{"id":11574,"date":"2015-03-27T00:12:11","date_gmt":"2015-03-27T07:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=11574"},"modified":"2015-03-26T17:48:49","modified_gmt":"2015-03-27T00:48:49","slug":"meet-chani-kaufman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2015\/03\/27\/meet-chani-kaufman\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Chani Kaufman"},"content":{"rendered":"

Community and faith can both comfort and oppress. A well-defined environment with clear expectations and rules can allow one to flourish, knowing one\u2019s proper place and purpose in the world, or it can stifle one\u2019s individuality, creativity and spirit, knowing that what is and what is to come is more determined by others than oneself. Self-realization and other universal themes, such as family, love and loss, are explored with a sensitive heart and a deft hand by Eve Harris in The Marrying of Chani Kaufman<\/em> (Anansi Press Inc., 2014).<\/p>\n

\"book<\/a>Since the Jewish Independent <\/em>received its advance reading copy of Harris\u2019 debut novel, which was first published in England by Sandstone Press Ltd. in 2013, The Marrying of Chani Kaufman<\/em> was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize. It has received many positive reviews, and this one will be no different in that respect. The novels characters are likeable and relatable; even the most intransigent of them has their understandable reasons for their views and actions. There are no malevolent people in this non-specific Charedi community living in Hendon and Golders Green, in the northwest part of London, England \u2013 although some do push moral boundaries in their efforts to get what they want, what they feel is right.<\/p>\n

To write a novel that is simultaneously critical of and sympathetic to a community takes skill. Harris writes about religious people, not a religion per se, and she writes about these people with respect and knowledge, humor and pathos. She succeeds in telling a story about people living in a world that will be foreign to most readers and explaining it without becoming stilted or lecturing.<\/p>\n

The Marrying of Chani Kaufman<\/em> centres on four people: the bride and the groom, Chani and Baruch; the rebbetzin; and the rebbetzin\u2019s son, Avromi, who is good friends with Baruch. It starts at Chani and Baruch\u2019s wedding in November 2008 and goes back in time \u2013 several months for Chani and Baruch, when he first sees her; to 1981 for the rebbetzin, when she met her husband and began her journey to orthodoxy; and to 2007 for Avromi, when he met and fell in love with Shola, a non-Jewish fellow student at university. When the novel begins, Chani and Baruch are about to start their \u201creal life,\u201d as Chani describes it, the rebbetzin is well into her crisis of faith and Avromi\u2019s double life is becoming difficult to maintain.<\/p>\n

By the time the matchmaker arranges for Chani, 19, and Baruch, 20, to meet, at his insistence to his mother \u2013 who does not approve of the match for a few reasons, most notably the Kaufmans\u2019 lower economic status \u2013 both had been on several arranged dates with other potential mates, to no avail. They both don\u2019t quite fit the mold of the perceived ideal Charedi wife or husband, and both are unwilling to settle.<\/p>\n

At school, when she was 15, Chani\u2019s \u201cgarrulousness had got her into trouble,\u201d she \u201cwas considered audacious but gifted,\u201d \u201ceverything interested her \u2013 the little she could get her hands on.\u201d She \u201chad learned to walk and not run\u2026. She had longed for freedom of movement but had been taught to restrict her gait.\u201d In agreeing to be married to Baruch, \u201cShe hoped that the bell jar might finally be lifted. Or at least she would have someone to share it with.\u201d<\/p>\n

That latter hope, at least, does seem possible, as Baruch, too, thought his \u201clife felt narrow: the pressure to succeed, to be a rabbi, to please his father. His quick analytical mind was to be harnessed to the Talmud. The English degree he longed to study remained a blasphemous secret buried in his heart.\u201d As did Chani, he acted out in small ways, listening to rock music or reading novels that were not permitted. So, perhaps together they will be able to negotiate a Jewish life that feeds more of their being and soul. Perhaps there will be a happily ever after for them. Their parents seem reasonably content, albeit with their respective \u2013 and not insignificant \u2013 problems.<\/p>\n

The future well-being of the rebbetzin and her family is also left to readers\u2019 imaginations, the rebbetzin\u2019s questioning seeming to have more far-reaching implications than her son\u2019s transgression. Sparked by a miscarriage \u2013 a devastatingly described incident in which the emotional distance between her and her husband becomes apparent \u2013 the rebbetzin begins to deal with long-latent grief from a much-earlier tragedy. This process, at least initially, separates her from her family, her community, her faith. Where it takes her is not revealed.<\/p>\n

As much as The Marrying of Chani Kaufman<\/em> offers readers a glimpse into the lives of others, it offers the possibility of finding out more about ourselves and our own place in the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Community and faith can both comfort and oppress. A well-defined environment with clear expectations and rules can allow one to flourish, knowing one\u2019s proper place and purpose in the world, or it can stifle one\u2019s individuality, creativity and spirit, knowing that what is and what is to come is more determined by others than oneself. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[784],"tags":[1998,3472],"class_list":["post-11574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-charedim","tag-eve-harris"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11574\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}