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- [00:00]
Rabbi Ami Hirsch
Rabbi I'm Rabbi Ami Hirsch of the.
- [00:03]
Lihi Lapid
Stephen Wise Free Synagogue in New York, and you're listening to in these Times. My guest today is a beautifully talented novelist who is also a journalist and an activist. Lihi Lapid is also the wife of Yair Lapid, the leader of the opposition in the Knesset and former Israeli foreign minister and prime minister. Leahy's latest book, On Her Own, is a truly Israeli novel that examines Israeli society from the inside out and from the outside in. Recently translated into English, Leahy's book has been boycotted in America by those boycotting anything Israeli, regardless of the content. On Her Own is not even political. It's a novel about people finding themselves. Lihi Lapid, thank you so much for sharing your story with us, and welcome to in these Times.
- [01:05]
Stephen Wise
Thank you. Thank you so much for hosting me here.
- [01:08]
Rabbi Ami Hirsch
I read your book On Her Own. I couldn't put it down. First of all, can I ask you, is the title of the book in English the same basically as in Hebrew On Her Own?
- [01:23]
Stephen Wise
No, no, in Hebrew it's Zarot, which is Strangers or Strangerness. But it's, it's a feminine side of strangers. And I felt that in English, Strangers or Strangerness sounds like, like a thriller or something like that. And I wanted something that is more, a little bit more feminine.
- [01:45]
Rabbi Ami Hirsch
I wanted to ask you about that because I'm sorry, I didn't actually read the book in Hebrew. First of all, everything through translation misses a lot. I think it was Bialik who wrote that reading a poem through translation is like kissing your grandmother through a veil. It's not the same thing, but it's just so Israeli. Do you think that foreigners reading it in English will get what you're trying to say? It's really a love, it's a love story about Israel and there's so many Israeli things there. Do you hope that they'll pick up and do you expect that they'll pick up everything that you intended?
- [02:27]
Stephen Wise
When people read you, you can be sure what your intentions will get to them. But first of all, I hear a lot of people saying things that I didn't think about, but I do think, feel that it doesn't concern only Israelis or only Jews. And I'll tell you why. Because when Harper's Collins, which is a very distinguished publication house, decided to publish it in, in English, they didn't think about Israel or Jewish or, or things like that. It's just that the story of, of connections between generations and when people live outside and far away from their family, and when I came to the office of Harper's Calling, so one of them was Spanish and one of them was from the Philippines and one of them was Corsican. So I realized that's the global world is like that. Our kids grow up and they go to work in which country that they will find their profession great there. And it also raises the question of homeland and not homeland. And in Israel, this burden of living in your homeland or leaving your homeland to another country and leaving Israel behind is a big question.
- [03:56]
Rabbi Ami Hirsch
Lihi the book takes place between Passover and. And Yom Hazikaron or Yom Hatzmaud Memorial Day and Independence Day follows right after Memorial Day. That was on purpose, I assume. Why did you use that as a focal point in time?
- [04:14]
Stephen Wise
I wrote a column for 15 years in Israel newspaper and whenever Pesach Passover started, I knew it will be Passover. And then it's the Memorial day for the Shoah and then it's Memorial day for the Israeli soldier that died. And then it's independence. And there are days that are. Are very loaded here in Israel with emotions, with. There is the siren that we stand, all of us, and it's one day for the Shoah and ten days after that we stand for the soldiers of the army. And Israel becomes full of flags everywhere, every house and every. And. And it's also the beginning of the spring. So in a way it's a. It's a very tight emotional time in Israel. So. Yes, definitely. And I wanted to settle a time for this whole story not to be like many years.
- [05:19]
Rabbi Ami Hirsch
That's a three week period or so.
- [05:22]
Stephen Wise
Yes, something like that.
- [05:24]
Rabbi Ami Hirsch
How did that time period impact on the development of the characters? Why was it important to them during that three week period?
- [05:32]
Stephen Wise
Carmela, the old character, she lost her son 30 years ago as a soldier in the army. I do think that the publication of the book now outside of Israel is showing that for us in Israel, a soldier is not a war machine. It's our sons and daughters that have to go to the army. And Carmela misses her son that died 30 years ago, like he died yesterday. And she knows that Memorial Day is coming. And I'll tell you how it all started. My son was in the army and in Memorial Day they sent him to a cemetery somewhere in Israel with a name of a soldier that died and the address of the grave. So I took him there and I watched from far to see which family is coming and how they are and how is my son being with them and to see memorial dates One hour that all graves of all soldiers have one soldier standing and a family that coming, and there are graves that no one is coming for. And it was a big essence of me writing this whole thing in this book.
- [06:56]
Rabbi Ami Hirsch
Grief is another significant theme in your book. Do you think there is something unique in Israel about grief that Israelis can share with either Jews around the world or other people? Have Israelis learned something important about grief that other people may not be as attuned to?
- [07:19]
Stephen Wise
Wow. Yes. I definitely think that we live in a place here in Israel that sadness and grief and losing. And I'll tell you something. I have two kids, okay? One is Lior that went to the army and he was combat. And I have a daughter, Yaeli, she's autistic, she doesn't speak, and she's amazing. But for me to send my son to the army, okay, the only son I have that I can be a grandmother for his kids, the only one that can take care of me one day, because my daughter, we are all just taking care of her. And it's three years when he was in the army, and I was worried. I said, wow, that's a huge sacrifice that my country is asking me to do. To be worried for three years, to not to sleep. I think a country should be wonderful and very, very good in order to ask us, the mothers, to sacrifice this sacrifice. It's very, very difficult. I wrote once that when you are an Israeli mom, when you go to the first ultrasound, when you are pregnant and you go to the doctor and the doctor says it's a boy, immediately you think of a soldier. Immediately you think that your son will have weapon and he will guard the country. It is crazy. And I think from that moment on, you are worried. And now we have women combat, so definitely we are more worried. So, yes, I think at the surface of what it is to be an Israeli is the price of debt. It's the price of worry. It's the price of grieving mothers. Wow. It's crazy.
- [09:32]
Rabbi Ami Hirsch
Do you think a lot of mothers, they go to the first sonogram they see it's a boy, and they immediately think of the military 18 years later?
- [09:41]
Stephen Wise
Yeah, yeah, I do. And I think that they say to themselves, there will be peace in 18 years. There will be peace. I'm sure there will be peace. But. But we do. We're at the end. We, we. We do go to the army and our kids are going to the army. And. And you know, when. When I was very, very small, there was the Yom Kippur War. And there was a very famous song in Israel that Johan, it's called I promise you, my little daughter, that this will be the last war. That it wasn't the last war. And my father was a fighted at four wars and. And it continues until now.
- [10:28]
Rabbi Ami Hirsch
So what do you think 20 years from now?
- [10:34]
Stephen Wise
Well, it's so much to do with how this war will end and if it will be an agreement connected to peace on long terms like we have with Egypt or with Jordan, or it will be the same like it used to be until now. You know, it's like I'm coming from a certain political point of view. We have a little granddaughter now, her name is Naomi. And I really hope that. Listen, Naomi, she's six months old and she was in the shelter more times than she was, I don't know, in the swimming pool and it's crazy. And her mother came one day to us and on the way she needed to stop her car. She ran on the streets with her baby to hide somewhere because there was an alarm and there were missiles in the middle of Tel Aviv. And she came to our place all shaken. 25 year old mother that needs to hold her 6 month old baby and run on the streets. We need to give her another future, a better future here. If we won't seek for peace, even as a wishful thinking and a wishful emotional situation, then first of all it won't come. And I don't know what will happen if Israel will be a country that is forever and ever at war, with no sense of one day it will be different. It's really scary.
- [12:20]
Rabbi Ami Hirsch
Just to finish the question about grief, you dedicate the book to daddy, my brother. And you say, I missed you for so long. Now I will miss you forever. First of all, that's beautiful, thank you. What is the background to that?
- [12:37]
Stephen Wise
My brother lived in LA for more than 30 years. He was a very successful sound man in post productions of movies and was even nominated for Grammy or Emmy or I don't know. He lived many years in America and we are a very tight family, me and my sister and the kids with my parents. And he was so far and 30 years ago flying and going here and there was difficult. And my parents are super Israelis, they have a story in Israel. They are common people and they don't know English very well. And his kids grew up to be very American and they didn't know Hebrew. And we were very close, but as close as you can when the time difference is so difficult. And after the book was published in Israel. And my brother didn't love reading.
- [13:35]
Rabbi Ami Hirsch
He detected that parts of it, at least, were connected to his story.
- [13:40]
Stephen Wise
So what happened was that after the book was published, my brother became very ill very quickly. And between him, between 22, that the book was published in Israel, and 24, that the book was published in America, my brother passed away. And I. I can definitely say that I'm so sorry for that, but I didn't have the nerve to talk to him about the book. I came to be in LA in his last days, and we were together with my mother and sister and everybody, and. And he gave us a very, very nice present that he. He asked to be buried in Israel. And he's now close to us. So I missed him for many, many years. And now I will miss him forever.
- [14:32]
Rabbi Ami Hirsch
I send you our condolences.
- [14:34]
Stephen Wise
Thank you. Thank you so much.
- [14:38]
Rabbi Ami Hirsch
I'm glad you gave us that background, because that sheds light on what was noticeable to me. I have a lot of experience working with Israelis who are living here in the United States. In fact, we had done many, many outreach programs to Israelis to keep them part of the Jewish community. One of the things that I discovered with Israelis is that are living in New York and then you can say in America in general, is they don't realize until much later that while they will remain Israelis their entire lives, their children, if they're born here, are Americans for all intents and purposes. Many of them don't even speak Hebrew. And those who do, I know because I work with the children as well. And. And while the parents have this Israeliness in them that will remain for the rest of their lives, the kids are not that way at all. And then there comes a point when the kids are already older that the parents realize once you're out of Israel, you can't replicate Israel in the United States. And these trips going back to Israel to visit families, we trained kids for bar mitzvahs and synagogue that you know well. Beit Daniel in Tel Aviv with Rabbi Azari.
- [15:59]
Stephen Wise
Yeah, Rabbi, that did all the bar mitzvahs in our family.
- [16:03]
Rabbi Ami Hirsch
All your. Yes. So we used to send the children of Israeli kids to Beitaniel to have bar mitzvahs because the families had families in Israel and they wanted to have bar mitzvahs there. But what was apparent was that the kids were Americanized completely. And that's what you describe here. And it really struck me, and I was wondering how you knew that so intimately and so you had that in your family.
- [16:31]
Stephen Wise
I want to tell you that when my Brother came to la. So a friend of my parents told him, you have to come and be in a community. And I think that for us Israelis being Jewish is part of daily life because we don't work in Shabbat. We because everything is closing Shabbat most of places. And we have the holidays because everybody are having the holidays and we are happy to do the holidays, et cetera and everything. But when you are in America and you don't have a community, then you don't feel that it's a holiday and you don't know that it's a holiday and that definitely your kids don't. And I, I, I do relate to what you say that Israel is, thinks that Judaism is very, very natural. But when you are outside of Israel, being Jewish is not natural because the whole surrounding, if you don't choose being part of a community, then it doesn't happen. Then holidays doesn't happen. Hebrew for your kids doesn't happen. Loving Israel doesn't happen. So yes. So I think you are, you are very right. And this whole thing started, that was the essence of the book. That wow. I was thinking what will happen if my son decided to live 30 years in LA?
- [17:55]
Rabbi Ami Hirsch
That's really fascinating. Remember that Eric Einstein song, San Francisco a la maim San Francisco on the water. And he concludes that well, warm little Israel is the place for me. And I was thinking that I just want to read a little passage of the book. And it was very moving to me. You say here Israeli brotherhood exists even at good moments. The holidays, the centrality of family, the sea, the language. Even in America the Israelis stick together because no one can understand them the way they understand one another. I just found that to be so true, so Israeli and so moving.
- [18:37]
Stephen Wise
You know, a few days ago I have a friend, his name is Justin and he, he did Aaliyah and he had a birthday. So him, he's young, he's like 30 and he had a birthday and he invited all his friends that did Aaliyah and doing Aliyah now like it's super crazy. They are at wartime in Tel Aviv, their parents are very worried. And I looked at them meeting together and I felt that they have this thing that you said from the other side. They only a bunch of 30 year old olim living in Israel in the middle of war can understand each other. So I can tell you from another point of view, I very much believe in a group, I don't know therapy when Yael was diagnosed and I was devastated from knowing that my daughter is with severe Autism. And so the only thing that saved me was to be with people that I'm just that are like me, that are parents getting to know their special child and everything. So I do really believe that we need always to be in a group that understands us.
- [19:58]
Rabbi Ami Hirsch
I just want to read the last. I don't want to give away the ending or the plot, but this is just so moving to me and it speaks to me so much. You talk about the son of the old woman who comes back to Israel and he thinks to himself, he says his kids, Dana and Ariel, will grow up and go to live who knows where in America. First college, then whatever job. They'll marry Americans and do them a favor and come to visit for a few days twice a year. That's to Israel, the way the grown children in America do. They'll buy a house on the far side of the world and they'll renovate the house again and again. And then they'll move to Miami, because that's where everybody goes to. And you write this from the perspective of an Israeli who feels at one with Israeli society, with the people who understand her. The sea, the language, the holidays. You mentioned the quiet before Shabbat and you mentioned that from a secular perspective, not preparing to observe Shabbat halachically. Yeah, it's very moving to me.
- [21:16]
Stephen Wise
Lihi, thank you. I think there is something very sticky with Israeli families that they are all the time they are meeting to eat something. We are eating all the time now. There was the holidays, Everybody gained like 5 kilos just from meeting the family over and over. So that's, that's one thing. And I see a lot of also parents hear that their kids move to other countries and they are missing them. One of the thing I think we need to appreciate more is the time we have with our kids when they live with us. Because, you know, at the beginning we want them to grow to be older so we'll know how they are. And suddenly you sit at home and Yair and me sit at home and we're just begging for them to bring their granddaughter here because we miss her. And we are fighting with the parents of the daughter in law who is doing holidays. And then we said at the end, yeah, let's do everything together. So in Israel, everything is super close. And I want to say something else about secular. In Israel, actually you are not secular. There is nothing like that because you live Jewish life all the time. The vacation of the kids from school and everything is connected to the Jewish holidays and times. And we Go. And a lot of us are fasting in Yom Kippur, and no one is driving in Yom Kippur. So it's not secular. At the sense of, of American secular.
- [22:53]
Rabbi Ami Hirsch
Yes, I agree with that. And that's one of the challenges we have for Israelis living here. It's because you don't have to affiliate with a Jewish organization, a synagogue, to maintain a Jewish identity in Israel, let alone Jewish continuity.
- [23:10]
Stephen Wise
And in America, you have to.
- [23:12]
Rabbi Ami Hirsch
You have to anywhere outside of Israel because you can't replicate all of the factors of Jewish collective self determination and sovereignty, which bestows a unique form of Jewish identity irrespective of your religious beliefs. And what happens in America, because many of the Israelis who are not Orthodox are not only not attracted, but are often repelled, repulsed because of what they understand as religious coercion in Israel. They regard all synagogues, for example, the same way. And they're intimidated even to come into a liberal synagogue. And it's a big, big challenge because the parents don't realize how much that's needed. We actually did surveys and the Israeli consulate mentioned this to me when I was speaking with the Consul General one year, and they assessed three generations of Israeli immigrants who left Israel. And they discerned that Israelis assimilated the quickest quicker than American Jews after they left Israel because they couldn't replicate Israeli society abroad and they couldn't really identify with the main way you sustain Judaism in the United States, which is through synagogues and Jewish institutions, Jewish programming.
- [24:34]
Stephen Wise
Interesting.
- [24:35]
Rabbi Ami Hirsch
It's a big issue.
- [24:37]
Stephen Wise
Yeah, I agree with you. I think that for us secular Jews in Israel, which are not really secular, Judaism is so natural. And we don't think we need to do an effort to be Jewish. And whenever you live outside of Israel, you need to do an effort to be Jewish, otherwise it will get out of your family's system. So if you are not in a community. Yeah, you will just be out of it.
- [25:16]
Rabbi Ami Hirsch
Let me get to some contemporary issues before we run out of time. In particular post October 7th. First of all, we're seeing here in the United States that anti Israel sentiments, and it's often, of course, connected and spills over into anti Semitic attitudes are affecting the book industry as well. Your publisher, HarperCollins is a very big, influential publisher. But I'm wondering, did they have any second thoughts about translating the book? And have you found difficulties in placing the book in bookstores or in your promotional activities?
- [25:56]
Stephen Wise
I think the decision to publish the book was before 7th of October. I don't know what would happen after that? I can tell you and tell you a story that when, when the book was supposed to go out and we said we do a launch of the book in some bookstore in Manhattan. And they said, of course we'll approach bookstores. And they wrote all the bookstore that they used to do it there and none of them agreed. Each one said, I'm busy and I can. And the schedule and come on, it's an hour in a bookstore that I'm sitting and, and signing books. And they couldn't find any bookstore to do it. And it took them long time to realize that no one wants to do it because it was in March and it was the middle of the war. I think no store wanted to have demonstration outside. And I'm not just an author. I'm not just an Israeli author. I'm an Israeli author married to a politician in Israel. I think they are doing their best. But for me it's a big disappointment because I wanted the book to reach people that are not Jewish and that are outside of our circle. And I'm not so sure it can happen these times. So it's very important for me to do talks like I'm doing with you because I want at least the book to be connecting all of us, the Jews in Israel and in America. And I want to say something which is very important. I think what happened after 7th of October to Israelis on their relations with Jews in the Diaspora, it's a huge thing. Israelis used to be like, I don't care what the Jews in the Diaspora are saying about us and we don't need them. We are okay, you know, we were a little bit arrogant and maybe you can donate to Israel, but don't tell us what to do. And I think it's the first time that everything that Jews around the world and Jews in America said, helping Israel and coming to visit here and even volunteering here and doing campaigns in their face, it was so important to Israelis here. I live a lot with understanding what it means the, the community of Jews in America and in Israel. But I think it's very different now. I think the way Israelis treat the importance of Jews in the Diaspora and their help to Israel.
- [28:49]
Rabbi Ami Hirsch
I want to ask you, you've been particularly active for decades, socially active and politically active. And I think you still are a journalist. You consider yourself a journalist? Column writer, at least you're an author. You write a lot. Your husband, Yair Lapid, he also was a journalist, I suppose when you met him. And your father in law was a journalist before he became a politician as well. And I think, I assume that you consider yourself a liberal person and you believe in liberal philosophy and ideology. So in that capacity, how did Israel become the enemy of so many liberals in the aftermath of October 7th?
- [29:33]
Stephen Wise
It's so sad. And it's asked to blame. It's us to blame, really. The world loved us after 7th of October. They opened their hearts. All the prime ministers and presidents came to Israel to support Lord and loved us. And we didn't explain enough. We didn't explain good enough. I know that Bennett was interviewed a lot and Yair was interviewed a lot, but the country didn't say, I'm taking all the forces that I know that can help Israel, and I'm using them in order to talk and explain and be out there. I'm a storyteller, okay? That's what I do. And there. There is one story that all the world knows and relates to, and it's David and Goliath, okay? David is the small, sweet, good, smart, handsome guy, and Goliath is the bad, devastating, evil, stupid, big guy. And all Jews and all Israelis think of Israel as David. And that's the real story. And so many people around the world look at us as we are Goliath, and we have to tell the story of Israel as David. And we are not telling it and going on TV and saying, we are strong and we will demolish everything and we will kill everybody. That's the way Goliath talk, not the way David talks. So we need to say, listen, we need help. We are the good guys. We are liberal, like you say. And when I see demonstration with people that lgd lgbt. Yeah. For Hamas, it's like, they will kill you there. And we are not telling this story right. We are just not telling the story right.
- [31:55]
Rabbi Ami Hirsch
Well, let me press you on that. So I wanted to rely on your expertise as a lifelong feminist. How do you explain, for example, that so many of the organizations that we assumed were our partners and with whom we marched? I remember our synagogue marched several times on these women's marches after Trump was elected in 2016, if you remember that. But in any case, we have partnered with feminist organizations for decades on reproductive rights and feminist rights across the board. How do you explain that so many of them didn't even believe Israeli women or express sympathy who were sexually assaulted on October 7th? And there were some of them who even suggested that this was justifiable resistance in the face of occupation and oppression. It has to be more than just simply, we haven't explained the story properly, don't you think?
- [32:57]
Stephen Wise
Yes, I think we didn't tell the story right. And then a lot of antisemitism arise. I remember when Malala, you remember the girl.
- [33:09]
Rabbi Ami Hirsch
I remember Malala. I remember the Boko Haram. Remember the Nigerian girls and people were feminist organizations were marching across the world.
- [33:19]
Stephen Wise
Yeah. And I didn't care that they are Muslims or Christians or Jews. It didn't matter. It was a girl that her rights were violated. And it was one of my biggest disappointments, really, the fact that the women's organization were not there for us. I thought. I don't know, I thought, Oprah Winfrey will say something. I thought that really women that are fighting the fight for women's rights will say things will help us.
- [33:56]
Rabbi Ami Hirsch
Why do you think they didn't? Why didn't they? In your heart of hearts, what do you think is going on?
- [34:02]
Stephen Wise
I don't know how we came to be the bad guys. I don't know. We're having nightmare here. We're having nightmare here year with kids that are. You know, I'm looking at our kids growing up in front of a TV that every day there's mothers crying for someone to bring their kids home, to bring their kids to burial because their body's somewhere a year. And it's like. It's things that are crazy. A lot of people are out of their homes, and how come we became the bad guys? There are young women being held with a horrible organization of terror. You know, the hostages that were found, now they found our bodies. They were like 35 kilos. It's like. I don't know. I'm devastated from that. The fact that you are marching in New York, the. The fact that you are putting the pictures of the hostages again and again when people are tearing it, it's so important. And, you know, when I met Tommy, his father, he was a Holocaust survivor, and he was a big fat Hungarian man that loved food and life. And he was very special. And he all the time said, everybody are anti Semitic antisemitism. And I was like, I grew up in Israel. I never felt like it. And I think what happened after 7th of October, that raised a lot of anti Semitism. You know what. What I know is that your kids now in America for the first time, ever feel anti Semitism. And it's crazy. When we are the most vulnerable, it happens. And I don't want to say that Tommy was right, because I do believe that there are a lot of people that love Jews and that are okay with us. So I'm not saying everybody, but I'm saying it's a demon, that it's so easy to wake up this demon in other people and say that we are to blame, the Jews are to blame. And that's why we need to stick together, all of us.
- [36:35]
Rabbi Ami Hirsch
Let me ask you, what's the mood like in Israel now? Israelis holding up? Is society holding up? How do you see the future?
- [36:45]
Stephen Wise
We won't talk about politics here. Okay. So you know that there are the.
- [36:50]
Rabbi Ami Hirsch
Five grief, five stages of grief.
- [36:53]
Stephen Wise
Thank you. So the first one is shock. I think so we were shocked. Then we say, okay, it will be okay in a minute. Then we realize, I think there's this. We're at the beginning of the stage of rage. I think there is something now that the atmosphere here is really, really. Because a year passed, the hostages are not back yet. There are every day, every day, every day soldiers that dies. And there are a lot of people that feel that it needs to be different. And I feel a wave of rage inside Israelis.
- [37:39]
Rabbi Ami Hirsch
Rage. Is there a target for that rage? I mean, you said it's fine to talk politics here, by the way too. And we, we know your family pedigree. But I assume that part of the people who are enraged are focusing their attention on the government and the perception that the policies are misguided. But is there a target for that rage?
- [38:06]
Stephen Wise
There's an issue of draft or not drafting Orthodox Jews. Are we all putting our efforts or is part of the country yes and part no. There are a lot of women that their husbands are in reserves for ages and are collapsing totally. And yes, it, I think, I think it's political rage, but it's not just from one side of the political arena.
- [38:38]
Rabbi Ami Hirsch
It's.
- [38:39]
Stephen Wise
Everybody feels that, wow, guys, there's need to be an end to everything.
- [38:46]
Rabbi Ami Hirsch
And here's my last question. Do you have a final message for American Jews?
- [38:51]
Stephen Wise
Wow. Love us. I know we are. Everybody says that we are Sabra. So yeah, our thorn are very sharp. But we are hurting so much now. And we need the friendship of Jews all over the world because you are the ones we have. We need you to continue and care about us and shout and be in connection and fly over if there's a flight, if you can fly. So yes, we need to hold the hands more together. We need you guys.
- [39:39]
Rabbi Ami Hirsch
I agree with that. On that note, it's a beautiful way to end. I want to urge all of our listeners to buy the novel on her own. It's a beautiful, beautiful, touching story thank you so much and we wish you well in every way, including politically. And may it be that this year the fighting will end and recovery will begin.
- [40:07]
Stephen Wise
Thank you so so much.
- [40:09]
Rabbi Ami Hirsch
And Toda of course keep writing and keep doing tremendous things.
- [40:15]
Stephen Wise
Thank you.
- [40:21]
Lihi Lapid
I urge you to buy On Her Own by Lihi Lapid first because it is a beautiful, compelling, engrossing and inspiring novel and second, purchase the book, as we say in Hebrew, Dafka precisely because there are those in the literary and publishing community who are boycotting all things Israeli. They are boycotting the so called wrong Jewish authors, the ones who are too Jewish in their eyes, too loyal to Israel, too distinctively Jewish. Leahy Lapid is such a talented writer. I resonated not only with the central plot, but with more subtle aspects of the human condition that Leahy brings out through her characters. I identified with a teenager, Nina, whose mother immigrated and will always have a foreign accent that is scorned by Nina. She is proud of her non accented Hebrew. That's how I felt as a 14 year old new immigrant to Israel back in the 1970s. The acquisition of fluent non accented Hebrew was critical for fitting in. Looking back on my teenage years, speaking Hebrew as an Israeli was the doorway to acceptance in that rough and tumble Israeli high school environment. And I was so determined to speak as the natives do that within two years people couldn't tell that I had arrived in Israel only a short time before I had become more Israeli than the Israelis, if you know what I mean. I identified with one of the central tensions in the book, Itamar, the son of the old woman who left Israel to live in America. The guilt of leaving your mother and your homeland, the doubts, the sense of lacking roots, the uncertainty and insecurity are universal aspects of immigration and of the Jewish experience itself. But there was also something uniquely Israeli about Itamar's dilemma. Leahy describes it gorgeously. Is something really wrong with mom? Or is it him with his feelings of guilt? He the deserter, the traitor, the coward, the sellout. Leahy describes how new generations use different words than their parents. They call it relocating, fulfilling themselves, maximizing abilities, the global generation. But it's really the same thing in Itamar's eyes, the abandonment of Israel in the Zionist Project. I loved the Israeliness of the novel, how despite the magnetic attractions of America and the west, still tiny, Israel gives enormous meaning to life. As Leahy writes, Israeli brotherhood exists. The friends you don't have anywhere else, the holidays, the centrality of family, the sea, the language, even In America, Leahy writes, the Israelis stick together because no one can understand them the way they understand one another. This is so poignantly true. I have interacted with thousands of Israelis in the United States. Broadly speaking, they are, as Lehi describes them. But even if novels are not your thing, even if you will never read on your own, still buy this book. Buy it for somebody else. It is infuriating to me that the literary world has turned against Israel and Jews, Jews, the people of the book. What misguided and cowardly attitudes are driving these boycotts? They remind us of much darker times. How arrogant of writers, no less, to lead boycotts against Jewish views and Jewish opinions. As in so many other cases of bias against Jews, in the end, they harm themselves more than us. The boycotters who see themselves as educated, enlightened, advanced, sophisticated, moral and progressive. They don't even realize that they are revisiting in 21st century form the very cancellation of Jews their grandparents practiced, and that led to collective destruction not only of Jews, but of everything that free thinkers hold dear. Their hatred of Jews causes them to abandon their own values. In the case of books, free expression, the competition of ideas, honest debate, exposure to a variety of backgrounds and perspectives that writers are of all people are supposed to represent and defend. It is what we have seen so vividly in other arenas since October 7th. International human rights groups that betray their own principles when it comes to human rights for Israelis. Feminist groups that betray their own principles when it comes to Israeli women, professors and academics who betray their own principles when it comes to Israelis and Jews. I believe we will overcome this scourge. I am hopeful that the war will end in the coming months and we can begin to heal, to rebuild trust and confidence in ourselves and our partners that have been so damaged in the past year. But in the meantime, we need to fight back. We need to contend with this surging Jew hatred. Because the one thing that history has proven beyond a doubt is that if antisemitism is allowed to fester unchallenged, it gets worse. The only way to heal the malignancy is to excise it before it destroys the body politic. Until next time. This is in these times.