I wanted a springtime book and my hubby tells me that Jerusalem Maiden will fit the bill. Specifically, I would get Springtime in Paris. That was the only thing he was right about.
Our story follows young Esther, a child of eleven or so, a Jewess in an orthodox community in what was once Palestine. She longs to be an artist and has lessons with a woman who lives nearby; but she knows that it is an aspirations she can never attain. Aside from the whole no Graven Images thing, she and every girl in her community is groomed to accept being a child bride whose highest calling is to be a brood mare. Esther's destiny, and all of the Jewish girls' destiny is to be fruitful that the Messiah may be born. This is what is referred to as being a Jerusalem Maiden. No matter where Esther turns, she has no real choice.
Esther is torn her whole life between the life she must conduct herself in for her community, and the life she truly wants for herself. Initially, we see her determined to avoid becoming a bride, but then her mother falls ill. With devotion that is only believable in children, Esther sacrifices her art as Abraham was called on to sacrifice Isaac, burning her sketchbook praying to Ha-Shem that she would be good if only her mother would be spared. This is the pattern we will see throughout.
As Esther grows up and marriage is unavoidable, a cousin, whom I suspect is gay, proposes. It would be perfect for them both, providing an escape while outwardly obeying the community strictures. Esther cannot see that side of things, she can only see that she would be married, nevermind that at least to marry her cousin she could say that she'd wed by her own choice. She denies him.
Years pass. Esther is 16 or so when she is told she will wed a textile merchant from Jaffa. A local groom cannot be found for her because of her "difficult" reputation, so her punishment for all of her "sins" is to be sent away from all she knows and loves with a man she has met all of once for less than half an hour.
In panic, Esther runs to her cousin and they plan to wed instead, but like Jacob, she has her veil lifted to find she has married the wrong groom. She will go to Jaffa. She has no choice. History is filled with women just like Esther: forced to marry a man her father chose for the exclusive purpose of domestic labor and birthing children.
It is here that the book does a time jump from July 1912 to October 1914 and we see Esther with 3 children of her own. Esther's wants and desires are usually set aside for the comfort of her husband's sisters, or for her children. Esther struggles under this yoke of motherhood and wifely duties. Her place in the community, (many of the women's traditions in Judaism revolve around home-making), her in-laws, her children and her husband chafe. She finds little ways to keep her soul alive as she performs the duties she must because she must. She sees herself pass on generational hurt to her daughter through the Jewish traditions, and finds herself unable to explain to her daughter that it is just how things are for Jewish women. She does not have the words to express her own powerlessness to her child.
All of this friction comes to a head with a letter from Esther's sister. This younger sister married a Torah scholar, a fact that has been held over Esther's head (even though it is Esther's lowly merchant husband who has kept food on the table for Esther's natal family, this sister included) and used to make her feel less-than. But this sister finds herself divorced for the one truely mortal sin a woman can commit against her husband and her community: being infertile. This sister writes, asking to come and live with Esther, she must leave their father's home, the household cannot support her.
Esther, not knowing that this is not the only letter that has been sent, intends to leave it unanswered. The last thing she needs is the Perfect Daughter under her own roof. When Esther's husband leaves on a buying trip to Europe without telling her that he also received a letter from this Golden sibling and has invited her to stay as long as she likes, Esther is livid. To make matters worse, the sister once arrived inserts herself between Esther and Esther's own children. Feeling unnecessary in her own life, Esther heads to Europe to meet up with her husband, only that doesn't ever happen.
You do get Springtime in Paris, and a love story right in line with "Casablanca" before tragedy drags her back to a husband and children she never wanted and only returns to out of what I consider the clichéd Mother's Obligation.
I left this book convinced that Esther cared more about her community than her community ever cared about her. She is repeatedly shamed for defending herself, and for experiencing sexual pleasure. She compares herself not only to Jacob, but also to the nameless daughter of Jephthah from Judges 11:31.
She compares herself not only to Jacob, but also to the nameless daughter of Jephthah from Judges 11:31, who was sacrificed to Ha-Shem.
And that, friends, is the whole story. Over and over again, Esther is forced into doing what she must. Don't we have enough of these stories?! Of women sacrificing the work they are called to in order to fulfill their gender defined role to society. I mean... that's not fiction, y'all. That's real life. Women resigned in record numbers during 2020 because the men in their lives simply could not figure out the house-and-kids thing.
In short, this was not the happy springtime book I wanted it to be. Instead, like Alcott's Little Women, I find it to be more about the tragedy of being born female in a culture that places higher value on male children. This book is a call to all of us to break the chains of cycles that bind us without serving us. A call to rebel against society's expectation.
⭐⭐/5 (lost a star due to Yiddish glossary being inaccessible in ebook format)
CW: This book contains scenes of abuse, suicide, rape, victim blaming, sexual shaming, abortion, and other scenes that may make some readers uncomfortable. Please be advised
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