Farewell Shaare Zion

Some of my strongest memories from growing up in Sioux City, Iowa, have their origin in one specific building. Shaare Zion Synagogue. The synagogue was torn down this week.

My parents were very active members of the synagogue, and that is where I celebrated my bar mitzvah. I was president of Junior Congregation in the months before my family made aliyah and moved to Israel.

I remember the balcony overlooking the pulpit and getting into trouble as a young boy for making noise up there while the congregation was praying down below. I remember Sunday school classes; there were only six of us in our class. I remember bringing Jodie and our one-year-old daughter to see the synagogue on our trip to the States in 1981. I gave a short talk about our lives on a kibbutz and we joined a small group for an Oneg Shabbat.

I remember fondly the congregation's spiritual leaders. Rabbi Hyman Rabinowitz (the synagogue's first rabbi in 1925!) made aliyah and we visited him frequently in Jerusalem. Rabbi Philip Silverstein was the rabbi after him. Rabbi David Zisenwine, who also made aliyah and was a close friend of my family in Israel, and Cantor Harry Sterling both played such an important part of my upbringing, especially as I prepared for my bar mitzvah.

Rabbi Rabinowitz officiated at my brit milah; Rabbis Rabinowitz and Zisenwine attended my wedding.

Shaare Zion's colorful history

My father wrote a book called A History of the Sioux City Jewish Community 1869-1969. The book, although listed on Amazon, is long out-of-print. Among other things in the community's storied past, the book relates part of Shaare Zion Synagogue's colorful history.

"New Synagogue to Be Erected" declared a headline in the Sioux City Journal on March 22, 1923. The article reported that plans for the erection of the synagogue, costing $125,000, had been announced by members of the Modern Orthodox Hebrew Church. The 60 founding members of the synagogue had struggled for nine years to get the building constructed, according to the article. It was only starting April 18, 1926, that the first funds were raised for the construction, and the cornerstone was ceremoniously laid on May 1, 1927.

In his book, my father quoted extensively from the newspaper's account of the synagogue's dedication on September 11, 1927. "The eight scrolls of Shaare Zion Temple were deposited in the new $100,000 edifice at 16th and Douglas Street, and the temple was dedicated late Sunday afternoon. The last rays of the sun's light filtering through the stained glass windows of the synagogue, illuminating the starred blue dome over the ark, made the significant rites deeply impressive to the crowd which had gathered for the occasion."

Unsafe for use and occupancy

Fast forward many, many decades. The Mount Olive Missionary Baptist Church purchased the building in 1994, and it was later owned by Ciudad Cristiana Ministerio Nueva Jerusalem. According to the Sioux City Journal, "due to declining membership … the church could not afford to fix leaks in the roof and make necessary repairs."

In May 2021, the Sioux City Council determined that the structure was unsafe for use or occupancy.  The city put out bids for the demolition project, including removal of debris and site work.

As can be seen in these photographs, the demolition has taken place and Shaare Zion Synagogue is no more, except in my memories and in the history of Sioux City's Jewish community.

Shaare Zion Synagogue, as I remember it

Images shared by George Lindblade of Sioux City Gifts on Facebook.

"Three Women in Sofia" - short story

 

I remember meeting Milena the day I rode on one of Sofia’s rusty orange trams for the first time. I remember boarding, searching for somewhere to validate my ticket. The ticket was a thin piece of paper, I recall, no bigger than the wrapper of a stick of gum. I turned it over, searching in vain for a barcode. Should I show it to the driver at the front of the carriage? Maybe it had been enough to purchase the ticket at the stand? Perhaps, but that didn’t make sense.

“There,” someone called out.

A middle-aged, slightly frumpy woman sitting near the door pointed to a small box on a metal pole. Confused, I approached the pole.

“You must to punch it,” she instructed me, making me grin at her broken English. “There to put!"

I inserted the ticket in a narrow slit, and applied pressure on the handle, looking at the woman for her approval. When I removed the ticket, I saw it was marked by a barely discernible indentation.

“Good,” the woman said.

How did she know to speak to me in English? Was it so obvious that I was a foreigner who didn’t speak her language? Was it my clothes? During those years I rarely changed out of faded jeans and a Spartans T-shirt. Was this the clue that gave me away?

Read the rest of this story on Literary Yard.

"Sozopol" - short story

When she approached me in the hotel lobby, I was reviewing my notes for the presentation I would be giving the next day. My laptop was open on the glass-topped coffee table and twenty-three PowerPoint slides alternated on the screen as I clicked through them repeatedly. I had given this presentation before, many times, but now I was nervous for some inexplicable reason. I was prepared, but on the other hand, I was skeptical of how my talk would be received.

“I am a big fan of your books!”

I looked up to find a young woman standing at my side. She was tall, with a slim figure, and jet-black hair. She had a pleasant face; barely visible eyebrows topped her almond-shaped eyes; and her lips were curled into an inviting smile. Quite attractive, actually. Her English carried an Eastern European accent, a sign that she was a local woman. I had seen her before, somewhere, but no full recognition took hold. After a moment’s hesitation, I responded to her compliment with a simple, “Thank you. Have we met?”

“I attended this morning’s session!” she said excitedly.

Of course, she was an attendee of the seminar! I had spotted her in the mixed audience—Bulgarians and participants from outside the country, like me. “It was quite an interesting discussion,” I said. “And you are...?”

“Desislava,” she said, extending her hand and sitting down uninvited on a lounge chair. “But you can call me Desi.”

Read the rest of the story on The Write Launch.

From the Archive: Why I Write about Bulgaria

It was a cloudy, spring day and my wife and I were sitting on a bench, waiting for the Regional Historical Museum to open its doors for the day. We were in Vratsa, a small town in northwestern Bulgaria, 2-hour's train journey north of Sofia. A statue of 19th century revolutionary Hristo Botev overlooked the pavement, the hero's arm clenched across his chest as if he were about to launch into a fervent call to rebel against the long-gone Ottoman oppressors. A gypsy boy approached us.

The boy mumbled something in Bulgarian, a language we had failed to master despite several meetings with a tutor who emphasized grammar, rather than conversation. The boy held out his hand.

Read the rest of this article.

My Story 'Rakiya' in Print

My short story 'Rakiya' was published in Vagabond, Bulgaria's English language magazine, back in December, but I only received copies in the mail today!

The long delivery time can probably be blamed on the COVID-19 pandemic which interrupted many things such as international postal services.

In any case, it is very exciting to see the story in print!

You can read 'Rakiya' on the Vagabond website.

What Israel Needs Now

I would never have imagined that I would one day support Bennett as my country’s leader.

According to outgoing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s new coalition is coming together only because votes have been “stolen from the right [and given] to the left.” In his words, the coalition formed by Prime Minister-designate Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid is “the greatest election fraud” in the history of democracy.

"Let go," Bennett beseeched Netanyahu in a televised address. "Let the country move forward." Bennett called on Netanyahu not to leave “scorched earth” behind him.

A unity government to bring our country back together

I have voted for the leftwing Meretz party in every election. Israel’s incoming government will be its most rightwing ever (despite Netanyahu’s repeated assertions that it will be a radical leftwing government). Still, I support it.

Meretz is one of eight political parties in the parliamentary coalition that will form the government. Rightwing parties, leftwing parties, religious Israelis and secular Israelis, and for the first time ever, an Arab Israeli party.

Habitual liar

What was so wrong with Netanyahu, Israel’s leader for the past 12 years (and 3 additional years in an earlier term of office)? Sure, he helped Israel get the vaccines necessary to combat the coronavirus crisis (although he totally mishandled the crisis due to political considerations, whereas Bennett offered a solid, carefully thought-out plan for recovery), and established formal peace agreements with four Arab countries, and kept Israel’s economy on track through difficult years, but he did this at a high price for Israel’s democracy. Netanyahu is on trial for corruption, in three separate cases. He is a master politician who will do everything possible to stay in power, including by lying repeatedly to the public.

“I have never negotiated with [Mansour Abbas, leader of the United Arab List party],” Netanyahu stated yesterday. According to Abbas, the two held many negotiations over the past few years on “forming a government, joining a government, and preventing a government.” Abbas will be part of the coalition that will replace Netanyahu.

(This is just one example of Netanyahu's blatant lies.)

Unprecedented warning

Protests against the new government are legitimate, Bennett said, but a "violent machine” was acting against the new coalition through “a funded and directed operation.”

The previous evening, Shin Bet leader Nadav Argaman warned that “this discourse may be interpreted among certain groups or individuals as one that allows violent and illegal activity and could even lead to harm to individuals.”

Analysts suggested his words came in the wake of rabbis who called on their public to do anything possible to stop the new government. In 1995, rabbis issued similar statements and a short while later, one of their followers assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Israel is on tenterhooks these days, and anything could happen before the Knesset votes on the new government. Bennett and Lapid are carefully navigating their way forward, despite ongoing protests and harassments.

I hope and pray that they will succeed.

Image from Naftali Bennett's Twitter feed.

Arabesque and Efendi

"Arabesque is much more than just a small boutique hotel ... It is a labor of love shared by Muslims, Jews and Christians alike.  At Arabesque we view art and culture as a unifying factor, even – or especially – in a region of contention like the Middle East." From the Arabesque website

Unfortunately, the 'unifying factor' was far from evident in the past week as riots and clashes between Arabs and Jews spread like wildfire through Israeli cities with mixed populations.

Evan Fallenberg, owner of Arabesque in Acre (Akko), posted the following on Facebook:

"On Wednesday, shortly after midnight, Arabesque fell to the hands of a violent mob, in spite of the best efforts of our neighbors, who deflected the attack time and again until the mob grew to fifty and there were threats to burn down the entire neighborhood."

Arabesque was not the only victim in Acre of the widespread violence. The nearby Efendi boutique hotel was also torched and its adjacent world-famous Uri Buri restaurant was burned down. Jodie and I had stayed at the Efendi and had eaten at Uri Buri on a romantic weekend four years ago.

Uri Jeremias, owner of Effendi and the restaurant, told Yediot Aharonot this week that they were specifically targeted because they served as an example of coexistence in Acre.

Coexistence in Israel seems to be hanging by a thread these days. There have been clashes between Arab rioters and Israeli police in Jaffa (Yafo), Lod, and elsewhere. There have been shootings and attempted lynches, of both Jews and Arabs. It should be noted that some of the violence has been perpetrated by right-wing extremist Jews.

There has been sharp criticism of both the police's inability to handle Israel's internal crisis (at a time when there is a serious war with Hamas in Gaza) and the government, which has consistently ignored the country's Arab minority.

But, despite everything, there is hope. Uri Jeremias remains optimistic and plans to rebuild Efendi and re-open the Uri Buri restaurant, "better than before".

Evan Fallenberg posted: "It is not yet clear whether the people in this sad, beautiful, ravaged land can ever learn to respect the differences and distinctions between us and use them for an enhanced joint future, whether the wrongs committed by all parties can be righted. Only this, I know for certain: the friendships I have made in Acre are real and unassailable, even by hatred, anger and muscle. From this, I will build a future."

Evan Fallenberg is an American-born Israeli author and a translator of Hebrew books, plays and films. I have previously reviewed his novels When We Danced on Water and The Parting Gift.

Related articles:

The Sidewalk of Coexistence

Romantic Weekend in Israel’s other Walled Old City

Iftar

Last night, I joined twenty-five members of my Marketing team at the home of our colleague, Amira, in Kfar Qasim, an Arab city east of Tel Aviv. The occasion was Iftar, the break-the-fast meal eaten by Muslims each evening during the month of Ramadan.

The food, prepared by Amira, her mother and her sister, was served on the long table set in Amira's yard. Roasted chicken, legs of lamb, stuffed peppers and zucchini, tabbouleh salad, stuffed grape leaves, and a variety of kubbeh. Delicious and plentiful, more than we could eat!

Desserts were traditional, and very sweet. Katayef, baklava, and other pastries.

It was such a wonderful experience to share Amira's culture and traditions, even if it was for just one evening. Shukran!

Ramadan Mubarak!

Related article:

I Celebrate Ramadan! On My Own. In My Backyard.