"By common consent, Kafka is not only the strongest modern Jewish writer, but the Jewish writer. His only rival increasingly seems to be Freud, who, together with Kafka, may yet redefine Jewish culture for us, and so change our sense of Jewish memory."
This is what Harold Bloom wrote in his forward of the late Yosef Yerushalmi's monumental work Zakhor. which explores how modern Jews relate to their histories and memories.
Yerushalmi, the world's leading scholar of Jewish history in our time, has passed away at the age of 77. Check out the New York Times and Forward for informative obituaries.
His loss is a great one to the Jewish world today, but his contributions are vast and have affected our community in ways of which the average American Jew might be completely unaware.
The Whole Phamily is interested in the name Yerushalmi. Before learning about his background and upbringing, we posited that he was a native Jerusalemite, as the Hebrew "Yerushalmi" literally translates as "of Jerusalem" and is a surname used for families who have lived for generations in that city.
Yet, we learned that Yerushalmi has a similar heritage to many of our own Eastern European-born ancestors who immigrated here at the turn of the century. His father, Yehuda Yerushalmi as noted on Zakhor's dedication page, emigrated to British-ruled Palestine when, we are guessing, he Hebraicized his name. He then later settled in the Bronx, where the younger Yerushalmi was born and raised.
The concept of changing one's given last name (like Weiss, Perlman, or Ginsberg) at the turn of the century and into a Hebrew equivalent (such as Halivni, Ben-Yehuda, or Ha'am) is still practiced today. At Ellis Island (likely in Galveston as well), Jews Americanized their names, but in Israel many Jews have Hebraicized.
Last week some of us at the Whole Phamily had the incredible honor and privilege to bear witness to the kiddushin and nissuin (Jewish marriage) of our dear friend D. At the wedding tisch (where the bride, kallah, rocked the house!) prior to the ceremony, D touched on the topic of memory, and we could not help but think that he was referring to Yerushalmi, who passed away only weeks before the next chapter of D's journey. We believe that all things happen for a reason: Yerushalmi's own memory wafted through the honored air of perhaps one of the most bashert couples we have ever had the mazal of knowing.
Is this too much? It's way over our heads here at the Whole Phamily. So,we think it's time to kick back and reflect on these Heavy Things.
Meanwhile, if you find an affordable paperback of Zakhor, let us know, since we are returning the copy that has rested on our bookshelf for many years.
Why is that the case? For your Jewish geography-desiring ears:
Our copy belonged to an old camp friend's college friend who he has known since 8th grade, but that we met on our own during our post-college years through another friend we worked with at a different camp (but of the same Jewish camping movement). The book is inscribed by his college girlfriend prior to his own post-college visit to Minsk.
And, isn't Minsk (which is now-Belarus) where my great-great grandfather Yisroel Bear was from? (see the Whole Phamily's 2nd blog post).
The connections are endless...
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