Sitting on a Suitcase: Psychoanalytic Stories contains eighteen moving tales of disparate Jewish lives from Eliat Aram, Leslie B. Brissett, Louisa Diana Brunner, Halina Brunning, Leila Djemal, Shmuel Erlich, Mira Erlich-Ginor, Franca Fubini, Stan Gold, Larry Hirschhorn, Susan Kahn, Alicia E. Kaufmann, Olya Khaleelee, James Krantz, Vega Zagier Roberts, Edward R. Shapiro, Mannie Sher, and Marlene Spero. The book begins with a thought-provoking preface from former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and ends with a sensitive epilogue from Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg, both providing societal containment for what comes between them. The contents also include two non-Jewish German writers, Claudia Nagel and Dorothee von Tippelskirch-Eissing, who between them provide a bravely honest introduction and conclusions to the stories contained within. Also contained within the book are black and white photographs of the contributors’ young selves that provide an additional evocative layer to the words contained within. Plus four black and white line drawings to illustrate each of the four parts of the book: Orthodox beginnings, Sitting on the boundary: Marginality and belonging, Emigration and identity, and Will history repeat itself?
This was not an easy book for its authors to write, revisiting the past unlocked painful memories and re-awoke fears of persecution. The manuscript was nearing completion when Hamas launched the October 7, 2023 attack on Israeli soil and the war in Gaza followed. Incidents of anti-Semitism increased worldwide and questions were raised whether the book should be held back. However, its themes became more relevant than ever and these stories need to be read. Themes such as issues around having a voice, or finding a voice during formative years; finding a family through friends; a sense of not belonging because of constant relocation, or finding a sense of belonging through family and friends. Aspects of life that resonate with us all alongside the deeper theme of the impact of Jewish identity on every facet of life.
This is a book full of emotion and meaning that needs to be read by all with an interest in humanity and fostering connection and understanding across nations.
Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements
About the editors and contributors
Preface by Rowan Williams
Prologue by Halina Brunning and Olya Khaleelee
Introduction: I did not know by Claudia Nagel
Part I
Orthodox beginnings
CHAPTER 1
On being: Hated and loved
Susan Kahn
CHAPTER 2
My father’s tears
James Krantz
CHAPTER 3
Roots and migration, belonging and identity fragments
Shmuel Erlich
CHAPTER 4
The Talmud and beyond
Larry Hirschhorn
Part II
Sitting on the boundary: Marginality and belonging
CHAPTER 5
Breaking the silence: Finding my words and group of belonging
Marlene Spero
CHAPTER 6
Outsider insider
Vega Zagier Roberts
CHAPTER 7
Assimilation and emancipation—a “lived experience”
Louisa Diana Brunner
CHAPTER 8
Displaced: A Jew in the diaspora
Stan Gold
CHAPTER 9
What’s in the suitcase? A tale of three (or four) countries
Eliat Aram
Part III
Emigration and identity
CHAPTER 10
Written in stone, moving like water
Leslie B. Brissett
CHAPTER 11
How Eros won over Thanatos
Halina Brunning
CHAPTER 12
Rising from the ashes
Olya Khaleelee
CHAPTER 13
The attic and the cellar
Franca Fubini
CHAPTER 14
Discovering identity: Reflections on an American life
Edward R. Shapiro
CHAPTER 15
The risk of being oneself: Will history repeat itself?
Alicia E. Kaufmann
Part IV
Will history repeat itself?
CHAPTER 16
I have no other country
Mira Erlich-Ginor
CHAPTER 17
My literal suitcase and my suitcase-in-the-mind
Mannie Sher
CHAPTER 18
Fragments from elsewhere: Finding a voice in the babel of tongues
Leila Djemal
Conclusions by Dorothee von Tippelskirch-Eissing
Epilogue by Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg
Index
