Book review: I Want You to Know We're Still Here, by Esther Safran Foer

 

I Want You to Know We’re Still Here: A Post-Holocaust Memoir

by Esther Safran Foer.  © 2020.  242 pages.

I found this memoir to be confusing – I couldn't keep track of which relative was which. What can I say? - my concentration is shot these days.  I decided to go with the flow, just soaking in the images and the events, without trying to keep track of the characters.   Once I changed my reading style, I was able to get something out of the book.  

The Foer family is way up there in the ranks of American intellectuals.  From Wikipedia: 

• Albert Foer, a lawyer and president of the American Antitrust Institute, 

• Esther Safran Foer worked as press secretary for presidential candidate George McGovern. She founded public-relations firm FM Strategic Communications in 2002 and served as Executive Director of Sixth & I Synagogue from 2007 to 2016.

And their adult children:

• Franklin Foer is a staff writer at The Atlantic and former editor of The New Republic, commentating on contemporary issues from a liberal perspective.

• Jonathan Safran Foer is an American novelist. He is known for his novels Everything Is Illuminated, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Here I Am, and for his non-fiction works Eating Animals and We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast. He teaches creative writing at New York University.

• Joshua Foer is the founder of Atlas Obscura and of Sefaria.

This is the first book I have read by someone in the family, although I frequently use Sefaria when attending torah study.

Esther Safran Foer shares her search for close family members whom she never

knew, because they were killed in the Holocaust.  Her purpose is not just to find

them, but to memorialize them, and to learn about their lives in their small town

in Poland.

Both the Bible and Jewish tradition place great emphasis on the importance of names.  Foer’s quest is spurred partly by the simple need for her to learn the name of her sister whom she never knew.  It is a privilege not available to everyone to be able to know the names of previous generations.  

One of the reasons the book was confusing to me is that people changed names, for instance when they emigrated, or were known by more than one name all along.  It is a poignant moment when Foer discovers her sister’s name.

I had a revelatory moment near the end of the book that relates to me trying to reconcile myself to the loss of democracy that is likely to happen to us in the next few years. 

In the biblical book of Exodus, before Moses ventures back to Egypt to free the Israelites, Moses asks God, What?!  Who, me?  I can’t free the people from Pharaoh!   God replies, You’ll know that you will be able to do it, after you have freed the people and you come to worship me on the mountain.  

Come on, now, God! That’s really nothing at all to go on – no proof for this moment, before attempting the difficult feats ahead.  Moses is forced to have faith that he will, one day, be worshipping on the mountain with the freed people.

 

At the end of this book by Foer, as the family is burying the matriarch – the sole member of her immediate family who survived the holocaust  –  one of the grandchildren observes the large number of family members celebrating the long life of the matriarch, and says, “Take that, Hitler!”  While Hitler & Co were able to inflict death and terror on many, including Foer’s immediate family, the Foer family’s subsequent generations are proof that Hitler’s small-minded vision of humanity did not ultimately win against that family.

Likewise, I am forced to believe that democracy will prevail, although it may take a long time to get there, and there may be a horrible detour, from which I wish I could spare my children and all children. (I’m trying to help us avoid that horrible detour, but I’m only powerful enough to do it when you join in the effort.)  Moses did worship on the mountain, as God had promised.   We must proceed with faith.  

The rest of the books I finished during May 2021 at this link.

History of These United States, the month of June, since 1900

 Selections from the Equal Justice Initiative History of Racial Injustice calendar.  I’ve chosen historical items from after 1900. 

From the month of June

June 1, 1921  (one hundred years ago)

White people attack prosperous Black community in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and burn it to the ground during two days of rioting that leaves up to 300 people dead.

June 2, 2011 (ten years ago)

Alabama legislature passes anti-immigrant law designed to force immigrants to flee the state; Governor Robert Bentley later signs it despite language that legalizes racial profiling.

(My understanding, after glancing at headlines, is that some parts of this law have since been annulled through court cases.)

June 9, 1963

Civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer and other civil rights activists are arrested on false charges in Winona, Mississippi, and severely beaten by police while in jail.

June 12, 1963 (3 days after the previously mentioned event)

NAACP field secretary and World War II veteran Medgar Evers is assassinated by a white supremacist in the driveway of his home in Jackson, Mississippi, in front of his wife and children.

June 14, 1973

Two young Black girls, 14-year-old Minnie and 12-year-old Mary Alice Relf, are sterilized at a health clinic in Montgomery, Alabama, without their knowledge or consent.

June 17, 1971

President Richard Nixon declares “War on Drugs,” contributing to 700% increase in U.S. prison population by 2007.

June 26, 1959

Prince Edward County, Virginia, avoids integration by closing public schools for years.

First Lines: April 2021 edition

 

Below are the first lines of the books I finished reading in April 2021. 

 

 

Book 1

Thinking with Jimmy

I arrived in Heidelberg, Germany, on a hot Saturday morning the day after leaving Newark, New Jersey.  This was the beginning of my stay at Heidelberg University as the 2018 recipient of the James W.C. Pennington Award.  

 

Book 2

Biblical commentaries by their nature tend to concentrate on the meaning and significance of individual sections.  However, it is important that we also see what are essentially close-up or limited-range pictures in their wider context.

Along with

There was a certain man of Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham son of Elihu son of Tohu son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.

 

Book 3

The first time our father brought Andrea to the Dutch House, Sandy, our housekeeper came to my sister’s room and told us to come downstairs. “Your father has a friend he wants you to meet,” she said.

 

Book 4

Part One: 1939

Chapter I : February 22nd

The moment that Miss Morrison woke up she felt that something pleasant was going to happen to-day.

 

Book 5

“Why can’t we have nice things?”

Perhaps there’s been a time when you’ve pondered exactly this question.  And by nice things, you weren’t thinking about hovercraft or laundry that does itself.  You were thinking about more basic aspects of a high-functioning society, like adequately funded schools or reliable infrastructure, wages that keep workers out of poverty or a public health system to handle pandemics.

 

Book 6

Lacey used to have these Black history checks. Each check had a different Black hero on it. MLK, Rosa Parks, Frederick Douglass. So Lacey was at a store chatting with the cashier and they’re having fun. After she’s all rung up, Lacey handed the young white cashier a check with a picture of Harriet Tubman on it and the cashier said, “Wow! You have checks with your picture on ’em?” 

 

The titles and authors revealed:

 

 

Book 1

 

Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own, by Eddie S. Glaude Jr.  © 2020.   272 pages.

Glaude offers us an overview of Baldwin’s evolving outlook on humanity, and Glaude’s own deep insights.  I recommend this book.

 

Book 2

I finished the 1 Samuel part of  1 & 2 Samuel (Understanding the Bible Commentary Series) by Mary J. Evans  © 2000.

Alongside, I read the biblical book of 1 Samuel, probably first written in the period 630–540 BCE, about events and people ~500-600 years before that.

King Saul is a tragic figure.  God decides that government under the “judges” system is unworkable, but also is not enthusiastically for the inherited monarchy form of government.  King Saul gets caught in the middle of it all. Democracy is not mentioned.

 

Book 3

The Dutch House, by Ann Patchett.  © 2019.  337 pages.  Whip-smart kids in financially rich but spiritually poor family circumstances.  Good writing, and very interesting portrayal of sibling relationship. Read for book club.

 

  

Book 4

 Nothing to Report, by Carola Oman.  © 1940.  222 pages

This is on a list of books that the publisher has labeled “Furrowed Middlebrow” books.  I liked this one a little less than the first Furrowed Middlebrow book I read. 

A couple quotes I like:

At Willows, Westbury-on-the-Green, for instance, it was absolutely impossible to say or do anything in the parlour that was not thrillingly audible in the bedroom exactly above.

“I have told Rose that there will be a chauffer for dinner,” she ended, frowning slightly at the cannibalistic sound of her sentence.

 

Book 5

The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together, by Heather McGhee.  © 2021.  395 pages.  A revealing book.  All of us incur a cost from racism.

 

 

Book 6

You'll Never Believe What Happened to Lacey: Crazy Stories about Racism, by Amber Ruffin, Lacey Lamar © 2021.  240 pages. A comedian and her sister write about racist incidents they have experienced.  When learning about racism, many tend to focus on the truly horrific events that result in killings or beatings.  This book shows us the everyday occurrences of racism in our society.

Not finished

The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware (© 2019.  352 pages).   Read for book club.  Did not finish.  But did get 50% of the way through.  This is a horror novel, not a genre I can usually read even in the best of times.

Committed to Cake

My mother was a woman of commitment.  When she married my father in December 1955, she promised her life to him (and he to hers) and they lived out that commitment.  Together with my Dad she committed to work in the civil rights movement in the ‘50s and ‘60s.  She committed to do her best to raise her family.  She committed to be the best teacher she could, and fulfilled that commitment by teaching science and by pushing for education for gifted students in the city public schools.  She lengthened her commitment by teaching thinking skills to new teachers.  

One of the things she was committed to was home baking.  She did not insist on special ingredients - no expensive butter nor particular type of flour for her.  But don’t you dare bring a manufactured pie crust or store-bought cake into her presence.    

Mom was famous for her pound cake.  It was actually Joyce Hatch’s Pound Cake, since Mom got the recipe from the pastor’s wife when we lived in Columbus, Mississippi for a year.  Thank you, Joyce Hatch, for giving our family the enduring tradition of this cake. 

When I decided yesterday to recreate her pound cake, I found out just what level of commitment is required - this cake takes 1 ½ hours baking time, and that’s not including the mixing of the ingredients.  I cancelled my plans for the morning.

It also requires a heavy investment of sugar.  After Mom’s online funeral, we the family distributed some of her recipes to those who attended.  One person said there must be a typo in the pound cake recipe - does it really call for 3 cups of sugar?!  

I was astonished that it calls for 1 tablespoon of vanilla.  My husband likes vanilla everything, so he is pleased with this discovery.  

My father called it “Joyce Hatch’s ½ pound cake,” because the recipe calls for only half a pound of butter (two sticks).  Let’s not neglect the 1 cup of sour cream, 6 eggs, and 3 cups of flour that also contribute to its heft.  When it’s all put together, I think it weighs 3 or 4 pounds.  It is a substantial cake, a cake of commitment.  

My Mom’s recipe is missing a key detail, which the baker is just automatically supposed to know - bake this cake in a tube pan, buttered and floured.

Mom’s birthday was last Friday; she would have been 89 years old.  

Mom, I made your signature cake in your memory.  I miss you.  Thank you for being a woman of commitment.

Joyce Hatch’s Pound Cake 

 

½ pound butter                 

3 cups sugar                              

6 eggs

1 Tablespoon vanilla

3 cups flour

¼ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup sour cream

 

Cream butter and sugar well.  Add eggs, one at a time. Alternate dry ingredients and sour cream.  Bake 1 ½ hours at 325 degrees.

Only 8 ingredients!

1.5 hours later, the cake is done.

Delicious with fresh fruit, or 
juicy strawberries (like
for shortcake) or with ice cream

And we turned it into emergency cake!
16 slices being stored in a 
freezer in an undisclosed location.

History of These United States, the month of May

Selections from the Equal Justice Initiative History of Racial Injustice calendar.  I’ve chosen historical items from after 1900. 

From the month of May

May 7, 1955

In Belzoni, Mississippi NAACP member Rev. George Lee is fatally shot after angering local white people by attempting to register to vote.

May 8, 2009

Members of the Ku Klux Klan burn a cross in an African American neighborhood in Ozark, Alabama, to intimidate Black residents.  (One of the people convicted of this crime broke his parole.)

May 15, 1916 - note - multiple trigger warnings on this history

Mob of 15,000 burns alive African American teenager Jesse Washington in Waco, Texas.

May 18, 1980

After four Miami police officers are acquitted in brutal beating death of Arthur McDuffie, violent protests erupt, leaving 23 dead and hundreds injured. Here is a long article from 1980 (which I admit I have not read all of) about this incident, which seems horrifyingly familiar in today's news stories.

May 24, 2013

Federal judge rules Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona, illegally targeted Latinos during raids and traffic stops based on their race

2009 article: (ACLU) Lawsuit Charging Sheriff Arpaio Illegally Targeted Latinos In Maricopa County Can Go Forward

2011 article: U.S. Finds Pervasive Bias Against Latinos by Arizona Sheriff

2016 article: Sheriff Joe Arpaio, Accused of Targeting Latinos, Is Charged With Contempt

2017 article: What you need to know about former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio’s record on illegal immigration

2017 article:  Trump pardons Arpaio

May 25, 2020

A white Minneapolis police officer kills George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, by pinning his neck to the ground and choking him, sparking global protests against police brutality.

First Lines: March 2021 edition

Below are the first lines of the 6 books I finished reading in March.  

 

Book 1

November 1910

Asbury Park, New Jersey

For Thomas Williams, it was better to be no one than someone in Asbury Park.  

Williams lived in a city that was not meant for him.  It was designed as a haven for godly and wealthy white people.  

 

 

Book 2

1.  The River Bank

The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home.  First with brooms, then with dusters; then on ladders and steps and chairs, with a brush and a pail of whitewash; till he had dust in his throat and eyes, and splashes of whitewash all over his black fur, and an aching back and weary arms.  Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing.

 

 

Book 3

The promise of liberty is not written in blood or engraved in stone; it’s embroidered into the fabric of our nation. And so is Alexander Hamilton. My husband. My hero. My betrayer.

 

Book 4

Part 1: Germination

When it comes to the streets, there’s rules.

         They ain’t written down, and you won’t find them in a book.  It’s natural stuff you know the moment your momma let you out the house.  Kinda like how you know how to breathe without somebody telling you.

Book 5

On her fortieth birthday Alison Penny woke, after a night of torrential wind and rain, to a world of stillness washed in pale sunshine.

 

Book 6

Chapter 1: Up the Mountain to Alm-Uncle

From the old and pleasantly situated village of Mayenfeld, a footpath winds through green and shady meadows to the foot of the mountains, which on this side look down from their stern and lofty heights upon the valley below.

 

 

The titles and authors revealed:

 

 

Book 1

The Rope: A True Story of Murder, Heroism, and the Dawn of the NAACP , by Alex Tresniowski.  © 2021.   335 pages.

This book is written as a thriller, interweaving the story of the murder of a young girl and the story of Ida B. Wells.  A Black man becomes the prime suspect in the murder, putting him at risk of being lynched.  The book’s focus is partly on how the detective on the case “roped in" the true murderer with a complex scheme.  

The book also tells the story of Ida B. Wells in her actions against lynching of Blacks, extra-judicial murders often accomplished by hanging the victim – the rope.  And there are numerous accountings of lynchings, including ones that occurred in Northern states.  We must disabuse ourselves of the notion that racism only occurs in the southern United States.  

The book includes a conversation which I find it hard to forgive Susan B. Anthony for.  Perhaps it is good to be reminded that our national heroes are/were not perfect.   I read it for a book discussion in an anti-racist group. Well worth the read, with plenty to discuss.

 

Book 2

The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame © 1908. Audio version (unabridged, 6 hours 35 minutes) narrated by Shelly Frasier. Children’s lit.

256 pages (that’s for the hardcover version with illustrations).   

Two words to describe this book:  wistful calm. Which is not to say there is not peril.  The language is poetic.  This is children’s lit, with complex vocabulary and sentence structure, but there’s nothing wrong with that.

Book 3

My Dear Hamilton: A Novel of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton

by Stephanie Dray, Laura Kamoie.  © 2018.  621 pages. 

The writing style of the first half of this book irked me, but it improved as the book went on, and I enjoyed reading the latter half.  The story is written from the point of view of Eliza Hamilton, Alexander Hamilton’s wife.  She was an amazing woman in her own right, with many lasting accomplishments, as well as in the part she played at the side of her husband in politics. 

I have not seen nor heard the musical Hamilton, so I was not very familiar with the story of The Family Hamilton.  Their lives held both tragedy and triumph. As portrayed in this novel, among the American Revolutionary men, the only man who is not a total jerk is a foreigner, a non-American.  

The way politics is described, not much has changed in 200+ years. Eliza Hamilton sides with the Federalists, and fears if the party of Jefferson wins office, the nascent union will collapse, with guillotines everywhere. I was left with the unanswered question -- how did we go from the Federalist Party of Alexander Hamilton to the Federalist Society of today? 

I read this book for book club.  We had a great in-person discussion, outside, with face masks, on a chilly afternoon. We gathered around a fire, a scene related only faintly to General Washington’s Continental Army at Valley Forge.

Book 4

Concrete Rose, by Angie Thomas.  © 2021.  368 pages

This is the prequel to the book The Hate U Give by the same author, a Y.A. book about a black youth shot by cops and the aftermath of that violence.  As far as I can tell, this book does an excellent job of portraying the challenges, dangers, and horrors that young Black men faced in the 1990s (and to a great extent, still face today).  I read it for book club, and there was plenty to discuss.  

Book 5

Miss Plum and Miss Penny by Dorothy Evelyn Smith.  © 1959.   214 pages.  Recommended by Aileen of the blog The Small House in Charlottesville.

A most enjoyable tale about an unexpected houseguest, along with a plentiful amount of tea drinking.  This book was available on Kindle for less than $5.00.  I was delighted to discover at the end of this edition a long list of books under the title “Furrowed Middlebrow,” a collection of publisher Dean Street Press. 

 

Book 6

Heidi, by Johanna Spyri, published 1881.

Audio book published 2006(?), read by Johanna Ward.  Translator not named -- and that bothers me.  The translator is important.

I loved this book as a child.  I see now that I had a propensity to love books with overly sunny characters. I also loved the story of Pollyanna, although that love derived partially from my fascination-horror of the notion of taking calf’s foot jelly to an ill person as a gift.  This audio book version of Heidi was well narrated, and as a whole was useful to me as a sleep aid.  There is an element of classism in the story, as well as a facile theology that might be okay for little kids but doesn’t cut it in today’s world.

History of These United States, the month of April

 History of These United States, the month of April

Selections from the Equal Justice Initiative History of Racial Injustice calendar.  I’ve chosen historical items from after 1900.   

The last item (April 22; McCleskey v. Kemp) is for a court case that some have deemed the death penalty's Dred Scott ruling, that is, one of the greatest failures of the Supreme Court. I had never heard of this court case.

From the month of April

April 4, 1968

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.

April 5, 1921

Murder trial begins against white Georgia planter accused of killing 11 Black sharecroppers; he is convicted.  (A more detailed account is here.)

April 11, 1913

President Woodrow Wilson’s cabinet begins government-wide segregation of workplaces, restrooms, and lunchrooms.

April 13, 1947

Civil rights activist Bayard Rustin is arrested for sitting with a white man on a public bus in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and spends 22 days on a prison chain gang.

April 19, 1989

Five Black and Latino teens are arrested for raping a jogger in New York City’s Central Park and spend more than a decade in prison before being exonerated.

April 22. 1987

U.S. Supreme Court upholds death penalty in McCleskey v. Kemp despite proof it is racially biased, reasoning that racial discrimination in the criminal justice system is “inevitable.”