NARRATING AND CREATING THE HOMELAND THROUGH MEMORIES : AN ANALYSIS OF THE JEWISH DIASPORA IN ALIYAH : THE LAST JEW IN THE VILLAGE BY SETHU

ABSTRACT
⁠Diaspora is a complex state and experience with varied manifestations, implications and representations. Diasporic communities experience dislocation from their native land due to various reasons which are beyond their control and they undergo different and distinct experiences in the host lands. But diaspora is basically associated with displacement, up rootedness and the desire to return home which are inextricably and deeply connected to memory. The Jewish diaspora had to encounter a series of struggles, pain, dislocation and alienation throughout history. The later generations who were scattered in many parts of the world, live with the collective memory of the displacement and the intense desire to return to their homeland sometime in future. Though most of the Jewish people lived in harmony with the indigenous communities in the new lands, they were always influenced by the cultural memory that was transmitted through stories, myths and memories. The majority of the Jewish diaspora therefore lived in an ardent desire to go back to the Promised Land which was 'recreated' in their consciousness through the memories of the earlier generation. The paper tries to analyse how the experience of dislocation and the concept of the Promised Land are narrated through the historiography of memories in the Malayalam novel, Aliyah: The Last Jewin the Village by Sethu that deals with the life of a Jewish community in Kerala.
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⁠Keywords : Diaspora, dispersion, cultural memory, home, promised land
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⁠The term diaspora was originally used to refer to the dispersion of Jews from Israel. But in the current discourses, it signifies all sorts of dislocations and all groups of people living outside their ancestral homelands. “The Greek noun diaspora derives from the composite verb dia-and speirein, adopting meaning of to spread, disperse, be separated” (Knott, 2011,p.20). The diasporic experience is marked with a lot of conflicts like identity crisis, cultural alienation, homelessness, desire for home etc. Sense of the lost home and the yearning for home create a traumatic feeling which the diaspora tries to overcome by transcending the boundary through memory, mostly through cultural memory.
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⁠Cultural Memory refers to all sorts of collective memories through which people try to constitute and create a future by remembering and assimilating the past. It involves an understanding and awareness of the past and the ethos and norms of the group to which they belong. It is capable of creating and evoking a form of shared identity and modes of communicating this identity to new members and generations. Jan Assmann says:
⁠“The cultural memory is based on fixed points in the past. Even in the cultural memory, the past is not preserved as such but is cast in symbols as they are represented in oral myths or in writings, performed in feasts, and as they are continually illuminating a changing present…. Cultural memory reaches back into the past only so far as the past can be reclaimed as “ours”.
⁠This is why we refer to this form of historical consciousness as “memory” and not just as knowledge about the past.” (2010, p.113)
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⁠The diaspora is always keen on keeping alive the memory, vision, or myth about their homeland. These memories along with the feeling of alienation in the host country induce a longing for ancestral home. They also dream about the restoration of the homeland. This attempt to recreate past and to redefine future can be traced in all diasporic experiences. Kim Knott writes:
⁠Every diaspora -whether recent or of long standing, whether caused by exile or movement for trade, whether multi-sited or settled in a single place - has its distinctive spatiality, informed by actual journeys past and present, the particular forms and distribution of its settlements, its demography, the nature and extents of its social networks (intra, inter and transnational), the characteristic circulations of its members, goods, culture and religion, its local infections (social, linguistic, cultural), and its distinctive imagined, historical and present geography. (2011, p.81)
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⁠This relation to homeland sustained through memories can be seen in the experiences of The Jewish diaspora very distinctly. Though scattered in many parts of the world , the Jews always harboured the deep desire to go back to the promised land. They always tried to keep the memory of their homeland alive in the later generations through religious beliefs, traditions, rites, myths etc. Sethu's Novel, Aliyah: The Last Jew in the Village depicts how the Jewish community settled in Chendamangalam, a rural village in Kerala is engaged in an attempt to define and establish their identity through cultural memory. Through the transmission of the oral traditions, monuments, rites, myths and other symbols etc. they imparted the idea of the promised land to the younger generation. This transgenerational attempt to recapture and recreate the past in theeffort to carve out their future through a shared identity makes the work significant and memorable as a narration of cultural memory.
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⁠The dispersion of Jews began after the Babyloanian exile. Jews are a group of people who had to tolerate a series of struggles, pain and even uprootedness from the days of dispersal from the land to which they actually belong. “The history of Jews was one of suffering. Challenges were not new to a people who got scattered when their blood was split from the time of Roman emperors to Hitler” (Sethu,2017, p.87). They were scattered all around the globe, starting a very new life in an entirely unknown place, under tough circumstances. The burning desire to return to their homeland preoccupied the thoughts of the Jewish diaspora. Setting their foot in the holy land before death was their ultimate dream which drove the life of every Jew forward. Living in a place other than their homeland into which they had gradually merged as a second home, every diaspora is confronted with the dilemma of choosing between the two home lands.
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⁠Aliyah: the Last Jew in the Village delineates the life of Jewish settlers in Kerala called Malabari Jews who lived in cultural harmony with the rest of the people having disparate religious background. The author assuredly paints the picture of Jews who got themselves integrated into the very fabric of Kerala society. Their only whole-hearted prayer was 'Bashana haba'ah Yerushalayim' (the next year in Jerusalem) and the call of home was not something they could evade. Though the Jewish settlers started their journey back to the 'promised land' after the formation of Israel, the Jewish community living in Kerala were torn between their loyalty to home land and host land.
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⁠The novel shows how the Promised land and the sense of belonging to that land which they have never seen were created and recreated in the minds of the characters through memories. The history, culture and religion of the Jews were constantly enlivened in the consciousness of the later generations through the narration of stories, myths, remembrances and religious rites. As Aleida Assmann says,“ Cultural memory contains a number of cultural messages that are addressed to posterity and intended for continuous repetition and reuse”( 2010, p.99). That is why in the novel, majority of the people insisted on going back even though others tried to persuade them to stay back in Kerala. Characters like Eshimuthimma went on narrating to the children of the diasporic community, the scriptures, prayers and tales of ancestors, which constitute cultural memory. Thus the image of the homeland and the dream of return were implanted in their consciousness so deeply. In the novel, Sethu writes:
⁠There is a belief that every Jew across the world holds close to his heart- the belief that someday almighty God will surely call his people back to their holy land, Israel. For that reason, when they celebrate Passover every year and read the holy Haggadah, the Hebrew words, they utter- 'bashana haba'ah' Yerushalayim'- come from the heart. That is, 'the next year in Jerusalem..'The saying from the holy Haggadah, handed down by the Jews through generations, commemorated their escape from slavery in Egypt. In a way it was both a reminder for coming generations and an attempt to assure themselves that they would be able to set foot on that sanctified soil in their lifetime.(2017, p.88)
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⁠The description of Yosef Hassan, who had great knowledge of the Jewish holy texts, guiding Salamon to shape the letters is also very striking. He made bread in the shape of a letter in the rabanimon the upper floor of the synagogue and dipped in honey. As he fed it to Salamon he murmured, “The letter is sweet. Bread is God. The sweetness of his letter, this bread, should remain forever on your lips”(2017, p.59). The elders wanted their children to study the holy text and recite their conventional prayers.” Eshimuthimma insisted that children should study the Torah in childhood itself and recite the prayers in Hebrew. It was not often that learned rabbis came from abroad to the land” (201,p.59). This is closer to the concept of the 'canon' as explained by Aleida Assmann as a core area of active cultural memory. “The term 'canon' belongs to the history of religion; it is used there to refer to a text or a body of texts that is decreed to be sacred and must not be changed nor exchanged for any other text”(2017, p.100).
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⁠Narrated in third person, the novel traces the life of three generations of Ephraim family. The story revolves around Salamon who seems to be perplexed to answer the call of the holy land from the very beginning. He is portrayed as indecisive young individual who finds it difficult to even express his inner feelings before people. The fears, doubts and indecisiveness that Salamon confronts later in the novel is hinted through the nightmare that occurs in the beginning itself. It can be considered as his unconscious response to the inner dilemma regarding the return which entrenched him from childhood onwards. His grandmother, Eshimuthimma seems to be extremely protective about him whom she moulds in the absence of his mother, never letting him fly free.
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⁠Three generations of Jews who always dreamt of returning to their home have never considered it as a possible reality. The birth of Israel was a ray of hope for these people who got united for the processions, exalting their country, the holy land. “This is our new birth, they said. The birth of new nation called Israel, which includes the holy land, Jerusalem” (2017, p.81). The desire to return to the holy land was profound and it seemed to be a reality but they didn't even know where the country was located. Calling of home implanted a new zeal among the Jews. Many questions regarding the return remained unanswered but the desire was real and it was a strong force which has been shaped through cultural memory. “It was a matter of faith. There was no space for queries or counter queries” (2017,p. 89). Amidst all the dreams and reality, they still had to battle with the thought of leaving the land which gave them everything that they are and which is now their very essence of being. “Everyone had something to remember. A people who had been there for generations, whom they had seen as they grew up, were about to disappear all of a sudden” (2017, p. 90).
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⁠Salamon always took pride in the fact that he was a Jew and he valued all the Jewish ways of life. He grew up learning everything from his grandmother who taught him to give proper respect to the religion to which they belong. But Salamon was puzzled about the return Everyone around him seemed busy packing their bags, selling all that they possess to make the return possible. They were aware of the fact that this was not a migration in search of greener pastures and they must leave breaking all the bonds of allegiance to the land in which they lived for all these years. “This was a great migration. The call of holy land. The call of sacrificial altars….. They are all preparing to go with a willingness to suffer difficulties. This is not a sacrifice, it is a goal” (2017, p. 125-126). People were ready to face any consequences and all the difficulties seemed trivial in front of their deep desire to set foot in the holy land of Israel which has been deeply implanted in their consciousness through the powerful patterns and processes of cultural memory. As Femke Stock says, home is where the heart is and the openness and layeredness of home as an analytical concept which makes it such a powerful idea in the study of diaspora.(Knott, 2011, p. 27-28) Ultimately their individual volitions and perceptions yielded to the collective /cultural feelings and forces.
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⁠The land which they made their own through all these years by building their life became suddenly strange to them. “This is not a bond that you can cut off easily. As long as generations of ancestors sleep under this soil at least some will be forced to return” (2017, p.146). The Jewish diaspora who wished to fulfill their dream return had to battle with the thought of leaving the land which was their shelter, and everything that they are now. Salamon's state of uncertainty was fueled by the opinions of people around him. Varuthutty master, Comrade Pavithran and many of them questioned this mass migration which is about to happen. “In truth, what was the purpose of this mass migration? It was a question he had asked himself several times. He knew there was no point in asking it at home and to his people. They all had just one reply… The call of holy land. The call of father land. The true Jews around the world could not ignore that call” (2017, p.195). Even Eshimuthimma does show a sceptical attitude towards the return at certain point. “at times I wonder, why go to other shore at all. The soil we first felt on our tongue, isn't that our own soil?... But when people come and say this and that, the mind falters” (2017,p. 247).
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⁠Salamon did not have so many reasons which pulled him to stay back. At the same time, he did have many reasons to tread on everyone else's path and in which the main reason is, fear of being alone. Salamon's confusion regarding the return bloomed from the dilemma that every Jew had to encounter at various stages of preparation for the return. Salamon's romantic involvement with the head strong Elsie seems to be one of the several ties which fastened him to the land in which he was born. Salamon's salvation does not seem to be in the other land. He found his solace and soul in his homeland, the land of his birth. Migrating to a land which he had only heard about does not somewhat seemed right to him.
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⁠“Battling with innumerable thoughts of going back and not going back, Salamon chose to follow the path which is less chosen. The last Jew in this land. No one knew the first one to come. But perhaps someday someone might engrave on the wall of the synagogue the name of last one. Evron's son Solomon called Salamon. He was born here and he was buried here” (2017, p. 394). But his life remains singular in the face of the forces and processes of carving out the collective identity and future..Aliyah shows how the longing for the lost homeland has been turned from a myth to a reality through the consistent and concerted pursuits and patterns of cultural memory.
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⁠References
⁠• Assmann, Aleida (2010) “Canon and Archive”. A Companion to Cultural Memory Studies. Eds. Astrid Erll, Ansgar Nunning. De Gruyter, Berlin.
⁠• Assmann, Jan (2010) “ Communicative and Cultural Memory”. A Companion to Cultural Memory Studies. Eds. Astrid Erll & Ansgar Nunning. De Gruyter, Berlin. ⁠
⁠• ⁠Knott, Kim & Sean McLoughlin (2011) Diasporas: Concepts, Intersections, Identities. Rawat Publication, New Delhi.
⁠• Sethu (2017) Aliyah: The Last Jew in the Village. Translated by Catherine Thankamma, Harper Perennial, New Delhi.