Friday October 26, 2012 JEWISH TELEGRAPH 33

CONTACT MIKE COHEN [email protected] Tel: 0161 741 2637 Michelle uses appliance of science for tale of Palestinian brothers BY SIMON YAFFE and his mother was illiterate, but because he was so brilliant at maths MICHELLE Cohen Corasanti grew up and science, he won a scholarship to in a Zionist family in upstate New university — and the Israelis paid for York with no knowledge of the his education.” conflict in the Middle East. It is her experiences of seeing She had never even heard of the Israelis and Palestinians work Palestinians. But her first book, The together that inspired The Almond Almond Tree, is a tale of two Tree. Palestinian brothers. After Harvard, Michelle took an internship at her father’s law firm In the story, 12-year-old Palestinian Ichmad sees his family’s and became an attorney. home and possessions confiscated, She also met and married Italian- and his siblings succumb to anger American Joseph Corasanti, with and hatred in the face of war. whom she has two children. is antidote But his brilliance in science wins “One day, I was reading Khaled him a scholarship to an Israeli Hosseini’s The Kite Runner and university, where he encounters thought that politics, history and prejudice and opportunity. religion provide impossible His brother disowns him as he obstacles,” Michelle, 46, to current mixes with Israelis and he even remembered. marries a Jewish girl. “But I had seen with my own eyes However, Ichmad is judged on his how powerful common interests can PEACE HOPE: Michelle Cohen Corasanti abilities and ideas and receives a be.” Nobel Prize. and I became friendly with both She wrote her first draft seven crop of “All I knew was that after the sides. years ago — she had stopped being Holocaust, the found a land “I was invited into the homes of an attorney when her children were without a people for a people without the Palestinians and saw they were born five years previously. a land,” Michelle said. completely different to what is Michelle, who lives in upstate New But when she was 16, Michelle left taught about them by American York and Florida, ended up taking 21 Jewish TV her hometown of Utica and moved to Jews. writing courses before she felt her Israel to study Hebrew and Zionism. “I began to see the Palestinians as story was good enough. And it was while a pupil at the Ben human beings.” “My editor was a Christian Shemen Boarding School that she She became closer to Arabs when fundamentalist and after he read it, found out about Palestinians. she returned to America to take a he ripped it apart, which is what I shows HIDDEN IDENTITY: Minnie Driver swaps her Michelle recalled: “My Israeli master’s degree in Middle Eastern wanted,” she explained. privileged Jewish life to become a governess boyfriend was a Kahanist, which I studies at Harvard. “I wanted to make it the best secretly practises her hidden Judaism, also had no idea about. While there, Michelle won a novel I could. NATHAN ABRAMS holding a seder within the privacy of her “He said that there were 21 Arab fellowship to read Arabic at “He said my story had changed bedroom. countries and the Palestinians should Middlebury College’s summer his whole way of thinking after he explores classic Jewish In doing so, she wears her father’s be transferred to one of them. programme. had read it.” tallit, the garment of a married Jew, its “I even thought the word She said: “One day, I was speaking Having spent time living in Israel, films and characters black and white stripes symbolising her ‘Palestinian’ meant Israeli Jews modern standard Arabic with a Michelle is ever hopeful of a solution Jewish status in a gentile household. before Israel was created.” classmate and three Arabs spoke to to the conflict. WITH all the current shows on British TV Rosina presents an alternative model of It was not until she spent a us. She added: “It is not about who is about Jews (Two Jews on a Cruise, Jewish sexuality to the mainstream summer in Paris studying French “One of them, Sabri, spoke to me right or wrong or showing historical Strictly Kosher, Friday Night Dinner, American fare mentioned in previous that she first encountered Arabs. in colloquial Palestinian Arabic. facts. Grandma’s House, Jewish Mum of the columns. “I met educated Lebanese and “We got talking and I discovered “The conflict has to be seen to Year, Jews at 10) generating a fuss about Although it does replicate the older when I returned to Israel, to enrol in he was taking a post-doctorate in have a human side, through stories. whether they’re good for us or not, it is stereotype of la belle juive (the beautiful the Middle East studies programme chemical physics. “That is what is needed if it is to timely to consider that oddity — a great Jewess), she is constructed from the at the Hebrew University in “He told me his father had been be resolved. British Jewish film. inside, by a British Jewess (Sandra Jerusalem, half of the class were imprisoned for 14 years for helping “If I can just make a small ripple Arguably the very idea of a good Goldbacher), rather than from the non- Palestinians. to buy arms. and advance peace in any way, that British Jewish film is an oxymoron as Jewish outside. “The other half were Israeli Jews “Sabri was one of nine children would be enough for me.” there have been so many poor ones (Suzie Rosina’s Jewishness is defined in sexual Gold and The Infidel, to name just two). terms. When in synagogue, she gazes at But there is one that stands out from the the men below foregrounding her sexual rest — ’s 1998 film The curiosity. Governess. As she leaves, dressed in exotic, Minnie Driver stars as Rosina da Silva, Sephardic clothing (including a black fez), a strong Sephardi Jewess in Victorian she passes in front of a poster for the . She lives a comfortable and ‘first appearance of Rachel La Grande wealthy Jewish life in the East End. Tragedienne — Jewess and Jewel of Paris’, Rosina is religiously defined: the while simultaneously she is shouted at opening sound of the film is the recitation (‘Jew girl’) by some prostitutes, one of of the Shema, accompanied by the image whom offers her ‘lessons’ by baring her of a tallit. breasts. Rosina presents an alternative model of Rosina is certainly a sexual non- representation of the Jewess. She is conformist. She is willing to kiss her unorthodox, rebellious, experimental, betrothed before marriage and defends active, liberated, fun, radical, modern, her action with a flourish: “Actresses care anachronistic, high-spirited, theatrical, not for such convention.” When she takes up her position as a governess on Skye, it is her that makes Rosina models the first moves to seduce her employer Cavendish. Sex between them is initiated when herself on Rosina says, in the context of a photo session, “I dreamt of a beautiful picture we could make of Salomé.” exotic Jewesses She proceeds to remove her outer garments but does not undress further; independent and cosmopolitan. indeed, she covers herself with a white Contrary to convention (on two counts), veil, adding, “I have heard it said that the she aspires❝ to be, like her Aunt Sofka, an ancient Hebrews used to express love for actress who never married. each other entirely covered.” Rosina is at the centre of the narrative In this way, Rosina models herself on and she drives the action. As a sign of such exotic Jewesses as Queen Esther this, she is a blur of activity in contrast to and Salomé. the stereotypically static female roles in Charles’s son Henry (Jonathan Rhys costume drama. Meyers) also falls for Rosina. But where But when her father is murdered, her his father loves her in spite of her mother tries to convince her to marry, Jewishness, Henry does so because of it, thus securing the family’s financial future. for she represents something Rosina refuses and rejects the unobtainable. traditional path, abandoning her dream to Capping it all off, the film is beautifully become an actress. She takes a job as a shot, displaying a rich palette of red and governess on Skye in the home of the gold in contrast to the washed-out diluted Cavendish family where she assists the Scottish landscapes. head of the household (Tom Wilkinson) There are also many allusions to with his photographic experimentation. famous paintings. Overall, The Governess Reinventing herself as ‘Mary is such an unusual film on so many counts Blackchurch’, she removes her that it is definitely a must-see and one of distinguishing Jewish hat, clothing and the few British-Jewish films deserving the hairstyle and replaces them with adjective of excellent. monochrome clothes and glasses in order It certainly serves as a tonic to much of to mimic a gentile identity. the fare currently on TV. However, Rosina’s Jewishness is not entirely suppressed. Nathan Abrams is a senior lecturer in film studies at Bangor University and is the author Invoking her conversos ancestors — of The New Jew in Film: Exploring Jewishness those Jews who were outwardly Christian and Judaism in Contemporary Cinema (IB but remained privately Jewish — Rosina Tauris, 2012).