Last week, Booknik mourned History, enjoyed Jewish poetry, fed spiritual food and dry bread to spiritual bunnies, went to the movies, was nostalgic, and proselytized. Meanwhile, Booknik Jr. was obedient to his granny, lived a life of the Norwegian bohemia, and tried to cross the ocean on board his paper boat.
Is the Puzzle Complete? Regarding the Historical Memory Again
Empire and Nation in the Mirror of Historical Memory
Comment on raconte l'historie aux enfants, by Marc Ferro
The history of memory is probably the most significant achievement of the 20th century historical science. It is the result of understanding that we cannot comprehend wie es eigentlich gewesen but can only compare some conflicting narratives about the part. The collective memory was thought about by the French philosopher Maurice Halbwachs who was not a Jew, strange as it may seems. Booknik reviewer David Gart issues the death certificate for the History.
Songs of Zion, by Judah Halevi
This book can be treated as a truly revolutionary one due to the fact that that its translator Shlomo Krol, and its editor Zoya Kopelman refused to adapt the medieval poetry to the present-day rules of the poetic game. Instead, they suggested a new game to their readers. Now, the Eshkolot Project director and our reviewer Semyon Parizhsky learns how to play it.
…and many other playful playthings in the Books & Reviews section.
Eleonora Shifrin-Poltinnikova: It Felt Like I Lived out My Dream
Eleonora was a translator and a journalist, and she used to be the activist of the human rights, later the Zionist movement, participating in numerous demonstrations, hunger strikes, protest actions, and political initiatives. She is a politician and a public figure. Her radical thinking and way of her life itself may become a pretty strong material for a Hollywood biopic. Booknik reporter Nellie Portnova asks her about her private life and politics, and she tells our reporter why one is inseparable from another.
A Swiping Blow
Ha-shoter, directed by Nadav Lapid
“I tried to make my film very intelligible and adequate. I wanted it to deliver a swiping blow to its audience, and I wanted it to be very naked. Nothing should be concealed there. I believe this is a very Israeli thing. The Israelis have this property of speaking the most monstrous things with the utmost sincerity, like ‘I must say that you are a complete idiot, and I am saying it out of my pure love for you’”. The Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid speaks to our special reporter Xenia Rozhdestvenskaya about terrorism, revolution, and cinematography.
…and many more private public figures in the Articles & Interviews section.
White-Maned Horsies
La rafle, directed by Rose Bosch
Crème tarts and chocolate brought to the children in the camp cut into the next scene with Adolf Hitler and Eve Braun eat a huge cake with nice German children. Guards’ dogs cut into Hitler’s dog, Jews’ hand-rolled smokes cut into cigars smoked by French authorities who discuss their next military operation. Two shaved children’s heads stick out like golden teeth in the midst of disheveled and ragged crowd. Women beatings are nicely lit in yellow. It is impossible to speak about yet it is impossible to keep silent about the Holocaust. They attempted to make films about it many times, and every time was a failure. Booknik’s staff film critic Dina Suvorova believes that there are things that should remain described only in the language of historical and court documents.
The Locarno Film Festival is proud of its newly acquired radicalness, and its trademark unique movie theater of eight thousand seats. It has the giant screen and sudden special effects, for the favorite Locarno pastime these days is the open airs in the Piazza Grande. Booknik chose a number of films to watch there. Apart from Ha-shoter, he saw The Loneliest Planet directed by Julia Loktev, and Papirosen directed by Gastón Solnicki.
The Reluctant Renegade
Louis Jacobs, whose fifth yahrzeit is observed this month, was practically “tenure track” to becoming Britain's Chief Rabbi, a post that was and remains under the auspices of the (Orthodox) United Synagogue. Jacobs's ascent was stymied in the early 1960's over his heterodox views on the divine origins of the Pentateuch. He died in 2006, the mostly-unwitting founder of Britain's fledgling Masorti movement. He would have preferred a reformation of modern Orthodoxy. Elliot Jager describes “the greatest British Jew of all time,” as the Jewish Chronicle voted him.
On Love and Presents
“The bakers called me once to ask if I wanted some buns. Everyone in my household, including my husband, my daughter, and even my dog wanted some buns by that time. So I went to the bakers to pick up the whole sack of buns and stuff. No less than fifty of them. Now, I grew up in the soviet times, and by nature, I am a frugal housewife. I hated to see all that go to waste.” Booknik learns how to make dry bread with our specialist Olga Gessen.
Clothes, Bread, and Conversion Experience
Some people tend to radically change their way of life. They hand a divorce letter to the culture that had brought them up, and go to seek asylum in some alien culture that somehow lures them. In Western languages, this is called “conversion,” and I have found out through the good services of Google that the term is now the part of Russian language. As a rule, educated people “convert,” the ones not satisfied with the cultural menu of their youth. Sometimes, they travel to the Ganges banks from Tel Aviv, or to Katmandu from Brooklyn, or from Helsinki to Rome, or from Berlin to LA. They hope to taste other fruit. Sometimes, they become priests of their newly chosen religions and cultures, and there are times when they return home but they come back different anyway. All this happened even in the remote antiquity. Booknik’s staff Talmud scholar Reuven Kipervasser plunges deep in the ocean of ancient wisdom yet again.
The Booknik Premiere! Linor Goralik has launched a new column The Biblical Zoo that has to be interesting for Linor once confessed that she had always wanted “to write about animals.” “When I told my mom who lives in Beersheba that I was coming to Israel for a month and a half to write this column for Booknik, she was thrilled. ‘Kid, she said, this is great. The best part is that we still have your gas mask, and it works!’” The first denizens of Linor’s Biblical Zoo are “spiritual bunnies.” Being decidedly un-kosher, they are very Biblical.
…and many other zoological Zolofts in the Columns & Columns section.
Odessa, Vodka and Cocoa
“I saw vending ladies simultaneously leaving their kiosks, and shutting them in the middle of a workday, in order to settle some argument between them. ‘You’re a Freemason, and a traitor, and you most certainly killed your mom!’ one of them said.” Victor Beylis remembers.
…and many other memorable memories in the Stories & Essays section.
Hebrarium, the Lexicon of Jewish Whatnots: H9
What can one do after haftarah? What do they eat hummus with? How does Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser’s house look like? Our linguistically gifted video prodigy Kirill Chichayev can pronounce all those words, and show what they mean.
…and many other linguistic linguini in the Video Blog section.
To Music, by Ketil Bjørnstad
Ketil Bjørnstad is the Norwegian author and musician. It so happened that his books have never been translated into Russian before. Now, the Russian publishers have decided to correct this omission, for Maestro has written so many books in his life, and has received so many awards for them that he does not remember the number himself.
A Paper Tale
Do you know what the origami is? It is the ancient art of paper folding. You may fold a simple boat or a complicated construction that consists of many intricate details. Booknik Jr. suggests that you fold yourself a fairy tale.
Granny, the Day Regiment, a Pharmacy. The Notes of a Crazed Parent
“It happens. Especially if you are some age between eleven and sixteen, and last week you lost your girlfriend, or your friend turned out to be a scoundrel, or your parents moved to a different area, and now you have to go a new school. Or, everything of the above at once. It is not easy to survive, do you remember this? If you do, you must remember what your granny said. Like, sleep it over, kid, it will look brighter in the morning.” This time, our Patented Crazed Parent is Tania Weis.
…and many other madcap masquerades at Booknik Jr., also known as Family Booknik, our own web site for kids and their parents.
I want the battleship! Booknik and Family Booknik are supported by the AVI CHAI Foundation.
