F
THE DETROIT JEWISH WS
12 Friday, July 28, 1918
80
A Rabbi's Wife?
ACRES
OF FUN!
By HEIDI PRESS
tion and defiance. The
The stereotypical image major character, Rachel
of the rebbetzin — demure, Sonnshein, the rebbetzin in
timid, shadow of her hus- the story, exemplifies a
band, who teaches Hebrew completely atypical rabbi's
school, is active in Sister- wife.
"Rachel had lined the
hood and observes Jewish
ritual and practice — is stairwell of her house with
blown to bits in Silvia Ten- revolutionary posters. Like
nenbaum's novel, "Rachel, Truscott Boothby, she did
the Rabbi's Wife" (William not give up easily. Lenin
and Che and Malcolm X
Morrow and Co., Inc.).
Wife of a rabbi, Mrs. Ten- continued to look down on
nenbaum brings a whole the just and unjust alike,
new dimension to the role of years after such defiance
the rabbi's wife — libera- was fashionable. Somber
cleaning ladies and nervous
Sisterhood matrons were
equally offended by all
those threatening glances."
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Her husband called her
nature eccentric de-
fiance. Perhaps he was
right. Mrs. Sonnshein av-
oided Sisterhood meet-
ings, ate treif and had a
habit of going to a bar in
the city, where she
sought refuge in her ar-
tist's studio. She dressed
in African prints — out-
landishly, according to
the stylishly dressed
suburban women, and by
trying not to draw atten-
tion to herself, her un-
conventional manner
caused the opposite to
happen. Mrs. Tennen-
baum evaluates Rachel's
character:
"She was caught between
the wish to be invisible and
the need to assert her indi-
viduality."
In addition, she let no one
interfere in her life, unless
she wanted them to, and
was quick to speak her piece
— gutter language included
— when anything got in her
way.
On those occasions, Mrs.
Tennenbaum explains:
"She sounded as vulgar
and hateful as a
fishwife."
A reader may become un-
easy over the frequency of
gutter language and
explicit sex scenes. One can
understand the reasoning
behind the gutter language:
it helps embellish the un-
conventional character of
Rachel Sonnshein. As far as
the sex scenes go, they're
unnecessary. It is taken for
granted that rabbis and
rabbis' wives have conjugal
rights.
Yet, one cannot criticize
Rachel for going to a bar,
dressing in African prints
and using abusive lan-
guage. She is a human
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The ransomed of the Lord
shall return, and come with
singing unto Zion, and ever-
lasting joy shall be upon
their heads.
— (Isaiah 35:10)
By Any Other Name
being and these are the
things that help her assert
her humanness, her indi-
viduality. Should one be
criticized for asserting one's
individuality in this day of
women's liberation, men's
liberation, gay liberation
and the like? One would be
quick to answer no, unless,
of course, that particular
individual is the rabbi's
wife.
In her case, this assertion
of herself is detrimental, not
only to herself, but to her
husband, the rabbi, as well.
Much of the plot revolves
around Rachel's reaction to
her husband's role in the
Jewish community, and
when his position is
threatened, their relation-
ship begins to falter and
each of them turns
elsewhere for comfort, leav-
ing a confused high school-
age son in the middle.
The novel is not bad. It
is certainly well written
and evokes the love, ten-
sion, anger and other
emotions which are in-
tended to strike the
reader.
Yet, its subject is disturb-
ing. Granted, rabbi's wives
are human beings and have
every right to pursue what-
ever they wish, but despite
the leniency of the times,
the Jewish world is not
ready for a Rachel
Sonnshein who subjugates
her synagogual duties for
an artist's pallette or finds
refuge in a bar in the city.
As a woman she can do it,
but married to a rabbi, one
would expect a modicum of
decorum to be in order.
One might assume that
the book, if taken for more
than a fictional piece, will
cause some ire among the
ranks of rabbi's wives. If ac-
cepted for what it is, a novel,
many will find it tedious.
If Silvia Tennenbaum's
purpose in writing "Rachel,
the Rabbi's Wife," was to
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open some eyes, she
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