of the most religious cities in Iran is cursed by hate. In the 18th century, Nader Shah, called the ´Napoleon of Persia´, brought around 300 families here, mostly from Tehran. After his assasination in 1747, the antisemitism become rampant and the humiliations the Jews from here were targeted for random attacks and often buying their peace and life by paying protection money (reshveh. in Persian) to local imam. In 1839, a Jewish woman was accused of desecrating a holiday which lead to a wave of mob attacks against the local Jews, an event consigned to history as Allah Daad. Dozen were murdered, Jewish properties ransacked and afterwards the survivors were faced with the choice: death or conversion to Islam. 

The parents of Esther Amini were the descendants of those Jews from Mashhad who pretended they had converted while, in secret, they kept following the laws of the Torah. Her personal account - Concealed: Memoir of a Jewish Iranian Daughter Caught Between the Chador and America - traced back personal histories, seasoned with memories of her life caught between the strict rules of her family and the modern life in an America that her mother which was illiterate, praised for the advantages offered to women.

Compared to other memoirs on similar topics - alienation, living in a small community following anti-modern mindsets, mostly against women - Esther Amini book is matter of factly, collecting mostly facts instead of feelings and describing various family and community dynamics. It follows both a historical, psychological and sociological journey in a non-judgemental, aimed rather to offer realistic descriptions of a situation instead of emotional/psychological revelations. 

I´ve loved both the pace and the tone of the story, and the richness of the details encompassing the small but unique community of Jews from Mashhad as well as their particular interactions with the other Jewish groups, Iranian or other. I was actually hungry to read more about this particular community, but while reading I remembered that in fact I am reading a memoir not a history book so I better appease my hunger for facts elsewehere.

Concealed is a noteworthy testimony of a Jewish Woman which adds concent and colour to other similar testimonies and memoirs. I am happy I finally had the time and the mood to go through the book and will definitely keep in mind many of the fine observations and stories shared.

Rating: 4 stars

The Ambivalence of Yiddish in Israel

 

In all the buzz and confusion and emotions and let´s say it bluntly, hate too, of accusing Israel of all the imaginable crimes in the world, sometimes just because it look intellectually trendy for some, stating how the Yiddish language was oppressed by the ´Zionists´ is one of the frequent intellectual tropes. The other one - that will approach another time - is to scream discrimination against the Jews from Arab lands and Ethiopia who moved to Israel.

As in the case of half-truths and manipulated concepts, there is a certain authenticity to those claims and there are facts that may support those assumptions. However, if done in full academic honesty, there would be many more arguments who will balance such statements, not necessarily to negate them - another ideological-driven stance that does not have anything to do with academic curiosity - but to display a diversity which, in fact, is the real face of things.

Yiddish in Israel. A History by Rachel Rojanski is an investigation into the story of acceptance of Yiddish in the land and later on, the state of Israel. Was really the mainstream Israeli culture ashamed of the its Yiddish writers, of its Yiddish roots? What about the socialist and literary culture of the ´old country´ who shaped so many of the elites - cultural, political - of the Yishuv? Was it Ben Gurion indeed so angry and enemy-like against the Yiddish culture?

The biggest merit of the book, besides using extensive sources covering both the nation-building process and the fine cultural layers covering not only literature but also theater, a chapter in my opinion not enough explored when it comes to its role in shaping Zionism as a nation building process. 

Indeed, the first years of the state of Israel were, as expected, focused on building the nation - economically, socially, internationally, politically, culturally. Part of the ´imaginary community´, both Hebrew and the projection of a citizen with a strong personality, strong enough to leave behind the centuries of persecutions and grow brave enough to not allow any other Holocaust to happen, were important elements. Until the 1980s-1990s, Yiddish - and at a lesser extent, because counting a much smaller amount of active users, Ladino - were not necessarily considered a threat to this new identity in the making, but they were rarely needed for the process. It was not automatically an open hostility towards Yiddish, but it has rather to do with a meticulous planning of nation-building. 

Interestingly, Yiddish was used in the pre-state period of time as an intellectual tool shaping Zionism but in its new revival episode it is associated with those groups and mindsets which, in fact, deny the political and especially religious availability of Zionism - particularly among the Hasidic groups in Israel and abroad, such as Satmer. 

Yiddish in Israel is an important contribution to understanding not only the history of a language - who, not surprisingly for many, is going through such a revival nowadays - but the place of the language within the national identity. Its struggle and ambivalence are part of the process and reading the different stories with a clean, curious, hate-free eye is important for fully acknowledging the phenomenon. The more people would read and know the more - hopefully - will be able to write honestly about cultural changes and phenomenon. 

Oh, and calling Yiddish an authentic language, folksy and humorous is such a promise that, in fact, this language cannot ever disappear, because it reflects a certain state of mind and humanity cannot deprive itself such genuine humanly features. 

This book is a great recommendation to anyone having an academic interest in languages, Yiddish and state-building, particularly Israel. It is well documented, written in full academic honesty and with a truth-seeking attitude, such an important academic skill unfortunately too easily abandoned for the sake of political activism of all kinds.