The Netanyahus: An Account of a Minor and Ultimately Even Negligible Episode in the History of a Very Famous Family

In Chapter 3, the style of the novel changes to epistolary, i.e., a novel in the form of a letter or journal. The entire chapter consists of a reproduction (“photostatted” [53]) of the letter Ruben received from the rabbi at Dropsie College. The letter is fairly short and serves not only to highlight Ben-Zion’s academic achievements, but it also defends aspects of his CV and personality, which is a warning sign in itself. Most notably about the letter is the introduction of “revisionist” and “pragmatic” Zionism into the dialectics of Judaism. Ruben learns that Ben-Zion is a member of the New Zionist Organization (NZO). This organization was founded by Ze’ev Jabotinsky when he broke from the Zionist Organization. Revisionist and pragmatic Zionism were for the most part identical in what they wanted for Jews as a whole. However, they differed on one crucial point: the use of violence. Pragmatic, or practical, Zionism was predominantly concerned with getting as many Jews into Mandatory Palestine as possible, regardless of whether there was an established Jewish state there. Jabotinsky did not argue against this; however, he believed that a Jewish state needed to be created as quickly as possible and he felt the best way to do this, especially since he found the British to be intransigent to his pleas, was through military means. He professed the need for open violence against Arabs and against Britain to compel the British to grant the Jews a country for themselves. Thus, the fact that Ben-Zion was not only a member of the NZO but also “Jabotinsky’s chief representative in the United States” (54) is another indicator and foreshadowing of Ben-Zion’s confrontational nature and his political leanings.

Following the founding of Israel, the call to settlement and to becoming openly and proudly Jewish reverberated throughout the Jewish diaspora. Hebraization is a practice among Jews of changing their surnames to be more Hebraic than the original ones of foreign extraction, and it existed prior to the foundation of modern Israel, but it experienced a surge leading up to its creation. The rabbi from Dropsie College does not do this, whereas his contemporary in Jerusalem, the other person who writes a letter of recommendation for Ben-Zion in Chapter 5 does. It was especially common for Jews whose names were German in origin to change their surnames after WW2. Edelman is a German surname (orig. Edelmann) meaning aristocrat/nobleman. The names of characters in the novel are telling and very specific when dealing with those characters not based on historic individuals (e.g., all of the Netanyahus). Joshua Cohen is familiar with the German language, and the names are no coincidence. Therefore, the reader is asked to judge the contents of the letter according to the meaning of the rabbi’s last name, which would indicate a trustworthiness or at least some level of social power. The letter’s contents are to be juxtaposed with the contents of the letter from Chapter 5 from Dr. Prof. Peretz Levavi (Peter Lügner) from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel. Levavi’s letter is one of discommendation, which is in stark contrast to Edelman’s. Levavi writes to disparage and warn Ruben of Ben-Zion’s personality, politics, and motives. The reader quickly learns that Peretz Levavi was born Peter Lügner, who used to work at Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin. These two details about Levavi raise a red flag. In German, the word for liar is lügner. However, the name is not meant to signify that everything Levavi says is false. Rather, it simply alerts the reader to the need to read the letter carefully. Levavi couches his recommendation of Ben-Zion’s hiring at the American university with philosophical questions of morality, metaphors, and historical facts suggestive of Ben-Zion’s (and his father’s) inflated ego evidenced by his father’s decision to Hebraicize the family’s last name Mileikowsky (meaning “The Man From Milltown” [101]) to Netanyahu (meaning “God-Given” [101]). Whereas Edelman’s letter is frank and straightforward in its purpose, Levavi’s meanders and waxes poetic about historical and political topics that have little true bearing on Netanyahu’s suitability for a position at the university. It should also be noted that Levavi’s letter comes directly to Ruben in a battered international envelope while Edelman’s came through official channels to the university hiring committee at large.

The name Levavi provides of the university in Berlin where he worked is the old, pre-WW2 name. The university changed its name after the war to the Humboldt University of Berlin. That not only means that Levavi possessed a German surname but was likely German himself. The reader, however, does not know when Levavi left Germany, but the name of the university at least places him in Germany prior to 1945, which is not of little significance. After establishing his identity, Levavi proceeds to provide Ruben with an overly-simplified summary of Zionism, which has met with open criticism. Furthermore, he claims that Ben-Zion’s interpretation of history is politically motivated. This part of the letter introduces not only another anachronism but also the use of presenting fiction as fact, which is rife throughout the letter. A full deconstruction of the letter is not within this guide’s scope. Nevertheless, two examples should illustrate to what extent the letter must be read and understood. One anachronism contained not only in the letter, but in the entire novel, is from the academic curriculum vitae provided in the letter in comparison to Ben-Zion Netanyahu’s true one. Nearly all of Ben-Zion’s research and historical work mentioned in the novel was published after 1960. The one exception is his dissertation and first publication on the life of Isaac Abravanel (1953), an important Jewish figure from the Inquisition era. However, that is slight in comparison to a piece of pure fiction concerning the terrorist incident involving (in the letter) Norman Bentwich, Abba Ahimeir, and Elisha Netanyahu. Norman Bentwich was the British-appointed attorney-general for Mandatory Palestine. He was attacked once, but not by Ahimeir nor by Elisha Netanyahu. Ahimeir was an Israeli journalist, and he was extreme in his call for the use of force. Elisha’s involvement in Israeli politics is difficult to ascertain. Nevertheless, the incident mentioned in the text, though fictitious, does parallel the assassination of Haim Arlosoroff (also Chaim Arlozorov) in Tel Aviv in 1933.

Chapter 4 predominantly provides plot, moving the story along and providing character development regarding Ruben, Edith, and Judy Blum. The reader gets to know Edith’s parents. Later on in Chapter 6, they will meet Ruben’s. Because the weight of history is an important element of the novel, it is important to understand aspects of the characters’ own history. Edith is the counter example to Ruben. Her parents are Jewish in culture only; they are not religious. In fact, one could argue that Sabine’s religion is consumerism. With further regard to assimilation and Jewish identity, the novel uses Judy’s nose to illustrate a stereotypical Jewish marker and its removal. As already mentioned, Judy is the least Jewish, the most assimilated character in the novel, but she suffers from having a nose that she feels signals her Jewishness too much for her to feel beautiful. The fact that she is obsessed to have her nose reconstructed is less a comment on aestheticism and more about Judy wanting to remove herself completely from the Jewish diaspora and assimilate fully into American society.