one-hundred-saturdays.md (4098B)
1 +++ 2 title = "What I've Learned from Stella Levi (So Far)" 3 date = 2024-12-16T18:28:00-08:00 4 updated = 2024-12-17 5 [extra] 6 book = "One Hundred Saturdays" 7 author = "Michael Frank" 8 finished = 2024-12-15 9 rating = "★★★★★" 10 +++ 11 12 This is the most vibrant, imagery-inducing work that I may have ever 13 come upon. The first half of the book is dedicated to breathing life 14 into the long-since vanished world of Rhodes' Juderia. I have always 15 been prone to feelings of nostalgia for times that I never 16 experienced.[^1] This book exploits that tendency to the greatest 17 degree, accentuated by stylized and interesting art interleaved within 18 the text. Since I first cracked open its cover, I have been thinking 19 ceaselessly about the structural features of the Juderia that induced 20 specific behaviors and tendencies, which of those I admire and which of 21 those I think are counter-productive, and how one would go about 22 recreating an idealized version of this sort of enclave. Certainly an 23 unexpectedly great book for people interested in the ways that urban 24 environments impact their residents. Or people who like cities that 25 sound like Acre or Jaffa. 26 27 Of course, it is also serious work about an issue of much import: that 28 of the total, intentional destruction of life in the Juderia and all 29 that that implicates. I used the word "vanished" above to describe what 30 happened to the world we witness in the first half of the book, but this 31 is wrong: it was annihilated. This makes the middle of *One Hundred 32 Saturdays* a rather heavier read than its beginning. It is also what 33 makes the book worthwhile—life is not a walk in the park, and there is 34 beauty in its challenges. This work would be incomplete as an analysis 35 of life in the Juderia without a discussion of its end. The two are 36 inseparable. 37 38 *One Hundred Saturdays* is not even actually about historical events, so 39 much as it is about Stella Levi herself. It is through her life—which so 40 remarkably intersects time and again with the greatest focal points of 41 change—that we learn about the shifting world. Stella is a woman of 42 unfathomable resilience. This book is a treatise to her, a shocking and 43 kind gesture from a close friend. The greatest gift one could divine 44 from these pages would be a fraction of her insight. 45 46 The book was also valuable to me in that it forced me to confront my own 47 biases. I am in many ways very anti-diaspora.[^2] *One Hundred 48 Saturdays* managed to challenge my anti-diasporic stance. Were I to 49 apply to it the same standards as I do elsewhere, I should have been far 50 more dismissive of life in the Juderia, Judeo-Spanish, and the culture 51 expressed in the book. Instead, I found myself enamored. This is 52 probably attributable to a combination of my unfamiliarity with 53 Sephardic history between the Inquisition and 1948, personal connections 54 and feelings of shame toward the Ashkenazi diasporic experience, and the 55 charisma that emanated from every page of this book. I think the 56 adjustment that I should take away is not a total reversal of my 57 stance—the fate of the Rhodeslis must ensure that—but a softening. 58 59 I would finally like to extend a huge thank you to my wonderful mom, who 60 recommended me this book. 61 62 **EDIT:** I sent this book to my TA from HISTORY81B [last year], because 63 I vaguely remembered that her area of research was something to do with 64 Ottoman Jewry and thought she might be interested. Turns out she did all 65 the Ladino/Judeo-Spanish transcription. Nutty. 66 67 --- 68 69 [^1]: Or, for that matter, never existed, as is the case with my 70 feelings toward a whole host of Disney movies. 71 72 [^2]: This of course clashes with the fact that I live in America, but: 73 I recognize that what is correct for the individual on a case-by-case 74 basis may differ from the needs of the whole/many, am not above the 75 hypocrisy of adjudicating myself as a special case, and also think that 76 the American acceptance of Jews does make it something of a special 77 case. It is worse than Israel, but it is better than everywhere else 78 where we are totally unwanted. 79 80 [last year]: @/posts/stanford-quarterly-reflection-01/index.md