I haven't checked the weather, but I know it is a perfect day to chat about adult Jewish literature. I'm Sheryl Stahl. Thanks for joining me here at Nice Jewish Books.
Hi, today I am so pleased to be speaking with Alena Adams about her latest book, my mother's secret. Welcome, Alina,
thank you so much for having me.
So would you like to set up the story for us?
Well, it's a difficult story to set up because it takes place in a place that most people, even those who think that they know their Jewish history quite well don't realize ever existed. The bulk of my Mother's Secret a novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region takes place in the Jewish Autonomous Region. And what was the Jewish Autonomous Region? it was an area of land on the border between Russia and China, that was set up about 20 years before the State of Israel, that was going to be the first independent Jewish state. The idea was that all the Jews of the world would give up Israel would give up Zionism, because that was obviously not going to happen. And they would all pack up and move not just from the Soviet Union, not just from Eastern Europe, not just from Western Europe, but from the Americas. And they would move and they would all live in this Jewish Independent Region, on the border between Russia and China, under the auspices of that great friend of the Jews, Joseph Stalin.
Yeah, I was pretty amazed to learn about this and looked it up on the map. And it is on the far, far east side, so close to North Korea also.
Exactly. And in fact, there's a lot of ethnic Koreans who live there, live there currently, in fact, it's still legally the Jewish Autonomous Region. It's been a long time since there have been that many Jews living there and Jews were never the majority, even at their peak, were about 30%. But now even though there's very, very few Jews left, it is still officially on paper, the Jewish Autonomous Region.
Yeah, that's fascinating. And I definitely want to talk more about what life was like there, you know, then maybe now also, but I want to get to more directly to the story. So this is a story that we sometimes call it split screen that it's partially in the present and partially in the past. And it starts in the first chapter. So this isn't a spoiler, where Lena and her mother, Regina; Lena, and her mother, Regina are on her father's deathbed at her father's deathbed. And he says you didn't you couldn't tell could you were his dying words to her. So her mother refused to speak about it. But when Lena is going through her father's papers, she sees that he's been trying to find this man, Aaron Kramer for decades. And when she confronts her mother, her mother says, "he's your father." So there's a shocking news to begin with. And then we go back in time to see what Regina's life was like in the Soviet Union and how she got to Birobidzan. And it's just a fascinating story. So there is so much about Soviet life that I guess I kind of heard, but didn't see what it would feel like internally to live in. And one thing was the kind of suppression of personality and individuality. And I mean this is one she already gets to Birobidzan and meets the the head of the party there. "Regina tried to look serious about sorry, unsure of what impression she was supposed to be making. "Regina tried to look serious about Socialist Labor, as well as non problematic and pleasant to be around. She wanted her new comrades to like her, though she knew individualism wasn't the point. It was the exact opposite. She'd need to work on that about herself." So it just kind of boggles the mind of how suppressed and internalized I mean, internalized everything has to be that you can't express anything.
Well, it's something that fascinated me because I was born in the former Soviet Union. I was born in Odessa of what is now Ukraine at the time, it was Ukraine, a Soviet state, and I emigrated to the US in the 1970s with my parents and Even though I was a child, and I spent most of my life in America, I was raised by people who had been raised under communism, my parents, my grandparents, their friends, everyone that I knew were people who had lived under communism. And one of the things that fascinated me was this idea. And it's a very American idea. There's this very American or maybe western concept that you should always be yourself, that you should always be authentic, that if what you say is not what you feel that it's a form of a lie, and two people who grew up in the former Soviet Union. And to be fair, also, I have friends whose parents grew up in China or Cuba, and it's very similar is to people who grew up in a repressive, usually communist, but it could be other types of repressive government regime, the idea that what you say, should be connected to what you think, is just bizarre, because in a self preservation in a sense of self preservation, what you say, are the proper things are the things that are expected of you, they are the things that will not get you fired from your job, they are the things that will not get you arrested, they are the things that will not get you shot, versus what you think that's for yourself. So this American ideal of always being yourself, is very, very strange. And it makes for a very unique communication and generation gap, because we all know about the generation gap is that one generation doesn't understand the other. But here it becomes a communication gap, in that you have one younger usually, generation that believes that you have to be true to yourself authentic, we read about authenticity all the time, Be your authentic self online, Be your authentic self. When you go to a job interview, at our house, when somebody goes to a job interview, the last words we yell to them is "don't be yourself." Because really, nobody wants that. But there's this idea that you should be yourself, meanwhile, around you are a whole other generation to whom that's just strange. They don't think they're lying to you, if they don't tell you what they're thinking at every moment. They're still in that sense of self preservation. And that was definitely something that I wanted to get across. In my mother's secret, a novel of the Jewish autonomous region was this mind set that put those who had survived it into a place where they couldn't speak to their American children, which is what Lena is in the way that those children expect to be spoken to.
And this was compounded by Regina's trauma, maybe that's not the right word. As a young woman, Regina had been very sure of herself and confident of her decisions, until she makes one major decision, which I guess is a spoiler, so I won't say what the decision was. But she had two good, but less than perfect choices, and she chose one. And for the rest of her life, she questioned her ability to make correct choices. And this really influenced her relationship with her daughter, because she didn't feel capable of guiding her of giving her advice, because she just didn't have that confidence in herself anymore.
Yes, that was exactly the theme that I wanted to convey. And I think that's the kind of theme that comes with age, because I certainly know when I was 20, I knew everything. And I have three children. They're 23, 19, and 15. And they know everything. And they're absolutely confident that every decision that they make is the correct one. And they can't imagine that 20 years from now they might feel differently. I am 53. I am aware of the fact that perhaps some of the decisions that we make when we are 20. And when we are 53 might not be the best ones. So I could sort of put myself in the position of a person who when faced with two not great choices, as you put it has to make one anyway and then spends the rest of her life beating herself up over it and thinking not only about the choices that she had to make, but the choices that she made that brought her to the moment where she had to make those choices, thinking how can I possibly tell my daughter what to do or even advisor and what to do when every decision I've ever made in my life has obviously been the wrong one.
Yeah, so that was one of the really beautiful aspects of this book was the healing that Regina started to have. And that it allowed her and Lena to ... to heal their relationship and in turn for Lena to examine her relationships, especially that of her with her husband Vadik, who she said, remains exactly the man she married, who was someone rather overbearing, say said he would take care of everything, he would make all the decisions, he would do it.
Well, and at one point, she liked that one of the things that I like to do in my writing in general is I tend to not have straight out villains, because I don't think anybody wakes up in the morning and says, I'm going to go do rotten things. Everybody wakes up in the morning and thinks they're going to go do the right thing, please at least says they've managed to rationalize it to themselves. And the same thing. I don't want a character where the husband is a bad guy, because he's a bad guy. She fell in love with him. And she married him because he was a man who will make her decisions for her. And that's what she wanted. And that's when she needed. 15 years later, he stayed the same. So technically, he didn't do anything wrong. She's the one who's changed in what she needed. So in that sense, my husband used to my husband likes to say that Alina doesn't write love triangles, because Alina believes people can screw up their relationships all by themselves. And, and that is true because prior to historical fiction, I did write a couple of romance novels, which were at least a genre romance novels. But even then my romance novels don't have third parties. My romance novels have people putting obstacles and screwing up their relationships all by themselves.
Yeah, it looks like you wrote some mysteries also.
I did. I did. I actually I started with romance novels. And my very first romance novel was actually a regency romance novel, one called the Fictitious Marquis, which takes place in Regency England. And I snuck Jews into it anyway. Because you know how they say write what you know. Well, what do I know about Regency England? Nothing? What do I know about Jews? I know about Jews, so I snuck some Jews into Regency England. Then I wrote a pair of contemporary romances called Annie's Wild Ride. And When a Man Loves a Woman, (no Jews,) and then I did a series of figure skating murder mysteries, because I've led a lot of lives. And one of my many lives was, I worked as a researcher for NBC Sports and NBC and TNT in their figure skating coverage department. And so I covered national championships European Championships. I was at the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan. And based on my experience there, I wrote five figure skating mysteries. A few of them have Jews in them.
Wonderful, I'll have to check those out. So I want to go back to Birobidzan, where Regina arrives after she was fleeing Moscow. And she basically has the clothes on her back, and a few tiny bit of money, not much. So she lives there. And it's a really desolate place. And even though it was called the Jewish Autonomous Region, it didn't seem except for the fact that Jews were there didn't seem particularly Jewish, it was still very much a Soviet space where you didn't practice religion and they were anti Zionist.
Well, here's the thing. That's it was what it was created to be. So this didn't happen accidentally. This happened purposefully. The whole point is, first of all, Zionism is illegal in the Soviet Union. So the Jewish autonomous state is created as an alternative to Zionism. Second of all, all religion is outlawed in the Soviet Union, not officially because supposedly churches still exist in temples still exists and mosques still exist. But religion opiate of the masses, as per Karl Marx is not allowed in a worker's paradise, but culture is. So the Jewish Autonomous Region has no religion to it. But it does have Jewish culture in the fact that they publish a Yiddish language newspaper, the street signs are in Yiddish, they put on plays in Yiddish, it was very much and we hear this today. How many people do you know that tell you oh, I'm a cultural Jew. I'm not religious. Well, the fact is the Jewish Autonomous Region made that the official policy because that was the official policy of the Soviet Union. So all the things that Regina finds there, at least as far as Judaism goes, are deliberate. They're not accidental. The other things such as the fact is that it's swamp land that can barely be farmed, that they're using the scientific tenants of Rosenko, who was a person who said that if you chop off a cow's ear, then the cow will give birth to a cow without an ear. And ergo, we can artificially create. This was actually his theory that if you took seeds, and put them into cold water before you planted them in the ground, they would be cold resistant. And you could grow crops that had never grown in cold weather before in the cold weather. How do you think that worked out? The word famine comes up a lot, but you couldn't disagree. Remember, what we talked about earlier is that you had to be very careful with what you said, so that you wouldn't be arrested and you wouldn't be shot while you were told to your face. And this is a phrase we've all gotten very used to the last few years. This is science. The government has said this is science. Are you anti science? Do you not believe in science? How dare you question anything that the government says is science. So they were all living? They're practicing Rosenko-ism, and losing their crops? Because guess what, putting seeds into cold water before you put them into cold ground, ends up with you getting nothing at all? Yeah,
there were a lot of examples of poor science and really poor administration and sort of doublethink around that, that they didn't have any hoes, or sides or even clippers, which turned out to be sort of a joke.
They were told that they did. They were explained. Look, we have an order here that says 200 sides were shipped here. Where are they? The answer is we have an order that says 200 sighs were shipped here. And how dare you can say I don't see them when there is an order from Moscow that says 200 sides were shipped here.
Right and over and over it was you have everything you need. You have everything you need. Even when you're looking around and seeing no tools you have everything you need.
And not only that, but and we also saw this in China during the Cultural Revolution is ever since everything was centrally planned. You have Moscow telling the rabinzan, you will produce 10,000 tons of rice. So they tell every everybody who works a certain hectare, you will produce 5000 tons of rice. So then when they come in, and they say did you produce 5000 tons of rice? Even if you didn't you say yes. Then the answer goes up the line until it gets to Moscow and Moscow and says, Well, 10,000 tons of rice will be coming from Birobidzan. Birobidzan did not produce 10,000 tons of rice, but they said they did. And the whole point was even then all food had to be shipped to Moscow before it was redistributed back. So think of the waste, think of fresh milk and things like that having to be shipped to a central location. So it can be redistributed?
Yeah, absurd. Absurd. But we've kind of touched on this before, but I love the quote anyway, I'm gonna read it. "If we are to have true socialism, we must have complete agreement on all issues. Otherwise, it is bedlam. Like in America, everyone doing what is best for them instead of what is best for the group. This is how it starts, believe me, I've seen it. Even among socialists in America, there is dissent. All energy is spent on fighting each other instead of on fighting the actual capitalist enemy. It's why free speech is the First Amendment in their constitution. You know, the plutocrats wrote it, they understood its power. They know the minute you allow any rebel with the ability to lift a pen or under a sound, to have their say that's when a revolutionary moment falls apart.
And we've seen that have we seen that everywhere in the world, the minute you start to criticize anything to try to make it better, you're told you're fighting against it, and it's your fault that it's not happening. And the fact is, those words were not spoken. Ironically, those words were spoken to make it clear. How can we possibly have a perfect society? If everybody doesn't agree? If you don't agree, you're the person who's ruining society?
Right. So even the people who actually knew about farming and knew that those methods weren't, wouldn't work, weren't allowed to disagree.
And not only that they were accused of deliberate sabotage so that when they didn't produce the 10,000 tons of rye, it wasn't because people didn't work hard enough. It was because obviously there were internal fifth column sabatours. So it wasn't the fault of the system. It was the fault of the people fighting against the system.
Yeah, again, it just kind of boggles the mind of how you live like that. At least my American born and raised mind.
Remember a lot of the people in fact, there were a lot of complaints that the people in the upper echelons of power in Birobidzan were Americans, because there was a lot of Americans, especially coming out of workmen's circle and the Buddhist movement and all of these Jewish socialist organizations that raised money for this that got people to go, the Sarah Lawrence, and I'm sorry, this, Swarthmore College archives have posters that were written in English, and for fundraisers that were held in the United States, to get American Jews to go and create the Jewish homeland because it was finally going to be what they wanted. Not only was it going to be a Jewish homeland, it was going to be a Jewish socialist homeland. And everyone should leave America where they have all these problems of free speech and people not agreeing, and they should move to the Soviet Union where it would be Paradise because everyone would be rowing in the same direction everyone would agree. And that's why socialism doesn't work in the US because of free speech and because of people being allowed to vote and all that, whereas in the Soviet Union, you would finally have utopia.
Right? Yeah, at the beginning, when Regina is leaving, she said "she had her ticket, but she didn't have was permission to leave or settle elsewhere, Soviet citizens were the freest in the world, maintaining this freedom necessitated their leaders knowing where each one was at all times, that led to stability, the seat seedbed of liberty."
And again, this was not ironic, this was what people believe. How can you have stability? I mean, to this day, people will even say, Well, if you have elections, whether it's every four years or 10 years or whatever, how can you have stability? How can you have continuity? If you're constantly changing? Who's in charge? How can you possibly do any long range projects, these were all things that people believed in took seriously.
Like I said, mind boggling. So I want to talk more about Regina's journey and relationships, but I'm not sure where you feel against spoilery. So do you want to talk more about her life and relationships in Birobidzan?
Well, here's the thing. Every story is not just a history book. That's why it's a novel. That's why the subtitle is a novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region, what I did was I took historical facts, and then I put imaginary people in them. And imaginary people are always going to be people in the sense that they have romantic relationships. They have familial relationships, they have friendships, which is something that I also wanted to emphasize that it's not just about a romance with a man, it's your female friends, it's it's your, your family, it's your daughter, it's actually her relationships with her granddaughter, you can see the echoes of things that happen. So I don't know if it's necessarily spoilery. Except to say that very often, you know, how people talk about the personal is the political. And that's what it comes down to. Because even the people with whom she has personal relationships, they are colored by what's going on politically around her whether it's you agree that we should plant rye like this, or you agree that there should be no dissent, or you agree that everyone should, should be in agreement? Will you agree wherever it should be an agreement is not the greatest phrase I've ever said, Bob, so maybe we'll get that one out. But it comes down to the fact that the relationships that she has with the men in her life, and the relationships that she has with her daughter and her granddaughter are all influenced by the political times the historical times that people live in.
Okay. So, one of the most beautiful passages in the book is when Lena is talking to her mother and started out kind of accusing her of being cold and of not loving her, Lena or her father. But then she said, I said that to dad. And what he said was that you showed your love in so many different ways by waiting up for him at night when he got home late from work by cooking things that she thought was ridiculous tuna casserole and macaroni and cheese I think it was and just all these little daily things that even though she wasn't emotional or demonstrative If with him that he knew that she loved him because of all these actions that she did, and that that was such a turning point moment for, for Regina, realizing that he recognized that, and for Lena, you know, seeing their her parents relationship in a different way.
Well, that actually very much comes from my own opinion. But it's actually when you think about it a very Jewish opinion, because think about Yom Kippur war, you know, just saying, Sorry, isn't enough, you're supposed to make amends. So to me, Judaism has always been very much about actions, not words, as opposed to, and I apologize, because I have a very weak understanding of Catholicism. But the idea that isn't there an idea in Catholicism where a thought is as bad as a deed, which is sort of the flip side of that. But in Judaism, it's all about not just what you think, or what you believe, or even what you say, but what you do. And that's always been a big thing for me that people can use pretty words. And you know how people in movies, they make big dramatic gestures, like, you know, and say anything, he's standing outside the door with the boombox music, and the big rush to the airport and the room full of daisies, or whatever flowers? Yeah, that's really nice. But can I tell you the most romantic thing my husband did recently, please, actually, my my book, Mother's Secret, a novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region came out on Tuesday, November 15. And that morning, my husband got up very early, and he cleaned the toilet. And that was his way of saying, It's a big day for you. And congratulations, and I love you, and I support you. So that, to me, was a more romantic gesture, than if he had filled the bathroom with 10,000, daisies and the toilet. So that's where I come from. And that's where that speech comes from, is that I really think love, whether it's between spouses, or parents and children or friends or anything else is expressed through actions, not words, which again, I think is a very Jewish sentiment.
So it sounds like you obviously have some native knowledge of all this, but it seems like you had to do some research also.
I did. And it's fun doing research during a pandemic, when you can't go anywhere, or really do anything. On the other hand, I must say, the miracle of YouTube. There are some amazing things on YouTube, my mother actually found this movie that was made in the 1930s. It was a Russian and Yiddish language propaganda film that was made to encourage everyone to move to Birobidzan. It had some very famous Soviet Jewish actors speaking Russian and Yiddish. And you had all this footage of how happy everybody was there, and how rich the farmland was and how fish were practically jumping out of the water into the boat, and how it was just the most wonderful place on Earth. So I watched that. You can also if you go down the rabbit hole of non fiction YouTube is you can find again propaganda films made from the period. You can find modern documentaries. There was one that was done in 2012. You actually you mentioned how close the area was to Korea? Well, the fact is, there are a lot of ethnic Koreans now living in that area. And on YouTube. You can find video of children ethnically Korean children in their school singing songs in Yiddish. Because it is the history of their city. And as any any child who goes to school they learn the history of their city. And there are still street signs sometimes in Yiddish, I mean, they're very worn and the rain has come in wash them away. But these little adorable Korean children in their school uniforms, singing Yiddish songs. So if you ever go down the rabbit hole, that is YouTube, you can do a lot of research there. I also read a wonderful book, Masha. Masha Gessen has a book called Where the Jews Aren't. And that is the history of the Jewish Autonomous Region starting even earlier than I started it and going all the way through to modern times. So that's an excellent book as well. There's also all sorts as I mentioned, Swarthmore has archives, you can find individual articles and NPR did an interview with Gessen and so there is a lot there, but it for this particular book, almost all of my research was done from home because plague,
right, of course, so is there anything that particularly surprised you in your research?
It surprised me that people went simply. Here's the thing in the beginning thousands of people went and within two months turned back because there was literally nothing there. People were living in zinbandas, that literally means a hole in the ground.
Wow,
There was rains there snow, the the whole country is mostly a rainy season horseflies and mosquitoes. So after you have the first couple of 1000 people go who don't know what's there, and then they come back, you think they would have told people money. The fact is, there were a lot of people, especially from not that area. For instance, there were people from Germany, and America who wanted to stir up interest. So they would write articles in their newspapers, they would make speeches, talking about how wonderful the rabbit John was, without ever having actually been there. Or if they did go there. It was only you know, like when you go on a tour, and they just show you the highlights of everything for a week. So I think what really shocked me is people are not human beings are not known for their ability to get up and go. In fact, most of the time when you ask people when we all look back in time of a situation that was about to go bad is you say, Well, why didn't you leave before things got so bad, people are not known for that people assume it's going to blow over. So the fact that 10s of 1000s of people picked up and left not just their home in the USSR. But as I said, America and Argentina, and places like where it is not wet and muddy all the time, and went to the edge of the world to the border between Russia and China. That's kind of confounding to me. Now. To be fair, my parents opt in left the Soviet Union in the 70s and move to America. But as we all know, the people who emigrate are actually in the minority, always.
So it was there anything you found that was really intriguing, but that didn't make it into the novel.
I'm one of those people who if I find it interesting, I'm going to find a place to shove it in. I can't think of anything that I really wanted to get in that didn't make it. I will tell you that outside of Birobidzan, as you know, another part of the book takes place in a prisoner of war camp during World War Two. And something else that most people don't realize is that during World War Two, first of all, the Soviet Union and the UK and America were allies. So sometimes their soldiers were captured and kept in the same German prisoner of war camps. But because the USSR was not a signatory to the Geneva Convention, Soviet soldiers could be treated much, much worse, they didn't have to get the amount of rations and calories a day, they didn't have to have running water and electricity, which the other side have, they didn't have to let in the Red Cross. So there was nobody who was looking after their conditions, and that American soldiers actually worked with Soviet soldiers to get food to them to get medical supplies to them all that. And then at the end of the war, when the Soviet Union and America were no longer allies, when they were once again, enemies because of the Cold War, the Soviet soldiers, some of whom had worked with the American soldiers were accused of collaborating with the enemy and sent to Siberia. So that was a detail that from a dramatic standpoint, it's fabulous. From a personal standpoint, not so much.
Right. Yeah, I had noticed the, your descriptions of the differences between the two camps of POWs. And yeah, it sounded really appalling.
There's a reason and Hogan's Heroes when they're all having such a wonderful time. And that's a whole separate issue. But you'll notice there's no Soviet soldier among them, because Soviets were actually kept separately and treated very differently.
So is there anything that you would like to bring up that I haven't thought to ask you?
Well, here's my question to you. It's called nice Jewish books. Yes, your podcast, what constitutes a nice Jewish Book for you?
It has to have Jewish characters that are more than nominally Jewish, that if you switched it out, and had them some other religion or non religion, that it would make a difference in the narrative, because are lots of books that have Jewish characters, but their Judaism is, Oh, yeah. When I was a kid, we had Hanukkah or, you know, it's just a drop in word here or there and doesn't really have any effect on the story. You know, that if you drop that it wouldn't change the story. So I want really want to delve into stories about Jews living Jewish lives, whatever that they need.
Well, that's That's why I asked because very often the story is, is this a Jewish Book, people asked me that question. And it's a story that has Jewish characters. In it, and the things that happened to them wouldn't have happened in the same way if they weren't Jews. But in another sense, especially living in the Soviet Union, Jews went out of their way to separate themselves, both because it was dangerous, both because it was outlawed, but also because they didn't know with every generation once Judaism became outlawed, people knew less and less and less. So to me, what's interesting is when I write about Soviet Jewish characters, not just in My Mother's Secret, a novel of the Jewish Autonomous Region, but also my previous book, The Nesting Dolls, is their characters who are Jews, and they might not live Jewish lives, the way Jewish lives are defined by some people, but the lives they live, are defined by the fact that they're Jewish. Right?
Absolutely.
So it's, so it's the kind of book is it a Jewish Book? Yes, it's a book about Jews. It's a book about lives lived by Jews. But I just I spoke a couple of days ago to another Jewish organization. And there was a woman there who was a history teacher who said that as far as she can see, for Americans, all Jewish history ends in 1948. That basically, they know about World War Two, and they know about the state of Israel. And that's it, and most have no idea what was going on in the Soviet Union at the same time. So when I write books about Jews, their stories that most American Jews don't know exist, because the kind of Judaism they know, is a very particular type of third generation, usually Ashkenazi Judaism in the United States,
guilty as charged.
It's like my older son calls it what is it? Well, my oldest son calls it Ashke-normative in that. They forget that there was so much Jewish history going on outside of the first half of the 20th century outside of Western Europe, and then the state of Israel, and then the Lower East Side of New York, that my book is about the kind of Jewish lives that may not have been lived in a traditionally Jewish way. But we're still happening to Jews.
Yeah, that was definitely one thing that drew me to the book. And I do on this podcast, have so far avoided Holocaust fiction, for the most part, sometimes it gets in there a little bit, but not because there's anything wrong with it. And there's some excellent works out there. But because, as you said, there's so much more to the Jewish experience than the Holocaust. And I really wanted to focus on other aspects of, of Jewish life. So historical ...
And that's that's what I wanted to do as well
in different places and different times.
So there's a lot of people who don't realize that there's a large number of American Jews who emigrated from the Soviet Union starting in the late 70s. And coming up to now whose lives are in experiences are very different from the Jews who were born in the US either around World War Two or right after that. And people are surprised they're surprised about everything from voting patterns to food. I don't I still don't know what a brisket is. I'm not quite sure what a brisket is. I've heard about it. And I know it's a thing. But but I'm not really sure what a brisket is. So there is a whole world of Jews out there who you know, weren't born on the Upper West Side, then moved to Connecticut, then went to Columbia, then moved to New Jersey.
So what is your favorite since it's obviously not a brisket, but what would your favorite festive meal be? What would it look like?
Oh, okay. Well, that's That's an excellent question. I mean, my my sister in law for Passover makes some really great stuff because she is an American Jews. So she has all these recipes that I haven't tried, like all these flourless, cookies and cakes, and she makes an amazing lemon mousse, but that's probably not too Jewish. Although when you start thinking that was my first thought, what is what my American sister in law for Passover? So I don't even know. I mean, I don't know what will be considered Jewish food because most of my references would be like Soviet Jewish food. I don't think it would be considered
but that's what I'm asking about, you know,
OK, well, I like slices the veal tongue with a little mayonnaise on top. And which again, is is strange to some people
pickled or just boiled
boiled, boiled, boiled. Yeah, I like pickles. I like olives. But I'm not like I'm not a gefilte fish person. Not really a big, big fan of that. Oh, coleslaw. Well, sauerkraut keys like a booster is the right Shouldn't word for it? Yeah, I guess I that would be very strange. I can't think of anything that would be considered Jewish because everything I can think of would be more Soviet, I guess.
Okay, if someone would like to get in touch with you what's the best way?
My website is AlinaAdams.com. And actually what I have there is I have videos of book club appearances I've done again, while I don't necessarily recommend releasing a book in the middle of the pandemic, my last book, The Nesting Dolls came out July 2020, smack in the middle of the pandemic. And so I learned how to do a lot of zoom book clubs. And it's been great because I was able to visit places I never would have so that I hope stays in. So if you go to my website, which is Alinaadams.com, you can see videos of book club talks that I do, and there's contact information there if you'd like me to come visit and talk at you, because you may have noticed from this conversation, I am a talker.
Well, that's a great thing in a podcast guest. So one thing that I have been asking like the authors who come is that if someone were to use your book as a stepping stone for Tikun Olam, for repairing the world, or you can take this as a moment to raise any issue that you would like, what would it be?
Well, actually, I was very fortunate in that the official release of My Mother's Secret and novel of the Jewish autonomous region was actually the kickoff event for UJA's United Jewish Appeal FSU former Soviet Union division. And so they did a fundraiser where I was the speaker. And they talked a lot about the work that uj is doing in Ukraine with the refugees. And that's something that I'm very passionate about and something that I'm involved in. And I'll tell you this, because when we first I sit on the UJA committee I I'm involved, and when people from UJA first started going to the border, the border of Poland, the border of Romania where people are crossing over and setting up medical tents and hospitality and all of that. One of the questions that I asked them, I said, Are you only helping Jews? And they said, Absolutely not. Nobody's being asked their religion or their ethnicities, Jews, for one thing are very sensitive to the concept of Oh, you're this go over there, you're this go over there. So they're not playing that game. Help is being offered to Whoever crosses the border, and whoever needs what they're offering. And as they said, if you look at the border, you can see Yes, uj is there and flying a flag. But you know what, so is the Red Crescent, and so are other charitable organizations. So what I want to stress to people is if you do want to donate for Ukrainian relief, know that UJA is a lot of experience in this area, which is why they were able to get people on the ground right away, because it's what they do. And the help that they're offering is for everyone. There's absolutely no segregation of services.
They do wonderful work. And I'll find the link and put that in the show notes. That'd be great. So I think that was my list of questions. I think I just want to thank you so much, Alina Adams for speaking about My Mother's Secret, a novel of the Jewish autonomous region.
Thank you so much. I know it's a mouthful, but I wanted to make clear what people were getting themselves into.
We talked a lot about the history. But I just want to mention again, just what a beautiful story of perseverance and love and healing and just all of that you get all the feels from it along with the history.
Oh, thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
Okay, well, all the best thank you.
If you are interested in any of the books we discussed today, you can find them at your favorite board and brick or online bookstore, or at your local library. Thanks to Die Yan Ke for use of their freilich, which definitely makes me happy. This podcast is a project of the Association of Jewish libraries. And you can find more about it at WWW dot Jewish libraries.org/nice Jewish books. I would like to thank AJL and my podcast mentor Heidi Rabinowitz. Keep listening for the promo for her latest episode.
Hi, I'm Bridget Hodder author of the Button Box and the forthcoming book the Promise, and I'll be joining us soon on the Book of Life podcast and I'd like to dedicate this episode podcast to my beloved grandmother, Rochelle vscc baillio the model for Granny Buena in the Button Box, and also to my co author up the button box. Fawzia, Jelani Williams. I love you both. I'm grateful for you both gaminess Villa Jamia?
Hi I'm Sarah Arroesti, author of Bueno Shabbat Shabbat Shalom and the forthcoming Mazel Tov when Oh, and I'd like to dedicate the next episode of The Book of Life podcast to my cousin, Rochelle nacmias, who is the last person in my family to be born speaking Ladino as her first language, and she just turned though ripe young age of 105 years old last week, so I want to wish her a happy birthday. And to dedicate this episode to her gave me
the book of life is the sister podcast of nice Jewish books. I'm your host, Heidi Rabinowitz and I podcast about Jewish kidlet Join me to hear my December 2022 conversation with Bridget Hodder and Sarah Arroesti at Book of Life podcast.com
