Mixing Fact and Fiction

Last night I reviewed Arise and Shine by Tzvi Fishman on my blog Shiloh Musings, a book I coined a Forrest Gump historical fiction novel. Arise and Shine is part of a series of books by Fishman which follows the lives and adventures of  Shalom Aleichem's iconic Tevye character. Fishman has Tevye and most of his family coming to the Promised Land after being banished from their home in Anatevka.



The novel takes place after World War One, and one of the important subplots concerns the internal politics of the giants of the Zionist Movement. Fishman creates realistic characters out of true historic figures, many who had still been alive when I became a Zionist and my husband and I made aliyah. Yes, we knew some of them in real life, though they were a generation or two older than us.

Many of our friends in the Betar Zionist Youth Movement knew them, too. Betar is the youth movement connected to Jabotinsky, Trumpeldor and the Zionist Revisionists, who had been marginalized by the more politically "adept" Labor Zionists.

While the Labor Zionists idealized socialism, kibbutzim, The Haganah and Palmach, Jabotinsky's Revisionists promoted free enterprise and founded the Etzel and its breakaway freedom fighters Lechi aka Stern Gang. All in their ways claimed to be doing everything in their power to establish a Jewish State in Mandated Palestine.

Considering all of the groups and factions there had been fighting the British and each other in those very early pre-State of Israel, I have no doubt that that we all found ourselves imagining which group we would have joined, if we had lived in those exciting and historically significant times. And many of us now very grownup young Zionists continue dreaming and wondering. That could be the seeds of many more books in the genre of Forrest Gump historical fiction. Where would you have been?

"60+ is Fun," Getting Together Talking About Wars

Salute to Israel Parade, New York, 1970
NCSY Dance Group
That's me holding the flag. (photographer unknown)

Here in Shiloh new genres of social activities are developing as we get older. One of them is the "60+ is Fun," which can also be called "empty-nesters." Few of us still have children at home, and the children who live at home are adults, too. The group includes retirees and those still working.

There are two reasons for these activities. One is that as the house empties, we find ourselves with empty evenings. And the other is that so many young families live in Shiloh now, we are no longer the "face of the community," meaning that our interests/experiences/needs are different from Shiloh's young mothers of today.

Some of our activities are also for men, but every month or so we gather around someone's table, which fills with nosh, for some discussion or other activity.

Last night we celebrated Yom Ha'atzma'ut, Israeli Independence Day by reminiscing about the 1967 Six Days War. About half of us were in late high school at the time, and we all had very clear and different memories of the war and the tense weeks leading up to it.

We also come from a number of places; half were raised in Israel. I brought these two pictures to show my friends in order to try to give them an idea of what it was like to be a "Jewish activist" and Zionist fifty years ago in New York.

It's a shame that the discussion wasn't recorded, since it had very serious historical value. It was led by a retired History Teacher.

Salute to Israel Parade, New York, 1970
NCSY Dance Group
That's me holding the flag. (photographer unknown)

Shiloh Views and Memories, Celebrating 40 Years

I always enjoy being able to walk around my hometown of Shiloh. Views are always changing. Sometimes I try to reconcile the new with the tiny community of a few dozen families we moved to at the end of summer, 1981. Even in our wildest and most unrealistic dreams none of us could envision the large, vibrant, stunning and growing town that exists today.

Shiloh has grown and prospered despite our modest plans and dreams.

Absolutely nothing in these pictures existed or was even planned when we first came to Shiloh. It's clear that Shiloh's great growth and change from "the middle of no place" to being the center of a "settlement bloc" with easy travel to the Jordan Valley, Yarkon Junction, Rosh Ha'ayin-Petach Tikva, Ariel University and Jerusalem is miraculous. During the years I was on our "absorption committee," it became very clear that publicity/recruitment principles didn't hold with us. Something mystical was really controlling the traffic of new families to Shiloh. 

Ironically, or maybe more accurately, siyate d'Shmaya, the Hand of Gd has made the Gush Shiloh area the largest and most popular in Eastern Binyamin, rather than the two communities which had been favored by our regional council Mateh Binyamin in the 1980s.

During Biblical times, Shiloh had been the Jewish Capital City. I don't expect Shiloh to replace Jerusalem in any way, but I see our role in modern Israel growing, just like the gorgeous flowers pictured here.

Making Kitchen Progress, Who Wants These?

One of my tasks before redoing the kitchen, Gd willing, is to get rid of things that have been in it for decades, which I don't use.  And like many people, especially experienced and confident cooks, I don't open my old cookbooks.

Way back when I did love and utilize cookbooks, I'd frequently read them cover to cover and then internalize general principles. Except for cakes, I'd very rarely follow a recipe exactly. Besides eliminating or seriously reducing the amount of salt and other seasonings, it was usually impossible to find all of the ingredients in my pantry/kitchen. I became a "housewife" in late June,1970, and two months later we docked in Israel. Post-tzenna* Israel had plenty of food, but not all of the the ingredients in the American recipes.

My mother bought/sent me not only cookbooks, but lots of books about natural health, dieting, pregnancy and child-raising. I added many books and health/vegetarian magazines to the collection. But it has been a very long time, decades, since any of them have been opened and read. When I need a recipe, instead of taking down a few books, going through the index, putting small pieces of paper to mark the pages and then reading and comparing, I just check with Chef Google. Isn't that what almost everyone does?

So, as I've planned and envisioned my new kitchen, the bookshelves** will morph into my coffee corner. Gd willing in a few months, maybe by my next birthday, we'll be seeing my percolator, French Presses and coffee mugs on those shelves.

I've already given away more than half of the actual cookbooks. If anyone is interested in any of the remaining books, please come and get them.

*צנע tzenna or zenna, was the term for the austerity days of great financial difficulties and hardships in the early years of the State of Israel. The population grew dramatically, as Jews from all over the world hurried to our Historic Homeland. Basic food items were rationed, and families/citizens were given coupons to try to make it possible to share the limited supplies.

** That wall closet is to be re-doored with new formica to match the new cabinets on the other walls.

The "Underground Museum," Jerusalem

Cross-posted on Shiloh Musings. For the entire article please click here.

A couple of weeks ago, the senior citizen "vattimkim," program I attend every week had a field trip to Jerusalem. I already blogged about our visit to the Jerusalem Municipality complex at Safra Square where we saw their amazing scale model of some of the city.

Just behind Safra Square is what's known as Migrash Harusim, the Russian Compound, in which there's a police station, jail and the jail that the British used when they were occupying the Land of Israel, during the Mandate.

There has been a museum there dedicated to the Jewish prisoners who had been arrested, held and executed by the British before the declaration of Independence of the State of Israel.

For the entire article please click here.

"Playback" Celebrating 40 Years in Shiloh

This past Motzei Shabbat, Saturday night, we, the renew-returned Jewish community in Shiloh had another forty years celebration.

I miss the early days when all of our parties, events were totally homemade, and not just the food. If I'm not mistaken, there wasn't even a "sound-system." There would be a turnout of 90+%, and the patrolling security guards, neighbors taking turns, would also be listening for crying babies. Everything was arranged and performed by volunteers.

The artist and art teacher, Gretta, telling
her story to the newcomers.

Today is a different world. Not only are the guards and coordinators salaried, but professional entertainers are brought in. One popular performance medium is what's called "playback." It's a form of improvisation based on the reminiscences/stories told by others. The actors then "perform" it with a bit of exaggerations and their own interpretations.

At events, such as the one we had on Saturday night, the actors look for what they see as the humor in these stories. Sometimes when the narrative isn't clear to them, they'll ask the storyteller a few questions. What interested me was the reactions of the actors, who are a generation younger than those who established yishuvim, communities like Shiloh. They just couldn't get into the skin/mind of the first story told, which was by someone who was an active participant in that pioneering time. And the storyteller, who so embodies those early days, didn't really understand what they were asking.

The actors did a better job with some of the other stories, but I ended up leaving the event rather depressed. It's so clear that fifty years after the 1967 Six Days War, the profound significance of our miraculous victory is still lost on most Jews, including those living in the State of Israel.