My Mother’s Roots

Chapters in this book

1. Front Matter i
2. Contents v
3. Preface ix
4. Acknowledgments xiii
5. Introduction 1
6. Displacement and Exile
7. IsraIsland 9
8. A Home Called Exile 17
9. The Kitchen 21
10. Mirka and I 25
11. Independence Park: A Fiction 35
12. Burning in Cuba 43
13. Homeland Security 57
14. A Letter to My Grandmother on Coming Home from Europe 61
15. Marked by Carnival 67
16. Homesick 81
17. Memories of My Chinese Home 83
18. Place and Memory
19. To Return to One’s Homeland 91
20. Snow Unites Jerusalem 95
21. From Cairo to Chicago 97
22. Bella, 1908 101
23. Sisters 105
24. Jewish Oil Brat 113
25. Shalom Bayit 115
26. All But My Life 117
27. Kentucky Fried Chicken 119
28. America 125
29. East 131
30. The Mah-Jongg Set 133
31. A Jewish Romanian in Oxford 137
32. In the Margin 151
33. To the Smell of Sea and Pickle 153
34. Isibaya (The Home) 155
35. Language and Creativity
36. Yiddishland 161
37. Silence 169
38. The Girl in the Balcony 171
39. The Music and Language of Home 175
40. Here 181
41. Posit 183
42. Morning Exercise 185
43. Renaissance 187
44. Line of Defense 189
45. Family and Tradition
46. I, May I Find Home 193
47. The Dina Letters 195
48. My Indian Bene Israel Home 201
49. In Your Letter 207
50. If Only I’d Been Born a Kosher Chicken 209
51. My Mother’s Roots 221
52. My Iranian Sukkah 225
53. Home for Thanksgiving 235
54. At Home in Shabbat 239
55. Learning the Language 243
56. When We Are Born We Are Given a Golden Tent and All of Life Is the Folding and Setting Up of the Tent 253
57. Notes on Contributors 257