Home and Identities in Yael Dayan’s Death Had Two Sons and Elie Wiesel’s The Forgotten: A Contrapuntal Reading
A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of
Master of Philosophy in English
by
Lucy Keneikhrienuo Yhome Reg. No.1730024
Under the Supervision of Saji Varghese Associate Professor
Department of English
CHRIST (Deemed to be University) BENGALURU, INDIA
December 2018
Approval of Dissertation
Dissertation entitled Home and Identities in Yael Dayan’s Death Had Two Sons and Elie
Wiesel’s The Forgotten: A Contrapuntal Reading by Lucy Keneikhrienuo Yhome, Reg.
No.1730024 is approved for the award of the degree of Master of Philosophy in English.
Supervisor: ______
Chairperson: ______
General Research Coordinator: ______
Date: ……………….
Place: Bengaluru
ii
DECLARATION
I Lucy Keneikhrienuo Yhome hereby declare that the dissertation, titled Home and Identities in
Yael Dayan’s Death Had Two Sons and Elie Wiesel’s The Forgotten: A Contrapuntal
Reading is a record of original research work undertaken by me for the award of the degree of Master of Philosophy in English. I have completed this study under the supervision of Dr. Saji Varghese,
Associate Professor, Department of English.
I also declare that this dissertation has not been submitted for the award of any degree, diploma, associateship, fellowship or other title. I hereby confirm the originality of the work and that there is no plagiarism in any part of the dissertation.
Place: Bengaluru Date: ………………. Lucy Keneikhrienuo Yhome Reg No. 1730024 Department of English CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru
iii
CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the dissertation submitted by Lucy Keneikhrienuo Yhome (Reg. No. 1730024) titled ‘Home and Identities in Yael Dayan’s Death Had Two Sons and Elie Wiesel’s The
Forgotten: A Contrapuntal Reading’ is a record of research work done by him/her during the academic year 2017-2018 under my/our supervision in partial fulfillment for the award of Master of
Philosophy in English.
This dissertation has not been submitted for the award of any degree, diploma, associateship, fellowship or other title. I hereby confirm the originality of the work and that there is no plagiarism in any part of the dissertation.
Place: Bengaluru Date: ……………. Saji Varghese Associate Professor Department of English CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru
Head of the Department Department of English CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru
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Acknowledgement
I would like to take this opportunity to express my deepest gratitude to some important people who has been supportive throughout my journey of research. To begin with,
I would like to thank the Almighty God whose limitless love and blessings of inspirations enabled me to complete my research.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my guide Dr. Saji Varghese, for his for unwavering guidance, valuable time and encouragement which enabled me to complete my research paper. I am extremely grateful to my internal examiner, Dr. Bidyut Bhusan Jena whose valuable feeback and suggestion have help improved my research.
My heartfelt gratitude to Dr. V Shantha, Head, Department of English, Jyoti Nivas
College PG Center for her constant support and invaluable guidance in the journey of my research.
I am also grateful to the Department of English, Christ University for providing me a valuable opportunity to write the thesis.
Lastly, I thank my family and friends who have stood by me and support me with prayers and love in this journey, I would especially like to thank Dr. K Teresa Yhome and
Father. Avilhou Stephen, whose prayers and support has helped me in completing this research.
Lucy Keneikhrienuo Yhome
v
Abstract
Yael Dayan’s Death Had Two Sons (1967) and Elie Wiesel’s The Forgotten (1992) articulate the European Jews survivor’s migrant experience to Israel and their conception of home and identity that deconstructs fixity and singularity. The notion of home, belonging and identity have been shaped within the interplay of the attachment to Israel and the home of the lived experience, this results in a contrapuntal understanding of home, belonging and identity.
The dissertations aims to prove that home and identities in Jewish Diaspora as represented in the texts are plural which is shaped from the individual subject position. Using Avtar Brah’s and Femke Stock’s theories of ‘Home’ and Stuart Hall’s and Bhabha’s theorization of cultural identity, the dissertation reflects how the European- Jewish, identities and conceptions of home since the establishment of Israel and the impact of migration led to the formation of new identities, the already hyphenated identity is marked by in-betweeness and hybridity whereas notion of home are recreated which is found in several axes in terms of locations, mythic, symbolic and lived experience.
Contrapuntal Reading is done in two trajectories; a contrapuntal reading within the text is done through a study of the major characters in terms of defining home and identity;
The second aspect of the reading is bringing out ‘the Paradox of Homeland and Diaspora’ by locating homeland and Diaspora. Through the method of a Contrapuntal Reading of the texts, the primary text in the dissertation, Death Had Two Sons and The Forgotten bring forth the polyphonic voices of the characters in the texts that state that there is no singular notion of home and identities in the Jewish Diaspora.
The dissertations engaged in the history of the Holocaust and the displacement caused by it, the characters in the texts are European Diaspora Jews who is displaced after the
Holocaust and immigrated to Israel. The multiple meanings of home, identities provides
vi dynamic and fluid ways for the Diaspora Jews to belong but at the same time this multiple homes also confused the individual where they cannot identify or belong to a single space and thus create a conundrum.
Key-Words: Jewish Diaspora, Holocaust, European Jews, migration, Identity, Home.
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Contents Approval of Dissertation ii
Declaration iii
Certificate iv
Acknowledgements v
Abstract vi
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1. Understanding the Jewish Diaspora from the Historical to
the Modern Day Diaspora
1.1.1 Jewish Diaspora after the Holocaust: Jews in Europe 2
1.1.2 The Zionist Movement 4
1.1.3 Understanding Contrapuntal 5
1.2. Review of Literature
1.2.1 Diaspora and Homeland Relations 8
1.2.2 Home and Identities 10
1.2.3 Introducing Primary Texts: About the Authors 12
1.2.4 Choice of Texts 14
1.2.5 Review of Primary Texts 15
1.3. Research Argument 18
1.4. Research Questions 18
1.5. Research Objectives 18
1.6. Research Method and Methodology 19
1.7. Theoretical Framework 19
1.8. Significance 22
Works Cited 23
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Chapter 2: Reading the Notion of Home and Identities in Yael Dayan’s Death Had Two
Sons
2.1 Understanding Home 27
2.1.1 Myth of Homeland and the Politics of Israel 28
2.1.2 Homing and Unhoming: Constructing Home through Memory 31
2.2 Jewish Identities in Post War Israel: Othering and Diasporic Memories
2.2.1 Negotiating Identity through “Othering” 36
2.2.2 Diasporic Memories and Fragmented Identities 45
Works Cited 52
Chapter 3: Negotiating Home and Identities in Elie Wiesel’s The Forgotten
3.1 Locating Home 56
3.1.1 Shaping Home in Post War 1948 and Myth of Israel 58
3.1.2 Lost Homes, Reinvented Homes: Dynamic Belonging 63
3.2 Shaping Jewish Identities in Post- War 1948: Memory, Fragmentation,
and Hybridity 68
Works Cited 80
Chapter 4: A Contrapuntal Reading 83
Works Cited 95
Chapter 5: Conclusion
5.1 Research Findings 96
5.2 Limitations and Scope for further Research 100
Works Cited 102
Bibliography 103
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Chapter 1
Introduction
1.1 Understanding the Jewish Diaspora from the Historical to the Modern Day Diaspora
The term “Diaspora” refers to the dispersion of Jews from Palestine and the Jewish communities living outside Israel. Historically, “Diaspora” is used to refer to the Jewish
Diaspora deriving its origin from the Greek word ‘dia’ and ‘spiero’ meaning ‘through’ and
‘scatter’. The concept of Diaspora first emerged from the Septuagint and Midrashic rabbinical writings which were used to describe the Jewish Diaspora. The earlier historical models of Diaspora include the Jews, Armenians and the trans-Atlantic slave of Africa.
The Jewish Diaspora dated back to the destruction of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem and the subsequent Dispersal of Jews from the Holy Land in Judea beginning a period of
Babylonian Exile. (Braziel 13). William Safran’s “The Jewish Diaspora in a Comparative and a Theoretical Perspective” brings out six features of Diaspora, one feature is “They, or their ancestors, have been dispersed from a specific original “center” to two or more peripheral, or foreign, regions.³” (Safran 37). Safran defines the Jewish Diaspora as a prototype, and their exile holds a significant meaning of minority and powerlessness. The
Jewish Diaspora as a prototype has become problematic in the view of many scholars who normalizes Diaspora as a choice. In contemporary times Diaspora is studied in various nuances where theorists and scholars have redefined the usage of Diaspora from its historical meanings.
The concept of Diaspora has been applied by historians and scholars under the rubric of ethnic nationalities and religious communities. The study of Diaspora has immensely increased with more migrations and geopolitical shifts in Homeland. The Jewish Diaspora Yhome 2 continues to be used as a prototype in the modern Diaspora studies because of its engagement with the ethno cultural, religion, history of migration and orientation to the Homeland.
(Safran). The study of Diaspora is subjected to several relocations, from the primary to secondary homelands where it has become difficult to trace their origin; difficulty of defining where is Homeland and Hostland. For example, “For Jews in North America and Western
Europe—is the homeland Israel, or is it Poland, Romania, or Russia? For Armenians in
France—Armenia, Turkey, or Lebanon? For Southeast Asian Chinese in the United States—
China or Vietnam? For West Indians in London—Africa or Jamaica?” (Safran 40). The meanings of Homeland depend on the migrant’s experience and the number of years spent in the Diaspora. The Diaspora maintenance is done through memory, religion, and language as elements of the Collective identity.
1.1.1 Jewish Diaspora after the Holocaust; Jews in Europe
The Jewish Diaspora has shifted from a Stateless Diaspora to a State-linked Diaspora after the establishment of the state of Israel. The Holocaust was a state sponsored systematic bureaucratic attack against the European Jews against their ethnicity, culture and religion; about six million Jews were killed which constitute two fourth of the entire Jewish population. It was during the accession of Romans in Israel in 70CE, the Jews were barred from living in Jerusalem and Judea and were scattered in the Middle East, Central Asia,
North Africa, and Europe.
The Jews in Europe were persecuted and remained stateless in Europe; the Jews suffered political persecution, exclusions and segregation; in Europe they were expelled again
Jews flee to other countries. Throughout the middle ages, the European Jews were confronted with racism and violence. “In the late nineteenth century, modern anti- Jewish political persecution emerged as European nationalisms with their cataclysmic amalgams of racial Yhome 3 purity, folk- citizen, and nation thrived on the continent.” (Braziel 14). Anti- Semitism is used as a racist term against the Jews in Europe, a reaction against this formed Zionism in the late nineteenth century by Theodor Herlz.
The WWII Holocaust is the persecution of Jews in Europe as an act of ethnic cleansing. The Holocaust also known as ‘Shoah’ had a major role in the extermination and wiping away the Jews. In the Encyclopaedia of Diaspora, the Holocaust is defined as one of the most destructive force since the Roman wars. The murder of the Jews by the Nazis under
Hitler leads to refugee migration and erasure of Jews in Europe. (Melvin J. Konner)
The Holocaust had contributed in the further displacement of the European Jews; many of the Jews immigrated to Israel in the hope to create a Homeland that was promised by the
Zionist. The Holocaust experience of the Jews in Europe had contributed to another wave of immigration and Diaspora. The Jewish Diaspora is fragmented by language, culture and geographical locations, for instance, the Sephardic Jews can be located in Portugal, Spain or the Middle East whereas the Ashkenazi Jews are settled in Eastern and Northern European countries; and the Mizrahi Jews are found in the Middle East. However the impact of the
Holocaust brings about solidarity among the Jews in the globe with the Zionist Movement creating the State of Israel in 1948 as the National Homeland.
The Jewish Diaspora emerged as an impact of the Holocaust leads to a further displacement of the European Jews; they were deported to Israel whereas some survivors chose to continue living in Europe and many immigrated to other countries. Robert S.
Wistrich in “Israel, the Diaspora and the Holocaust Trauma” explained how the Holocaust trauma had become a reference point of Jewish identity. The Holocaust trauma led to the creation of Israel and this brings solidarity amongst the Jews against the other.
Yhome 4
1.1.2 The Zionist Movement
The birth of Zionism in the late 19th century led to the migration of European Jews to
Palestine in early 20th and Israel was created in the mid-20th century as a response of the
Holocaust and need of a Jewish home (Braziel 13).
The Zionist movement often refers to a political movement was initiated by Theodore
Herlz at the first Zionist Congress Basel in 1897. The Zionist ideology during this time crystallised a Nationalist and unequivocally Socialist in orientation. An important early thinker of Zionism commented that Zionism was a revolutionary Political Movement.
“Zionism was not a "reaction to the Holocaust", but a complex movement whose roots may be traced back to all sorts of historical points.” (Ruth and Selwyn 28). Zionism contained ideology of Post-Enlightenment Europe thought which give more importance to science/reason over religion; Zionism was to be placed within the mainstream European
Political culture.
“Zionism claims to be a liberation movement for all Jews, and Zionist ideologists have spared no effort in their attempt to make the two terms "Jewish" and "Zionist" virtually synonymous.” (Shohat 1). The Zionist movement tried to make “Jewish” and “Zionist” synonymous, but it was not possible because followers of Zionism themselves have been divided into different group or categories, for instance, the Ashkenazi Jews and the Sephardi
Jews based on the “Universal” and “Particular” such as the religious and the secular. The
Zionist movement has been considered as a liberation movement for the European Jews and the minority of European Jews settled in Israel. The Zionist Movement which gained more popularity during and after the Holocaust gave more importance to the European Jews where it promotes immigration by creating the state of Israel as Jewish Homeland. The same movement had a great impact in shaping Home and Identities in the Post War; the ideology is Yhome 5 critique in the Jewish literature. Zionism and Jewish are not synonyms, many Jews tend to reject the Zionist ideology.
The study of Diaspora has changed from the Classical meaning to its changing notions in the modern times. Diasporic identities have been subject to several relocations from primary to secondary homelands, which bring about a confusion among the individuals on which is the homeland and which is the hostland. The creation of Israel as a Jewish State gave a whole new meaning to the concept of Jewish Diaspora from its historical meaning of dispersion because now the Jews are provided an existing Nation home and this gave rise to multiple notions and debates on whether the Diaspora for Jewish has ended, which is further discussed in William Safran’s “Diaspora in Modern Societies: Myths of Homeland and
Return.” After the creation of Israel as a Jewish State, the Zionist hoped for a ‘negation’ of
Diaspora who believes that Jewish Diaspora has come to an end but the Diaspora survived and new patterns of relationships developed between it and the homeland. This relationship is maintained through financial aid, investments to the homeland by the Diaspora.
1.1.3Understanding Contrapuntal
“Contrapuntal” was first used in 1816, the history and Etymology come from Italiano
Contrapunto counterpoint from Medieval Latin Contrapunctus. Contrapuntal in simple words is “Of, relating to, or marked by counterpoint. “Counterpoint” is the combination of two or more independent melodies into a single harmonic texture in which each retains its linear character.” (Merriam Webster). “Contrapuntal” is a borrowed term from classical western music. Contrapuntal in music is defined as when “Songs exchange the harmonies for additional melodies, overlapping and interrupting and supporting each other. Sometimes those melodies are very complimentary and other times they are opposite but still work together. Music written in this way is called contrapuntal or counterpoint” (study.com) Yhome 6
Edward Said used the term ‘Contrapuntal’ in “The Mind of Winter: Reflections on
Exile” primarily as a response to the Orientalists critics who felt that Said’s focus was mainly on the European culture and denied agency to the colonised. Said’s contrapuntal reading brings forth the presence of the history of the mainstream and the submerged. In reading back, Said challenged the fixity and singularity of narratives and history. The aim of contrapuntal reading was not to privilege any narrative but to acknowledge the presence of the intermeshed, overlapping and all kinds of histories.
The contrapuntal reading had enabled Said to see cultures in multiple existences which are not pure but mutually dependent and extends beyond any forms of limitations. By point and counterpoint, the power and supremacy are adjunct by confrontation and subversion. (Chowdhury 109).
A Contrapuntal Reading does not privilege any kind of narratives but it brings out both histories of the elite and the subalterns as overlapping and intermeshed. A contrapuntal reading is like a fugue where there are more than two voices that can be heard simultaneously, they are all part of the same composition but they are each distinct. Similarly, notion of Home and Identities in the Jewish Diaspora is like a fugue where the voices are polyphonic.
Contrapuntal Reading has been done in various fields of studies, for instance, Post-
Colonial and Diaspora Literature. Contrapuntal Reading has been done in literature, usually comparing between two narratives by representing the perspective of two writers from different space, for instance, “Vexing Resistance, Complicating Occupation: A Contrapuntal
Reading of Sahar Khalifeh’s Wild Thorn’s and David Grossman’s The Smile of the Lamb.”
Philip Metres makes a Contrapuntal Reading of the novel of Khalifeh’s and Grossman’s by bringing out the perspective of both Israeli’s and Palestinian’s through their narratives. Both Yhome 7
Sahar Khalifeh’s Wild Thorn’s (1976) and David Grossman’s The Smile of the Lamb.”(1982) are set in 1972, five years after the Six Day War, both critique the social and the political tension between the Israeli’s and Palestinian’s and the conflict within one culture. Both the
Palestinian and the Israeli writers have exposed and inspected their own Nation Myths on the
Occupation after the 1967 Six Day War. To resist the privileging one Nation over the other, the researcher employs the method of Contrapuntal Reading in the analysis (Metres).
“Said’s notion of contrapuntalism—read against his notion of imperialism and resistance—rides the tension between being a totalizing theory of global cultural harmonic interdependence and one which emphasizes disjunction and polyphony.” (Metres 84)
“The goal of a contrapuntal reading is thus to not privilege any particular narrative but reveal the ‘wholeness’ of the text, the intermeshed, overlapping, and mutually embedded histories of metropolitan and colonised societies and of the elite and subaltern. A contrapuntal reading is like a fugue which can contain ‘two, three, four or five voices; they are all part of the same composition, but they are each distinct’.” (Chowdhury 105).
Like a fugue, the voice of the Jews in relation to their conception of home and their identities are polyphonic, each voice is distinct in their own representations, though they are of the same composition, with a collective identity emerging from the Holocaust experience, each are distinct in representing themselves in Post Holocaust. Without privileging the narrative of any specific author, the study gives equal importance to the narratives of both.
Home and Identities in the Jewish Diaspora has been studied as Polyphonic in
Victoria Mason’s “Children of the “Idea of Palestine”: Negotiating Identity, Belonging and
Home in the Palestinian Diaspora”, Mason quotes Edward Said’s ‘‘The Mind of Winter’’, where Said had borrowed the term contrapuntal from the western music to propose that the hybrid nature of the Palestinian identities in Diaspora are contrapuntal. Edward Said Yhome 8 mentions that the identity of the Palestinians in the Diaspora is like a series of notes where multiple voices which can be heard simultaneously (Mason). On a similar note in my
Contrapuntal analysis, I will be looking at the Jewish Identities and Homes as Contrapuntal where there is no univocal but the presence of Polyphonic voices. As the objective of
Contrapuntal reading is not to give privilege to one narrative but to bring out the polyphonic voices from every space, in my analysis of the two novels, the elements of Contrapuntal are found.
1.2 Review of Literature
1.2.1 Diaspora and Homeland Relations
The study of Diaspora especially the Jewish Diaspora is deeply linked with the
Diaspora and Homeland relations. The Diaspora and Homeland relations have been defined and redefined from the Classical Diaspora to the modern studies of Diaspora. “Classical
Jewish experience testifies to the fact that at the heart of the idea of diaspora is an ideology of separation from, and a longing for return to the homeland.” (Knott, McLoughlin 9). There are various theories and articles that have discussed the Diaspora and the Homeland relations in the context of Jewish. Homeland has played a major role among the Diaspora Jews where the diasporic individual linked their identity to the Homeland and hope that one day there will be a return to the original Homeland. The Diaspora and Homeland relation has been critique in
William Safran’s “Diaspora in Modern Societies: Myths of Homeland and Return”, the establishment of Israel in the words of Safran has given a new approach to the Jewish
Diaspora as there is an existing Homeland which questions if Diaspora can come to an end; on one hand it states that there is a Jewish home but contrary to that many Jews chose not to return. Safran said that Homeland may exist but it could be a place where they cannot fit in politically. The establishment of the state of Israel led multiple debates on Diaspora, from the Yhome 9 religious point of view it states that Diaspora has come to an end but in the socio- psychological sense Diaspora have survived because Israel is itself in the state of a diasporic condition. Safran also critiques the politics of Homeland Myth which is exploited by both the
Government of Homeland and Hostland where it gives a utopian vision to the Diaspora community in contrast to the dystopia in which they live. The new patterns of relationship developed between the homeland and diaspora are discussed by Safran in “The Jewish
Diaspora in a Comparative and Theoretical Perspective” in which the concept of homeland is contested as Diasporic identities have been subjected to several relocations from primary to secondary homelands, which bring about a confusion among the individuals on which is the homeland and which is the hostland. Safran commented on the Diaspora maintenance of the relationship with the homeland which has been language, memory, and religion as elements of identity or through investments, and population movements.
Diaspora is celebrated for theorists and critics like Alan Wolfe, David Shneer and
Caryn Aviv. Alan Wolfe in his article “At Home in Exile: Why Diaspora is Good for the
Jews” celebrates Diasporic space as a positive site where Jews can live an authentic Jewish life linked to their culture and religion. Wolfe’s in his critique of the state of Israel comments, there are many ways to be Jewish; his critique of Israel brings forth the role of Israel in the lives of the Diaspora Jews. Similarly in “A Shared Blessing for a Far-Flung People”, Michael
S. Roth critiques the Modern Zionism which promotes Israel as the National home of the
Jews. By stating the Jews have faced alienation within Israel, Roth comments that
‘statelessness is not powerlessness’ (Wolfe as quoted in Roth). The only way to keep the
Jewish state alive is to continue to live outside Israel and keep the Diasporic tradition alive.
Roth concludes saying that Alan Wolfe’s book is an expression of keeping the Jewish culture and practices alive among the people wherever they may live. David Shneer and Caryn Aviv in “Jews as rooted cosmopolitan: the end of Diaspora?” calls the Diaspora Jews as ‘Global Yhome 10
Diaspora’. Instead of referring to a Homeland, Jews are seen as Global who are at home wherever they are. Shneer and Aviv critique the portrayal of Jews in Diaspora as homeless; and the constant link of Jewish identity with nationalism. The Diaspora and Homeland relations have shifted and reconstructed over time, when some theorist or critique still link
Diaspora to Israel as the Homeland, there are others however who finds such link problematic as they hardly consider it as a homeland or even rejected it.
1.2.2 Home and Identities
“At times home is nowhere. At times one only knows extreme estrangement and alienation.
Then home is no longer one space. It is locations.” (Bell Hooks as quoted in Rosemary
Marangoly George)
Home and Identities are constructed and negotiated in the study of Diaspora, due to the continuous migration with shifting geography and locations. The notion of home is important in the study of Diaspora as it is a site of nostalgia and remembrance that the diasporic subjects tend to recreate in the hostland. The concept of Home and Identities are always in a process; it has been defined and redefined. Femke Stock in “Home and Memory” defines ‘Home’ as a subtext of ‘Diaspora’ The notion of Home is in a constant process of change with the shifts of time and space, therefore, Home entails both spaces, Home can be found in both the lived experienced and symbolic realm and this is what Clifford calls ‘the empowering paradox of diaspora’ (Clifford as quoted in Stock). Stock’s interprets the different notions of ‘home’ and memories of home. At the centre of ‘Diaspora’ lies image of a remembered home, that home can be geographic, metaphoric. The ‘place of origin’ can evoke a sustained ideology of return it can still figure as a home in the present or be seen as belonging entirely to the past (Brah as quoted in Stock). Home in the words of Stock can exist in the form of a geographic, it can be even metaphoric; as in Diaspora there lies an Yhome 11 image of a remembered home, that home can exists in multiple forms; it can still be an existing home or left generations ago or it can become sites of nostalgia and nightmares.
Though the diasporic subjects may have acquired a new home in the Diaspora, despite the presence of nostalgia and nightmares the original home is continuously remembered in the
Diaspora. Memories of home cannot be recalled as a fixed past, but rather it is remembered and reconstructed from the subject position. The movement of the Diasporic subject between multiple spaces critiques essentialist discourse such as origin and nation. The Diasporic subjects are open up to new places where they innovatively create new homes and identities which are considered to be hybrid and fluid. Avtar Brah’s theorization shows “Diaspora space is configured by multiple locations of home and abroad and contested relations among and between people with diverse subject positions.” (Brah as quoted in Knott and
McLoughlin).
Similar to notion the of home in Diaspora stated by Femke Stock, Avtar Brah in “The homing of diaspora, the diasporisng of home” critique the notion of Home; that in Diaspora there are multiple notions of home, home exists in the mythic place of the diasporic imagination and also in the lived experienced of the locality. Brah’s idea of constructing home similarly mentions what Stock and Marangoly have discussed which is based on a select inclusion and exclusion; though diaspora summon a traumatic separation and dislocation, the diasporic space is seen as a positive site where home can be created; it can become sites of hope and new beginnings; the diasporic space is contested where individuals and their memories collide, reassemble, and reconfigure.” (Brah 237) Diasporic space is configured by multiple contestations and it is in this space where memories collide and reconfigure, this can open up new forms of identities and home in Diaspora.
The multiple existences of home in Diaspora is claimed in Youness Abbeddour “The
Notion of Home in Diaspora” in the words of Abeddour in Diaspora there are multiple Yhome 12 notions of home and one cannot assigned a singular home. The Diasporic subjects are dislocated to various spaces, between two homes where on one hand they need to acknowledge their historical cultural identity and on the other hand to relocate themselves with the new society. “Home’ and ‘abroad’ are mingled in diaspora, ‘home’ can be ‘abroad’ and vice versa; they are not necessarily fixed geographical points”. Youness Abeeddour mentioned that we cannot talk about one singular notion of ‘home’ in Diaspora; it is the multiplicity of homes and multiplicity of belonging that gives meaning to the Diaspora.
Home is contested in the diasporic space, Rosemary Marangoly George gives an overview of understanding home in The Politics of Home: Post Colonial Relocations and Twentieth
Century Fiction (1996); in the words of Marangoly locations should not be reduced to mere geographic space of the map; home should be something more than physical dwelling, challenges the confined space of home and boundaries by inviting interactions which includes community and nation. Home is a place that is flexible and manifests itself in various forms whereas with reinvention there are certain inclusion and exclusion. Home is constructed and defined based on select inclusion and exclusion; the inclusion is based on the kinship of a shared race, blood, class, gender or religion.
1.2.3 Introducing Primary Texts: About the Authors
The research aims to examine the notion of Home and Identities in the Jewish
Diaspora through two novels namely, Death Had Two Sons (1967) by Yael Dayan and The
Forgotten (1992) by Elie Wiesel. Wiesel is a Romanian born American- Jewish writer, who writes in French. Wiesel won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. Elie Wiesel’s autobiography was published in France, 1958 titled Night and in the U.S, 1960. After the publication of his memoir Night, Wiesel has written more than sixty fiction and non-fiction. Wiesel’s major thematic concerns are the Holocaust, Holocaust Memory, Role of Religion and Survivor’s
Guilt. Yhome 13
After the publication of his memoir Night, Wiesel has written more than sixty fiction and non-fiction. Some of his well-known works are Dawn (1961), The Accident (1961), The
Town Beyond the Wall (1962), The Gates of the Forest (1964) chronicles the experiences of
Holocaust and its aftermath. In 1965 when he visited the Soviet Union, he wrote another book called The Jews of Silence (1966) which speaks of the plight of the Soviet Jews. He wrote A Beggar in Jerusalem (1968) after the 1967 war in Israel. Some of his later works include The Testament (1980) and The Forgotten (1992). Wiesel’s novel The Forgotten
(1992) one of the primary texts for the dissertations, engages in multiple thematic concerns like the impact of Holocaust on the Jewish survivors; the role of memory; experiencing rootlessness and immigration leading to the understanding and construction of home and identities in the Jewish literature in Post World War II. Wiesel’s hyphenated identity as a
Romanian born, American- Jew, whose identity has turned from Romanian- Jew to becoming an American- Jew as an impact of migration, had in some ways shapes the multiple thematic concerns of the book. Wiesel critiques the evils of the Holocaust and its impact on the survivors and the generations followed. As a result of war leading to rootless and re-routing
Wiesel critiques the fixity with the question of identities and the meanings of home. Another thematic concern was the critique of the Zionist ideology and its failure. Wiesel’s novel echoes polyphonic voices in the definition of Jewish home and identities through the experiences of the characters. The text explores the relationship between father-son, the
Holocaust survivors and the next generation, their relationship with Israel and their Jewish identities and notion of homes which problematize terms such as purity, fixed and essentialism.
Similarly, Yael Dayan’s Death Had Two Sons (1967) engages in the thematic concern of the survivor’s responses to Holocaust, patterns of migratory experience leading to dislocation and relocations where identities collide and are reconfigured. Yael Dayan is an Yhome 14
Israeli Politician, Journalist and an author born in Nahalal, 1939. She is the daughter of
Moshe Dayan, who was an Israeli Military leader and a politician. Yael Dayan served as a member of the Knesset from 1992 to 2003 and was the Chair of Tel Aviv Council from 2008 to 2013. She has published six novels, a memoir and a biography called My Father, His
Daughter (1985). Yael Dayan’s five published novels are New Face in the Mirror (1959),
Envy the Frightened (1961), Dust (1963), Death Had Two Sons (1967) and Three Weeks in the Fall (1979). Yael Dayan’s identity as an Israeli- Jew significantly contributed to the construction of the novel and the characters. Dayan’s dealt with diasporic characters whose return or immigration to Israel from Europe led to the emergence and negotiation of multiple existences of home and pluralistic identities. Another thematic concern is the fluid existence of home and identities as in Polish- Jew becoming Israeli- Jew. The text explores the father- son relationship, the trauma of the Holocaust in the present life, role of memory, and migratory experiences leading to conundrum identities. Dayan also critiques the state of
Israel as Godless, defined by Politics, Violence and Racism in the text.
1.2.4 Choice of texts
The primary texts Death Had Two Sons and The Forgotten project various trajectories of the Jewish Diaspora. The historical background of the texts are set in the Holocaust, where the characters in the texts are European Jews who are uprooted from Europe and came to
Israel after Holocaust. The texts are historical fiction with the commonality of background and themes, the texts diverge in their context while Wiese’s concern is establishing Diaspora with Homeland, Dayan’s concern is primarily a critique of the state of Israel.
It is interesting to note that Yael Dayan is an Israeli author, had no direct experience of the Holocaust or Diaspora but writes about it; Another reason for choosing the primary texts is Gender, it is no doubt that Wiesel’s writing about the Diaspora and Holocaust as a Yhome 15 survivor and as a Diaspora Jew but Yael Dayan’s perspective on Diaspora is demonstrated from the point of view of Yael Dayan’s describing the Holocaust experience of European
Jewish immigrants; Dayan’s writing about the men’s experience of Holocaust is questionable and writing about Diaspora in the Jewish Homeland are some concerns to be looked at.
1.2.5 Review of primary texts
In the absence of availability of academic published works on the primary texts due to the authors not being studied as Diaspora writers, in substitute the reviews are done with interviews and articles on the authors to understand their viewpoints and concerns on the context of Jewish Diaspora. Wiesel considers himself as a Jew of Goala (Exile) and not a Jew of the Geula (Redemption, i.e. Israel). Wiesel never criticized Israel because he believes that without Israel, there are no Jewish people and without the Jewish people there is no Israel.
Elie Wiesel has been known for his support on Humanity and is considered as a moral- intellectual. Chmiel Mark in “Elie Wiesel and the question of Palestine” critique Wiesel’s intellectual morality Wiesel has been criticized again for always considering the Jews as victims, even during the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, he considered the occupation as necessary and also declared it to be “the most humane and least oppressive possible.” Wiesel often linked the Holocaust with Israel and similarly used the Holocaust as an instrument by comparing the Palestinians suffering under Israel to the Holocaust victims.
In the later years, Wiesel turned a bit critical towards Israel in relation to Israeli’s view towards other Jews. This article gives an in-depth discussion on Wiesel’s ideology and his perspective towards the state of Israel. Wiesel continuous loyalty towards Israel and defending the state against criticism by supporting the Israelis can also be considered as maintaining Israel as Homeland. The article reflects the characters position in the book and it can be helpful in understanding the characters and author. In absence of academic published work on The Forgotten, some interviews and book reviews have been done; one of the major Yhome 16 thematic concerns in his works is Holocaust. Remembering is an important theme in Wiesel’s book, the text has been studied as a Holocaust fiction stressing on the importance of remembering. Robert Brown in his article “The Need to Remember—The Forgotten by Elie
Wiesel” discussed the importance of remembering where Elhanan’s passed on his Holocaust memory to his son. The article discussed on major concerns that contribute to my dissertation, Elie Wiesel earlier writings were concerned with Jews and the consequences of
Holocaust but his later writings such as Twilight and The Testament expanded geographically as well as humanly. It includes episodes in Transylvania, New York, Israel, Cambodia and
Germany. The issues of Homeland and Diaspora are not explored though the article mentioned about geography. It also discussed on the thematic shifts in Wiesel’s later writings from the Holocaust to the contemporary issues. Character and Author can reflect each other in literature, Wiesel’s character’s in most of his novels bears a resemblance and similar to
Wiesel. Ron Grossman in the article “The Heart of Judaism Elie Wiesel’s ‘The Forgotten’ focuses on the need of memory” similarly emphasizes the role of memory, and find similarities between the character and the Author. The article discussed both Wiesel’s and
Elhanan’s character. This article again emphasize on the importance of memory in the novel
The Forgotten and it can help in a deeper reading of the role of memory on diasporic subjects and at the same time, it draw emphasis to study the character as a reflection of the author. As a result of the unavailability of academic reviews done on the primary texts on Yael Dayan, the review is done using article and book review. The reviews on the articles will contribute to an understanding of the background of the author, her ideology and point of view. Yael
Dayan speaks radically against atrocities that are happening within the state of Israel, in
“Israel, the U.S. and Jewish Identity: Yael Dayan in Florida” Melva Underbakke discusses on
Yael Dayan’s speech at Temple Beth- El in St. Petersburg, Florida where she addresses to the
American Jews. Yael Dayan urged her audience to withdraw their blind support for Israel, Yhome 17 considering that the American Jews express their support to Israel to express their identity should not be ignorant of what is happening in Israel. Now the Jews create communities,
Dayan also states that after 1948 Israel was a Jewish Democracy but with the passing of time the clash between living in a Jewish State and Democracy become apparent as one can find inequalities among the people, even Jews living in Israel. The article contributes to an understanding of Yael Dayan approach and perspective towards the State of Israel. Yael
Dayan is an Israeli Jew but she is critical of her own State and its corrupt values, she had also talked about the Jewish community residing outside Israel to be conscious and aware of Israel present condition by not blindly supporting it. Dayan is critical of Israel and its politics where she also discussed on the inequalities among the Jewish community itself and this has contributed to an understanding of her ideologies as reflected in her novel. Richard Beeston’s
“A new Dayan takes command; Yael Dayan” discussed Yael Dayan as one of the most controversial Israeli politician, who is also much hated for meeting the PLO leader to discuss on peace settlement between Israel and Palestine. Dayan invited the gay and lesbian Israelis to the Knesset to promote legislation to end discrimination against homosexuals. Yael Dayan commented “I believe in a voice being heard loud and clear. I am not a politician in the usual sense. The review of article contributes in understanding the larger context of the primary texts with reference to the position of Yael Dayan towards Israel and the Jewish communities. In “Death Had Two Sons: A Novel” from Good Reads, reviews that the novel is about a father who was force to choose between two sons, a decision that haunts family decades later. Haim Kalinsky is battling for life in an Israeli hospital and Daniel is unable meet his father because of an excruciating decision Haim made during the Second World
War. Daniel is faced with tremendous internal conflict in his journey back to his father.
Yhome 18
1.3 Research Argument
Elie Wiesel and Yael Dayan through their texts articulate the European Jews survivor’s migrant experience to Israel and their conception of home and identity that deconstructs fixity and singularity.
The notion of home, belonging and identity has been shaped within the interplay of the attachment to Israel and the home of the lived experience, this creates contrapuntal notions of home, belonging and identity.
1.4 Research Questions
The research will examine the Diaspora Jews responses towards defining Home and
Identities challenging the singularities of Home and Identities. The research will attempt to answer- Examine how the notion of ‘home’ and ‘identity’ is rethought and reconstructed leading to multiple notions of Jewish Home and Identities in Death Had Two Sons and The
Forgotten. The research will analyse the polyphonic voices in the texts in defining home and identities from the individual subject position using the method of Contrapuntal reading. The dissertation will bring out variegated meanings of Homeland, Diaspora, Home and Identities.
1.5 Research Objectives
The objectives of the study are
To analyse the multiple notions of Home and Identities in the texts.
To understand the polyphonic existence of Jewish home and identities.
To trace the impact of the Holocaust in the dislocation of the European Jews and their
immigration to Israel.
To analyse the role of Zionist Movement in the creation of the state of Israel and the
various responses of the Jews in Diaspora towards Israel. Yhome 19
1.6 Method and Methodology
The research will apply a Qualitative approach in the form of textual analysis. The
Methodology for the study is Contrapuntal Reading; the contrapuntal method will be used to make a comparative study of the texts.
1.7 Theoretical Framework
In terms of the theoretical framework, this dissertation will apply theories from
Postcolonial and Diaspora studies. There are many important arguments and theories generated about the idea of home and identities, some of the important thinkers in these areas are Homi Bhabha, Edward Said, Stuart Hall, William Safran, Avtar Brah, Femke Stock.
These are the theoretical positions through which I will try to examine and understand the idea of home and identities in the dissertation.
Through this framework, the dissertation will explore the variegated notions of home and identities in the texts. To understand the concept of home from multiple viewpoints the theory of Avtar Brah’s Cartographies of Diaspora will be used to explore the pluralistic existence of home both in locations and in symbolic realm. As Brah’s ‘homing desire’ distinguished between a ‘mythic home’ and ‘the lived experience of a locality.’ ‘Home’ can be found in the lived experience and also in the symbolic realm thus home can involve both spaces. Home is framed or constructed from select inclusions and exclusions. “The concept of Diaspora signals these processes of multi- locationality across geographical, cultural and psychic boundaries.” (Brah 237). Brah’s conception of Diaspora is seen as positive, Diaspora space invokes traumas of separation and nostalgia, it is a space where new relationships can be formed; Diasporic space is configured by multiple contestations and it is in this space where memories collide and reconfigure, this can open up new forms of identities and home in Diaspora. Using Brah’s approach on ‘Home’ the dissertation will analyse the variants of Yhome 20 home and its multiple interpretations that are found in Diaspora. Similarly, the research will employ Femke Stock’s “Home and Memory” to understand the concept of home in Diaspora,
Knott defines home as contextual and ambivalent, notions of home are fluid and dynamic, and its meaning shifts as one move in time and space. In a diasporic space, the feelings of home and belonging can emerge from multiple spaces which can be physical, imagined, remembered or symbolic. “The moving between multiple home spaces, experience of belonging both here and there, can open up new places to reflect on and critique essentialist discourse of nation, ethnicity or origin and to creatively construct new homes and identities that are deemed hybrid, syncretic or fluid.” (Stock 26). Using Stock’s approach on ‘home’ the dissertation will analyse the impact of migration towards creating new homes and identities that are hybrid and dynamic among the Diaspora Jews.
Further, the dissertation will employ Bhabha’s theory of ‘Hybridity’ and ‘The third space’ from The Location of Culture. As quoted in “Bhabha’s Hybridity and the Third Space in Postcolonial Discourse” In fact, the concept of hybridity occupies a central place in postcolonial discourse. It is “celebrated and privileged as a kind of superior cultural intelligence owing to the advantage of in-betweeness, the straddling of two cultures and the consequent ability to negotiate the difference.” (Hoogvelt 1997: 158) This is particularly so in
Bhabha’s discussion of cultural hybridity. (Bhabha as quoted in Poala Ramirez) According to
Bhabha, the Hybrid identity or position is formed from the intertwining elements of the colonizer and colonized that challenges fixity and cultural essentialism. The colonizer intention to transform the identity of the colonized fails but a new hybrid identity is born with it which Bhabha calls it ‘Hybrid’ this identity emerges from the interweaving of the two cultures of the colonized and its colonizer and this itself challenges purity or an authentic cultural identity. Bhabha posits hybridity as such a form of liminal or in-between space, where the ‘cutting edge of translation and negotiation’ (Bhabha 1996) occurs and which he Yhome 21 terms the third space. (Rutherford 1990). This hybrid position is located within the third space; the hybrid has the innate power to challenge essentialism, authenticity of culture, location and identity, their ability to cross between cultures and negotiate within a dynamic of exchange and inclusion. Using Bhabha’s theories of hybridity and the third space the dissertation will analyse identities and home in Diaspora which initiates new signs of identities, straddling between culture and the ability to negotiate and initiate new signs of identity and homes challenging essentialism as culture is always in a process.
Stuart Hall’s essay “Cultural Identity and Diaspora” will be used as a framework for understanding the concept of identities that are discussed in the dissertation. In the words of
Stuart Hall, “identities are the names we give to the different ways we are positioned by, and position ourselves within, the narratives of the past” (Hall 225) Hall defines two types of
Cultural identity, the Collective Identity is a shared identity, one true self, with a common historical experience and of shared cultural codes despite the differences and shifts that take place in the history.
“Cultural identity, in this second sense, is a matter of 'becoming' as well as of 'being'. It belongs to the future as much as to the past. It is not something which already exists, transcending place, time, history and culture.” (Hall 225)
The Individual identity undergoes a transformation, it belonged to both the past and the future, and it is always in a process and it is in this second position where we see the constant and dynamic shifts of the identities according to the generations. The second approach defines cultural identity as fluid, dynamic and this identity is marked by multiple similarities and differences. Through the use of Hall’s theory as a framework, the dissertation will analyse identities in terms of collective and individual bringing out the differences Yhome 22 between the shared identity, hybrid and hyphenated and their points of similarities and differences.
1.8 Significance of the study
The Jewish Diaspora is multifaceted; there are multiple Jewish home and identities which should be studied beyond the National and Homeland. Identities and home in
Diasporic space are defined by fluid and continuous shifts of conception. The study will aim to analyse the factors causing migration in Post- Holocaust and the subsequent dispersal of
Jews from Europe to Israel. It will look at how the European Jews responses towards Israel led to the formations of multiple identities and conceptions of home thus challenging all sorts of fixity and essentialism.
Yhome 23
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Yhome 27
Chapter 2
Reading the notion of Home and Identities in Yael Dayan’s Death Had Two Sons
2.1 Understanding Home
In this chapter I intend to study the multiple notions of home and identities in the
Jewish Diaspora, the major characters through which I will bring out the variations of identities and home are Polish- Jews who have survived the Holocaust and immigrated to
Israel. The first section makes an analysis of the various ideas of home, and the second section makes an analysis of Jewish identities in terms of collective and individual identities in the book.
Yael Dayan’s Death Had Two Sons intently explores the Diasporic consciousness and identity politics of Polish Jews who are now settled in Israel. The book explores the impact of the Holocaust on the survivors and their immigration to Israel that has led to the formation of new identities and multiple conceptions of home and homeland. The book Death
Had Two Sons primarily focus on the character of Haim Kalinsky and his son Daniel
Kalinsky. Haim Kalinsky was forced to make a choice during the Second World War in
Warsaw where he was confronted to choose one son to live and the other to be shot, it was
Shmuel whose hands Kalinsky grabbed and turned away from Daniel. Daniel was taken away by the German Army, but at the least expected it was Daniel who survived the war escaping the Concentration camp. Haim Kalinsky choice is one of the biggest assumptions that developed the whole emotion and plot of the novel. Daniel was deported to Israel along with other survivors and Kalinsky was married to his second wife Dora Wishnevsky in Warsaw.
The father-son relationship in the novel is fragmented because of Haim’s choice in the past but reconciliation after the war brings about the complexities in their relationship and Yhome 28 leads to a negotiation on their identities and their conceptions of home. Their experience of migration, geographical movements and the impact of their diasporic memory has also added up in shaping their identities and their conceptions of home.
The climax of the story develops when Haim Kalinsky finds out that his son Daniel is alive, the son he left to die during the Holocaust and Daniel also found out that his father is alive and looking for him. The reconciliation of the father and son brings out the diasporic elements of the book such as defining home, homeland, fragmented identities and relationships which is deemed hybrid and in-between.
2.1.1 Myth of Homeland and the Politics of Israel
The Myth of Homeland or Return is a major motif in Yael Dayan’s Death had Two
Sons. William Safran’s “Diaspora in Modern Societies: Myths of Homeland and Return” is used in analysing the concept of the myth of homeland in the text. In the words of Safran, the myth of Homeland has created a tension between home and identities as on one hand individuals are inscribed a homeland and on the other, they feel at home outside their homeland. Referring to the Jewish Diaspora and the state of Israel, Safran comments that creation of Israel left the Diaspora Jews confused as they were inscribed a home but for some their homeliness comes from the lived experience. In the Jewish Diaspora, the myth has been ingrained in the psyche of Diaspora Jews which perplex them in differentiating between their sense of belonging and their ties with Homeland.
The myth of homeland is an important theme of the novel; Haim Kalinsky migrated to
Israel in 1960 to reconcile with his son Daniel Kalinsky. Kalinsky never planned to go to
Israel after the War, his idea was to settle somewhere in Poland or migrate to America but the news of Daniel’s surviving the war prompted him to move to Israel. “Do you ever think of going to Israel? We can help you many people left and are very happy there. I know we Yhome 29 thought about it. But we are growing too old to start anew.” (Dayan 65) The above lines states that Haim Kalinsky return to Israel only to reunite with his son but in Israel Kalinsky is treated as a second-class citizen, what Kalinsky envisioned and heard about Israel contrast with the real experiences in Israel, this instances once again evoke the myth of homeland and the lived experience (Home).
The assumption articulated by the Zionists among the Jews that the Jews were returning to a place where they will find a sense of belonging is critique through the various responses of the characters in the novels. Yael Dayan through her evocative narrative demonstrated the existence of multiple homes from the point of view of Haim Kalinsky and Daniel Kalinsky by negotiating the idea of home and homeland where it puts a question on the generalization of the idea of Homeland.
“Rumours from Israel suggested life was tough and demanding and several people returned after few years and resettled in Poland, criticizing everything to do with Israel.”
(Dayan 64) Here the critiquing of Israel begins even before Kalinsky left for Israel but on the other hand, Israel is also an ‘Imaginary Homeland’ for a character like Dora Kalinsky, second who thinks Israel would become home, “They should go to Israel, she said. Nothing else was safe, and Miriam could grow up without yellow clouds over her curly head. The country of oranges and prophets and freedom and sun” (63 Dayan), like the Jews in Europe who considered that returning to Israel will bring redemption and mend their fragmented identity, even Dora feels that Israel would become home, but her real experience in Israel contrast to her imagined idea of Israel, their struggle to find their sense of belonging distort the preconception of Israel and questions the homeland.
The actual lived experience of Kalinsky is in Warsaw, which is in contrast with the myth of homeland, Haim’s sense of belonging comes from his home, Warsaw, Poland but he is Yhome 30 unable to accept Warsaw because of his past experience back in Warsaw, on the other hand, the impact of the homeland myth played role in confusing his idea of home as he’s unable to maintain his connection with Israel,
“Also a strange desire: he wanted to be buried in the cemetery at Gilad. It was
foreign and far and the soil was not his but he knew Daniel could not refuse such
a simple wish…He had to tell him that he did not regret coming to Israel, He did
not love it, or hate it, nor had he tried hard enough to fit in or break away.
(Dayan116)
Though Haim never felt at home in Israel, in the end when he was dying he wanted to be buried in Gilad, this once again reinforces the strong consciousness of the existence of a homeland and its impact ingrained on his psyche. By citing Primo Levi’s Survival in
Auschwitz, Roger Porter in his article “Exile’s Return” quotes
“I suggest that this unnerving apprehension is but one version of the shock
that may confront the exile upon return: an unexpected realization that anticipated
nostalgia has turned to disappointment, even despair, and that the homecoming
held in the imagination may be preferable to the actual experience.” (Porter 2)
The diverse responses towards Israel are rendered in the book, the two instances in the book where some suggest them to go to Israel saying that many are happy returning to their homeland and the other instance suggest that many had gone to Israel but return back to
Europe after few years and they criticize everything that is about Israel. Though the Myth of
‘Homeland’ and ‘Return’ is always emphasized to the diasporic individual in the Diaspora, it is not always a welcoming place, and this brings about dilemma in an individual regarding their sense of belonging contradicting their imagined or mythic home.
Yhome 31
2.1.2 Homing and Unhoming: Constructing Home through Memory
This section aims at analysing the conception of home through the perspective of the individual characters in the two novels. The theories of Avtar Brah’s Cartographies of
Diaspora, Femke Stock’s “Home and Memory”, and Rosemary Marangoly’s The Politics of
Home will be use as theoretical frameworks in analysing the notions of ‘home’ in the two novels. The concept of ‘home’ has been rooted and re-routed in literature; it is dynamic in its definitions and re-definitions which are perennially contested.
‘home’ is a mythic place of desire in the diasporic imagination and on the other
hand, home is the lived experience of a locality. “The questions of home,
therefore is intrinsically linked with the ways in which process of inclusions and
exclusion operate and are subjectively experienced under given circumstances.
(Brah 236)
Memories of home are fragmented as they are reconstructed and given new shapes and meanings from the perspective of the individual subject position. The concept of ‘home’ is remembered and recreated which is partly shaped by the individual experience and also by the social ascriptions Haim Kalinsky is a Polish-Jew and his conception of home is shaped by his understanding and diasporic memories of Poland and Israel. After the war, Kalinsky said that Warsaw cannot be home anymore and migrated to Israel only to reconcile with Daniel with the hope that Israel will become home but his experience in Israel through his sense of alienation, physical and psychological displacement. The inability to mend his relationship with Daniel and being rejected by his son has further contributed in his displacement; Daniel bought tickets for Haim Kalinsky and Dora to return to Poland because he thinks that they can never fit in. This rejection results in a reconstruction of his sense of belonging and home.
Though Kalinsky said Warsaw is not home anymore he remembers Warsaw, in his Yhome 32 conversation with Lipsky, a Rumanian- Jew they both wished that they were in Warsaw once again despite the traumas of War and being treated as the other. Even Mr. Lipsky criticizes the heat, the dust, the sun and everything that was not Bucharest. Both Lipsky and Kalinsky define home as Europe remembering Warsaw by Unhoming Israel.
“They conversed in Yiddish and although it was never stated in so many words, they both wanted to be sitting once again in a smoky café in Warsaw or in Bucharest, being nobodies in a comfortable way…limited success in some small-scale business.” (Dayan 111).
His experience in Israel lead him to reconstruct his conception of home through his diasporic memories, he also finds it difficult to fit in because they were treated as second class citizens, and the geography was completely different from where he came.
“The city could never become home, he knew, but he was tied to it by ropes of wind and yellow chilling grains meaninglessly and uselessly.” (Dayan 110). Kalinsky could neither belong to Israel nor can he leave it because of Daniel but he hated everything about Israel, he says that Israel can never become home and he is tied to it meaninglessly and uselessly. As he started to feel alienated in Israel he defines and redefine home through ‘Homing’ and
‘Unhoming’ he defines his idea of home by using the ‘sun’ as a metaphor, the sun he liked was the one which appeared at the end of a cold winter referring to Europe but the sun here in
Israel is “red devil”, Kalinsky, ‘unhome’ Israel but at the same time he is tied to it as he still have connection with it though his homing desire is still Poland.
As Brah had mentioned ‘homing desire’ is not about desiring a homeland rather it is about ‘feeling at home’. This feeling of being at home is absent in the case of Kalinsky, he is separated from everything the people, the weather, and the culture. Kalinsky can never fully accept Israel but he could not even deny it, “He had to tell him that he did not regret coming to Israel, He did not love it, or hate it, nor had he tried hard enough to fit in or break Yhome 33 away.”(Dayan 116). Though the Kalinsky’s family is settled in Beersheba, in the words of
Daniel they continue to live like they are still in Warsaw. Kalinsky fears that if his decision of coming to Israel was right, he was afraid if like a passenger he has taken the wrong train but, in the end, he also says there was no other train, and this was the end of his trip (Dayan 150).
In the corner of his window, between himself and the city, the sun laughed. The sun he liked was the one which appeared at the end of a cold winter, friendly, welcome, kindly, melting the snows and throwing gentle light on the pear trees in the garden…He knew the sun one could bask in, without the need to protect oneself, without fear, on his own terms. This one was a red devil. This sun was his enemy from the first day…he woke up every morning with his enemy above him and all day long the battle continued. (Dayan 110-111)
Yael Dayan through the portrayal of Mr. Kalinsky’s character intends to bring out the difficulty of Jewish belonging to a place though Israel is considered as National home for the
Jewish people the author has question and critique Israel by creating characters like Kalinsky,
Kalinsky has been a citizen of Israel since 1960, after his arrival in Israel, is now settled in
Beersheba. He is admitted in an Israeli hospital suffering from a malignant tumour. His suffering has also added to his diasporic consciousness of his sense of belonging where he sees Israel as everything that is not Europe.
Haim Kalinsky compares the weather, the geographies of the two places in the book. I heard the Kibbutz resembling the Kolchoz, is that so?” (Dayan 82), is Jordan anything like the Vistula? (Dayan 83) Subconsciously on his mind, Kalinsky expects Israel to be like
Poland and on his arrival, it was completely contradictory to what he thought of Israel. Even on his deathbed in the hospital, Kalinsky thought he was at home in Warsaw once again, he remembers the Chestnut trees in Poland and his parent’s home. Another example from the Yhome 34 book where the Jewish community and Israel is criticized is when Kalinsky met Rabbi who also left Israel before Kalinsky. In their conversation, they asked each other about their life in
Israel and silence followed. The Rabbi describes Jerusalem as a Godless city with politics taking control over the Jews, where the Orthodox Jews and the Unorthodox Jews are like enemies.
Daniel Kalinsky conception of home is shaped through his diasporic memories and his experience in Israel. Daniel reconstructs his sense of belonging and home that begins in
Bari and rejected everything that comes before that. “My life began in Bari, I was born in
Bari on a boat and I grew up in Gilad and all that happened before Bari should be erased from my brain and conscience.” (Dayan 131). Daniel consciously chose to forget his past by reconstructing himself and his sense of belonging but memories of his past comes in terms of fragmentations. His fragmented memories had a major impact in shaping his conception of home, on one hand, Daniel ‘Unhomes’ Warsaw by narrating it as a lost home, a home that comes to him in fragments, he could not fully remember about his home in Poland, he remembers only the snow and the wooden floor of his house. “I don’t remember. It had wooden floor and we could see the snow through the window. I remember the snow.” (Dayan
36). For Daniel home is not only a physical space but people, for him home and his belonging comes from Yoram, it was Yoram who took care of Daniel after his escape, he is like a father to Daniel. Though not completely Daniel was able to recover or able to forget his past because of Yoram’s presence in his life. Daniel accepted the Kibbutz as his home and he had never wish for another place to be home. “if Daniel were to ask himself where his home was- which he never did- he would naturally point to the silhouette of the water-tower of Gilad and to the little house covered with purple bougainvillaea where he had a bed, a desk and a cupboard.” (Dayan 33-34). For Daniel home is not just a physical space but it is present in his mind, home is the Kibbutz in Gilad, in a letter address to his father he persuade his father to Yhome 35 come with his family and settled in Israel, he also calls Israel as “I shall try to make you feel at home here, it is a tough country, a wonderful one, and the only home one can take for granted.” (Dayan 78).
Daniel said that Kibbutz is home and there will never be another, with or even without family. He is patriotic about Israel as the Jewish nation, when his stepsister Miriam calls it
“Modelet” meaning Homeland he was very moved by her expression. It can be assume that because of Miriam attitude towards Israel and calling it home, Daniel accepted Miriam even more than his own father and step mother. Another incident in the book that portrays Daniel unhoming Warsaw is when some Polish Jews visited his father’s family in Gilad, Daniel felt left out like an outsider and he calls Israel as home by telling Kalinsky that Israel is ours, it is safe, comfortable and home.
For Daniel, Kalinsky is only a memory as he says that Kalinsky is his creation, “he was my creation and I could live with him or dispose of him.” (Dayan 57). Kalinsky is a past to Daniel and though he met him again in Israel in Port Haifa, Daniel could not emotionally connect with him, he sees him as a ghost from his past and a burden and that is why he wanted to send them back to Poland. “Daniel said ‘Aba’ and the man started crying again…suddenly, it was all over. The excitement, the expectations, the trembling, the worries…he was a little man from Poland, a ghost from an unknown past, a burden.” (Dayan
138). For Daniel, Kalinsky is a past but his past came back to create an anarchy in his present life. He invited them to come to Israel and thought that he could make Kalinsky and his family learn Hebrew and find them a home but when they arrived he regrets his decision and plans to send Kalinsky and Dora back to Poland. Daniel calls Poland as “another world” in his conversation with Rina he says that Kalinsky and his family has a peculiar smell from another world, by stating that once again Daniel is rejecting Poland. Yhome 36
2.2 Jewish Identities in Post War Israel: Othering and Diasporic Memories
2.2.1 Negotiating Identity through “Othering”
Haim Kalinsky was born in Warsaw and had been a citizen of Israel who is now living in Beer-Sheba since 1960. He had come to Israel with his second Wife Dora and daughter in the hope to reconcile with his son Daniel. The impact of War upon both father and son had made it difficult for them to reconcile and rebuild their fractured relationship as a consequence of the internal conflicts with both of them. Kalinsky is guilty for his decision during the Holocaust whereas Daniel is guilty of his father’s decision and because he survived it.
The concept of ‘Othering’ will be used to negotiate the Jewish Identities in Post War
Israel. “Othering” as a concept in literature can be studied in various approaches; the concept of “Othering” was first used by Postcolonial thinker Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. The self and other is inherent to the process of identity formation. The identities are shaped by war experience and as an impact of their diasporic memories; identities will result in a fragment.
Another aspect is understanding the Jewish identities which is constructed from experience, for instance Daniel Kalinsky was born Polish Jew but he constructed his identity as an Israeli, on the contrary Haim Kalinsky was born Polish Jew and even after moving to Israel is unable to identify himself with the place. By using Edward Said’s concept of “Othering” the section will bring out multiple identities and differences among the Jewish identities. Reading the
Jewish identities both collective and individual through war experience, fragmented identities as a result of diasporic memories and the concept of ‘Othering’ to define the self through othering will result in to a contrapuntal reading of the Jewish Identities.
‘Othering’ means to view a person or group of people as intrinsically different from the self. Edward Said talks about the idea of power discourse, discourse are controlled by Yhome 37 those who are in the apex of power. Orientalism is also a discourse created by the West to define themselves as the ‘Self’ representing the civilized world whereas the East representing the ‘Other’ which is everything that the West is not. Thus, Occidentalism is a discourse created by the peripheries to refer to the west. The relationship between the Orient and the
Occident is a relationship of power and domination where one group dominates the other through othering.
“The Orient is not only adjacent to Europe; it is also the place of Europe’s greatest and richest and oldest colonies, the source of its civilizations and languages, its cultural contestant, and one of its deepest and most recurring images of the other.” (Said 9)
Orientalism as stated in the book, “It also tries to show that European culture gained in strength and identity by setting itself off against the Orient as a sort of surrogate an even underground self.” (Said 11)
““Orient” and “Occident” are man-made. Therefore as much as the West itself, the Orient is an idea that has a history and a tradition of thought, imagery, and vocabulary that have given it reality and presence in and for the West. The two geographical entities thus support and to an extent reflect each other.” (Said 12)
“what Denys Hay has called the idea of Europe, a collective notion identifying “us”
Europeans as against all “those” non-Europeans, and indeed it can be argued that the major component in European culture is precisely what made that culture hegemonic both in and outside Europe: the idea of European identity as a superior one in comparison with all the non-European peoples and cultures.” (15)
The concept of ‘Other’ is a complex word which is hard to defined, as quoted in Engelund’s
“Introductory Essay: The “Other” and “Othering””, everyone identifies their self through Yhome 38 othering the other, for instance, we are all “Other” to someone and everyone else is “Other” to us.
As quoted in “Introductory Essay: The “Other” and “Othering””, “According to
Michel Foucault, othering is strongly connected with power and knowledge. When we
“other” another group, we point out their perceived weaknesses to make ourselves look stronger or better. It implies a hierarchy, and it serves to keep power where it already lies.
Colonialism is one such example of the powers of othering.” Othering implies hierarchy, for instance an individual describes himself as part of a group as “We” in opposite to the other group who are grouped as “They”. When a person is defining the self in relation to the “we” as in opposed to the “they” as other, he/she is implying that his/her status or culture is
“Above them” and they are not simply his/her equal. Discourses are controlled by those who are in the apex of power, self and other and identities are interconnected. Haim Kalinsky in the novel defined his self by stating that he is not implying his superiority over the Arabs and the Oriental Jews but also, they were not simply his equals. Haim Kalinsky is establishing his superiority over the other in Beer-Sheba by saying that they are not his equals because they are not white or not from the West. Edward Said explained how the concept of Othering has derived from the orient and occident, west superiority but Orientalism will allow representing both west and east.
In the novel, one will come across the Israeli Jews and the Polish Jews trying to dominate over the other by constructing and representing themselves as the dominant by othering their opposite. The story begins with Kalinsky in Beer-Sheba who is admitted into a hospital as he suffers from lung cancer. Daniel addresses his father as “Miriam and her
Father” and not his father. Kalinsky is rejected by Daniel many times in the novel through a series of instances, Kalinsky as a Polish Jew could not fit in the community in Israel, he Yhome 39 speaks Yiddish, reads Polish newspaper and wore a suit(Significance of Europe cold
Weather) in Beer-Sheba.
Daniel was born in Warsaw; he got separated from his father and brother during the invasion of Warsaw by Hitler. He escaped from the camp and emigrated to Israel as refugee along with other survivors, though he was born a Polish Jew, Daniel became a citizen of
Israel and soon he has forgotten Yiddish and Polish language. Daniel rejected relationships, love and warmth which he replaced with rejection, coldness and alienation. Daniel rejected his Father and family by ‘Othering’ them in various instances, Daniel rejected his Polish-Jew identity by saying that he was born on a boat in Bari, and everything that happened before was meaningless and should be forgotten.
“I don’t know the man. My mother is dead; he’s got a new family. I’ve never corresponded with strangers.” (Dayan 76) There are many instances where Daniel clearly rejected his father and his Polish identity in the book. In his conversation with Yoram, Daniel called his father and his family as strangers. Daniel is othering his father and his past by trying to erase his Polish Jewish identity and his childhood. “you lost me once, you said, and you could not bear to lose me again, not realizing that when you lost me in the backyard and I was six, it was forever even if my ghost meet you in the port of Haifa so many years later.”
(Dayan 84) when Kalinsky wrote a letter from Poland to Daniel stating that he was worried about Daniel because of the border clashes saying that he had lost him once in Warsaw and could not bear to lose him again, Daniel once again brings out his new identity by stating that he died in Warsaw in the Back Yard though he met Kalinsky again after many years it was his ghost.
“My life began in Bari, I was born in Bari on a boat and I grew up in Gilad and all that happened before Bari should be erased from my brain and conscience.” (Dayan131) Yhome 40
Daniel metaphorically died in Warsaw, he was born on a Boat in Bari, and he is now a citizen of Israel considering himself an Israeli Jew. Daniel explaining that he was born on a boat in Bari and he is a resident of Gilad strongly affirms Daniel positioning himself as an
Israeli Jew and had nothing to do with his past when he mentioned everything before Bari should be erased from the conscience, this could signify denial of the Holocaust trauma as well denial of his Polish Jew identity due to his traumatic experience. At the beginning of his
Journey to Israel, Daniel did not understand Hebrew when Yoram sang Hebrew songs to him, he was not familiar with the language but in the present after his settlement in Israel when he writes to his father Daniel mentioned that he had forgotten both Yiddish and Polish completely, another two instance is when he received his father’s letter that was written in
Polish he goes to a Polish Jew (a shoemaker) to translate the message for him. Even after
Kalinsky and his family migrated to Israel there was a communication gap between them as
Kalinsky could not understand Hebrew and Daniel cannot understand Yiddish and Polish language, it was Miriam who served as a mediator from what she had learned from her
Hebrew class before coming to Israel.
When Daniel reached Israel, no one knew how old Daniel was and he was given a piece of paper by Rivka (Who takes care of children in Kibbutz Gilad) which stated his date of birth and even when he found out his real birth date, Daniel continues to celebrate his birthday according to Rivka’s note. Once again these reinstate Daniel’s constructing his new identity after the War and rejecting his Past and himself as a Polish Jew.
Daniel got separated from Kalinsky when he was six years old, he was already eighteen years when his father found him after the war, Kalinsky and Daniel communicate through letters for nine years before their actual meeting. In his first letter, Daniel expressed to his father that it is very difficult for him to write a letter to him and that he recalls very little of his life in Warsaw with his family. “Of our life together I remember very little, and Yhome 41 we have to find courage and the love to start something new.” (Dayan 77) Daniel is aware that his relationship with his father was not going to be easy and so he addresses it to his father.
“Our letters never touched, never crossed, Daniel thought. We took parallel roads and when circumstances made them meet- they refused to. I will come to visit one of these days, when I am sure I can play the part.” (Dayan 85)When Rina told Daniel that he will learn to love his father through their letters but it never turn out, Daniel also felt that in every letter he wrote to his father his illusion about their relationship is substituted by reality and every line separates him from his father. Their expectation from each other is confronted with the way they describe about themselves and things through their letters.
Daniel distances himself from his father from the beginning itself for instance, when talks about Gilad and the Valley of Jordan in his letter he felt ridiculous thinking what would his father know about the fertile soil or the Jordan valley.
“The distance grew between Poland and Daniel.” (Dayan 94)
“He would help him settle down, teach him Hebrew, find him a job, give him a country.”
(Dayan 122)
When Daniel was at Port Haifa waiting for his father, he feels nostalgic seeing the people at the port, Daniel is filled with emotions and he was in tears as he was looking for his father,
“he was six years old again and left alone searching for his father.” (Dayan 137)
With the first glimpse of his father, step-mother and step-sister, Daniel was described as an
Israeli patriot in the scene when he first met his father. The scene also describes Daniel who is described as “he was not a brave soldier or a tough farmer…or an Israeli patriot, he was again Daniel Kalinsky from Warsaw, son of Haim Kalinsky.” (Dayan 137) Yhome 42
“He had a strange unfamiliar smell; similar to winter clothes brought out of trunks, and in one hand he was still holding a bundle tied with rope.” (Dayan 138) Daniel ‘Other’ Kalinsky stating that he had a strange smell from another world, when he met his father at the Port
Haifa, he considers his father as a little man from Poland, a ghost from an anonymous past and a burden.“He could address him as Aba, he could let him kiss his cheeks but he was a little man from Poland, a ghost from an unknown past, a burden.” (Dayan 138). Daniel considers the Kalinsky’s family as foreign in Israel, as he rejected everything that is Polish.
“Tell him the foreignness will have to disappear first, the smell, the gold tooth, the whiteness, the long polish words, the cigars, those clothes, those shoes, the suspicion in his eyes, the smallness of his eyes.” (Dayan 141)
Daniel felt that Kalinsky and his family is still living like they are in Warsaw, he states that the whole Kalinsky family had a peculiar smell which is a smell from another world. “The first day, the first week, month, year, five years, the roots never dug their way deeper and the branches never reached very high.” (Dayan 152) For Daniel Warsaw, Poland is another world which he has rejected many times in his narratives. “the shabby bed covers they had brought with them from Poland still bearing that peculiar smell of another world.”
(Dayan 154)
The second-generation relationship with Homeland is different from the first generation, Daniel though rejected his father and step mother, he was fond of Miriam, his step sister who tries hard to learn Hebrew to fit in to Israel. “Miriam was taking Hebrew lessons, determined to make it to Israel even if she had to go alone, and her pride was worth the fear and the discomfort.” (Dayan 88) Daniel accepted Miriam, even when he wanted to send Kalinsky and Dora back to Warsaw; he believed that Miriam could settle in Israel. “The girl is nice, Kalinsky is not much to look at and as for Dora, well you’ll see her. They should Yhome 43 never have come here, and I should never have made them take the trip.” (Dayan 146)
Miriam’s connection with Israel is as a Nation where her Jewish identity can be expressed.
Haim Kalinsky is a Polish Jew born in Warsaw, Poland who immigrated to Israel in
1960. The character of Haim Kalinsky is a Polish Jew who moved to Israel but could not fit into the structures of society thus becoming the second-class citizen will establish the notions of Jewish identities. As a Polish Jew Kalinsky before the invasion of Hitler in Warsaw,
Kalinsky had a business of handling imports with Germany, considered as an honest man and
Kalinsky was more Polish than Jew. He would rather let his two sons spoke in Polish over
Yiddish; this description of Kalinsky also connotes his identity as Polish and less of a Jewish.
Kalinsky was associated with the Zion (Israel/Homeland) with several stories from the Bible, and from his friend who left Warsaw and moved to Israel becoming a farmer there.
“The way I remember you does not help me to reconstruct the image of a young man…It is strange to think of you in the army, there was never a soldier called
Kalinsky…there was never a farmer in the family either.” (Dayan 82) Through the narrative it can be assumed that Daniel was nothing like Kalinsky, and nothing he ever wanted him to be for instance Kalinsky in his letter to Daniel wrote to Daniel that there was never a farmer or a soldier from the Kalinsky family and it is rather strange to think of Daniel as one. The statement could be a denial of the Polish Jew identity to Daniel because Daniel is completely different from what Kalinsky imagined him to be.
“Daniel was all the things Kalinsky wasn’t, and none of the things he wanted him to be and even if at moments parallels neared and warmed each other, they never really touched.” (115)
Othering resurfaced in the book through the perspective of Kalinsky against the other people in Israel, when he saw the Bedouins outside the hospital, Kalinsky look at the Yhome 44
Bedouins with suspicion, distrust and indifference, his indifference infers and projects his apathy towards the other.
“Kalinsky felt sorry for the dark-skinned Jews and there, in Beer-Sheba, he was slightly envious of them as they were at home, he thought.” (Dayan 112). He also felt bad for the Yemenite Jews because of their black skin, when he met Rachel the nurse in the hospital he addressed to her with sympathy, he refers to her Yemenite accent as exotic with a special touch. Kalinsky could only see the Bedouins as strange with their black robes, their dark skin and he calls considers their language as foreign and their customs as strange, so that they were also simply not equal to him. Kalinsky aim was to reunite with Daniel but it is evident that his fractured identity is not mended in Israel. The European Jews attitude/demand privilege over other Jews can be seen when Kalinsky felt that Beer-Sheba should be populated by the dark-skinned Jews and Bedouins and he should be given a house in the
North, in a large city.
“A few Bedouins (Arabs) were squatting in front of the hospital. His feelings
about them ranged from distrust and suspicion to indifference…all he could see
were black robes and thick dark skin, a foreign language and strange customs. He
did not feel superior, but they were simply not his equals.” (Dayan 111)
Kalinsky felt that he was trapped in Beer-Sheba, he hated the desert sand and the dust and when he describes about the city Kalinsky finds the building insignificant and there is nothing majestic in the city he could found.
Another instance when he was in the hospital he described about how he hated the sun calling it “Little Red Devil” and he missed the sun that appeared at the end of a cold winter, the sun he addresses is the sun in Poland and that sun is one where he can bask without the need of protecting himself or without fear. Kalinsky is clearly stating his sense of belonging Yhome 45 and identifies himself with Poland and everything that is not Israel even through the geography of the places. When Kalinsky was in Gilad, he refers to the Arabs as dangerous by indicating “Arabs, boom boom” (Dayan 144) Kalinsky is clearly not comfortable in Israel but is helpless because he came for Daniel. When Kalinsky and his family was with some of the
Polish Jews in Gilad Daniel felt like an outsider.
Again, we find Kalinsky identifying himself with the Rumanian Jews when he mentioned about Mr. Lipsky whom he was fond of and in a way, he believed that they both share something in common “They shared the secret knowledge of things as they should be- real wide streets, a real river, city traffic and rush hours.” (Dayan 111) Kalinsky and Lipsky felt nostalgic about Warsaw and wished they were in Warsaw again; it is evident that the
Polish Jew or the Rumanian Jews in the book seemed to project their identification with
Poland even after they immigrated to the Mythic Homeland. (Unhomeliness)
2.2.2 Diasporic Memories and Fragmented Identities
The Collective Identity is a shared identity where a group of people have a shared history, myth or an experience and this brings about solidarity and oneness. “our cultural identities reflect the common historical experiences and shared cultural codes which provide us, as 'one people', with stable, unchanging and continuous frames of reference and meaning, beneath the shifting divisions and vicissitudes of our actual history.” (Hall 223) here the collective identity of Haim Kalinsky and Daniel Kalinsky are Polish Jews, Kalinsky collective identity is derived from his roots in Europe, Poland as a Jew and so his collective as well as individual self comes from Poland, we also see Kalinsky identifying himself with the people from Poland for instance, Lipsky and his wife the Rumanian couple who left
Warsaw and is in Israel or those immigrants whom Kalinsky met in Kibbutz. Contrary,
Daniel’s Collective identity is fractured as he rejected his Polish collective identity but is not Yhome 46 able to completely derive his collective Israeli identity, for instance, Dora calls him an in- between person as he is in an identity crisis between his childhood identity and the post-war
Israeli identity. Daniel’s collective identity is difficult to position as on one way he rejects his collective past with the Polish and on the other, he is unable to merge with the new Israeli
Jewish identity but Daniel conscious choice of identifying himself and shared identity is with his Israeli roots which he constructed for himself.
In the words of Hall Identities are never complete, as they are always in a process and subject to historicization, it is more about ‘becoming’ than about ‘being’. “identities are never unified and, in late modern times, increasingly fragmented and fractured; never singular but multiple constructed across different, often intersecting and antagonistic, discourses, practices and positions.” (Hall 4)
Also, Appadurai notes, people are uncertain about who they are or who they claimed to be, also what constitutes their own identity and these uncertainties may result into fragmented identities… As Appadurai(1999) suggested, in the world of multiple, contingent, and flexible identities, there is a growing sense of “radical social uncertainty about people, situations, events, norms and even cosmologies” (p. 305). In the diasporic space meanings of identities are fractured and fragmented as individual encounters new culture and groups of people and these new encounters also influenced their identity so this results in a process of change which the diasporic subject are not aware leads to a fragmentation of identities.
The identity of Daniel Kalinsky undergoes certain process of change in the book, it begins with Daniel as a six-year-old Polish Jew and developed to an Israeli Jew who is strongly patriotic of Israel and identifies himself with his Israeli identity. We also come across Haim Kalinsky, a Polish Jew who represents the diasporic Jew in Israel, Kalinsky is a second- class citizen in Israel, his identity also undergoes process of change as in the Yhome 47 beginning Kalinsky had little connection to Israel but he represented the European Jew who becomes a representation of the West in Israel.
“Identities are about questions of using the resources of history, language and culture in the process of becoming rather than being: not 'who we are' or 'where we came from', so much as what we might become, how we have been represented and how that bears on how we might represent ourselves.” (Hall 13)
“We shall never talked about it and though it has remained alive and scarring all these years it will die with you.” (Dayan 21)Daniel refused to speak about his past to anyone and when asked by people he says that he cannot remember, when asked about his parents Daniel answer that they are dead. Even when he was looking for a place for his father’s family he never addressed Kalinsky as his father and addressed him as a relative. After meetingKalinsky, Daniel was not able to accept and start anew as both are repressing their
Past life and decisions. Daniel and Kalinsky never talked about what happened behind the
Barracks on a snowy day in Warsaw, Kalinsky was not able to answer himself why he had chosen Shmuel and let the Germans take away Daniel and on the other hand, Daniel is disturbed about why his father left him, he is guilty that he survived the War when his father had chose his brother to live. In the same way Kalinsky and Daniel who met after the War never spoke of their past, through the narrative voice one can assumed that Dora was a victim of the German Army during the war “She sat there, a virgin were it not for the Germans.”
(Dayan 61)
“a fresh layer of memories separated from other layers by sensations unmentioned, horrors untalked about, pain without details or shape and perhaps dreams forgotten with dawn.” (Dayan 63) Yhome 48
“Their past lives were not mentioned and they each preferred to carry their own burden of the war years, a vacuum or a hunch separately. (Dayan 62)
Haim Kalinsky and Daniel never talked about what happened back in Warsaw though both are aware of what happened there they are not ready to make amends with their past, these blurred their relationship as they were not able to accept one another, similarly even
Haim and Dora kept silent about their past in Warsaw, they never mentioned anything about what happened back in Warsaw; Dora not aware of Haim’s decision during the Holocaust.
Daniel Kalinsky constantly tries to reconstruct his Identity by rejecting his past and suppressing his memory but his past comes to him in fragment. This fragmented memory in turn has led to produce a new identity which is hybrid and in-between.
“He had an identity, a commitment, a past, a future- it was all in the humid air weighing him down. He imagined his mother approaching and he was four or five again, and shamelessly he burst in to tears. He was frightened.” (Dayan 72) Daniel’s Identity is fragmented as he is torn between two identities, though he consciously chose his Israeli
Jewish identity over his Polish Jewish identity he struggles as his diasporic memories comes to him in fragments and remind him of his past. Incidents such as Kalinsky’s decision of denying him at the hands of the Germans remained fresh on his subconscious mind. Daniel is guilty because of the little things that he remembers about Warsaw was of his memory with his father before their separation, but he could not share it with anyone as it was his father’s rejection of him.
Daniel remembers very little about his childhood in Warsaw but he is continuously reminded of Kalinsky’s choice, for Daniel, Kalinsky died for him the day when he made the decision but in his diasporic consciousness Daniel still remembers Haim’s choice. Did you ever, do you still, think or believe that I forgot your choice? Not your fault, father, who could Yhome 49 face a decision like that? (Dayan 29) Daniel does not blame Kalinsky for the choice by saying who could face such a decision and perhaps had Kalinsky choose him over Shmuel, would he be able to forgive him for his choice. Daniel is controlled by his guilt for surviving in the place of Shmuel.
When Stash’s received a letter from the Jewish Agency regarding his family looking for him Daniel was frightened by the thought if Kalinsjky and Shmuel were alive. For Daniel,
Kalinsky is already dead and when he saw him again in Port Haifa, he calls Kalinsky a ghost.
“You died on that winter day Kalinsky. You took Shmuel with you and you died for me and now you are dying again and perhaps all that happened in between doesn’t matter.” (Dayan
29).
“You never believed in God, did you? Not even on holidays when we went to Synagogue.
You didn’t lie to me and when I asked you if you were praying you told me you were reciting a Mickiewicz poem.” (Dayan 56).
As a diasporic individual Daniel is not able to confront with his past and present, he suppresses his past while trying to construct his new identity. Daniel is a difficult/enigmatic character to understand, Daniel is neither able to accept his present identity/self nor was he able to completely reject his past because of his memory. Daniel’s character is described as fragmented and in-between from the perspective of the other individuals in the book.
“yes, I have to ask you something. I think of you and I see Grisha and the Dnieper and
I hear your voice talking about books and you are not really not there - you are here, in Gilad and you are not really here either.” (Dayan 34) Daniel is not aware that repressing his memory is affecting his present life, in his conversation with Rina, when she asked Daniel about his past he deny his past and memory. Rina felt that Daniel is in Gilad but he is not fully present there when she says she thinks of him and she sees Grisha and Dneiper also he Yhome 50 is there in Gilad but he’s not really there either, this could also signify Daniel in betweenness where he is physically present in Gilad yet his consciousness is trapped in his past in
Warsaw.
Likewise, Dora Wishvensky commented that Daniel is an in- between man who is not able to accept his Polish identity neither his Israeli Jewish identity as he is torn between his childhood and his present state. Daniel is not able to accept Kalinsky but neither is he able to leave him behind as Dora criticized Daniel for not visiting Kalinsky who was dying in the hospital. Dora knew Kalinsky would do anything to find his son, Daniel was staying opposite to the hospital where Kalinsky was admitted but he never had the courage to visit him. Dora knew Kalinsky came to Israel but she had no knowledge of the past shared between Kalinsky and Daniel back in Warsaw.
“Daniel was playing a game. He was an in- between man, shedding the sensitivity of a
Warsaw boy and not quite acquiring the toughness and frankness of a Gilad boy, out of choice, she thought, seeking comfort. Her mother was not silent about it.” (Dayan 52)
Daniel never left his mind. Sometimes it was only his face and eyes, at other
times he could hear his voice and physically sense his nearness. When he drifted
away it was never to disappear entirely but rather to cringe on the periphery of
his mind where logic slows down, and fantasy takes over…Never far, always
ungraspable…(Dayan 115)
Haim Kalinsky finds Daniel in Israel again but despite his enormous effort to rebuild his relationship with Daniel, Kalinsky was constantly rejected by Daniel. Daniel helped his
Father’s family settled in Beer-Sheba, Israel but he did not have any strong attachments with the family. For Kalinsky, Daniel never left his mind, Daniel is present to him but there was Yhome 51 no emotional attachment between them and he says that Daniel is always there on the periphery of his mind, Daniel was never far but always ungraspable. Due to the failure in the father-son relationship Kalinsky is not able to fully understand Daniel even though he found
Daniel, part of Daniel was with him but also very far from him.
The diasporic consciousness of Haim Kalinsky in the book is authentically portrayed through various instances in the book. Kalinsky is haunted by his choice in the past and subconsciously it is controlling his present life. He could never answer himself why he clasped Shmuel and let the Germans take Daniel away, although he found out that Daniel was alive and is in Warsaw, Kalinsky struggles in mending his relationship with Daniel because of his choice in the past.
“He could never explain why he clasped Shmuel to him and let them lead Daniel away.
Wehis Warsaw house to give up one of his sons he would never have been able to decide or to face the choice. There, in the snow, things just happened and he dared not look back, or cry out, or think.” (Dayan 59)
The analysis of the multiple notions of Home and Identities in the book, has found variegated existence of home and identities which is constructed from the individual subject position. The select inclusion and exclusion result in polyphonic existence of home and identities.
Yhome 52
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Yhome 56
Chapter 3
Negotiating Home and Identities in Elie Wiesel’s The Forgotten
3.1 Locating Home
In this chapter Home and Identities are discussed through a study of Wiesel’s The
Forgotten. The chapter will analyse the multiple notions of Home and Identities that have emerged from the impact of the Holocaust, along with the survivors experience and the second generation experience. The chapter is divided into two sections; the first section makes an analysis of Home; the second section makes an analysis of Jewish Identities to bring out the multiple notions of identities in the text.
The notion of home have been discussed in Youness Abbedour, “The Notion of
‘Home’ in Diaspora” argues that in Diaspora there are multiple notions of ‘homes’ and
‘belonging’ where one cannot assigned one singular space as home. The dislocation of a diasporic subject places them between two homes where on one hand they need to acknowledge their historical cultural identity and on the other hand to relocate themselves with the new society. “‘Home’ and ‘abroad’ are mingled in diaspora, ‘home’ can be ‘abroad’ and vice versa; they are not necessarily fixed geographical points”. (Abbedour)
The meanings of ‘Home’ has been defined and redefined in various studies, in the diasporic studies home and homeland are constructed by the individual from which they left, as in diaspora they try to reconstruct their idea of home through their memories of the home that is ingrained in the. For diaspora individual idea of home is constructed through sense of belonging, which is a continuum of their past and present. The multiple notion of ‘Home’ have been explored through the perception of the Individual characters in the book with Yhome 57 response to their history, their experience of migration. The conundrum of defining home, homeland and mythic home and lived experience are discussed in the section.
The Zionist movement tried to make “Jewish” and “Zionist” synonymous, but it was not possible because followers of Zionism themselves have been divided into different group or categories. Zionist movement have been considered as a liberation movement for the
European Jews and the minority of European Jews settled in Israel. The birth of Zionism in the late 19th century led to migration of European Jews to Palestine in early 20th and Israel was created in mid-20th century because of the Holocaust and need of a Jewish home.
(Braziel 2008).
The Zionist Movement played a major role in the immigration of European Jews to Israel and the diasporic individual transition and difficulty from being a European Jew to becoming an Israeli Jew through creating a Homeland. The European Jews immigrated to Israel with the influence of the Zionist to create new homes denied by the Nazi’s. Within the migrant, each individual had a conception of home before their displacement however the Zionist have painted a version of Jewish homeland on the psyche of the survivors, this homeland that is imagined contradicted with the survivors encounter with Israel.
Elie Wiesel in The Forgotten articulates the story of Elhanan Rosenbaum and his son
Malkiel Rosenbaum, Elhanan a holocaust survivor is now settled in the U.S with his son
Makiel as a Diaspora Jew. Both belonged to different generations, Elhanan is a survivor of the Holocaust and Malkiel is from the second generation to whom those experiences of the holocaust were passed on. Elhanan’s kept silent about his past in Romania, the Holocaust experience and his role in the war but as he learns about his unheable sickness of losing his memory, he decides to pass on his memory to his son Malkiel before everything is forgotten.
Elhanan Rosenbaum is a Professor and a psychotherapists, a person who takes pride and Yhome 58 cherish his memory as he believed in the importance of Jewish Memory and of remembering.
Elhanan consoles and gave lessons to many of the victims and survivors of the Shoah but it is paradoxical that he suffers from Amnesia because for Elhanan everything is about remembering the past by keeping it alive in one’s memory. Elhanan’s expects to share his life with Malkiel; he wanted Malkiel to carry his memory but Malkiel who is from the second generation struggle to understand his father’s past or take on Elhanan’s memory.
3.1.1 Shaping Home in Post War 1948 and Myth of Israel
The Myth of Homeland or Return is a major motif in Elie Wiesel’s The Forgotten. In the words of Robert J Kaiser, “Even in the 21st century, the homeland myth is reinforced and it remains one of the most effective instruments in nationalist’s effort to provoke their member even though the members no longer live at ‘home’.” (Kaiser 2002). The myth of homeland has remained as an effective element in inscribing solidarity among the diasporic communities but what then is the result of their return and character’s responses is discussed and negotiated.
Many diaspora Jews have strong attachments to Israel as their homeland, they imagine it is a place where they will return. The assumptions to feel at home or mend their fractured identities in Israel were largely contested since 1948 with creation of Israel as a
Jewish Nation. The return of Jews to Palestine started in the early 1940’s but the huge wave of migration during and after the Second World War. The responses of those who returned to
Palestine were polyphonic as some immigrants found home in Israel and others could not find could not fit in the Homeland
The Zionist Movement during the Holocaust popularly emerged as a way for the redemption of Jewish survivors; its ideology was to promote the migration of Jews to Israel by promising them a Homeland and a future which was threatened by the World. Since the Yhome 59 end of World War II, critical discourse concerning Israel and Zionism focused on Israel as a
State allied with the West to work against the Orient and the Palestinian rights (Shohat).
Zionism was not only a movement but an ideology; Zionism is still relevant to many
Diaspora Jews in their attachment to Israel. There is a difference between being a Zionist and being a Jew as there are divisions among the Jews all over the world and many are anti-
Zionist in their approach. Zionism in the 21st century was mainly a movement to liberate the
Jewish Holocaust victims; its aim was to influence the Diaspora Jews migration to Israel.
Zionism was successful in creating a Jewish homeland where it privileged the European
Jews. The Myth of Homeland has been used as an effective tool in the persuasion of the
European Jews immigration where a homeland was promised to them. The movement have been effective in their aim to create a Jewish Nation and it was able to influence many people to migrate to Israel, these same influences of Zionism are reflected in the book and its impact of the European Jews have been examined.
Elie Wiesel’s in The Forgotten brings forth the Homeland Politics popularized by the
Zionist Movement. Wiesel critiques Israel through the character of Elhanan. Wiesel’s in the book articulates the European Jew immigration to Palestine acknowledges the fact that
Palestine was an established existing State. The State of Israel was created later in the book with the support of the United Nations. The European immigrants were trained by the Zionist in the camps before they were deported to Palestine.
The myth of homeland is strongly portrayed from the perspective of Elhanan and Malkiel based on their conception of Israel. Elhanan, a holocaust survivor now lives in New York,
America and is a professor. Elhanan moved to Israel after surviving the holocaust experience, the Zionist movement was very popular during the mid 20th century and their ideology was to influence the Jews to return to Israel by re-establishing a Homeland. Elhanan as an orphan Yhome 60 was in Buchenwald before he was deported to Israel, he moves to Israel along with his wife
Talia (a Zionist) whom he met in the camp. Elhanan return to Israel with the hope to find his sense of belonging but his expectation contradicted with the real experience.
“For the first time in history, he said, a people would put an end to two thousand years of exile and wandering and found a sovereign state on the land of their ancestors….” (Wiesel
107)
The propagation of ending the exile and a return to homeland by the Zionist with a promised that their return will be a welcoming one where they will be treated as people returning to their homeland, the immigrants like Elhanan are disillusioned in the text. The assumptions made by the Zionist are critiqued in the book, the return of the European Jews and their struggle to find their sense of belonging.
“In Palestine, Aharon said, you will be welcomed not as immigrants but as brothers returning home after a long absence.” (Wiesel 107) The myth of return to the homeland is powerfully displayed by the Zionist where many Jews like Elhanan is swayed by its ideology and believed that they were returning home. “Passionate oratory, popular songs and dances: the young people’s blood ran hot; they were seduced by the fascinating history embodied in the Zionist ideal.” (Wiesel 100)Elhanan was in Germany preparing to go to Palestine and it was there he met Talia Oren, later his wife. Talia represented the Zionist, calls Israel as
Jewish home and told Elhanan that for a Jew his place is in his history and in his own land and it is in there Jewish dignity would be found or be created. Elhanan as an orphan had no choice but to go to Palestine, he along with 800 people was deported as illegal immigrants to
Palestine. After listening to popular speeches and passionate oratory songs they were eager to go to Palestine and made their home. Yhome 61
Elhanan return to Palestine but it was not the Palestine the Zionist had projected. The continuous struggle and war against the Palestinians or the British occupation had distort the concept of the ‘imagined homeland’. Like Elhanan there were Jews who struggle to belong to
Israel and to feel at home, Talia’s death gave Elhanan another traumatic experience after the
Holocaust made him left Israel. Elhanan maintains a very strong connection with the
Ancestral Israel, though he has made home in the diaspora but the presence of Israel on his mind in terms of a spiritual homeland, cultural connections brings about solidarity among
Jews in the diaspora.
The narrative of the novel starts with a prayer by Elhanan Rosenbaum who addresses
God in his prayer, in the few lines he defines his relationship with Israel and sees Israel as a place where Jewish Identity makes meaning. Elhanan in his prayer ask God not to break the bond between him and them. For Elhanan Israel still exists as an Ancestral homeland linked to the Jewish Diaspora. He also acknowledges the fact that he is far away from Israel.
William Safran in “Diaspora in Modern Societies: Myths of Homeland and Return”, states diasporas do not go “home” because there is no homeland where they can return or homeland may exist, but is not a welcoming place with which they can identify politically, ideologically or socially and they find it inconvenient to leave the diaspora but the myth of homeland also brings ethnic consciousness and solidarity among the diaspora community when threatened by the host country. Elhanan had chosen to stay in the diaspora though he continues to maintain his relationship with Israel. “Another time he told me, I know it’s convenient to love
Israel from a distance. It’s even a contradiction, but I’m not afraid of contradictions.” (Wiesel
99). Israel is important to Elhanan; it is present in the form of an Ancestral homeland connected to the Jewish religion and history but is not a place where he can fit in politically though he acknowledges the fact that Israel is homeland. When Elhanan said he loved Israel Yhome 62 from a distance it could either mean his rejection of the State or maintaining his relation with
Israel as a Diaspora Jew.
Malkiel Rosenbaum is from the second generation, born in Israel in 1948, considers himself an American-Jew but at the same times maintains a strong relationship with Israel. “I was born in 1948 in Jerusalem. I am as old as the state of Israel. Easy to remember. I am as old, and as young, as Israel. Forty plus three thousand.” (Wiesel 8). The above statement recalls the history of the Jews and their link to the Historical Homeland and the establishment of the New State of Israel in 1948. When Malkiel says he is as young as Israel, he’s referring to the State of Israel which was formed in 1948, and when he said he is as old, he’s referring to the Ancestral Israel that was there two thousand years ago. Malkiel considers Israel as a national homeland; the means of maintaining relationships with homeland have shifted for each generation, forging connection through means of media while maintaining home in diaspora and for Malkiel his loyalty towards his Homeland is done by defending Israel from getting defamed.
Malkiel Rosenbaum represented Diaspora American- Jew; Malkiel is settled in
America with his father but continues to maintain his attachments to Israel by supporting
Israel. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the book emphasized Malkiel’s attachment to Israel, the American- Jews loyalty towards Israel by supporting through means like media as a means of maintenance of the Homeland relations in Diaspora. When Tamar interviewed a young Palestinian who came as a visiting professor in America, the Palestinian man blames the Israeli Government for suppressing the Arabs in West Bank and Gaza. Tamar was about to publish an article that could harm Israel, Malkiel fought with Tamar who supports the
Palestinian saying that what if the Palestinian was speaking the truth. “Malkiel said, I love
Israel. Tamar said, I love truth.” (Wiesel 402). Malkiel’s attachment to Israel is reflected through his negotiation with Tamar about Israel, Malkiel will do anything to defend Israel Yhome 63 and as an editor he believed that he should not write or say anything that goes against Israel.
“You dare contradict truth of Israel by any other truth?” (Wiesel 407). This statement reinforced the Holocaust history and using it against external attacks, the Jews in diaspora whose idea of being Jewish in the diaspora is their loyalty towards the State of Israel no matter what. For Malkiel Israel represents truth and Jews in Diaspora were not supposed to say anything that can harm the morality of Israel.
“If what this Palestinian says is true, then Israel is contradicting its own truth- its ethical calling, its prophetic mission!” (Wiesel 407). Malkiel and Tamar have different perception of Israel, on one hand Tamar criticized Israel by trying to expose its flaws; representing the second generation in diaspora who is critical of the State politics, Tamar’s article was to exposed Israel. Tamar questions Malkiel that if what the Palestinian was saying is the truth then Israel is standing against its own morals, its prophetic mission and contradicting its own truth. Malkiel believed that Israel is homeland and represents truth; nothing should be said against it, the myth of homeland is strongly ingrained in Malkiel’s psyche though he did not moved to Israel, for him it is an existing Nation home for the Jews.
Malkiel’s referring to the people back in Israel as brothers and sisters emphasizes that Israel is his Homeland.
3.1.2 Lost Homes, Reinvented Homes: Dynamic Belonging
The section “Lost Homes, Reinvented Homes: Dynamic Belonging” makes an analysis of how home is defined and re-defined for a diasporic individual whose experience of dislocation and migration becomes a major factor in defining various notions of home. The section uses the theories of Avtar Brah’s Cartographies of Diaspora to analyse the concepts of Home found in the text. Yhome 64
‘home’ is a mythic place of desire in the diasporic imagination and on the other
hand, home is the lived experience of a locality. “The questions of home,
therefore is intrinsically linked with the ways in which process of inclusions and
exclusion operate and are subjectively experienced under given circumstances.
(Brah 236)
Elie Wiesel’s The Forgotten discussed on the politics of defining home, towards its definition and re-definition. Home is constructed from the characters individual perspective in the novel. The meaning of home is contested in the text; its meaning is derived from the experience of migration and their memory. The diasporic memories of Elhanan are traced from Romania his hometown and Israel. Elhanan is a Romanian born American- Jew, settled in New York. Elhanan definition of home is complex, for most part of the narratives about home and his childhood memories was in Romania.
Elhanan Rosenbaum constructs his idea of home through his fragmented memories, as a person who is suffering from Amnesia, Elhanan’s memory is fragmented and his recollection of his past is scattered. The narrative also confuses the reader as the character Elhanan is confused about his present and past. Many times after the war, Elhanan dreams of his mother, in Israel he dreamt that he was with his mother and he said though he had lost his mother in
Romania but found her again in Israel.
Elhanan remembers Romania as a lost home; his homing desire is derived from his family and the Jewish community in Feherfalu. Romania is where he grew up with his parents; it is also a place where Elhanan had lost his family and his people and a place where his Jewish culture and identity was threatened. Elhanan and other Jewish survivors were forced to rethink their idea of belonging and construct new home because of the Holocaust. Yhome 65
In 1941 things changed in Biserica, now Feherfalu when rumours about killing of Jews in Stanislav and Galacia spread in their hometown. Elhanan was thirteen years when he was sent to Galicia to see the situations in the Ghetto but before Elhanan could return with the report on Galicia, Elhanan’s parents and the Jew was deported to Buchenwald. Later when he returns to his hometown he could find everything was in ruins. On his return to hometown
Elhanan says that he had no home anymore. (Wiesel 254). The Jewish community in
Romania was erased and in his description of the place, the Synagogues were turned in to
Stables by the Germans.
“Rather than be repatriated to Feherfalu, he had gone to the displaced persons camp.
Was he right not to go home? There no one was waiting for him….End of chapter. End of
European exile. End of wandering in the unknown.” (Wiesel 269). Elhanan left Feherfalu,
Romania because he had lost everyone there and was an orphan alone in the world. When he narrates about Romania, the sense of homliness can be traced from the descriptions he gives about his Home but during the end of war when he realized that he had lost everything,
Elhanan’s narrative contradicts as he says he could not go home because there was no one waiting but on the other he also said it is the end of European exile and an end of wandering in the unknown. He had gone to the displaced person camps instead of going to Feherfalu, when he mentions end of wandering in the unknown it could be implied that though his home is Romania, he is considering his return to Israel as a return to Homeland.
When Elhanan reached Palestine, he felt like he was in a country to which he is already familiar, (Wiesel 278) The impact of Myth of Homeland is recalled because Elhanan who have not once visited the place feels nostalgia and finds the place familiar; this feeling could also be the result of what he has learned in Romania through his father, grandfather and from the Religious school back in Romania about the Promised Land. “He seemed to recognize every stone, every tree, and every crossroad; but at the same time he felt a need to stop after Yhome 66 every step, and cry out, Is this only a dream?” Elhanan also said that a sovereign Jewish state will be born
Romania is a past home to Elhanan and Israel is a mythic homeland existing as an ancestral homeland, it was an enforced home inculcated by the Zionist among the Jews by using the historical reference to the Promised Land but after 1948 with the creation of Israel and death of Talia, Elhanan’s idea of home is not clear because when he addresses Israel it is not clear if he is referring to the Ancestral Israel or the New Israel. The new Israel was built upon solidarity of Jews and to protect them, it was created with a nationalistic ideology of the
Zionist. When Elhanan refer to Israel in his narrative, it is not clear to which Israel is he referring to. Elhanan sent Malkiel to Romania to reconcile and understand his past, Romania gave him pleasant memories but equally his guilt also comes from that place. Elhanan
Rosenbaum narrates about Romania to Malkiel, Romania has remained alive in his diasporic consciousness though he considered it as a lost home. For Elhanan Romania is an important part of his memory, both his individual memory and the Jewish collective memory. He remembers the town of Feherfalu, where the Jews exist with the Hungarians and Romanians in a Multicultural space. During one of his conversations with Malkiel, Elhanan drift away from the present and he trembled as he felt that he was in the snowy village once again with his mother, he became a child again and felt nostalgic about it.
Malkiel Rosenbaum idea of home is America and his homeland is Israel, he considers himself as an American-Jew, born in Israel and has a deep concerned in maintaining his relationship with Israel. Malkiel’s idea of home is not just one place; Israel is Homeland for
Malkiel while America is his home of the lived experience. Elie Wiesel portrays Malkiel’s as a diasporic character who struggles to understand to the earlier generations. Malkiel is born in Israel and is not unfamiliar with Elhanan’s Romanian identity. When Malkiel visited
Romania, he was outside his father’s home; Malkiel is familiar with everything inside his Yhome 67 father’s house. He finds Romania as strange and the people as other. The house in Romania represents Elhanan, whom Malkiel finds familiar but is unable to connect as a result of the generation gap and the inability to put himself in his father’s place. “Look father you’re home. I?” (Wiesel 29) Malkiel’s rejection of Elhanan’s house in Romania is his rejection to be part of his father’s past in Romania; though he learns about the Jewish community in
Romania.
“the crucial emotion here is of not belonging, despite the familiarity of the surroundings, and the comfortable homey nature of the place… (Kafka as quoted in Porter
291) in the words of Kafka this inability to belong despite the familiarity of the place is a rejection of his father. “He knew that house from doorway to roofline, although he’d never seen it. Every room and every piece of furniture: he knew the layout. Above the stove, in the dining room, the ceiling seemed low and blackened.” (Wiesel 28-29)
The concept of home is dynamic for characters like Elhanan Rosenbaum and Malkiel
Rosenbaum where home exists as a mythic or in the lived experience.
“‘home’ is a mythic place of desire in the diasporic imagination and on the other hand, home is the lived experience of a locality. “The questions of home, therefore is intrinsically linked with the ways in which process of inclusions and exclusion operate and are subjectively experienced under given circumstances.” (Brah 236)
For Elhanan Romania is a “Lost Home” whereas his “Reinvented Home” is Israel but the Reinvented Home turned out to be an Enforced Home in the texts. Elhanan’s homing desire is still in Romania, Israel is a home given to him by the Zionist but Elhanan’s homing desire cannot be found there. When Elhanan is referring to Israel, the reader is also confused to which Israel he is referring to, the Ancestral Homeland or the State of Israel. For Malkiel Yhome 68
Home exists in fluidity where he considers America as his home, his lived experience the new home created in diaspora whereas Israel represents his National home.
3.2 Shaping Jewish Identities in Post-War 1948: Memory, Fragmentation, and Hybridity
In this particular section I intend to look at the multiple notions of identities in the novel. I will be analysing the notions of Identity of the two major characters of the book,
Elhanan Rosenbaum and Malkiel Rosenbaum. The Jewish identity since the establishment of
Israel in 1948 has undergone a process of change and this has led to a diverse representation of Jewish identities. Through a study of the characters both the Individual and Collective I intend to prove that the Jewish Identity as demonstrated in the book is Hybrid, fluid, and fragmented and this result into a contrapuntal identity of the Jews.
To bring out the polyphonic identities the chapter is divided into two sections, the first section will look at the collective identities, the collective identity of the Jewish people, their shared identity is defined through their link to Israel; defining their self through a link to the holocaust are explored to bring out the common and shared Jewish identity. The second section will make an analysis of the two major characters where I intend to bring forth their multiple belonging and identities resulting from their Memories, fragmented memories, and their Hyphen and Hybrid identity.
The analysis of the characters using the fragmented narratives and their dynamic position of identifying themselves in different space will bring out the identities where Jewish identities are connected by their Religious practices and the Holocaust in terms of Collective
Identity whereas their individual identities as will be defined through memory in terms of fragmentation or through vicarious experience and these fragmentation of memory will then impact in shaping their identities which will result in to a hybrid identity. Yhome 69
As defined by Stuart Hall, “identities are the names we give to the different ways we are positioned by, and position ourselves within, the narratives of the past.” (Hall 225)
Elie Wiesel in his novel, The Forgotten depicts the Jewish diasporic identities through the two major characters Elhanan Rosenbaum and Malkiel Rosenbaum. Hall argues that
Identity is never fixed but it is always in a process here Wiesel defines multiple Jewish identities through the characters, the process of change of identity of the Jews from a
European Jew to an American-Jew after the WWII, the identities in the book are Hyphens which results into hybrid.
Stuart Hall in his seminal essay “Cultural Identity and Diaspora” argues, “We should think, instead, of identity as a ‘production’ which is never complete, always in process, and always constituted within, not outside, representation.” (Hall 392). Identity cannot be defined through fixity as it is always in the process of change and modification according to the time frame and transition in cultures; the Jewish identity is variegated based on the historical and cultural impact on the individuals; the idea of being a Jew and the Jewishness is multifaceted and its meaning is based on the Individual perspective. The identity shifts and process of change are influenced by the geographic place, the impact of war upon the individual’s psyche.
In the words of Stuart Hall there are two types of Cultural Identities the former one is the
Collective Identity and the latter is the Individual Identity. “The first position defines 'cultural identity' in terms of one, shared culture, a sort of collective 'one true self', hiding inside the many other, more superficial or artificially imposed 'selves', which people with a shared history and ancestry hold in common.” (Hall 223). The Collective Identity is a shared identity, one true self, with a common historical experience and of shared cultural codes despite the differences and shifts that takes place in the history. Yhome 70
The collective identity of the Jewish people in the book is mainly derived from their
Holocaust experience and their link to Israel. The idea of the Collective Jewish identities who are survivors of the Holocaust was largely influence by the Zionist movement that was very popular during the early 20th century. After WWII, the Jewish people started to derive their identity from the Holocaust experience through their link to Israel. Israel has become a reference point for the Jewish identity, as it brings a sense of oneness and solidarity among the Jews defined against the other.
The Collective Identity of the characters in the two novel demonstrated the common historical experience, the commonality that is present among the Jews through a shared idea of Israel, shared beliefs in terms of religion and the shared remembrance of the Holocaust.
Elhanan Rosenbaum and Malkiel Rosenbaum in Wiesel’s novel has a shared Jewish cultural identity, both father and son had a commonality in their approach towards their religious practices and also give equal importance to Israel. Both father and son maintain their Jewish
Identity through religious practices and rituals. Elhanan and Malkiel spent their holy days together. Their shared identity is formed through their religious and cultural practices,
Elhanan and Malkiel keeps the Jewish Holy days as much as important like they were in
Israel itself.
“Malkiel my son, you are in me but you are somewhere else; you are my life, but you are on the other side of my life.” (Wiesel 419)
Malkiel’s collective identity emerged from his father’s narrative of their Jewish
History and the Holocaust experience. Malkiel accepts the Jewish identity that Elhanan passed to him after migrating to Israel but he rejects his father’s past identity that is linked with Romania before the War. When Elhanan mentions that Malkiel is a part of his life but on the other side of his life, it could assume that Malkiel is in his present and cannot belong to Yhome 71 his past completely. Malkiel talked about his Identity; he had never betrayed his name in
America living as an immigrant though many people switch their identity.
“First you should know that I have never betrayed that name…Even though in
America immigrants and refugees rarely respect their original names” “Everybody saw a linguistic barrier in “Malkiel,” if not an obstacle.” (Wiesel 330)
This cultural identity is of “Becoming” as it undergoes transformation, it belonged to both the past and the future, it is always in a process…it is in this second position where we see the constant and dynamic shifts of the Jewish identities according to the generations and the formation of individual identity is different for each individual belonging to each generation as a result of the shifts in culture and contexts of the time. Elhanan Rosenbaum and Malkiel
Rosenbaum are defined by a shared cultural Identity through their link to their Jewish ancestry and Israel but when we discuss about their Individual identity both father and son are positioned differently. Their individual experiences, their generation gaps contributed in their definitions of their individual identity.
“Cultural identity, in this second sense, is a matter of 'becoming' as well as of 'being'. It belongs to the future as much as to the past. It is not something which already exists, transcending place, time, history and culture.” (Hall 225)
Elhanan is a Romanian born American-Jew, born in an Orthodox Jewish family, at a very young age he learned the Talmud and is described as an extra-ordinary child. Feherfalu is narrated as a multi-cultural space where diverse cultures, ethnic and people blended before the Anti-Semitism in Romania, Elhanan is located in New York, America considers himself a diaspora Jew. Quoted in Poala Ramirez Bhabha’s Hybridity and the Third Space in
Postcolonial Discourse) Homi Bhabha in The Location of Culture, mentions Identity as hybrid which is celebrated as a kind of superiority “celebrated and privileged as a kind of Yhome 72 superior cultural intelligence owing to the advantage of in-betweeness, the straddling of two cultures and the consequent ability to negotiate the difference.” (Hoogvelt 1997: 158) The third space initiates new signs of identity and challenges cultural essentialism. The Hybrid third space states that culture is always in a process, like what Hall states Identity is always in a process. (Hall). As the culture is in a process and constantly changing, identities also is defined and redefined, it is never fixed and thus challenges fixity and essentialism. The fluid identity of Elhanan derived from his own representations and interpretations of his idea of home and Jewish identity, through his fragmented memories; his fragmented narrative defines his own multiple identities through his positioning. What Bhabha calls “The Third
Space” here America becomes the third space for Elhanan. Elhanan Rosenbaum’s identity started as a Romanian-Jew which later developed in to American-Jew. Elhanan’s identity is fragmented where he identifies with both his Romanian roots and his American- Jewish identity; this formed the hybrid nature of his identity.
Elhanan identity is shaped by his war memories, migration and his illness from
Amnesia, born as a Romanian-Jew Elhanan Rosenbaum is currently settled in America as a diaspora Jew. His present identity is largely influenced and shaped by his memories of
Romania and Israel. Elhanan fear of returning to Israel and he chose to love Israel from a distance, this could also be his fear of getting rejected in State of Israel where he cannot fit in politically or his rejection of the State itself. Palestine and Jerusalem are Talia in the perspective of Elhanan, Elhanan’s identity and conception of home is completely fragmented, he calls Talia as Palestine and tells Malkiel that Talia is Jerusalem. He was happy in Palestine but after 1948, in the State of Israel, Elhanan distanced himself from the victory of Israel by stating that he does not belonged to this world.
The presence of the fear of returning though the feeling of nostalgia because
Elhanan’s experience of returning to Feherfalu was defined by loss where on his return his Yhome 73 people had perished, his parents had died and his Jewish culture have extinct and this could be one reason for his fear of revisiting Israel because he is afraid to experience the same loss over again, he is trying to identify himself with his Jewish ancestry that is done through remembering Israel by living in the diasporas, Aciman says it is in diaspora that you cherish and feels nostalgic about home which is similar to Roger porter’s idea of remaining in the diaspora and maintaining a connection where home of the imagined is preferable to the reality itself. (Aciman quoted in Porter)
Elhanan’s identity is partly shaped by Talia after the Second World War, Elhanan is alone, an orphan, he was homeless, is in a crisis but it was Talia who gave him the hope to start life anew. Talia Oren 20-year-old, was sent by the Zionist to Germany (Born to a
Yemenite mother and Russian father), displaced person camp to trained the young diaspora
European Jews and prepare them to go to Palestine, and she’s ingrained with the Zionist ideals. “…They sent me here to shape the young people, to teach them Zionist ideals. And organize their departure to Palestine.” (Wiesel101)Talia represents the Zionist who came to shape them could also be assumed that Talia is shaping their identity; giving them a new identity that is derived or emerged from the Zionist ideology; later reflected in the book where Elhanan and Malkiel uphold their Jewish Identity through their link with Israel
(Homeland).
Talia was Palestine to Elhanan; Elhanan began to reconcile with life despite his enormous sorrow but was displaced once again with Talia’s death in 1948, Talia death in
1948 also coincides with the birth of State of Israel could also be the end of Ancestral Israel whereas Itzik is Palestine, which clashed with the new Israel and its politics defined by violence, blindness to nationalistic by creating havoc among the people which Elhanan rejected and left Israel. Elhanan never recover from Talia’s death, “The young people’s bravura, idealism, spirit of sacrifice, were all at work somewhere else, in a world that rejected Yhome 74 him.” (364-65) Again Elhanan is in identity crisis with Talia’s death because it is through
Talia that he identifies his Jewish Identity, after Talia’s death once he moved to America once again Elhanan derived his identity part from his lost home Romania and his Homeland
Israel, his identity is again fragmented and fluid as he is defining his identity through his fragmented memories.
“For a Jew nothing is more important than memory. He is bound to his origins by memory. It is memory that connects him to Abraham, Moses and Rabbi Akiba. If he denies memory he would have denied his own honor.” (Wiesel 116)
Memory is an important aspect in defining the Jewish Identity in the novel, Elhanan
Rosenbaum is suffering from Amnesia and is slowly losing his memories. For Elhanan remembering the past is the most important part of being Jewish but his illness challenged his identity and sense of belonging. Assmann and Czaplicka defines, Cultural memory as that body of reusable texts, images and rituals in each society, in each epoch.” “Cultural memory has its fixed point; its horizon does not change with the passing of time. These fixed points are fateful events of the past, whose memory is maintained through cultural formation (texts, rites, monuments) and institutional communication (recitation, practice, observance).”
(Assmann 129) the Cultural memory of the Jews in Diaspora in the book is done through remembering of the Jewish history and the Holocaust, Elhanan and Malkiel have a shared memory of the history of the Jews, it is their cultural memory that brings solidarity among father and son despite the differences in their generations. Elhanan’s have a strong linked to his Jewish culture and its history, the cultural memory of Jews is very strong as it is done through remembering. Elhanan suffering from Amnesia threatens his identity as he is soon to forget everything about his past or present. “Forgetfulness for him was the death not only of knowledge but also of imagination.” (Wiesel 349) Yhome 75
Elhanan Rosenbaum Identity is constructed through his fragmented memory, he fails to recognize people and gets confused/fails to differentiate about his past and present. “My thoughts scattered and roamed through my entire past.” (Wiesel 61) Elhanan’s identity is shaped by his past and his loss of memory; his identity itself is scattered from the past to the present. Elhanan couldn’t recite the Kiddush prayer from his memory; and says there was a gap in his memory.
Elhanan feels that the loss of Identity through the loss of memory is a consequence of not saving the woman in Feherfalu from getting raped during the war. “I am a guilty man.”
(Wiesel 62) Elhanan believed that the reason for his loss of memory is because of his silence during the war, he considers it as a punishment from God. Elhanan is losing his Jewish
Identity with the loss of his memory. He cannot remember his past and he dread for that because for in Diaspora Jews remembering is a part of maintaining their Jewish identity and
Memory of Holocaust, where they keep it alive by remembering the past. Dr. Pasternak’s mentions about the loss of Elhanan’s identity and disorientation from the world, for Elhanan remembering was the most important which he also wanted Malkiel to carry on but his suffering was inevitable.“If I am a Jew, I am a man. If I am not, I am nothing.” (Wiesel 422)
He is a Jew because of his Memory and losing his memory is losing the meaning of Jewish identity.
For Elhanan forgetting his Jewish past is like forgetting his Jewish identity, one of the instances in the book is where Elhanan and Malkiel were praying before their Sabbath and as Elhanan recites the Kaddush he could not recite it from his memory, for him memory is everything that defines his Jewishness and forgetting was like denying his Jewish identity. Yhome 76
“The diaspora experience as I intend it here is defined, not by essence or purity, but by the recognition of a necessary heterogeneity and diversity; by a conception of 'identity' which lives with and through, not despite, difference; by hybridity.” (Hall 235)
Wiesel similarly mentions identity such as fluid, in-between, Hybrid Identity that is shaped through migratory, loss of memory and displacement among the characters, As a
Diaspora Jew, Elhanan’s identity is one of a fluid; one finds that he does not fully belong to a specific geographical location, when he talks about Romania in the book, he identifies himself with his childhood home where his Jewish heritage and his people existed in a multi- cultural space, in his narrative he feels nostalgic about his childhood with his grandfather.
“I never intervened. Of course I admired the young Jewish heroes and grieved over their lot; but in my heart of hearts I thought, what a waste; haven’t we lost enough blood?”(Wiesel 284) his Jewish identity is mainly derived from his memory of Romania, his mastery in language also defines his identity as dynamic as he is fluent in Hebrew, Yiddish,
German and Romania. Elhanan though suffers from Amnesia tries hard not to forget as he tried to remember Romania by remembering his father and mother and the Sabbath. Elhanan wanted to link himself with Romania from where his identity has derived. He also linked his
Identity to Israel through his religion by connecting his Jewish ancestry and religious practices by placing Israel as the centre of it.
Malkiel Rosenbaum Identity is constructed part from his father’s memory and his relationship to Israel. Malkiel’s Jewish identity is derived from his relationship with Israel through media and mass communication. Malkiel’s Jewish Identity is derived from his relationship with Israel, the ingrained ideology of protecting your homeland even in diaspora, not writing against the nation and supporting it whereas for Tamar she represents those diaspora Jews who are critical of the Israeli’s nation and its policy against the Arabs. Yhome 77
“At the wall, dozens of boys from France, Australia, and most of all, the United States made the same gestures, wound the same tefillin on into their left arms…and recited the same benedictions and roused the same mingled pride and joy in their parents.” (Wiesel 362).
Elie Wiesel once again brings forth the Jewish Diasporic individuals and their identification with Israel through their religion. Malkiel is a diasporic Jew who linked his identity to Israel both in terms of his religious identity and his national identity. Malkiel has visited the hometown of Elhanan on his request where he was able to understand his Jewish ancestry/history through the people he met in Romania, his father’s doubt on what the old woman thought is cleared but Malkiel could not belong to the place as it is a lost home for his father and it does not make sense to him as a Jewish home.
With the progress of the novel the identity of Malkiel developed, it is fragmented, his
Jewish identity linked with Israel is strong in terms of Nation and politics but his identity that is linked with his father’s memory is fragmented, being a second generation he is not able to fully understand his father’s past, it is only when he visited Romania he was able to understand his father but Malkiel rejected Romania through his narrative, it is his father’s lost home but to him it is a strange place and there is no link; except the Jewish cemetery.
“…the crucial emotion here is of not belonging, despite the familiarity of the surroundings, and the comfortable homey nature of the place.” (Porter 291)in Kafka’s word this inability to belong despite the familiarity of the place is a rejection of his father similarly, for Malkiel he is ready to listen to his father and understand but his inablitiy to carry on what his father tried to pass on as the home itself represents Elhanan whose identity Malkiel cannot fully accept.
The estrangement of Malkiel in Romania where he visited his father’s hometown also contributed in his identity crisis, another aspect is the Language barrier is one cause for his alienation, in Romania except the gravedigger no one else spoke Yiddish. Malkiel finds it Yhome 78 difficult to communicate with the people in Romania because of his inability to understand their language, in he could only find the gravedigger who spoke Yiddish and so Malkiel felt more relief when he visits the Jewish cemetery.
Though he could not accept Romania, Malkiel was able to reconcile and accept his
Jewish Ancestry in Romania. After meeting Ephiram, Malkiel decided not to go back straight to New York from Feherfalu, he decided to go to Israel and then return and he is not sure why he is taking a tour to visit Israel. An understanding of his Jewish past despite the generational gaps comes only when he meets Ephiram and Hershel, he is able to understand his father and his Jewish ancestry through them.
Malkiel’s home of the lived experience is America, it is there where he feels complete, through his father and Tamar. “I’ll go home soon, Malkiel thought…I’ll tell her I love her with a love that we can make fruitful. I’ll see my father, and tell him I love him with an unhappy love; I’ll confess my failure, I found nothing, nothing could help you or us.”
(Wiesel 410) Malkiel accepted the Jewish identity that Elhanan pass to him after migrating to
Israel but he rejects his father’s past that is linked with Romania in terms of the community and the conception of home. The identity of Elhanan that is shaped after his migration to
Israel is accepted by Malkiel, as Malkiel also connects his identity to Israel through Talia and through his loyalty to the State of Israel.
Malkiel’s identity is partly shaped from Elhanan’s memory because Malkiel’s sense of self is controlled by his father memories for instance, Malkiel says that it is memory that matters and sometimes his memory overflows because it harbours his father’s memories too.
Malkiel visited Romania to remember what Elhanan’s has forgotten but Malkiel cannot take on his father’s memory as he said there is nothing such as memory transfusion. Malkiel
Rosenbaum’s Identity is constructed part from his father’s memory, “I take in fragments of Yhome 79 memory that may have been chipped away from yours; Is that enough?” (Wiesel 411),
Malkiel could not fully accept Elhanan’s past or remember what Elhanan’s wants him to remember, after meeting Ephiram in the Jewish cemetery Malkiel said he takes his father’s memory in fragments; the cultural memory is reinforced when Malkiel says
“For a Jew nothing is more important than memory. He is bound to his origins by memory. It is memory that connects him to Abraham, Moses and Rabbi Akiba. If he denies memory he would have denied his own honor.” (Wiesel 116) The Cultural Memory enabled Malkiel to accept and understand the Jewish history; Malkiel taking his father’s memory in fragments is an acknowledgement of remembering the history of the Holocaust.
This chapter was able to study Home and Identities existing in multiple notions, the impact of Homeland Myth was able to draw out the different perceptions towards Israel both the Ancestral and the State of Israel. The Jews in Diaspora relation with Israel is different; existing as Ancestral or State depending on the generations in the book. The Myth of
Homeland played a major role in the character’s construction of their home and identities.
Home is found in different location; within the father-son their conception of Home and
Homeland differs and its meanings is defined from the subject position. The Identities in the book is hyphen and hybrid, Elhanan’s origin is in Romania whereas Malkiel’s orgin is Israel.
The collective and individual identity brings forth the variegated identities in the book, the collective identity is fixed and shared where Elhanan and Malkiel shares the same Cultural memory of Holocaust and the Holocaust. Within the Cultural Identity the individual Jewish identity in the book is hyphenated, fractured and in-between in the book.
Yhome 80
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Yhome 83
Chapter 4
A Contrapuntal Reading
The chapter makes a Contrapuntal reading of the texts by bringing out the notions of home and identities. Contrapuntal Reading is done in two trajectories; a contrapuntal reading within the text is done through a study of the major characters in terms of defining home and identity; The second aspect of the reading is bringing out ‘the Paradox of Homeland and
Diaspora’ by locating homeland and Diaspora, which will include the standpoint and perspectives on the meaning of Diaspora in the texts.
In my contrapuntal analysis, the Jewish Identities and Homes are studied as
Contrapuntal where there is no univocal but the presence of polyphonic voices. “A contrapuntal reading is like a fugue which can contain ‘two, three, four or five voices; they are all part of the same composition, but they are each distinct’.” (Chowdhury 105) Like a fugue, the voice of the Jews in relation to their conception of home and their identities are polyphonic. Each voice is distinct in their own representations, though they are of the same composition, with a collective identity emerging from the Holocaust experience, each are distinct in representing themselves in Post Holocaust. Every individual character emerged from a collective experience of War. The collective experience has a great impact, but every individual experience led to the emergence of multiple conceptions of home and identities.
This individual experience is often traumatic, dwelling on the minds of survivors or the second generations in terms of fragmented memories.
The first generation of the survivors of Holocaust and the second generation who has experienced vicariously, their perception of their sense of belonging in relation to defining home as well as their identity is Contrapuntal. The goal of contrapuntal reading in my Yhome 84 analysis of the two novels is not to give privilege to one narrative but to bring out the polyphonic voices from every space.
In The Forgotten and Death Had Two Sons, the variegated notions of home and identities arise from the impact of the Holocaust in Europe; the characters in the book are either survivors or have vicarious experience. The transition of European Jews from the
Western World of Europe and their migration to Israel led to a negotiation of Jewish
Identities and Home; the existence of Israel as Jewish Homeland is contested as a response of the Diaspora Jews in Post War Israel 1948. The Jewish identities in the book have been analysed in terms of Collective and Individual Identity. In the Collective Identities, the shared
Jewish identity is derived from their shared history and experience of the Holocaust. But on the contrary though they came out from a common collective experience, their individual identity is dynamic and fluid where each individual represented their idea of Jewish identity.
The first aspect of the study is finding Contrapuntal within the texts, the various conceptions of Home, and identities are found in the Contrapuntal Reading. The reading is done by bringing out the multiple voices of the characters from the two novels. In Wiesel’s
The Forgotten, Contrapuntal reading is done through a negotiation of home and identities.
Polyphonic voices on the conception of home and identities emerged from the perspective of
Elhanan Rosenbaum and Malkiel Rosenbaum. The notion of home and identities are found in variegated meanings in the book, for instance, it is Mythic or Lost Home, Lived experience and Enforced Homes. Identities exist as Hybrid or In-Between and Hyphen, as in Romanian-
Jew, American-Jew. In the book, the meanings of Home and Identities for Elhanan and
Malkiel are found in variant, shaped from their collective and individual experience, memories and identities. Within the definition of Home there are variegated meanings, for instance as mentioned in Avtar Brah’s “The diasporising of home and the homing of Yhome 85 diaspora.” Home exists in Mythic Home and Home of the lived experience similarly in my contrapuntal analysis of home I also bring forth the idea of an Enforced Home.
Elhanan Rosenbaum is a European Jew from Romania, born in Romania. Elhanan survived the Holocaust but lost his family during the war. Mr. Rosenbaum immigrated to
Palestine under the influence of the Zionist. Elhanan was already an orphan at the end of war and he lost everything in Romania. Romania is a Lost Home for Elhanan but his ‘homing desire’ still comes from that place, In Israel, Elhanan imagined that he was with his mother in
Romania and after he moved to America, more than Israel he remembers Romania. Elhanan was defined by loss on his return to Romania at the end of the war. As an American Diaspora
Jew, he is creating new home in the diaspora by remembering both Romania and Israel.
Israel is present to Elhanan as a spiritual place and a mythic homeland, as a home it was an enforced home by the Zionist, it can be assumed his rejection of Israel as home from two instances, firstly where Elhanan says he loved Israel from a distance. In the second instance, when Elhanan reached Palestine, he felt like he was in a country to which he is already familiar, (278) but after the end of war, fought in the Old Jerusalem, Elhanan rejected Israel by stating that “The young people’s bravura, idealism, spirit of sacrifice, were all at work somewhere else, in a world that rejected him.” (Wiesel 364-365). This could imply that his idea of home ingrained in him by the Zionist about Israel is distort because with the creation of Israel his perception alters. Elhanan continues to maintain his relationship with Israel but not in the form of a home that is of lived experience.
For Malkiel Rosenbaum the concept of home is shaped from Israel and America.
Malkiel was born in Israel in 1948, his idea of Home is derived from Israel. For Malkiel
Israel exists as his place of origin and his National Home. America is his home of the lived experience, the ‘Reinvented Home’ he acknowledged himself as a diaspora Jew. Though
Malkiel’s father’s Lost Home is Romania, for Malkiel, Romania is a strange place. On his Yhome 86 visit to Romania Malkiel estranged the place through his narrative. When Malkiel saw his father’s home in Romania he felt like he knew everything about the home but he also comments that “Look father you are home, I? As a second generation Jew, Malkiel’s idea of
Nation Home is Israel but he has made his home in the Diaspora, one does not find him longing to return like the older generations Jews in diaspora but instead he supports Israel through his profession.
Through the polyphonic voices in the book, Elhanan and Malkiel assert their Jewish identity in various terms. Elhanan’s construction of his identity is from his link to various spaces; Identity is defined through their link to different places. Elhanan’s construction of
Identity is mainly derived from his link to Israel and Romania, his sense of self is derived from Romania. Elhanan is in an identity crisis throughout the book, his identity is mainly derived from Romania, his hometown, but this identity is fragmented by the Holocaust trauma. After meeting Talia once again he identifies himself through Talia where Talia is symbolic of Palestine and Jerusalem. After Talia’s death in 1948, and creation of State of
Israel, Elhanan rejected the State of Israel by saying that he is in a world that rejected him.
Elhanan moved to America where we find that he is forging a new identity in the Diaspora while simultaneously trying to make meaning of his identity while deriving its meaning from
Romania and Israel.
The portrayal of Malkiel’s Identity is fluid and different from Elhanan’s. Malkiel identifies himself with Israel. For Malkiel Jewish Identity is linked to the State of Israel and as a Diaspora Jew he is forging his relationship with his Nation through his loyalty and support to the State. His identity as a Diaspora Jew is hybrid as his lived experience is in
America. Malkiel’s relationship with the four women in the book, Lidia (Romanian), Leila
(Palestinian), Inge (German) and Tamar (Jewish) is symbolic of his hybrid and in-between identity where he is trying to forge link with other people but his Jewish history reminds him Yhome 87 of his identity. Malkiel’s identity is also shaped from his father’s past, as his father’s memories controls his present sense of self.
The Contrapuntal Reading of the book is traced through the father-son’s idea of
Jewish Home and Identity. For both Elhanan and Malkiel, their conception of home is different, though Romania is a lost home to Elhanan for Malkiel it is a strange place,
Malkiel’s idea of Home is Israel and for Elhanan it is an enforced home which he has rejected. The Individual identity of Elhanan and Malkiel are not the same. Elhanan’s identity is mainly shaped from his fragmented memories derived from his past home Romania through his community over there. With relation to Israel his Identity is developed after the
Holocaust through Talia. It can be assumed Elhanan’s identity as scattered or fragmented mainly deriving from his memory of Romania and Israel which he is constructing from the liminal space in America. Malkiel’s Jewish identity is derived from Israel, partly from his father’s memory and his life in the Diaspora. Malkiel rejected Elhanan’s Identity of Romania when he visited Romania as he estranged the place from his narrative. Both the meanings of
Home and Identities exist in multiple notions for Elhanan and Malkiel which states the
Contrapuntality of the book.
Yael Dayan’s Death Had Two Sons bring out the various trajectories of defining
Home and Identities. The perspectives of Haim Kalinsky and Daniel Kalinsky in defining home and identities bring out Contrapuntal within the text. Home as defined from the perspective of Kalinsky is Warsaw, Poland. Though, Kalinsky had left the place and migrated to Israel to make it his home, he was unable to accept Israel. The actual lived experience and his homing desire comes from Warsaw. The impact of the Myth of Homeland played a major role in bringing confusion on his idea of defining home, though Kalinsky never felt at home in Israel, he was unable to leave it because of the impact of Homeland on his psyche where he could not accept Warsaw nor reject Israel. Yhome 88
Kalinsky’s rejection of Israel is done through “Homing” and “Unhoming. Kalinsky
‘Unhomes’ Israel through his rejection of Israel, Kalinsky hated everything in Beer-Sheba from the sun, dust, the climate and everything that is not Warsaw. “The city could never become home, he knew, but he was tied to it by ropes of wind and yellow chilling grains meaninglessly and uselessly.” (Dayan 110). Kalinsky accepted Warsaw as Home through his narrative, though it was done subconsciously, Kalinsky wished that Israel was similar to
Poland as he continuously compared the two places throughout the story. The Kalinsky family is settled in Beersheba, in the words of Daniel, they continue to live like they are still in Warsaw.
Daniel Kalinsky’s construction of home and Homeland is derived from Israel, considering himself as an Israeli, he repressed his past and reconstructed his identity.
Daniel’s idea of home of lived experience is Gilad, Warsaw is a Lost home for Daniel and he rejected the place through his narrative. His fragmented memories had a major impact in shaping his conception of home, on one hand Daniel ‘Unhomes’ Warsaw by narrating it as a lost home, a home that comes to him in fragments, he could not fully remember about his home in Poland, he remembers only the snow and the wooden floor of his house. Daniel
‘unhome’ Warsaw, when some Polish Jews visited his father’s family in Gilad, Daniel felt left out like an outsider and he calls Israel as home by telling Kalinsky that Israel is ours, it is safe, comfortable and home. Daniel calls Israel as Homeland and his lived experienced come from it, for him Gilad is his family and his home. He also states that Kibbutz is home and there will never be another home.
Haim Kalinsky is a Polish Jew whose identity is Polish whereas his son Daniel
Kalinsky was born Polish Jew but he constructed his identity as an Israeli after the Holocaust.
Though both Kalinsky and Daniel had a Collective identity and a Collective memory that is the experience of Holocaust and the shared history as European Jews but, their identity is Yhome 89 changed and developed through the narrative. Kalinsky collective identity is derived from his roots in Poland, Europe as a Jew and so his collective as well as individual self comes from
Poland. He would rather let his two sons spoke in Polish over Yiddish and this description of
Kalinsky also connotes his identity as Polish and less of a Jewish. Kalinsky established his superiority in Israel by Othering the Israeli’s and Bedouins. Kalinsky identifies himself with everything that is not Israel; he identifies himself with the Rumanian Jews, Yiddish speaking people, and with Warsaw. Kalinsky’s identity is Polish Jew and Kalinsky was more Polish than Jew.
Daniel’s Collective Identity is fractured as he rejected his Polish collective identity but is not able to completely derive his collective Israeli identity, for instance, Dora calls him an in-between person as he is in an identity crisis between his childhood identity and the post- war Israeli identity. Daniel Kalinsky’s identity is Hybrid and In-Between, Daniel rejected his polish identity by Othering his father, by calling him a stranger with an unfamiliar smell from another world and also bought tickets for his father’s return to Warsaw. Daniel mentioned that everything that happened before Bari should be erased from the memory and forgotten.
Daniel’s Identity and his Home are shaped from his experience of Holocaust and Israel.
Daniel asserts his Israeli identity by stating that his life began in Bari, where he was born on a boat. For Daniel though born as a Polish Jew, Daniel has forgotten Polish and Yiddish, and he remembers very little about Warsaw. Daniel metaphorically died in Warsaw and with that his Polish Jewish identity has died. However because of his diasporic memories, Daniel is stranded between two identities in the book which result into a hybrid self. Daniel rejected his past by constructing his new identity but his fragmented memories lead to his fragmented and hybrid identity.
Home is interpreted in various notions, for Kalinsky, Home is Warsaw, his homing desire is in Warsaw even after he left but for Daniel Warsaw is a past, a lost home and his Yhome 90 home and homing desire is in the Kibbutz, Gilad. The identity of Daniel Kalinsky undergoes process of change in the book, it begins with Daniel as a six-year-old Polish Jew and developed in to an Israeli Jew who is strongly patriotic of Israel and identifies himself with his Israeli identity. We also come across Haim Kalinsky, a Polish Jew who represents the diasporic Jew in Israel, Kalinsky is a second- class citizen in Israel, his identity also undergoes process of change as in the beginning, represented the European Jew who becomes a representation of the West in Israel. Identities that are found in the contrapuntal reading are
Polish-Jew, Israeli-Jew.
The second trajectory of the Contrapuntal Reading analysed the Paradox of Homeland and Diaspora in the texts using the perspective of the authors and their characters. “The
Paradox of Homeland and Diaspora” can be traced in the two novels, where one is not able to understand where Diaspora or Homeland is located. In my reading of the two novels, I have brought out an analysis of the assumed perspective of Yael Dayan and Elie Wiesel. First, the location and background of the two authors are studied. Elie Wiesel is a Romanian born
American-Jew and his location is America on the contrary Yael Dayan is an Israeli Jewish writer located in Israel. The geographical locations of the Wiesel’s and Dayan’s have greatly influenced the construction of their characters and the perspective of their characters.
The conception of “Homeland” is represented in various notions, moulded from their history, Memory, Culture and Community. The powerful image of homeland is established through the use of “Myth of Homeland”, Homeland Myth is a powerful tool used by the
Zionist in their aim to end the Diaspora by re-creating Israel as a Homeland for the Jews.
The concepts of Homeland as represented in the texts are portrayed in terms of Ancestral
Homeland and State of Israel. In the texts the notions of Homeland exist in various forms, for instance Mythic/Ancestral Homeland link with their origin and Religion or State of Israel link with Nation and Identity. Yhome 91
In Wiesel’s The Forgotten, for Elhanan Israel represented a spiritual place and a
Mythic/Ancestral homeland. When Elhanan defines his love for Israel one is not sure to which Israel Elhanan was referring to, the Ancestral Homeland or the State of Israel 1948, it can be assumed that his reference is to the Ancestral homeland as his relationship with Israel is more in terms of a Mythic Homeland where in Diaspora Jews maintained connection by remembering it. The Forgotten critiques European Zionist movement and its impact on the
European diaspora Jews. Elhanan immigrated to Israel under the influence of the Zionist because after the Holocaust the Jews were homeless and this brought insecurities among the survivors with the lack of choice. Elhanan and many of the survivors under the influence of the Zionist and the promises made to them that they are returning to their home were disillusioned by the reality they had to face in Palestine on their return. Elhanan’s experience in Palestine turns out to be contradictory, they were promised that they were returning home but the idea projected by the Zionist is opposed to their experience. It was defined by violence, conflict and occupation and though Israel was established, it was out of violence and hatred.
For Malkiel Rosenbaum the concept of Homeland is shaped from Israel and America.
Malkiel was born in Israel in 1948, his idea of Home and Homeland is derived from Israel.
For Malkiel Israel exists as his place of origin and his National Home and Homeland. For
Malkiel his Homeland is the State of Israel that was recreated in 1948, but the mythic elements around homeland is also present in his mind as he compares himself to both the
Ancestral Israel and the State of Israel.
Elie Wiesel’s perspective of Homeland and Diaspora are portrayed through the character of Elhanan and Malkiel. Wiesel’s states that though the book is fictional one can trace some biographical elements in the book, for instance, the character of Elhanan is born in
Romania like Wiesel himself and Malkiel’s visitation to Romania also correlates with Yhome 92
Wiesel’s visitation to Romania. Like Wiesel, Elhanan is also a survivor of Holocaust and an
American Jew. Wiesel visited Israel and worked as a Journalist for the Israel Government and
Elhanan also work for the State during his stay in Israel. For Wiesel, Homeland exists both as
Ancestral and the State of Israel based on the first and second generations conception of
Homeland.
Yael Dayan critique the discourse of Homeland which generalizes the idea that Israel as a Homeland brings sense of belonging in every Jew, by creating characters like Kalinsky, who is alienated in Israel and is represented as in Diaspora. Dayan intends to bring out the difficulty of Jewish belonging, despite Israel is considered as Homeland. The author’s representation of the characters and portrayal of Israel are another aspect of critique of
Homeland. Israel as mentioned by Safran is itself in a Diaspora condition; Dayan’s portrayal of Israel in Post War 1948 is fragmented as opposed to what is represented by the Ancestral
Israel. An example from the book is when Kalinsky met a Rabbi from Poland who migrated to Israel through the description Jerusalem was defined as a Godless city, even the Rabbi was described as a happy man when in Poland but here he is defined as an old weak man.
Haim Kalinsky’s idea of Homeland exists as a Mythic Homeland and his encounter with Israel distort the conception of homeland of his mind. Death Had Two Sons, critiques the State of Israel with various commentaries about the place. In the book one encounters with Jews immigrating to Israel during the war coming back to Europe and criticize everything about the place. For Kalinsky Homeland idea was in the form of the
Mythic/Ancestral Homeland but the encounter with Israel 1948 was a disappointment to
Kalinsky. The State of Israel represents a diasporic space for characters like Kalinsky as they are not able to fit in to the structure. Daniel, who was only six year old when he was separated from his father, considers Israel as his Homeland and is very patriotic about his
Nationality as an Israeli-Jew. Yhome 93
Yael Dayan writes about the Diaspora and Holocaust and writing about the Holocaust could be read as empathy towards the European Jews. Dayan’s writing about Diaspora could mean that if Israel is Home and Homeland for Daniel, for Kalinsky, whose home is Warsaw,
Poland, Israel becomes a Mythic Homeland. The assumed perspective of Yael Dayan’s on
Israel could be as home, homeland or Diasporic space.
The two Jewish perspectives on the Holocaust survivors are done through the portrayal of the Survivor characters in Death Had Two Sons and The Forgotten. There are a few similarities and differences found from both the book. One is the representation of Israel;
Wiesel has mentioned Palestine, Ancestral Israel and the State of Israel, which shows that
Wiesel’s concern is trying to understand the Homeland in both Ancestral and Modern terms, whereas Dayan’s focus is the portrayal of Israel after 1948 dealing with its politics, inequalities or racism among Jews and Arabs and within the Jewish community. The characters in the two novels are European Jews who survived the Holocaust, the common migration to Israel in order to create new Home or Homeland. Both the writers have included
Biblical elements in the novel, the father-son relationship which can be read as Abraham and
Isaac relationship. For instance the sacrifice made by Abraham reflects Kalinsky’s sacrificing
Daniel to the Nazi’s. The relationship between Malkiel and Elhanan is also a kind of sacrifice where Malkiel is denying his present in trying to understand his father’s past. Yael Dayan’s portrayal of Israel can be read as a Diaspora space, the book is critical of the State its conflicts with the Palestinians and the differences within the Jewish Community. Elie Wiesel portrayal of Israel is as an Ancestral Homeland and State of Israel; Wiesel portrays the link of diaspora Jews with Israel and critique the Zionist ideology in the book.
Home and Identities in the texts are found in multiple meanings from the characters’ perspectives. Every individual character has represented the idea of Jewish home and identities which exists in Contrapuntal. The paradox of homeland and Diaspora connotes the Yhome 94 difficulty of defining Israel. Israel can be a Homeland or Home but it turns out to be a diasporic space for other Jews. When Israel is portrayed as Homeland both as Ancestral and
Nation in the perspective of Wiesel’s, for Dayan Israel can be Homeland or Diaspora depending on the individual’s experience with the place. The insider’s perspective of Yael
Dayan’s on Israel gave a hard critique of Israel by portraying the diasporic experience and politics of the contemporary Israel whereas her insider’s perspective on the Diaspora critiques generalization of Jewish belonging in Israel. Wiesel critiques the Zionist in the text but the existence of Israel as Ancestral or Nation Homeland is acknowledged. The polyphonic
Jewish voices’ definition of Home and Identities along with the paradox of Homeland and
Diaspora as found in the texts proves the Contrapuntality of the texts.
Yhome 95
Works Cited
Chowdhry, Geeta. “Edward Said and Contrapuntal Reading: Implications for Critical
Interventions in International Relations.” Millennium, vol. 36, no. 1, Dec. 2007, pp. 101–
116, doi:10.1177/03058298070360010701.Web. 20 Nov.2018.
Victoria Mason (2007) Children of the “Idea of Palestine”: Negotiating Identity, Belonging and
Home in the Palestinian Diaspora, Journal of Intercultural Studies, 28:3, 271-285, DOI:
10.1080/07256860701429709 Web. 20 Nov.2018.
Said, Edward. Culture and Imperialism. Knpof, 1994. Print.
Metres, Philip. "Vexing Resistance, Complicating Occupation: A Contrapuntal Reading of Sahar
Khalifeh's Wild Thorns and David Grossman's The Smile of the Lamb." College Literature,
vol. 37 no. 1, 2010, pp. 81-109. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/lit.0.0093 Web.9 Oct.2018.
Yhome 96
Chapter 5
Conclusion
5.1 Research Findings
The findings of the research has proved that in Yael Dayan’s Death Had Two Sons and Elie Wiesel’s The Forgotten, the meanings of Home and Homeland are plural, existing in multiple forms and viewpoints whereas the Hyphenated Jewish Identities in Diaspora are deemed hybrid, in-between, this results in to a Contrapuntal meanings of Home and
Identities. The notion of home, belonging and identity have been shaped within the interplay of the attachment to Israel and the home of the lived experience, this results in a contrapuntal understanding of home, belonging and identity.
The primary text in the dissertation, Death Had Two Sons and The Forgotten has been able to bring forth the polyphonic voices of the characters in the texts that state that there is no singular notion of home and identities in the Jewish Diaspora. Home and
Identities are recreated and perceived from the individual perspective with the influence of their Cultural Identity and Memory. The dissertations engaged in the history of the Holocaust and the displacement caused by it. The multiple meanings of home, identities provides dynamic and fluid ways for the Diaspora Jews to belong but at the same time this multiple homes also confused the individual where they cannot identify/belong to a single space and thus create a conundrum.
Home exists in various trajectories such as Mythic Home, Home of the lived experience, Enforced Home and the meaning of Homeland can be either Mythic Homeland or a National Homeland. Similarly as Diaspora Jew marked by their hyphen in their identities as in polish-Jew, Romanian- Jew or American-Jew, their identity is hybrid, in-between, it can Yhome 97 become both positive and negative factors where it is celebratory as a means of dynamic belonging and identification on the other hand, it fractures their identity as they are in crisis with their past identity and their present self.
The Research has been able to study the multiple notions of Jewish Home and
Identities through a Contrapuntal Reading of Death Had Two Sons and The Forgotten. In negotiating the notion of Home and Identities in the two novels, the research has been able to bring out the various interpretations of Home, Homeland and Identities which distort the singularity or fixity in the Jewish Diaspora.
Death Had Two Sons, engages in the European Jews migration to Israel as a result of the Holocaust in Europe. The multiple notions of home and identities are a result of the transition of the European Jews and their subsequent immigration to Israel leads to formation of new identities. Secondly identities are redefined through diasporic memories, or denial of
Holocaust to construct new self. The research has also found that though the survivors emerged from the same collective experience but their individual conception on home and identity are found in various nuances, as a result/influence of the history, the socio-political and cultural influence on the survivors…for instance Kalinsky and Daniel are both Jews who are born Polish-Jews but after his immigration Daniel’s identity is one of hybrid and in- between where he is in-between his Polish and Israeli identity, he is an Israeli and for him
Polish-Jews are strangers, Daniel recreated Israel as homeland and Kibbutz is symbolic of his home. Kalinsky’s identity is Polish-Jew, for him Israel is a diasporic space, though there is an ingrained ideology of the Myth present on his psyche as Homeland but it is an enforced home which he rejected, Poland represents as home.
The primary texts in the dissertation, The Forgotten, deals with the European Jews immigration to Israel as an impact of the Holocaust, it also articulates the lack of belonging Yhome 98 and rejection of Israel by the European Jews. The immigration of survivors to Palestine as promised by the Zionist to recreate Israel is thoroughly critique in the novel. The research has found that many European Jews after the Holocaust tends to recreate their identity and homes. The book states that the Holocaust experience has caused another Diaspora though the European Exile has come to an end; it presents the further displacement of the European
Jews and the transition of their identities and home. The identities of both father-son are
Collective where they share the same history but their individual identity differs, Elhanan
Rosenbaum was born Romanian Jew but in the present he considers himself an American-
Jew in Diaspora, Malkiel considers an American Diaspora Jew, his identity is mainly derived from his link to Israel. Home and Homeland differs in meanings and are found in various nuances, for Elhanan’s Romania is a lost home, Israel is his Ancestral Homeland and the
State of Israel is an enforced home which he rejected whereas America is the diasporic space where he is redefining his idea of home with reference to Romania and Israel. Malkiel’s idea of Home and Homeland is Israel though his home of the lived experience is America.
The primary texts have been chosen for a Contrapuntal Reading in order to bring out the polyphonic voice of the European Jews and their conception of home and identities in
Post War 1948. The contrapuntal reading was able to bring out two Jewish Perspective on
Diaspora and two perspectives on the definition of Home and Identities. The study proved that though the Jews, specifically the European Jews have a common collective experience and a shared past history, but the individual idea of home and identity is constructed from the individual position.
The research also found that in the Contrapuntal Reading of the texts, the authors perspective states that Home or Homeland cannot be fixed but it is dynamic, as in Diaspora one cannot assigned a singular notion of home, the dislocation of the Diaspora subject places them between their historical home and on the other hand to relocate themselves in the Yhome 99 present society. Similarly even Identities are always in a process where they are continuously redefined as we find identities that are constantly redefined in the texts, from Romanian-Jew to American-Jew or from Polish-Jew to Israeli-Jew. The Reading illustrate that though the
European Jews share a Collective experience but their individual identity and meaning of home are polyphonic, it does not give importance to a particular narrative but gives equal importance to both. The study proved that by giving equal importance to the author’s view point, for Yael Dayan Israel is portrayed as a diasporic space and it is a lesser representation of how Israel is usually portrayed, it is a critique of Israel. Similarly Wiesel’s critique the
Zionist Movement and the State of Israel whereas for Wiesel Israel exist in the form of an
Ancestral Homeland.
Though main aim was to make a comparative reading to bring out the two perspective of narrative on the Holocaust and the European Jews immigration and dislocation, the research also found that Contrapuntal is found even within each novel, the polyphonic voices are present where each character recreate the meanings of home and redefine their identity.
For instance the meaning of their Jewish identity and idea of home and homeland are different even for the father-son in both the texts.
The Primary texts are chosen as a result of some found similarities and shared thematic concern articulated by the authors. Both the texts deals with father and son relationship where Biblical story of Abraham and Isaac relationship are reflected, when
Dayan’s concern was to bring out the example of Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac to God, in the book Kalinsky sacrifice Daniel to the Nazis. For Wiesel’s the relationship reflects Abraham-
Isaac relation, here we have the son making sacrifice for his sick father, trying to put himself in his father’s position Malkiel denying his present by trying to understand his father’s past.
Another thematic concern of the primary texts is the setting and background of the novels, Yhome 100
Holocaust serve as the historical background of the novels; characters are European Jews who are survivors of the Holocaust.
Through the novels portrayal of the European Jews immigration to Israel convey the various responses towards Israel, leading to the emergence of multifarious existence of home and sense of belonging or identities which result into Hybrid and in-between. The novels have also showed the difference between the generations where for the first generation existence of Israel is in the form of a Mythic Homeland whereas for the later/second generation Israel is the National Homeland.
It can be concluded that the core concern of the primary texts is Home and Identities in the Jewish context. The aim was to bring out the various trajectories of Jewish Home and identities by constructing characters with multifarious concept of defining their idea of home and their Jewish identities. The Contrapuntal Reading enables to bring out the importance of both the texts without privileging one over the other. This indicates that even within the
European Jewish Community whose experience of war remains collective with a shared history, the individual representation of their viewpoints challenge cultural essentialism that believed in the concept like purity or fixity and thereby bringing in the concept of hybrid, hyphenated identities. The Jewish identity and are often generalized as a singular and pure but there are many differences within the Jewish community itself which is represented through the primary texts in the dissertation.
5.2 Limitations and Scope for further research
The dissertation is limited to the Jewish Diaspora resulting from the Holocaust leading to the immigration of European Jews to Israel during and after the Second World
War. The primary concern of the research is analysing of the notions of home and identities from the view point of the authors and the characters of the texts. The dissertation claims the Yhome 101
Jewish identities and home only in the texts and does not claimed anything beyond the primary texts. Further research could focus on the thematic study of Religious elements and its role in the study of Jewish Diaspora.
Yhome 102
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