| Shush!
Growing Up Jewish Under Stalin. By Emil Draitser. Berkeley: University
of California Press, 2008. 338 Pages. $24.95.
In the long trail of tears that constitutes Jewish
history, one of the few bright spots is the triumphant rescue of
Russian Jewry. Although there was supposedly no official anti-Semitism
in the Soviet Union, there was in fact considerable repression,
especially directed toward those Jews known as "refuseniks"
who sought to emigrate. Jews around the world rallied to their cause
and diplomatic pressure was exerted. Eventually, one million Jews
were freed to go to Israel and about 500,000 left for the United
States, Germany, Canada, and other countries.
The hardships experienced by Soviet Jews are poignantly
described in this memoir by Emil Draitser who managed to reach America
in the late 1970s. He is now a professor of Russian in New York.
Born in 1937, he concentrates in the book on his life until 1953
when Stalin died and the Jewish doctors accused of being poisoners
were declared innocent. Draitser joined the celebration, albeit
somewhat hesitatingly since he had systematically tried to identify
himself as a Russian rather than as a Jew.
Beginning with his first day at school, his efforts
to downplay his Jewish identity failed since his classmates and
his teacher taunted him as a Jew. He joined Communist youth movements
and saw himself as a "citizen of the USSR," but he continued
to encounter anti-Semitism. At home, he was somewhat puzzled when
his parents quietly observed Jewish holidays. His father taught
him to root for Jews in the world chess championship, to take pride
in the few Jewish winners of the annual Stalin Prize, and to know
that both Marx and Einstein were Jews.
Confusion was intensified for Draitser when he
was taught in school that Russians invented the steam engine, the
light bulb, the radio, the telegraph, the airplane and the computer.
More mixed messages came to him when he found anti-Semitic lines
in the writings of his favorite Russian authors. Along with other
Soviet youth, the truth about the Holocaust was kept from him. He
was well into his twenties before he learned about the Jewish disaster.
Fortunately for Draitser, he was able to come to
the United States and to learn how he had been victimized by Soviet
propaganda. His narrative eloquently testifies to the persistence
of Russian Jews in maintaining their identity as well as to the
value of the protest movement on their behalf. This is a significant
contribution to our understanding of life in the Soviet Union and
to the vital importance of speaking out against oppression.
Bureaucracy in Israel
Shut Up, I'm Talking and Other Diplomacy Lessons I Learned in
the Israeli Government. By Gregory Levey. New York: Free Press,
2008. 267 Pages. $24.
This is both a funny and a scary book. It's funny
because Gregory Levey has a great sense of humor and he tells the
story of his employment by the Israeli government over a three-year
period with remarkable hilarity. It's scary because Levey frankly
depicts the ineptitude and incompetence of Israeli bureaucrats although
he wonders whether or not they are unique since he thinks that all
governments may be "a bit wacky."
Born in South Africa and raised in Toronto, where
he attended a day school with Israeli teachers, Levey was a 25-year
old law student in New York when he decided to relieve his boredom
by applying for an internship at the Israel mission to the United
Nations. After a few months of a frustrating run-around, Levey was
finally interviewed on the phone every day for several weeks by
an Israel security agent who asked what often seemed to be silly
questions. At last, Levey was invited to meet with Israel's Deputy
Ambassador to the UN who began the interview by telling Levey "we
don't offer internships." He then offered Levey a job as a
speech writer if he passed a committee interview and a further security
check. One of the questioners in the committee interview requested
"a brief rundown of the United States' involvement in the Second
World War." The security check took a couple of months and
Levey finally reported for duty where the deputy ambassador opened
their meeting by telling Levey "an incredibly dirty joke."
A series of comical episodes are then described,
reaching an absurd climax in which Levey found himself representing
Israel at a General Assembly session where, with no instructions,
he had to cast Israel's vote on a resolution that he knew nothing
about. His frantic efforts to seek guidance from the Mission were
finally answered after the balloting had been completed. Almost
matching the silliness of this episode is a scene where Levey meets
Silvan Shalom, the foreign minister of Israel, whose forthcoming
speech to the UN was written in part by Levey. Several other Israeli
officials are also present to review the final draft of the speech.
Shalom is dressed in his underwear for the meeting!
Levey was completing the requirements for his law
degree by studying at night and is planning to resign in order to
join his girl friend in Washington. He is asked to write a speech
for Prime Minister Sharon who is visiting New York to secure support
for his plan to withdraw from Gaza. The prime minister liked the
speech and Levey is invited to come to Jerusalem to work in the
prime minister's office.
Although he is asked to come immediately, the bureaucracy
takes several frustrating months to clear him. He then works with
more vexations first for Sharon and then for Prime Minister Olmert
after Sharon's stroke. Finally, Levey and his girl friend, who accompanied
him to Israel, are fed up with the irritations and difficulties
of life in Israel. They decide to leave. He is now back in Toronto
where he teaches at Ryerson University in the Communications Department.
He watches developments in Israel with great interest, wishing Israel
well but wondering whether or not it can "fix the systemic
problems in both the government and the military."
Ultimately, despite the silliness and the goofiness
he encountered, Levey is an empathetic observer who offers a compassionate
commentary on Israel as perceived from a concerned vantage point.
This unusual book can be enjoyed and relished, but it also needs
to be pondered and weighed since Levey's sympathetic eyes see Israel
with some of its warts.
Kibbutzim – small but influential
Zion in the Desert. By William F.S. Miles. Albany: State University
of New York Press, 2007. 260 Pages. $70.
Author William Miles is a professor at Northeastern
University. He describes himself as a "political anthropologist"
who has worked among the Hausa, Tamils, French West Indians, Melanesians,
Creoles, and Hindus. He claims that studying the "exotic other"
is an escape from examining his "own strangeness, as a Jew,
in the much wider Gentile world." Having decided to stop this
"escape," he made up his mind to do field work and to
write about the first Reform Jewish kibbutz. Part of his motivation
was his determination to confront his own ambivalence as a Zionist
who had failed to make aliyah. Accordingly, he introduces this book
by calling it an "'ethno-autobiography': exploring one's self
through the study of one's ethnic peers."
In 1999, Miles and his wife spent six weeks in
a section of the Negev Desert called "Arava" where there
were two kibbutzim established by Reform Jews: Yahel, founded in
1977 and Lotan, five years later. Previously, in 1994, Miles spent
a sabbatical in Jerusalem, having already been to Israel several
times on shorter trips. During this visit, he went to Yahel a couple
of times where his high school friend was a member of the kibbutz
and Miles resolved to return in order to study the settlement.
The history of the kibbutz movement is briefly
described along with an account of how the two Reform kibbutzim
were organized. The motivations of the people who settled there
and the reasons they stayed or left are explored. The ways in which
the two kibbutzim dealt with various crises is set forth. Among
these was the problem of hired labor, which became economically
necessary although kibbutz ideology was violated. The treatment
of these workers and others who live on the kibbutz without being
members is the subject of an entire chapter that illuminates some
of the enigmas confronted by the kibbutzim.
Religious observance – or its lack –
is another issue that created dissension. Maintaining kashrut, observing
the Sabbath, and attending prayer services were discussed among
the kibbutz members at great length and some compromises were adopted.
Miles describes the religious situation on the two Reform kibbutzim
as "ambiguous."
As is true of all kibbutzim, a number of Yahel's
and Lotan's members have left, some to return to America and some
to settle in other parts of Israel. Miles interviewed a number of
these individuals, discovering a variety of reasons for the decision
to leave. One was the lack of opportunity to practice a particular
profession; another was the wish for more religious observance;
still another was the desire for more "individuality and personal
space." No matter why they left, according to Miles, they all
have "an intense nostalgia for their experiences as pioneers
of the Arava." For himself, Miles decided that both those who
left and those who stayed are "another kind of Jew."
The material that is so well presented here is
derived from what anthropologists call "participant observation,"
the methodology used to learn about another culture. Miles and his
wife lived on the kibbutz, took part in its activities, astutely
noted what went on around them, and interviewed many people. As
Miles stated at the outset, he learned a great deal about himself.
The sum total of his findings, both personal and
professional, make for fascinating reading that will enlighten readers
about the kibbutz, a numerically small but influential part of Israeli
society.
Dr. Morton I. Teicher is the Founding Dean,
Wurzweiler School of Social Work, Yeshiva University and Dean Emeritus,
School of Social Work, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Updated
6/17/08

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