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ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
Street art in Tel Aviv
Poet Dina Routin will
share her passion for
poetry in two new
classes at the JCC.
Dina (right) with her parents, Simcha
and Luba Bar-Menachem, during their
visit in Michigan.
details
“Political Poetry or Poetic Politics?”
runs at 7 p.m. on Wednesdays,
May 24 and June 7, 14 and 21.
The “Spring Poetry Club” runs
at 6:30 p.m. Thursdays, June 8,
July 13 and August 10. For more
information and to register, visit
jccdet.org/library.
M
ani Bar-Menachem
had no fear.
He climbed moun-
tains, hiked in the Sinai Desert
and once, while scuba diving,
chased a fish far into the sea.
He had no fear — but he had
a great passion for literature,
especially works by Amos Oz.
Mani was 19 when he was
killed while serving as a para-
trooper in the Israel Defense
Forces, leaving behind par-
ents and brother Ika. Also left
behind: his once-annoying little
sister, Dina, who, inspired by
her brother, also became pas-
sionate about literature. She
“found relief in writing” on this
and other occasions of devasta-
tion, and now inspires others to
write, learn and understand the
language of poetry.
Working with Francine
Menken of the JCC’s Henry &
Delia Meyers Library and Media
Center, Dina Routin began
teaching poetry classes at the
JCC and will present two new
workshops: “Political Poetry
or Poetic Politics?” which runs
at 7 p.m. on Wednesdays May
24, and June 7, 14 and 21; and
the “Spring Poetry Club,” which
runs at 6:30 p.m. Thursdays
June 8, July 13, August 10.
The “Political Poetry” class
discusses the voices of poets
exploring everything from
graffiti on the streets of Tel
Aviv to secret summits with
world leaders. It focuses on
a topic that is “a key compo-
nent of Jewish studies,” says
Howard Lupovitch, director
of Wayne State University’s
Cohn-Haddow Center for
Judaic Studies. “It provides
students with a window into
a greater appreciation of the
mindset of Israelis and Israeli
society. Hebrew poetry is also a
key aspect of the revolution in
Jewish consciousness and that
was and is Zionism.”
Poets studied include Yehuda
Amchai, Uri Tzvi Greenberg,
Dalia Ravikovitch and more.
“Spring Poetry Club” offers
guided writing sessions, a study
of great poems and more.
Dina Routin grew up in the
Old City of Jerusalem. Her
father is a physician and her
mother is an artist who filled
their home with guests. Their
more than 300-year-old house
was small, with arches at the
front, “an enchanting little
place that was to us a castle,”
Routin says.
At Hebrew University, Routin
took classes in every kind of
literature. “I wanted to inhale
any information I could”
about writers and writing. She
cleaned houses and worked as
a caregiver to pay for school,
and she marveled when she
discovered “Song of Myself,”
Walt Whitman’s poem that cel-
ebrates the importance of being
an individual. “It taught me to
look at everything and redis-
cover everything,” Routin says.
“It said: ‘Look, open your eyes
and feel and touch!’ It opened
my curiosity to the world.”
After receiving her mas-
ter’s in Hebrew literature and
poetry, Routin came to the
United States, planning to stay
for a year. Her “adopted grand-
mother” invited Dina to stay at
her home in West Bloomfield,
where she fell in love with the
“trees and people and different
ways to look at life.”
She also fell in love with
a young man named James
Routin. “I loved him from the
moment we met,” she says.
Three months after meeting
they were married, and three
days later James was diagnosed
with cancer. Dina cared for him
for five months, and then he
jn
died in 2012.
After her husband’s death,
Routin found “life so over-
whelming” that she couldn’t
write long — but she could
write poems. “Writing poems
saved my soul,” she says. “Every
poem was a little bit of releas-
ing pain.”
Today, Routin works as
development associate at the
JCC and teaches at Oakland
Community College. She writes
her own life into poetry (Mani
and James are frequent sub-
jects) and she encourages oth-
ers to find their voice because
“everyone has a story to tell.”
Her classes attract those who’ve
“always wanted to write but
never dared.” Routin finds them
“talented and inspiring.”
Whether in the Poetry Club
or the Poetic Politics course,
participants will be encour-
aged to contribute and chal-
lenge themselves. Sophisticated
knowledge isn’t necessary,
because “everyone has the
basic tools for poetry if you can
read and write,” she says.
No matter its subject or the
skill of the writer, a poem,
Routin says, is a moment, and
not necessarily the entire story,
“although it allows us to experi-
ence facets of life in a whole
different dimension.” It is put-
ting words to a seemingly inex-
plicable experience.
“And to me,” Routin says,
“that’s everything.” •
May 18 • 2017
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