Random Things Tours: In the Midst of Civilized Europe by Jeffrey Veidlinger

One of my main fascination with the history of mentalities - my favorite historical method of interpretation - is how it integrates the simple, apparently disparate, facts into a longer perspective, the so-called braudelian ´longue durée'. Thus, the general understanding of a long period of time deepens in relation to the ongoing mapping of spiritual and material facts, recreating the mental and intellectual environment of an epoch.

The multi-awarded In the Midst of Civilized Europe by Jeffrey Veidlinger is such an example of exceptional reconstruction of facts, based on a rich and newly discovered reservoir of sources, particularly interviews and personal testimonies. Facts often featured in historical references of Jewish history and regional Eastern/Russian European history like the pogroms between 1918 and 1921 to acquire a premonitory role in the Shoah. The more than 100,000 Jews killed during the pogroms were just the sad premonition of the 6 millions. 

Particularly at the begining of the 20th century, the Jewish history of this part of Europe is written in one pogrom after another. The ones between 1904 and 1914 for instance, including the notorious Kishinev pogrom - magistrally described in the dramatic poem by Bialik In the City of Slaughter - , prompted a massive immigration to the Land of Israel, during the so-called second Aliya - HaAliya HaShniya. But the pogroms continued and took a higher intensity during the three years analysed in the book. The murder of innocent Jews was followed by massive looting of properties and devastation of the shtetl, whose image of a craddle of Yiddishkeit is about to take its last breath. It is a pattern that will be easily accepted few decades later, a couple of countries away, in Germany and replicated at different levels in many Central and Eastern European countries. 

A warning that history may be undestood not only in terms of past occurrences but also from the point of view of the dots that should be connected to understand a bigger picture where past, present and future are dangerously melting together.

In the Midst of Civilized Europe was shortlisted for this year, 46th edition, of The Wingate Literary Prize, awarded to the best book - either fiction or non-fiction - translating the idea of Jewishness to the general reader. The prize was established in 1977 by late Harold Hyam Wingate and it is currently run in association with JW3, the Jewish Community Centre. 

Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own

Best Hanukkah Jokes for Your Purim Shpiel

 

It is never too late to exchange some Hanukkah jokes. With Purim just around the corner - and one month afterwards Pesach - that´s the perfect timing for getting ready for some warmhearted ´hahaha´. Not that ´hohoho´, obviously.

I don´t know too much about what kind of jokes - if ever - kids are laughing at - I bet there may be some memes involved anyway - but the jokes in this book do have the naive touch of the old times. So old that I may feel myself shamefully old for even remembering those times.

Making jokes and keeping the smile, no matter what, it is important for your health. What´s also funny is that you can make your good old Jewish jokes, and therefore, through laughing, one can also learn some good Jewish history and religious stories. Maybe it will be a bit difficult to explain them to the very young generation, but some funny drawings included in the book may be useful in just getting into the funny spirit.

It is never too late for a joke, even when Hanukkah is quite a couple of months away.

Rating: 3 stars 

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review but the opinions are, as usual, my own

No one Wants You to Disappear

 

One morning, Israel wakes up with its Palestinian residents disappearing out of nowhere. 24 hours after, there is still no trace of them, and it seems there is no security danger to cope with either. The Book of Disappearance by Jaffa-born, Hebrew University of Jerusalem educated Ibtisam Azem - translated into English by Iraqi poet Sinan Antoon who also translated Mahmoud Darwish- explores exactly this premise: what will happen if suddenly all Palestinians in Israel disappear unexpectedly. 

The story is told through the inter-twinned stories of Ariel, a Jewish journalist, and Alaa, a young Palestinian who converses with his grandmother in the diary he left after disappearing. They are neighbours on Rotschild Boulevard and Ariel ends up by translating Alaa´s testimony and taking over his home, whose locks is planning to change at the end of the story.

Although the writing is good - in its political satyric take - and the details are realistic, any book that imagined the disappearance of a group of people only to narrate the same ideological truism about various interpretations of the ´occupation´ it does not have any of my sympathies. It just extends the ´either or´ mindset, creating a mentality that in any way will improve anything but the high level of hate and intolerance, taking away any chance of building a new world, outside the one based on a hyper-historical narrative. 

Remembering Baghdad

´We are part and parcel of Iraq and I will not let go´.

Remember Baghdad, currently available on Netflix, documents the 2,500 years of Jewish history in Baghdad through the eyes of five families currently living in London. Although the traces of Jewish history are everywhere in Iraq, particulary in Baghdad, few people may remember nowadays the 140,000 Jews that were forced to leave the country.

Formerly a center of the Jewish world, Iraq is coping with a decade of dictatorship, war, civil conflict and foreign involvement. The film brings to life family stories and memories, businesses that were left behind and political projects - such as involvement in the Communist Party, were some of the former members got later involved in similar projects in Israel.

Like in the case of Persian Jews, Iraqi Jews nourish kind memories of their former country. It is a love for a country were they used to live or about whom they dreamed about with the dreams of their parents and grandparents. 

The film is using both documentary sources about Iraqi Jews and the making of the Middle East and Israel during and after WWII and direct interviews, as well as ground research in Baghdad and Irbil. It is balanced, nostalgic and keeps the distance from the subjects in order to let them unfold their stories, and the testimonies about their contribution to the local economy and culture.

Until the time will come for the Jews of Iraq to be able to visit again the places where they or their parents and grandparents were born, documentaries like Remember Baghdad are here to make everyone aware of their presence and memories. One day...

Recommended Book for Learning and Teaching Hebrew

 

Teaching languages is always a challenge, as one needs to relate in multiple ways to the material taught. Some may learn faster than the others based on the immediate interest in the topic, as well as the emergency to succeed mastering a language for different aims - immigration, job, relationships etc. 

For non-European languages, written in a different alphabet, like Hebrew, for instance, the challenge is even bigger because learning in this case means a full re-wire of the brain, that is supposed not only to reconnect to a different way of saying and grammar rules, but also to alphabets read from the right to left.

As both a teacher and learner of Hebrew, I coped sometimes with the right materials, allowing me not only to expand my vocabulary, but to remember it easily. Ma se be´ivrit - how do you say it in Hebrew - by Smadar Raveh-Klemke was my revelation of the last months. Each page has a graphic representation of a topic - kitchen, bathroom, at the beach, two people seated in the front of the TV etc. - with words written in Hebrew, with transliteration. Thus, you can learn the vocabulary of the topic but also engage in short conversation about it, for instance ´what do you see?´ ´what people are doing?´ etc. Although the discussion may be A1-A2 level, the vocabulary is rich and helps to express properly different situations, objects and contexts. 

The book is mostly aimed at German speakers - with a rich vocabulary explained alphabetically at the end - but for the visual part at least, it can be used by any kind of learners. As for now, the book is available only in print format, therefore it is hard to use it for online classes.

Rating: 5 stars

Book Review: Isidor. Ein judisches Leben by Shelly Kupferberg

 

A well known moderator of Jewish cultural events, Tel Aviv born Shelly Kupferberg published this year her first novel, a literary memoir of her great uncle Isidor Geller. 

First pages into the book, one may believe that the book is a work of fiction, but once the mentions of searching through the letters and diaries and scraps of the past in the Tel Aviv apartment of her grandfather - the Austrian-Israeli historian Walter Grab - we realize that Isidor is in fact a memory reconstruction. Literarilly speaking, it is impossible to fully reconstruct someone´s past assuming a full precision. Indeed, especially placed in a literary context of a family figure, most probably there will be life episodes and testimonies of a high personal, subjective nature therefore fictionalisation has its own place. Personally, I was not extremely pleased with the blurred lines between those approaches - literature and historical reconstruction - but it is a matter of clarity that I am feeling comfortable with sometimes in specific literary contexts. There are also a couple of repetitions about the characters, which although may make sense from the point of view of an unfolding storytelling, still does take some precious storyline time.

Returning to the novel as such, there are elements so familiar to almost all Jewish stories from the German-speaking realm - both in terms of common tragic destiny and, in some cases, assimilation. There are also many details that are resurging more and more boldly lately, especially related to the stealing - concealed for so many reasons - not only of Jewish properties, but of art and valuable objects, as well as book collections. However, the specific personal traits are equally important and do make the stories uniques and worth telling.

Isidor. Ein judisches Leben contributes to the emerging literature in German, by Jewish authors, about Jewish lives before and during the Shoah. The mentions: ´in German, by Jewish authors, about Jewish lives´ are simulataneously important for the sake of authenticity and owning the narrative in a way that does not try to excuse or to edulcorate the facts, but to share stories as they were, instead of fitting into a narrative imposed from outside the Jewish realm.

The outstanding poetic cover deserves a special mention as well, and as usual, I am in awe about the high quality of the covers of German books.

Rating: 3.5 stars

One Hundred Saturdays by Michael Frank

 

For one hundred Saturdays, Michael Frank discussed with Holocaust survivor Stella Levi about her memories of her life in the Juderia, the Jewish quarter of Rhodes, and thereafter, following the liberation from Auschwitz. The fate and history of the Jews from Rhodes, a cosmopolite community connected to both the Middle East, the Balkans and Europe, is relatively less known and even less explored. The book by Nathan Shachar is a noticeable exception in this respect. 

The dialogues between Frank and Levi - now in her late 90s - are however more than an academic reconstruction of a time past. They add on the personal memories of Levi, now the only survivor of her family, already decimated by the Shoah. In comparison with an analytical academic approach, One Hundred Saturdays is sharing a personal, intimate account of an unique, subjective anthropological value. I had the access to the book in audiobook format, which includes some interventions of Levi herself - including singing songs in Ladino from her childhood - , therefore sharing an even more direct personal testimony.  

For us, the young readers, it is a priviledge to have access to such first hand testimonies about one of the many lost Jewish worlds. Those world will stay alive as long they are remembered. The world of the Jews from Rhodes, as well as many other Jews whose world were destroyed by war and hate are part of a bigger history of Jewish culture and memories. 

Rating: 5 stars