The Only Daughter

A.B. Yehoshua

Translated by Stuart Schoffman

Rachele Luzzato is 12 years old when she learns her father is seriously ill. As her family’s future looks increasingly uncertain, Rachele’s loneliness as an only child begins to intensify. A subtle, sensitive story of family, love and growing up by a masterful storyteller.

Hope is a Woman’s Name

Amal Elsana Alh’jooj

At birth it was only Amal’s father who looked at her and said “I see hope in her face. I want to call her Amal [Hope] in the hope that Allah will give us boys after her.” The fifth daughter in a patriarchal society and an indigenous Palestinian Bedouin in a Jewish state, Amal came into this world fighting for her right to exist. Today she fights for the rights of her people, as well as women and minorities across the Middle East.

Launch: Hebrew Edition of When the Grey Beetles Took Over Baghdad by Mona Yahia

Mona Yahia attended a launch at the Babylonian Heritage Centre in Or Yehuda, as well as other events in Tel Aviv to mark the publication of the Hebrew translation of her novel, When the Grey Beetles Took Over Baghdad last month. Published by Kinneret, the Hebrew translation of When the Grey Beetles Took Over Baghdad was made possible by the generous support of Dangoor Education.

WATCH: The 21st Annual Isaiah Berlin Lecture at Hampstead Synagogue
Guest speaker Sir Anthony Seldon asks: ‘Has the job of Prime Minister become impossible?’

The Hampstead Synagogue Isaiah Berlin Lecture has been running for over 20 years. The Berlin family joined the congregation of Hampstead Synagogue in the 1920’s and Isaiah made regular annual visits from Oxford to the Synagogue for the Yom Kippur services throughout his life.

Ha’aretz: Interview with Mona Yahia following Hebrew publication of ‘When the Grey Beetles Took Over Baghdad’

‘In January 1969, nine Jews were hanged in Baghdad after being convicted of espionage. A few minutes away, 15-year-old Mona Yahia hid in her home for fear of the crowd. Those sights remain fresh and are beautifully captured in her new semi-autobiographical novel’

Amal Elsana Alh’jooj leads Montreal cross-community action for peace and solidarity in the wake of the war in Gaza

Along with Canadian Jewish community leader Brian Bronfman, president of the Peace Network for Social Harmony, Amal has co-drafted a message in the wake of the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Dozens of leaders from Montreal's civil society have signed their message and are discussing future collective actions to maintain peace and promote collaboration between Jewish and Palestinian communities in the city.

Ilene Prusher, CNN: “I reported on Hamas in Gaza for over a decade. Here are the questions I’m asking myself now”

Author and journalist Ilene Prusher considers the failures of journalists and media to adequately represent the nature of Hamas over the last thirty years, paving the way for the tragedy of 7 October and the continued failures in reporting on the war in Gaza.

We are devastated to learn of the death of Vivian Silver, who was murdered in the brutal Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October.

Vivian, along with Amal Elsana Alh’jooj, was a co-director of AJEEC-NISPED (the Arab-Jewish Center for Empowerment, Education and Cooperation and Negev Institute for Strategies of Peace and Development), through which she worked tirelessly to improve relations and cooperation between Palestinians and Israelis through empowerment projects in multiple communities. Vivian was also a leading voice in organisations such as Women Wage Peace and countless NGOs.

Vivian’s death represents a tragic loss not only to her friends, family and colleagues, but to the communities and movements to which she dedicated her life’s work. May her memory be a blessing.

Some obituaries and tributes to Vivian Silver:

Amal Elsana Alh’jooj
David B. Green
The Guardian
BBC
Middle East Eye

‘Our dream of a future for both peoples is the victim of this tragedy’ - Sari Nusseibeh, Financial Times

Sari Nusseibeh gives his reaction to the terrible events currently unfolding in Israel and Gaza. Nusseibeh is a former philosophy professor who served as a representative of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation in Jerusalem. He is also the author of the memoir ‘Once Upon a Country’.

We are deeply saddened by the death of Alice Shalvi -- writer, educator, activist and friend.

Described by Naomi Chazan as ‘one of Israel’s most admired women,’ Shalvi was a leading advocate for feminism in Israel and across the Jewish world. As an educator, Shalvi led the English departments of both the Hebrew University and Ben Gurion University, despite the contemporary academic culture of male chauvinism. As principal of the Pelech school, Shalvi gained further ground for educational equality by extending Talmudic education to girls. Shalvi also headed numerous women’s organizations, including the Israel Women’s Network, through which she campaigned for gender equality in all walks of Israeli life, from education, to religion and the military.

After escaping Nazi Germany with her family, Shalvi was educated in England, earning degrees from Cambridge and LSE before emigrating to Israel in 1949, where she spent the rest of her life and career.

In later life, Shalvi continued to work tirelessly to promote women’s rights and education. She recounted her experiences in her memoir, Never a Native, which won the National Jewish Book Award in 2018.  

Tributes and Obituaries:

-New York Times
-The Jerusalem Post
-Moment Magazine

Jewish Book Week Video Library
We are pleased to share the extensive Jewish Book Week Video Library, including talks from across the festival from over the years, including most recently Amal Elsana Alh’jooj’s conversation with Bidisha Mamata, in which they discussed Amal’s book, ‘Hope is a Woman’s Name’.

Review: The Only Daughter — New York Times
Shay K. Azoulay finds compassion, civility and humanity in A.B. Yehoshua’s novella.

Amal Elsana Alh’jooj appears at Jewish Book Week 2023

Attendees at this year’s Jewish Book Week were treated to a fascinating discussion between Amal Elsana Alh’jooj and Bidisha Mamata, covering Amal’s book ‘Hope is a Woman’s Name’.

Review: Hope is a Woman’s Name - Haaretz
David B. Green: “Amal Elsana Alh’jooj’s memoir is testment to her seemingly inexhaustible optimism and endurance, and ability to live up to her name [‘Hope’]”

Review: Hope is a Woman’s Name Review - Jerusalem Report

Gillian Lewando Hundt: “At a time, when the discourse and government within Israel is dehumanising of its minority Arab citizens and non-citizens, this book makes an important statement about who they are, what can be achieved and how this is an ongoing vital struggle for the future well-being of both the minorities and the Israeli State.”

Heath and Hampstead Society Honours Isaiah Berlin with Plaque

Juliette Sonabend of the Heath and Hampstead Society recounts the unveiling of Isaiah Berlin’s plaque in Hampstead earlier this year. On the same day, Isaiah was also commemorated with an English Heritage Blue Plaque at his childhood home in Kensington.

We continue to celebrate the life and work of Isaiah Berlin on the twenty-fifth anniversary of his death on 5 November 1997.

'Though like Our Lord and Socrates he does not publish much, he thinks and says a great deal and has had an enormous influence on our times'. - Maurice Bowra

The Only Daughter by A.B. Yehoshua long-listed for the Wingate Prize 2022
We are delighted that A.B. Yehoshua’s novella, ‘The Only Daughter’, has been long-listed for this year’s Wingate prize, alongside works by Jonathan Freedland, Olga Tokarczuk and Michael Ignatieff.

The Wingate Prize is a literary award given to the best book, fiction or non-fiction, to translate the idea of Jewishness to the general reader. The Prize was started in 1977, and is run in association with JW3, the Jewish Cultural Centre. Previous winners include David Grossman, Anne Michaels, WG Sebald, Zadie Smith, and Nicole Krauss. Previous Halban titles to have won the prize include Mr Mani by A.B. Yehoshua, Memoirs of a Fortunate Jew by Dan Vittorio Segre, When the Grey Beetles Took Over Baghdad by Mona Yahia and Judas Iscariot and the Myth of Jewish Evil by Hyam Macoby.

Read an Excerpt from ‘Hope is a Woman’s Name’ by Amal Elsana Alh’jooj in The Tel Aviv Review of Books

In this story from her childhood, Amal describes a meal being prepared while the men of her tribe conduct a trial, presided over by her grandfather. The trial takes place in the diwaan: a tent reserved strictly for men, the name of which is derived from the Arabic word ‘to discuss’. The young Amal has already got into trouble for trying to look inside the diwaan and now she, with the other women and children, must prepare food for when the men have concluded their business.