Celia Gurevitch Jewish Community Library

I have to admit that I did not read all the books from beginning to end I write about in this blog. Most of the time I spend half an hour with getting familiar with it, by browsing it through, reading a few page here and there and checking reviews. This time however I did read Edeet Ravel‘s novel, “Ten thousand lovers” from cover to cover. I had an easy job, because it was fascinating on several levels.

I was surprised how well the author integrated explanations of origins and analysis of words from modern Israeli vocabulary into the novel. Not speaking Ivrit, but having been to Israel and having some knowledge of Hebrew this was most educational for me. On every tenth page or so Ravel devoted half a page or so to introducing a new word or a whole phrase. She explained the connection to Biblical Hebrew and how the contemporary meaning of the word came about. The connections, the logic behind the transformation of the meaning was fascinating and revealing.

I also enjoyed the frame of the novel, from where the protagonist flashed back to tell the main story. The framing narrative is set in today’s London, where the protagonist hosts her daughter, in her twenties, and her boyfriend, both dancers, for a visit. We mostly learn about the mother’s feelings and musing about their relationship as she think through how the daughter came to this world. But we also get acquainted a little bit with the daughter’s struggles.

All of the above serve as backdrop only in retelling the main line of events. Our heroine is a university student in the 1970′s Israel. She gets to know, fall in love and eventually bear the child of Ami, an intriguing man who works as an interrogator for the army. Herein originates the ethical dilemma. Ami was depicted as a decent man, who does not select his friends base don race or religion. He is also a man of high moral standards. For example in the course of his work he helps the prisoners to recover from previous abuses, never hurts them physically, his method of inquiry is simply to conduct a verbal conversation. But how can one do this kind of work and keep one’s sanity? The other question the novel works around is how she can accept him and his job as an integral part of his being. There is no simple answer for these questions; they are the problem the book returns again and again. That is why I liked this book. It did not take the easy way out of taking either side of the conflict. I rarely saw this kind of honesty. The book just described the human struggle of the people who live in the midst of this.

Here is an excerpt from Ami’s monolog, from page 241, that sheds light on part of his stance:

This idea that we’re the good guys, we’re the nice ones, beleaguered, long-suffering, misunderstood–it’s ingrained. We’re the ones who are advanced, bringing light wherever we go. Ad for a while there was at least something to hold on to, some good intentions, some sort of real struggle. And whatever didn’t fit into that view of ourselves, we ignored. We focused on the good things and we believed we were better than everyone else. Good guys surrounded by bad guys. Well, the occupation finally leaves us without a way out. It proves we’re exactly the same as everyone else. Capable of everything and anything.

Today is July 14, also known as Bastille Day. It is a national holiday in France marking the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille, an infamous prison at the time, on this day in 1789. To celebrate this important step in the French revolution I would like to recommend a bilingual (Hebrew, English) catalog of an exhibition from the Diaspora Museum in Tel-Aviv. The title of the book and the exhibition is, “The turning point, the Jews of France during the revolution and the Napoleonic Era.” This volume, heavily illustrated with prints, woodcuts, reproduction of documents and maps contains a ten page essay on the topic. Listing its subheadings will give you a picture of the tremendous progress in the status of Jews:

Before the revolution: Legalized Tolerance
The revolution: 1784:1789: A new approach to the relations between Christians and Jews
Towards emancipation
After 1791: Full citizenship
The Napoleonic era: Appearance of new communities across France
The Assembly of notables – 1806
The Paris Sanhedrin – 1807 (pictured)
The Decrees of 17th March, 1808

If you think about it, it is a miracle that European Jewry survived centuries and even millennia of various forms of anti-Semitism, including persecution, expulsions, and forced conversion. Alan Edelstein poses the question from an academic point of view how was that possible. The answer in his book, “An unacknowledged harmony: philo-Semitism and the survival of European Jewry,” stands on four legs. First, there has been a constant present streak within Christian theology that preferred the physical protection of Jews (often in the hope of later conversion). Second, the fact that Jews were useful in economic terms for society by the roles they filled in helped their survival. Third, with the advent of the Enlightenment the ideas and powers of humanism gained acceptance and human rights got extended to Jews. Finally, early versions of nationalism expanded emancipation to Jews as long as they ended their cultural, but not religious separation. (This succinct summary is based on Hans E. Segal‘s review of the book in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 470, Nov., 1983, pp. 192-193.)

Before finishing this review I have to make sure that the readers are aware that Edelstein does not belittle the historic anti-Semitism. He is just looking for answers and a redefinition of philo-Semitism. He writes (page 26) that it is a belief system that

1. sees Jews in positive light
2. may take a multitude of forms
3. has attitudinal and behavioral components
4. in its weakest sense entails anti-anti-Semitism
5. may or may not lead to overt actions
6. may or may not be consistent
7. may exist for numerous reasons.

As they say, the rest of the book is a commentary on the above.

I like to keep the subject lines of the blog posts short therefore when I write about a book I only list the last name of the author there. In this case it does not give full justice, because the full name of the creator is the much more aristocratic Colonel Sir Charles William Wilson. His book is one of the most interesting and visually stunning books the library received recently. On the cover the title is listed as “The land of Judea.” However if we open the book we see that the full title is “The land of Judea & the Jerusalem environs, including the mountains of Ephraim and the Dead Sea region.” However if we glance the opposite page we notice that it is “Reprinted from the book originally published in 1880, under the title: Picturesque Palestine, Sinai and Egypt.” What we really have here is a 1975 reprint from Israel.

I called this stunning, because of the beautiful woodcuts presented on almost every page of the book. (See an example below.) I recognize that these romanticized images present a European orientalist (aka colonialist) view, but find their peaceful nature, finely drawn design visually stimulating. Not to mention that they provide a view of Eretz Yisrael from 130 years ago. Their focus however reflects the author’s who was more interested in buildings of Christian origin than Jewish. Nevertheless there are plenty of illustrations to enjoy for everyone. The text of the book is written in classic travelogue style, sprinkled with anthropological observations.

One of the arches of an aqueduct over the Wady Kelt, plains of Jericho.
The stream is popularly known as the Brook Cherith.

The 28th San Francisco Jewish Film Festival will take place July 24 – August 11, 2008. One of the movies they will be screening is “Blessed is the Match: The Life and Death of Hannah Senesh“. Roberta Grossman‘s first-rate documentary is narrated by three-time Academy Award nominee Joan Allen. Here is a quick summary of Senesh’s life and the documentary,

Hannah Senesh was a Hungarian Jewish resistance fighter, an optimist in the face of dire circumstances and a poet. The child of educated parents in Budapest, Hannah’s early years were consumed by her love of literature. Her emotional growth as a teenager paralleled the growth of anti-Semitism in Hungary and led her to fiercely embrace Zionism. After emigrating to Palestine, Hannah volunteered for a special unit in the British Army and parachuted into occupied Yugoslavia. She then traveled clandestinely back to Hungary to make contact with the resistance, but was arrested, tortured and subsequently executed. Her group’s bold foray was the only outside rescue mission for Jews attempted during the Holocaust.

For those of you who cannot make it to either of the two showings [July 27, 11:30am - Castro Theatre (San Francisco) and August 3, 1:15pm - The Roda Theatre (Berkeley)] I recommend to check out one of the three books we have on her. First of all “Her Life and Diary” might be most authentic, because it contains Senesh’ diary letters and selected poems, along with an introduction by Abba Eban. Next is Linda Atkinson‘s scholarly biography, “In Kindling Flame, The Story of Hannah Senesh, 1921-1944.” Finally, we also have her story in a child/young adult appropriate format in the form of Maxine Schur‘s illustrated tome, “Hanna Szenes-a song of light.” (Don’t let the different spelling confuse you. The Hungarian spelling of her last name is Szenes, but for the sake of proper pronunciation it was transliterated into Senesh in English. )

Let me close this entry with her most famous poem,

My God, My God, I pray that these things never end,
The sand and the sea,
The rustle of the waters,
Lightning of the Heavens,
The prayer of Man.

As you might have heard Benny Friedman passed away earlier this week. Let me quote the Press Democrat’s obituary, which is worthwhile to read in its entirety:

The Friedman brothers built the business on the principles of fairness and respect, and Benny Friedman delighted in using a generous share of the profits to enhance life in the city and county he loved. He was a principal in the transformation of a distressed church into what is now the Wells Fargo Center for the Arts and a trusty supporter of community organizations, including the Volunteer Center, Memorial Hospital and Congregation Beth Ami.

The library has resources to support you, whether you are a finding yourself in the mourner or comforter role. For now I will just list some of the titles we have on the topic and later update our existing annotated bibliography:

• A guide to life; Jewish laws and customs of mourning.
• A time to mourn, a time to comfort.
• Blessings of a broken heart.
• Dignity beyond death: the Jewish preparation for burial.
• Jewish reflections on death.
• Living a year of kaddish.
• Mourning and mitzvah.
• Saying kaddish : How to comfort the dying, bury the dead, and  mourn as a Jew.
• The Jewish mourner’s book of why.
• The Jewish way in death and mourning.
• The shadowed valley.
• Time remembered; a journal for survivors.
• To begin again.
• To comfort the bereaved.
• Wrestling with the angel.

Mordechai Hakohen (1856-1929) was an Italian Jew, born in Libya. He worked as a peddler, teacher, clerk and later a magistrate in a Rabbinic court. He was also an amateur ethnologist, historian and linguist as his Judeo-Arabic manuscript, titled “Highid Mordekhai,” attests. In 1978 Harvey S. Goldberg translated the opus to Hebrew and in 1980 to English. Goldberg did more than translate though, he wrote a 35 page long introduction, a 4-15 page foreword to each of the six sections of the book and extensive annotation.

This originally excessively descriptive “The book of Mordechai: A study of the Jews of Libya” was turned into an even more scholarly tome by the editor. The book, published by the Institute for the Study of Human Issues,” covers domestic life, religion, trade, as well as the relations of Jews to Arabs, Berbers, and the Italians who invaded in 1911″. I must be hungry, that I selected this section to invite you to this table of knowledge,

The villagers gain their livelihood easily. They can get grain and eggs, firewood for cooking and baking and wash their clothes at no cost. At harvest time, they gather in grain, olive oil, and figs in large and small amounts, produced on their land, or from portions of the plowed fields owned in partnership with the Berbers. Some do all their plowing and harvesting by themselves. In addition, they receive fresh produce, including olive oil and figs, in exchange for merchandise. Grapes for wine are sold cheaply, but most of the wine is made from figs. (page 85)

If you want to know more about the lives of Jews in Libya 100+ years ago or if you just want to read a fascinating ethnography, this is the book to turn to.

As I received the following announcement the last few days from four different sources, I can no longer resist and am ready share it with the readers of this blog too:

You are invited to participate in an interesting and entertaining survey about language.  Essentially, we’re asking about the spread of Yiddish (and some Hebrew) among English speakers in North America.  We’re turning to both Jews and non-Jews to answer questions like these: Who uses Yiddish words like “shmooze” and “daven” and phrases like “Money, shmoney”?  Why do some people say “temple” while others say “shul”?  Who prefers biblical names for their babies?  Your responses will help us answer these and other questions, and you might learn something about yourself in the process.  Please set aside 15-20 minutes, and click on this link to participate.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=9eQwWyblG_2b8ixLqbt6QFhg_3d_3d

Please forward this e-mail to your friends and family.  We are hoping to get thousands of responses from people of all religions, ages, and regions of the United States and Canada.  If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail Prof. Sarah Bunin Benor <sbenor@huc.edu> or Prof. Steven M. Cohen <Steve34nyc@aol.com>.

Sincerely,
Prof. Sarah Bunin Benor
Prof. Steven M. Cohen
Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion

Joseph Buloff (1899-1985) had a tumultuous life. He was born in Vilna, Lithuania, performed all over Europe with the Vilna Troupe, joined the Yiddish Art Theater in New York, directed the Jewish Literary and Dramatic Society in Chicago. He performed in 225 Yiddish plays and dozens of plays on Broadway, appeared in 33 movies and TV shows and wrote two books. The library received recently a copy of one of them, “From the old marketplace: A memoir of laughter, survival, and coming of age in Eastern Europe.” The library journal described it as,

“Breadlines and cigarette shortages; anti-Semitism and ethnic animosity; shifting alliances and power struggles; pogrom, war, occupation, pestilence, revolution–all the disasters that in the first two decades of this century befell Vilnius, the old capital of Lithuania, tumble through the pages of Buloff’s novel. In the Central/East European absurdist tradition (Mrozek, Gombrowicz, Olesha, Pil’niak, Grass) that jumbles unbearable reality into a phantasmagoric kaleidoscope, narrator Yosik relates the chaotic history of his spiritual home, Vilnius’s old marketplace, and his own quirky Bildungsroman as an undersized Jewish boy with a glib tongue and vivid imagination. Wrenchingly funny and historically faithful, the book…has all the gallant vitality of the vanished life of the marketplace.”

I attempted and failed to find a quotable paragraph from the book itself for this entry. It is so action driven; it has so little descriptive only paragraphs that without context it did not make sense to copy any of it. Nevertheless to familiarize yourself with Buloff’s style, to wet your appetite, to invoke Chagall’s imagery and to honor my father-in-law, here is a segment from page 75,

Inspired by his flattery, I began to sweep the bow up and down as if flapping a wing and, with the fingers of my other hand, gripped the neck of invisible violin, which now began to rattle and gasp as if choking from an excess of rapture. Eyes closed in deep concentration, I saw Paganini move his hand out of the silvered glass and place it tenderly upon my flushed brow. “From now on,” he said, “your name is Paganini the Third, and I proclaim to the whole marketplace and to the whole city that neither the First nor the Second but the Third is the real Paganini, the truest and greatest of them all.”

Our first child was born last week. As you can imagine we spent quit a bit of time trying to find the right name for the baby. In the process we consulted all three books the library has on the topic. Two of them were published in 1989. “The complete book of Hebrew baby names” by Smadar Shir Sidi contains more than 5,000 traditional and contemporary Hebrew names. It also has four 1-2 page long essays on how to choose a name, what are the considerations about naming the baby after a relative, what the most popular names are and how to conduct the naming ceremony. The appendixes include names from the Jewish calendar, names that work in English as well, and my favorite is a set of suggestions on what to name twins. The author acknowledges that triplets are even more difficult to name. The listof names are separated by gender. Each name has a short explanation of origin and meaning. For biblical names the annotation includes the reference where the name appears in the Tanakh.

The second book from the same year is Anita Diamant‘s “What to name your Jewish baby.” She devotes 30 pages to the various issues before jumping into the list. In addition to the topics the first book covers, she also talks about the dichotomy of sacred and secular, superstition, fashion and adoption. The list of names is slightly shorter, but it includes alternative spellings and possible nicknames.

The third book, also from Anita Diamant, is much more than a name book. “The new Jewish baby book,” from 2005, devotes only one chapter to names. Here is an explanatory segment from the introduction:

Drawn from the wealth of mythic, historic, religious, culinary, and literary traditions that surround the arrival of a new Jewish baby, and informed by contemporary insight and practice, The New Jewish Baby Book describes the many ways that new parents can celebrate the arrival of a child, the newest member of your extended families, and a unique and precious chapter in the on-going saga of the Jewish people.