Tag: Jewish Experience

books, reading

Hotel Cuba by Aaron Hamburger

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After the Great War in Europe there was continued turmoil, especially in Eastern Europe.  The Tsar fell, the Whites came, then the Reds, the Poles, and more. All that Jews in the shtetls knew was that life was dangerous for them. Getting out, however, was not easy. Isolationist throughout the world were closing the doors, especially to these Jews. When confronted with the choice to wait until something changed or board a boat to Cuba, Pearl and her sister Frieda go to Cuba.

The Jewish diaspora, however, seeks to help others and they were met at the boat and brought home to a Jewish organization that helped feed and house them until they found jobs. With Pearl’s skills as a seamstress, they were able to be placed with a Jewish couple that had a millenary shop.

While they are sisters, Pearl has been raising Frieda since she was responsible for her after their mother died in childbirth. Pearl also took over the tasks of her mother, making the home for the family, cooking for all her father, the cantor, would invite to shabbas. The responsibility for taking care of Frieda continued in Cuba, with Frieda dreaming of her fiancé in Detroit, and Pearl always being realistic about what work needed to get done.

Each sister has a role to play, as in any family. With the stress of trying to make it to America with the doors closing tighter every day, these become exacerbated. Pearl finally agrees to help get the money to pay for Frieda to be smuggled to the US. After this, Pearl is on her own for the first time. She works hard but misses her family. She pays to go to Key West, but is found and sent back. Through the people she meets there and those she meets back in Cuba when she is sent back, she learns to stand strong for herself and make her desires known.

A strong woman in that era is not looked upon nicely. Through her strength of character, she finds what she wants, asks for it, and to her surprise, she earns it.  The person who is most surprised is Pearl.

An interesting alternative to how to get into the US, and there is truth in the desperation of those trying to get out of Europe. While there are some easy guesses to make, I thought it was an enjoyable read.    

book-review, books, Family Drama, literature, read around the world, reading

The King’s Cartographer by Jair Alcalay

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The story starts out in the late 1600s with an introduction to Jewish brothers that are running from a mob that have been sent by the Catholic Church to kill them for their religion. You are introduced to the particulars of leaving Spain, how the sea faring business they owned was organized, and about the ships they sailed. I was looking forward to hearing how the family escaped, built a new life in Portugal, and continued to grow and navigate around the world.

What you get, however, are the details that the family moved and settled in. You do not hear of the family and how they deal with the changes in circumstance and the future planning they are doing to find somewhere they can practice their religion openly. You learn how new ships were built, how a new person comes to the family and learns of the sea and how to create new maps – and even how they were created and used in the early days of naval investigation. With each new person you are following in the story, you hear details on how they faired at sea, a few comments of who they may have married, but the focus was on the exploration and the ships.

While these details were very interesting, this left me confused about this novel. The story was more of a travel log that passed from people. At the end, there were indications as to how Jews moved to the new world, now New York, but nothing was ever noted explicitly. I wanted to hear a story around these facts. This, in my opinion, was a lost opportunity to tell a fascinating historically based story that fell way short of the mark.

I will keep searching.

book-review, books, Family Drama, Middle Eastern, read around the world, reading

The world of Henna makes a mark

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Henna House / Yemen

Set in 1920’s Yemen, this is a story of a small but distinctive Jewish community in Yemen. There is a law called the Orphan’s Decree – if a Jewish child’s father passes away, even if there are other relatives, the government can take them away and place them in a Muslim home to be converted immediately. This law has stolen many children, and marriage arrangements for children as young as 2 have been made in order to try to prevent this from happening. It is in this world that we are introduced to Adela, the youngest girl in a Jewish family with a father seriously ill.  Adela’s mother, who beats her regularly, delayed the search for a suitable match, but at the age of 6, a high ranking official in the government has made it clear that he wants to take her as a present for his wife.

When Adela father’s condition worsens, the task is undertaken. After three failed engagements, Adela is considered “cursed” as tragedy befell all that agreed. Her father’s long lost brother arrives with his son Asaf in tow. An engagement is arranged. The child Adela begins to allow herself to fall in love with her betrothed. Her adoration of Asaf was mixed with confusion of his hiding his ritual side hair in order to ride horses, something forbidden by law for Jews.  The uncle and Asaf leave abruptly to seek greater fortune, with no goodbyes. 

Another uncle falls from grace and arrives with his family. He was a wealthy merchant that came to folly because of superstition over his wife, a famous Henna artist. It was rumored that she caused a woman to die because of the charms she wrote in the henna art that was drawn before a wedding. This brought the two families together and provided a sister for Adela. They became inseparable. Adela learns the Henna art over years of helping her aunt and cousin, which introduces her to a greater world outside her village. Marriage comes to the girls, and things that drew them together now pull them apart. Jealousy and deceit create pain for the entire family.

The lives of the two cousins represent the choices that Jews of that time were making – do you leave your home village, forsake the heritage you were brought up in and build a new fortune, or do you cling to the old ways while you build a future uniquely your own? Each avenue leads to peril, but some stories should not have ended the way they did.   

Henna is a way to create beauty for someone’s life. It is a celebration. When it is used for other things, then the magic can take on darker meanings. To mark someone with pain is to write your own tragedy. To receive the painful message on your skin may seem temporary, but the marks will remain forever. In order to release herself from the power of the henna, Adela wrote her own story. It is a story of emerging from a life that was existing in the past and arriving in a future that no one ever expected. Leaving the village in Yemen, where running water did not exist, and emerging from the dessert in Palestine at the dawn of a new country in the matter of months was as jarring as the reality that the Hani, her cousin found in Europe. 

The story, while slow to unfold, follows the speed of life in Yemen. The resolution and revelations near the end speed up as Yemen and Adela are thrust into modern times. The language is beautiful, and like a henna this left a mark. Family can be both salvation and destruction. Ultimately, the choices each girl makes leads them to their own futures.

Biography, book-review, memoir, Non-Fiction

Non-fiction in the air – even with a mask on.

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In the strange world we are living in, I am amazed that I am able to concentrate at all on any book.  It has been harder than ever for me, but every few weeks I try to pick up something new.  I tried The Water Dancer, American Dirt and Little Fires Everywhere, but I just couldn’t handle the difficult topics, even if they were so well written.  I will return to them when I feel more grounded.  Instead, I have spent the last few weeks reading books of real people, living real lives. 

This first book, after having sat upon my bookshelf for years, is The Year of Living Biblically, by A.J. Jacobs. It was surprisingly engaging.  As A.J. went through his quest to learn more traditions and live closer to the letters of the biblical law, I saw a man striving to find himself in so many ways.  This was just the method he was currently using.  I saw in myself the understanding I have always tried to have around religious rules, separating those from traditions and determining what these meant and why I would either to continue to observe it or not.  I felt light after reading this.  Somehow closer to myself and the “greater being” I believe in. 

After finishing this book, I found The Library Book by Susan Orleans.  I was expecting a novel, and jumped right in.  This is absolutely not a novel.  I found an intriguing story of how the Los Angeles Central Library was created and grew, only to be devastated by fire in the 1980s.  Hearing the story as we are taken through the halls of the rebuilt library, with a mystery of how the fire was started and how the institution has changed was fascinating for a self-proclaimed library lover.  This simply highlighted the unique and special place libraries, their caretakers, and their contents are. 

I followed this up with The Young Woman and The Sea by Glen Stout.  I was drawn to this after I heard him in a book group for my employer talking about the book.  The way he explained the world of the time, jumping in and out of the space, and the context of swimming within the larger woman’s movement made me seek this out.  Learning about Trudie Edele, the first woman to cross the English Channel, was not all I gleaned from his pages. While this was a bit long with suppositions on things going through Trudie’s mind when swimming, the details on how she was instrumental in breaking so many barriers simply by being herself was refreshing and exciting.  I had never seen her in that light before, and I gained additional admiration for her ability to put sportsmanship first and swam for the joy of it.

Who knows what I will pick up next?  Could be from the library, Amazon Prime or even my own bookshelf.  I will go where the spirit pulls, and do my best to share with you some highlights.

book-review, memoir, Non-Fiction, read around the world

Jerusalem – the heart in four chambers

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Jerusalem Drawn and Quartered by Sarah Tuttle-Singer was a memoir I was very much drawn to read.  The premise of the book was to live for one year within the walls of the old city, time spent in each one of the quarters.  I was excited to read the stories about how each section was, the differences and the similarities. 
What the book ended up being, however, was a woman that is still processing traumas.  From the onset of reading the book, you learn of the author’s love of Israel, how she came as a teen and how she fell in love with the place.  Her mother had done the same thing, and had passed on this love of the country. 
You are then plunged into half stories and innuendo on her mother’s death, a possible sexual assault, a stoning, an abusive relationship, and a divorce and another sexual assault.  The story telling of this is all in the backdrop of explaining the different parts of Jerusalem, friends and acquaintances.  She spends 3 days at a time in the old city, so she can be with her children the other days near the kibbutz they live on with their father.  She is not a resident in any quarter, but a short time visitor.  She is always looking for the rooftop, echoing a story of her grandmother’s first time in Israel and being caught kissing someone on a roof before being sent to Chicago.  There are sparks of conversations and insights that I wish the author would have explored more:  
  • The person who’s fiancé was born in the old city, but left in 1967 to be with his father in Jordan, and cannot get a visa to come back, so the fiancé needed to chose between the person she loved or the city she loved.
  • The Muslim family that invited her in one night when she was out near dark and it was not safe. This matriarch, with a girl and boy just like the author’s, was never fully developed.  We never learn of the ways of the family, just the fact that both mothers wanted their children to go out and save the environment together.  The common ground between the two were only explored on the surface. 
  • The Arab man that sat with her over coffee to tell her that his family fled in 1948 to stay safe from the war. They came back when it was done and someone else was in their house.  They want their house back. 
  • The Muslim tailor that gave the author’s daughter her first Jewish Star necklace, the taxi driver that thanked her for making friends with Arabs and apologized for all the terror that had been done on behalf of his people (which the author reciprocated). 

All of these were mentioned, but not examined in anything more than the observation that these things happen. 

A major part of the story is her processing her mother’s death, an abusive relationship, a possible assault, a stoning and more.  I have tried my best to see if these are to be metaphors for the city of Jerusalem, but I am just not convinced these are.  The loss of innocence, the spilling of blood, the abuse of those you love – while there may be some similarities, they remain too vague to be real, in my opinion.  That is why I am so unsure about what the point of the book was.  To me it was more of an exercise to see if she could be strong for herself and her children, while putting herself in danger with stupid decisions (really – why on earth would I feel this woman is strong because someone followed her to a hotel and she yelled at him, when earlier she just stood and took it when someone undressed her when she didn’t want it at a different one?)  She kept relaying both sides of herself – again not sure if was supposed to be metaphor for the city or not, but it made me not like her.

After reading the book, I want even more to understand the differences between the quarters.  Why they are there, what motivates them, and what commonalities or assumptions that everyone has – so we can break down barriers toward a real peace. 
In this time of forgiveness and atonement, I was hoping for more.
book-review, books, literature, Middle Eastern, read around the world, reading

Humanity seen through A Woman in Jerusalem by A.B. Yehoshua

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A woman is killed in Jerusalem by a terrorist attack.

No one comes forward that someone was missing.

A paystub was found, and a journalist contacted the business owner to question his humanity.

The owner – in his 80s, became enraged that his humanity was questioned. He demands his Human Resource Manager find out who she was.

He is told to cancel on taking care of his daughter, as promised to his ex-wife that night.  The Office Manager is sent instead.

The HR Manager goes to his office, demanding his secretary come back to the office to help find the paperwork on the person. She is forced to bring her baby, which the HR Manager cares for while she searches.

The personnel file is found. The HR Manager had written notes. She was an electrical engineer in her home country but wanted to work. She was brought on as a cleaner who requested the night shift for extra pay.

Was the task done? No.  Off they march to the bakery to speak with the supervisor.

Turns out that after being accused by the secretary and questioned by the HR Manager, the initial story of her being fired but mistakenly left on the payroll was found untrue. The supervisor admits that he had lusted for this woman, who was too smart and beautiful to be near him or in this type of job. He sent her home while still being paid, so he didn’t have to be tempted by her. Thus no one realized she had not come to work, because she was not expected

When the HR Manager reports to the Owner all this, it appears that he has been told everything. He then asks the HR Manager to take the woman back to her son and mother in the old country to be buried. The trials that they go through, including almost poisoning himself to death, get him to the woman’s home town, only to be questioned why the woman had not been buried in Jerusalem where she had moved to.

The parallels to the Israeli society here are too obvious to miss.  One woman unclaimed meant no one had any humanity. When investigating, they find that she was not the woman they thought she was – not just a cleaning woman but a mother, daughter, lover, and engineer.  She may not have been Jewish, but the orthodox family that gave her housing also gave her a Hebrew name. And through all of these twists, it appears the old man seems to be aware of all these pieces as the HR Manager just discovers it.

The humanity of Israeli society is being questioned daily, both internally and in the press.  Every person, be them Jewish or not, has a reason for wanting to be “going home” to Jerusalem, as the woman’s mother states.  To assume that they would not want to die there and stay is foolhardy. We each need to cleanse ourselves fully to realize this folly – our humanity must always guide us and cannot just be apologized away. Until there is a way found back for all, we should all be questioning our humanity/

books, reading

Graphic Novels: Complex themes/unorthodox medium – an examination in the similarities of Maus and Persepolis

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This year I have been striving to be open to read different types of books than I normally would.  As part of a book group challenge on Goodreads.com, I started looking for illustrated books for adults.  What I found was so much more than comic books.

As I looked through titles, I noticed Maus, a book I had not heard of before.  My husband, and other East Coasters I spoke with had all read this in high school. I got this from the library (I am attempting to not spend money on a book this year, and our library is so amazing I want to support them), and started reading.  By the time I put the book down later that day, I was already itching to read the second one, which I did the next day.

A month later, my daughter asked me to proofread a paper for school on Persepolis, a graphic novel about the overthrow of the Shah in Iran in the late 1970s.  This time I requested BOTH volumes 1 and 2 at the same time.  That turned out to be a smart move.

In addition to both sets of graphic novels leaving me wanting more, there were striking similarities between these.  Both were autobiographical, dealing with war and oppression.  The dark themes of losing yourself, of exile from home, and of leaving behind pain are shown.  The method of the graphic novel, while making things seem “more casual” actually illuminate the history of two corrupt regimes very well.  Both periods in history show how brutal people can become in the quest for power.  The pictures help make the horrors easier to face.  There are no real faces or photos, creating a barrier for both the reader and the writer to get through the story. Maus goes so far as to depict Jews as mice, Germans as Cats and Poles as pigs, a further statement on the state of humankind.

Underpinning both stories of survival and self-discovery, both books exhibit the traits of survivor’s guilt.  Persepolis’ Marji had been able to escape the ravages of war and oppression as a displaced and lonely teenager in Vienna, but needed to return to her home before realizing she didn’t fit in there, either.  She was ultimately able to leave her country behind, but never her guilt of leaving.  It was only with the second departure that she understood that her mother, while loving her deeply, wanted Marji to live in a world where she could be more than was being allowed in Iran.

Within Maus, the survivorship takes on more layers.  Not only did he exist in the shadow of his dead brother who died in the war as did the majority of the family, but Art survived of his own mother’s suicide.  It was Art’s dealing with this guilt in an underground comic strip that lead him to ask his father’s story – to learn more of his mother.

As noted in Persepolis, it will take generations for the people to truly heal. Both stories show the evils of extremism and intolerance.  If we could all look at the world with the veil over our eyes to see only drawings, maybe we can see the complex truth in the simple lines.