WRITERS SHULAMITH HAREVEN VOICE OF THE LEVANT MORIS FARHI hulamith Hareven is one of Israel's most ligious differences". It nurtures the sort of per­ distinguished writers. A member of the son "who knows five languages and their lit­ SAcademy of the Hebrew Language, her erature to perfection" and distrusts powers and work encompasses novels, poetry, essays and cultures "that speak one language only". Al­ children's books. She is yet to be published in ways applying "the third eye and the sixth Great Britain; fortunately, three of her novels, sense", it is the humanism that "was created superbly translated by Hillel Halkin, have ap­ gradually, over a long, long period of time". peared in the United States. They are City of Consequently, it knows that "not everything Many Days (Doubleday, 1977), The Miracle has a solution" and is wise enough to exercise Hater (North Point Press, 1988) and Prophet "great patience". (North Point Press, 1990). Today, this mellow brand of humanism Shulamith Hareven is also a prominent ac­ barely survives in the· Levant-or anywhere tivist in Israel's peace movement. Having else. Today, intolerance, fanaticism, political ex­ served in the Haganah and, later, in the Israeli pediency and disregard for life have a strangle­ Defence Forces, she has first-hand knowledge hold even on liberal systems. The silent of conflict-"the total failure of common majority has multiplied; it continues to betray sense", as she defines it. She has also covered basic human rights by condoning with lunatic several of Israel's wars as a frontline corre­ complacency everything that will keep it fat spondent and, latterly, has been a close ob­ and contented. Shulamith Hareven rightly server of the Intifada. identifies these evils as mutations of Mani­ Like all true artists, she has the best insight chaean dualism and, therefore, non-indigenous into her own psyche. In an essay which she de­ to the Levant. She further identifies the most livered at the Barbican in London last year, and virulent of these evils, the kitsch totalitarianism which is due to appear in Poetry Nation Re­ and genocide which induces the schizophrenic view, she declares: "I am a Levantine." pursuit of "institutionalized sentimentality and The definition conjures the safety of a institutionalized brutality" as the outcome of a strong, protective arm, the hope of a compas­ Christianity cynically misused by Europe. Now, sionate bosom. Levantinism is, indeed, the per­ in those countries of the Levant where the soul fect perspective for fathoming the spirit which has been dazzled by western materialism, Le­ has forged Hareven into prominence both in vantinism is a mark of backwardness: in some Israeli literature and in the peace movement. Arab countries, it is virtually treason; in Israel, Hareven is the first to acknowledge that Le­ it is the sanity-"the common sense"-which vantinism has some deplorable aspects, that at is continuously spurned by the blinkered follow­ its worst it can manifest "the moral principles ers of unenlightened leaders and religious fana­ of an alleycat". But, in true Levan tine spirit, tics. she has the capacity to accommodate transgres­ All of which make Hareven's declaration a MORIS FARHI is a mem­ sions: after all, to be human is to be imperfect. bold one. For what she is stating, unequivo­ ber of the Editorial The virtues of Levantinism, on the other hand, cally, is that, above and beyond the universal Board of THE JEWISH are legion and outweigh all its shadows. values which every artist seeks to reach in QUARTERLY. His latest novel is Journey For Hareven, Levantinism is "the colour­ his/her work, she has also undertaken to up­ Through the Wilderness. blind pluralism that sees no racial, ethnic or re- hold the values of a whole region of which her 26 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY own country, Israel, is but only a part. Loosely, the plot revolves around Sara Consequendy, she is a constant target for whose father, Don Isaac, runs away with a obloquy. For the undertaking to serve Levan­ paramour (and is found, two decades later, in tinism's wisdom-distilled over several millenia an Egyptian asylum). Sara grows up in the from the region's profusion of cultures-im­ company of her mother, Gracia, grandfather poses the condition that she must challenge and grandmother Amarillo, sister Ofra, and the any behaviour or policy, including her own liberal, if not liberated, Aunt Victoria: a normal people's, that falls short of sanctifying life. In family, if the unique and intense relationships an age when mankind is poised to destroy the that govern families can qualify as normal. A whole of creation, there cannot be a saner atti­ British Captain, Tony Crowther, starts his tude. Army service in Palestine by befriending the Yet another characteristic which she at­ Amarillos with orders to pick up what intel­ tributes to Levantinism is "that quality which ligence he can on any subversive activity from knows that there is no great art, no serious lit­ the Amarillos' milieu of Jews and Arabs; but erature, without a hidden theology". This the growing conflict between the two peoples quality dominates her work. By "theology" she and his role in the Army plague his conscience. does not mean a code of religious behaviour Just before World War II, he successfully ap­ but, quite simply, the natural presence of God: plies for a discharge, returns to Jerusalem as a God the Supreme Creator whose miraculous civilian. Matti, Sara's boyfriend in her teens compositions we witness everywhere and at and, briefly, her lover in later years, becomes a every moment, and with whom we can deal di­ leading figure-and bomb-maker-in a Jewish recdy, without the need for any mediation, as underground group. Elias, Sara's husband, a we used to when we trusted our spirituality. lawyer sympathetic to the Arabs' aspirations, The presence of this Creator is felt-some­ nevertheless devotes himself to defending times even glimpsed in the reader's inner eye­ members of the Haganah and thus emerges as in all three of Hareven 's novels that have someone who will have a key role in the cre­ appeared in English. These works contain a ation of the Jewish state. An immigrant from classical density; or, perhaps I should say, the Germany, Dr Barzel, builds up a hospital classical qualities that permeate them give them where Sara is eventually employed and where, a density that is as durable as antiquity. in later years, victims of the disturbances-of which he himself becomes a victim-will find ensity should not be confused with ob­ some succour. Taleb, the son of the Amarillos' scurity. There can be no work of art Arab friends, Subhi and Faiza, joins the Palesti­ D without density. Invariably, this density nian nationalist movement. Dr Barzel's mother, is almost palpable, almost tactile; it contains a Elizabeth, sensing the impending Holocaust, weight which is as satisfYing to our imagination emigrates from Germany, but rather than as­ as ancient stone is to our hands. similate to her new country, tries to impose her Density of this calibre can only be achieved "superior" Germanic ways on all and sundry. through purity of insight, through the ability World War II intensifies the three-cornered to explore the individual mind and its extraor­ conflict between Jews, Arabs and the British. dinary habitat, the mass unconscious. Density The end of the War augurs further conflict; but of this calibre rediscovers for us our favourite what sort of peace, if any? myths, whisks us to mystic flights and invests A novel that uses a large canvas and covers a harsh reality with meanings that soften it in lengthy period must have a remarkable-a dia­ order to make it bearable, even acceptable. chronic-structure to accommodate all the And density of this calibre can only be com­ themes and nuances; it must billow and municated with a language that flows clear and tighten, drift and anchor all at the same time. unhindered, reflecting the wisdom, poetry and City of Many Days achieves this condition with resonance of life. Since all these components remarkable panache. can be blighted by an insensitive hand, great Most of the characters--except for Matti tribute must be paid to Hillel Balkin's transla­ and Elias who do get involved in the inde­ tion. pendence movement-are tangential to the City of Many Days is set in Jerusalem and main events of the times, yet serve as litmuses has, as its protagonist, Sara Amarillo, born to a of history. Much as they seek to lead quiet, well-to-do Ladino-speaking Sephardi family. peaceful lives, they cannot escape the tremors The narrative, spanning the early 1920s to of the events that are reshaping the region. 1945, the end of World War II, provides a The story unfolds in short vignettes, each bear­ panorama of the British Mandate years. The ing impressionistic strokes. Thus, as the charac­ labours that led to the birth of the Jewish ters interpret or misinterpret events, are acute state are highlighted with exotic echoes of or shortsighted about the future, we sense the preceding Ottoman period when the idea rather than witness the changes. The subdety of a homeland for the Jews started gaining of the narrative is further enhanced by "the ground. city of many days" itself, Jerusalem. 28 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY Shulamith Hareven's Jerusalem exudes a tians to bear children, either hid their sons or breath that is as alive as Durrell's Alexandria, sent them floating down the Nile to childless Kazantzak.is's Crete and Joyce's Dublin.