**********************
PARTY ON
LillibTHE 13ARDIE

WITH THE GREAT

;

Esther-Minna to annul her repudia-
tion. Also on board is a rabbi from
Seville to validate Ben Attar's actions
— in his culture bigamy is accepted
— and restore his relationship with
his nephew.
In lush prose, Yehoshua re-creates a
world and draws his readers into it; it
is a world of dualities: two centuries,
two wives, two continents, two cul-
tures. Presenting both sides of the
conflict with sensitivity and under-
standing, he explores the characters'
minds and yearnings on their own
terms, describing their inner and outer
journeys in extraordinary detail.
A novel at once literary, psychologi-
cal and intellectual, it is above all a
great story, foreshadowing conflicts in
the millennium to come.
"He's unique among
Israeli writers for the depth
and richness of his histori-
cal imagination and his
attunement to cultures,
Dr. Anne Golomb
Hoffman, a professor of
English and comparative
literature at Fordham
University, comments after
his talk. "What's interest-
ing is that the past is not
too distant for him — it
becomes as intimately felt
and conceptualized as his work in con-
temporary settings." About the lec-
ture, she says, One heard something
of the magic of the storyteller at
work."
Yehoshua, who lives in Haifa and
teaches literature at the University of
Haifa, says that the research for this
novel "began with my empathy." He
enjoys talking about the team of histo-
rians and experts who guided his
research and answered questions like,
Can my hero eat potatoes?" For infor-
mation about daily life, he frequently
turned to religious texts, where much
information was preserved.
An inspiration for the novel was a
trip he took with his family to
Morocco in the summer of 1950,
when he was 14, to visit his mother's
hometown. He says that he found it
very exciting; the alleyways of the
Casbah left a powerful impression.
"The seeds of the book germinated
then, this idea of a journey to the end
of the millennium. It took 45 years for
them to flower."
This Ravel was published in Israel
two years ago, and next month a col-
lection of essays about the book by lit-
erary critics and historians will be
published there.
"As a member of a nation deeply

affected by history, I can't allow myself
to ignore the Jewish past. Even if it
were possible, such a complex, prob-
lematic history forces you to come
back to it, to probe it again and
again," he tells the NYU audience.
Later, he describes the Jewish peo-
ple's relationship to history as "mythi-
cal." He declares: "We have to go out
from myth to history. The most effec-
tive instrument to do it through is
art," which he describes as "a media-
tion between past and present."
Soft spoken but impassioned,
Yehoshua waves not just his hands but
his arms as he speaks. "We turn to his-
tory in order to investigate meaningful
crossroads and the creation of impor-
tant national codes," he says. By codes,
he means the ways different Jewish
communities interpret and
follow Jewish law, citing
bigamy, the theme of this
book, as an example of cul-
tural difference in the past.
Bringing the discussion
to the present, he calls for
dialogue and negotiation
when there is cultural dis-
agreement in Israel. "The
code that will win is the
moral code," he asserts.
Recently, Yehoshua made
headlines in Israel and
abroad when he, Amichai, Oz and
Grossman joined many Israelis in
signing a public statement in support
of the Conservative and Reform
movements in Israel, in response to
public demonstrations by the
Orthodox against them.
He comments: "We support them
because they are persecuted. We are
for religious pluralism." Yehoshua
admits that he hasn't joined a syna-
gogue, but he describes himself as a
supporter. An atheist who grew up in
a traditional Sephardic home, he says
that "Jewish religion is part of my her-
itage, my culture, my identity. I don't
have to believe in God."
When asked to comment on fellow
Israeli novelist Aharon Appelfeld's
description of himself last year as the
only Jewish novelist in Israel,
Yehoshua says he has "a sharp debate"
with Appelfeld on this issue. He
explains that Appelfeld's notion of
Jewish identity has to do with experi-
encing anti-Semitism, and he dis-
agrees. "Why is he more Jewish than I
am? I am living among Jews. Jews can
send me to prison, Jews can send me
to war. I'm paying taxes to Jews. Why
is someone from Bukovin3. more
Jewish? Israel is the expression of
being a total Jew."

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