Publication date May 5, 2022.
This is the story of ordinary people trying to do what’s right in extraordinary times. Three women and their families must navigate the joys and hazards of life amid Arabs, Jews and Britons in pre-Israel Palestine, 1920-1948.
“Very highly recommended.” —Midwest Book Review (senior reviewer).
This Storied Land , by Marilyn Oser is available from Amazon or to order at your local independent book store.
It’s November 11, 1918. “Who’s going to clean up this mess?” are the first words Eleanor Simons hears on a suddenly-silent battlefield when the cannons cease their roaring. The mess is everywhere–in the blasted fields of France, Belgium, Russia, the Middle East, Africa…. And like those fields, Eleanor’s life looks bleak; her fiancé has died in the war. As a nurse at the front, she never expected to survive, either. Now, a long, blank lifetime stretches out ahead of her.
In Asia, Africa and Europe, whole empires have been blown away. To clean up the mess, to make a lasting peace, the world’s diplomats are convening in the beehive that is Paris. During the early months of 1919, Eleanor–like many a harried, sleepless minister–must face the challenge of shaping a new future out of the ashes of the old.
Available on Amazon or to order through your local bookstore
A new novel by the author of Rivka’s War
Even You tells the story of two women, Jessie Friedman and Claire Bramany. When Jessie dies, her lover – Claire – uncovers hidden journals revealing Jessie’s long-buried secret of childhood sexual abuse. Shattered, yearning to reconnect with the Jessie she thought she knew, Claire sets out to find the predator – and wreak revenge.
Now available to order online or at your favorite bookstore.
For a sneak preview, visit my website, http://www.marilynoser.com
1. An index for Streets of Israel is now available. Just request it using the contact form below – with your e-mail address – and I’ll send it to you. It was done by a generous visitor to this site who wishes to remain anonymous. Call him IndeXMan.
2. I’m pleased to announce the publication date of my latest novel, EVEN YOU, on September 1, 2015.
It’s the story of Claire Bramany and her deceased lover of twenty-three years, Jessie Friedman. While cleaning out Jessie’s desk, Claire finds hidden journals revealing Jessie’s long-buried secret of childhood sexual abuse by an uncle. Shattered, yearning to reconnect with the Jessie she thought she knew, Claire goes to find the man—and wreak revenge.
Lion of the Desert
1. AKA Judah Maccabee, he was the third of five sons of Matathias of Modi’in, who initiated a revolt against the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes, when that ruler sought to impose a Hellenistic way of life and worship on the Jews.
2. After his father’s death in 165 BCE, Yehudah, a Judean priest, assumed command of the resistance forces against the Greco-Syrian empire.
3. He led his troops to victory in stunning and tactically brilliant defeats over the Greek armies at Bet-Horon, Emmaus, and, ultimately, Mt. Zion.
4. He captured the Temple in Jerusalem and, in December of 164 BCE, purged it of all Hellenistic-cult paraphernalia, re-constructing it according to the specs in the Torah and reconsecrating it.
5. He made a treaty with the Roman Republic in 161 BCE – the first recorded treaty between the Jews and the Romans. After many additional victories in Gilead, Transjordan and Galilee, he was defeated in the field while fighting the Syrian forces.
6. He died in battle north of Jerusalem in 160 BCE and was buried in the family sepulcher in Modi’in. He was succeeded by his brother Jonathan; the descendants of his brother Simeon became the Hasmonean dynasty in Judea, where, as a result of their rebellion, the Jews were able to enjoy independence and the liberty to worship God according to their own lights. For a fuller and more elegant explanation of what happened, try Simon Schama’s The Story of the Jews.
7. So, if he was Yehudah ben Mattityahu, how did he become Yehudah HaMaccabi?
8. Oy.
9. Maccabee is a sobriquet, meaning “hammer” in Aramaic. That’s one explanation. Another is that it’s an acronym for the verse Mi Kamocha Ba’elim Adonai, “Who is like unto you, oh God.” Or it might be an acronym for his father’s name, Mattityahu Kohen ben Yochanan. Or a shortened form of the Hebrew for “the one designated by Adonai.” Take your pick.
10. Many works of art have been created, written, sung and played about him. Among the most notable are the following: Handel’s oratorio “Judas Maccabaeus “; Beethoven’s theme and variations for cello and piano on a theme from the Handel oratorio; Longfellow’s five-act verse tragedy and many other poems and plays by writers in Hebrew and Yiddish; Howard Fast’s My Glorious Brothers published in 1948 during Israel’s war of independence, and still a good read today.
Thanks to Ido Biran telavivi for this photo.
Happy Hanukkah to all!
You’ll find Yehudah HaMaccabi (or Makkabbi) Street in Tel Aviv’s north end running east-west between Ibn Gevirol and Weizmann, just south of Shlomziyyon HaMalka.
1. There is no street in Israel – nor anywhere else – named for me, Marilyn Oser. (Any connection with Oser Avenue in Hauppauge, Long Island, is urban legend.)
2. There is no lane, alley, footpath, rut or trail of breadcrumbs named for me, either.
3. I write, I eat, I sleep, I read, I teach a little Hebrew to kids who don’t know any better….
4. I have been posting this blog virtually every Wednesday since December 2012, much to my own satisfaction, and I hope to yours. Over 6,500 viewers have stopped by to read what I had to say. Many thanks to those of you who have sent me your comments and questions.
5. I have a new book coming out in the fall of 2015: Even You, a novel. Another book is in its second draft; and ideas for two novels after that are slouching toward my desk waiting to be born.
6. After two years and 97 posts, I need a breather. Next Wednesday, December 17th, will see my last post on this site – at least for a while.
7. To learn more about me, follow this link marilynoser.com
Prolific Yiddish playwright, author and editor
1. David Pinsky was born in 1872 in Mogilev – now in Belarus – and spent his early years in Vitebsk, where he attended cheder. When he was thirteen, his family moved to Moscow, where his father supplied clothing and decoration to the military. There, he began secular studies.
2. In 1891, he went to Vienna to study medicine, but his father was expelled from Moscow the following year (as were all Jews). The family were ruined; Pinsky joined them in Warsaw and became employed as a teacher. As a boy, he had conceived the notion of becoming an actor, and at the age of twelve had written a play for two friends, which was staged in his grandmother’s apartment. Now, in Warsaw, he became the friend of Y.L. Peretz [see my post of 9/24/14] and embarked on a literary career.
3. His first short story, “The Great Philanthropist,” was published in 1894. With Peretz, he established a publishing house with the aim of using literature to bring about a new social order for workers. He was the main contributor to two periodicals published by him together with Peretz and Mordecai Spector, publicizing socialist ideas. He joined the Bund, demonstrating his keen interest in the welfare of working people; and he became known among the elite Jewish writers in Warsaw.
4. By 1896 he was studying at the University of Berlin and writing for a Yiddish-American newspaper, Dos Abend Blatt (The Evening Paper), the official newspaper of the Socialist Workers’ Party.
5. In 1899, at the invitation of the editor of the paper, he moved to New York City, where he would live for the next fifty years. He was a contributor to, and editor of, fiction for Dos Abend Blatt, and he wrote for other socialist papers, as well.
6. He is remembered today primarily for his plays. In 1904, The Family Tsvi opened in New York – a play depicting the conflicting forces of modernism and tradition affecting Jews and decrying the passive acceptance of violence against Jews. It is said that he ducked his qualifying exam at Columbia, where he was studying for a doctorate in German language and literature, to attend the opening – thereby forfeiting the degree.
7. In all, he was to write more than sixty plays, in addition to novels, stories, poetry and journalism. The plays were staged in the Americas and in Europe, in Yiddish or in German, Russian, Hebrew or English translations. They were performed by leading actors of the day, including Stella Adler, Menashe Skolnik, Ida Kaminska and Annie Tomashefsky.
8. His work dealt with issues of the common working man, with Jewish legends, Biblical characters, messianic figures and Israeli pioneers. He was the first president of the Yiddish PEN Club.
9. In 1916 he became a member of the central committee of Poale Zion, the labor Zionist movement. For a time he edited its journal and its two daily newspapers. He founded the Farband, a Labor Zionist organization, and served as its president from 1919-22 and 1933-48.
10. In addition, he was president of the Jewish National Workers Alliance in 1920-22, and he served on the board of HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) through most of the 1940s. From 1930-53 he was president of the Jewish Culture Society.
11. In 1938, one of his plays, concerning the adulterous love between two people, was adapted into a movie: “The Singing Blacksmith,” starring Moishe Oysher and featuring the first film performance by Hershel Bernardi.
12. In 1949 he emigrated to Israel. He continued writing, though Yiddish was by then in great decline. His home on Mount Carmel became a gathering place for young writers. He died there, in Haifa, in 1959.
In Haifa, You’ll find Pinsky Street just west of the Haifa Auditorium.
A founding father of political Zionism
1. Jacob de Haas was born in 1872 to a Dutch family living in London. He studied at English and German universities.
2. A journalist, he became editor of the London Jewish World. In addition, he wrote for London’s Daily Chronicle, Daily News and Pall Mall Gazette, as well as for Die Welt of Vienna.
Theodore Herzl
3. In 1896, after joining the Zionist movement, his writing introduced Theodore Herzl [see my blog post of 6/26/13] to the English public. It was to change his life: he became Herzl’s secretary and biographer, working closely with him until his death.
4. In 1902, at Herzl’s request, de Haas moved to the United States, where he became secretary of the Provisional Zionist Committee and of the American Federation of American Zionists. Later, he served as secretary to the Palestine Development League and the Palestine Endowment Fund.
5. He helped organize the American Jewish Congress and was one of its representatives in 1919 at the Paris Peace Conference.
Louis D. Brandeis
6. De Haas is credited with introducing Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis to the ideas and ideals of Zionism. Brandeis became an active Zionist. [see my blog post of 6/11/14] With Brandeis, he visited Palestine twice, in 1919 and 1924. He later wrote a biography of Brandeis, published in 1928.
7. He was the author, as well, of a two-volume biography of Theodore Herzl, a history of Palestine and other works. He died in New York in 1937. Some of his books are still available today; his papers are archived at the Central Zionist Archives in Jerusalem.
In Tel Aviv, you’ll find De Haas Street running eastward off Ibn Gevirol.
Many thanks to Ido Biran Telavivi for this photo.
Queen of Judea
1. Salome Alexandra – or Alexandra of Jerusalem – was one of only two women to rule of ancient Judea (76-67 BCE) and the last ruler of the independent kingdom to die.
2. She became queen when her husband, Alexander Janneus, died. While he was king, she seems not to have wielded great political power. There was strife during his reign, and he actively sought to suppress the Pharisees (traditionalists) in favor of the Sadducees (Hellenists). According to Talmudic sources, she sought to protect the Pharisees from his persecution. The Talmud says she was the sister of the sage Shimon ben Shetach, a Pharisee – though Josephus doesn’t mention any such connection. In any case, upon his death Alexander Janneus left the government to the care of his wife, rather than to any of his sons.
3. As queen, she immediately set out to settle differences. She made peace with the Pharisees, thus securing the Hasmonean dynasty. The Sanhedrin – initially established by her husband – was reorganized in favor of the Pharisees, and her eldest son, Hyrcanus II, was made high priest. Also, she reinforced protection of Judea’s borders by fortifying towns.
4. Her reign brought peace and prosperity – Shlomtzion means “peace of Zion.” Indeed, rabbinical sources relate that while she ruled the rain fell only on Shabbat, enabling working people to earn money every working day. Grains of wheat were said to have grown as large as kidney beans, and all things fared well. Who am I to say differently?
In Tel Aviv, you’ll find Shlomtzion Hamalca Street north of Yehudah HaMaccabi and south of Bene Dan, near the Yarkon River and the youth hostel.
In Jerusalem, look for Shelomziyyon Hamalka near the City Hall and the Mamilla Mall.
My thanks to Ido Biran, Telavivi, for his photo of the street sign in Tel Aviv.
Israeli artist
1. Nahum Gutman was born in Bessarabia in 1898. In 1905, his family moved to Palestine, where he attended Herzliya Gymnasium and later served, during World War I, in the Jewish Legion. He studied art at the Bezalel School before going to Europe in 1920 to study in Vienna, Berlin and Paris. He returned home in 1926.
2. Together with Reuven Rubin and Ziona Tagger [see my blogpost of 11/5/14] he pioneered a distinctively Israeli artistic style that portrayed the landscape, the light and the people of Eretz Yisrael.
3. Gutman’s vibrant use of color is a keynote of his work. He often portrayed the Arab community, depicting both the sensuousness and the grittiness of life in the Middle East. He painted in a variety of media, including oil, gouache, watercolor and pen and ink; and he produced many large sculptures and mosaics. Critics have found notes of Renoir, Picasso, Rousseau and Dufy in his work.
4. He is notable, as well, for writing and illustrating children’s books. In 1931, he co-founded a children’s journal, Davar LaYeladim, and remained on its staff for 32 years. Among the many awards he received for his work in children’s literature was the Israel Prize, conferred in 1978.
5. He died in 1980. His work can be seen all over Tel Aviv – in a mosaic mural at the Shalom Tower; in a mosaic wall at Herzliya High School; in a mosaic fountain on Bialik Street; and at the Nahum Gutman Museum at 21 Rokach St., Neve Tzedek.
Many thanks to Ido Biran,Telavivi, for this photo of Nahum Gutman Street, located northwest of Tel Aviv University.
Streets of Israel 