Product Description

The author explores what it means to be Jewish in the context of Zionism and the dangers of extremism, Israel, the Diaspora, and the Israel-Palestine treaty. Richler attempts to reclaim a legitimate and vital Jewish identity for himself as a Jew at home in Canada, and for all Diaspora Jews.

Product Details

• Published on: 1994-11-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Richler's sharply observed memoir-a yeasty mix of travel, reminiscence, history and political commentary-charts his odyssey from the activist Zionism of his youth in Montreal to his current belief that Israel is "the legitimate home of two peoples" and that the Israeli Jews' displacement and dispossession of native Palestinians was not justified. The book's centerpiece, Richler's 1992 trip to Israel amid rioting in Gaza in support of a hunger strike by more than 3000 Palestinian prisoners, culminates with a visit to a Palestinian refugee camp. There he interviews a woman whose son, a stone-throwing protester, was arrested and tortured by Israelis and, after his release, shot to death by Israeli soldiers. Novelist and screenwriter Richler also visits struggling kibbutzim and traces the history of the kibbutz movement. On the 1993 peace accord, he predicts that if the Likud party returns to power soon, the Palestinians will get no more than the Gaza Strip and Jericho and can forget about statehood.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
In this predominately autobiographical work, novelist Richler (Solomon Gursky Was Here, LJ 4/1/94) focuses on his youth in Montreal in the Forties and two visits to Israel. Rejecting his Orthodox Jewish upbringing, he passionately embraced Zionism in his early teens and became an active member of the Habonim. By his early adulthood his ardor had cooled, and he settled in London. He disassociated himself completely from things Jewish, relating an incident from the Fifties when he invited a friend to sample Jewish cuisine in Paris-only to find that the restaurant was closed for Yom Kippur. His first trip to the Jewish state, in 1962, was prompted by a journalism assignment. And he didn't return until 30 years later-again on a subsidized mission. There is no indication that in the intervening years he was interested in Middle East affairs. During both trips he sought out left-wing spokesmen, so his fervent espousal of the Arab Palestinian cause appears vacuous. Not recommended.
Carol R. Glatt, VA Medical Ctr., Philadelphia
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
In an insightful and perceptive book, Richler mixes memoir, history, and political commentary in exploring the idea of Israel as a homeland for Jews as well as Palestinians. Richler, a Canadian Jew, writes of the Montreal of his youth and the three youth groups there that were committed to the concept of an independent Jewish state; of his maternal grandfather (a celebrated Hasidic scholar); of his divorced mother, who ran a kosher boardinghouse in Canada's Laurentian Mountains during the 1940s; and of his Hebrew teachers and his friends. He discusses his visits to Israel and his friends who emigrated to Israel and settled in kibbutzim. Richler's caustic and keen examination of the state of Israel and of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, combined with his warm reminiscences, makes this an important book by an important writer. George Cohen

Customer Reviews

A journal by the every-day Richler
As an Arab and a former Montréaler with an interest in the Middle East, I was looking forward to reading this book. Besides the joy of reading about the city's past I found interesting how Diaspora Jewish communities dealt with their place as Jews in Western societies and with Zionism since and before the establishment of Israel.

It was fascinating to see how closely-knit (or self-obsessed?) Jewish communities were. Through his childhood, Richler only seems to interact with Jews (as do other members of his community), only getting access to the real world when he leaves Montreal and his conservative community. Having been raised there, Richler had spoken better Hebrew than French.

Richler also reveals, as he discovers himself, that Zionism is not as rosy as it is perceived. Much of the Zionist 'training' Jews received is implied to be a sort of brain-washing, promoting the idea of Palestine as a 'land without people for a people without land'. The strong Zionist solidarity among children, as well as patriotism for a land they had never seen, could not have come without it.

His critical attitude towards Zionism and recognition of what he sees as the need for Jews to have a place to call home comes together to make a good read. This book is not overly political or disturbingly ideological. It's just Richler in an average person's shoes.