The Netanyahus: An Account of a Minor and Ultimately Even Negligible Episode in the History of a Very Famous Family

Chapter 6 begins with Thanksgiving. Counterintuitively, the religious set of parents (Ruben’s) are present on a secular holiday, whereas the secular parents (Edith’s) were present on a Jewish holiday. It is no accident. It’s a further step by Ruben and Edith to remove themselves from Judaism. The reader learns very little about Ruben’s mother Henya. Alter, on the other hand, is not only an orthodox Jew who raised his son to be just like him, but he is also the typical low-educated, but very hard-working American blue-collar laborer. The academic Ruben and his father have very little in common, which explains Alter’s reaction to his granddaughter’s answer about what fairness is. From Alter’s perspective, Judy is overly educated, insubordinate, ungrateful, and most of all naïve. Her idea of fairness is idealistic and a part of what would become the civil rights movement. Alter’s idea of fairness, or lack thereof, is based on his years of dealing with antisemitism. Fairness does not exist in his opinion. The argument marks a distinct cultural and generational gap between the family members, which can be extrapolated to signify American society and culture in general.

Judy uses the argument at dinner to break her nose in Chapter 7, so she can finally have the cosmetic surgery she has been desiring for so long. It shows to what extent she will go to remove any outer vestiges of her Jewishness. However, the physical pain she undergoes transmutes into an analogy for Jewish history and its influence of anxiety on contemporary Jews in Ruben’s dream at the end of Chapter 6. The imagery of torture and indoctrination and the final image of everyone speaking fire to him represents the guilt he feels from his own Jewish upbringing but also the Jewish influence he imparts to his daughter, which is further compounded by the actions of his father. Alter’s hypothetical to Judy about who would protect her if the KKK instigated an antisemitic pogrom is evidence of how deeply many Jews mistrust others. The fire-speaking at the end of the dream is representative of condemnation.

Other than Judy getting her desired new nose, Chapter 7 continues the plot and develops the characters. Of note is the deference Edith and Ruben make regarding Judy. Edith fears that Judy might be suicidal. Ruben worries that Judy broke her nose on purpose and the implications such devotion to a cause could mean later on in Judy’s life. Consequently, the two parents walk on eggshells around their daughter for a time, placating her every whim. Ruben is especially indulgent in that he purchases a new color TV and has it placed in Judy’s room (for the time being), and he does her homework for her, even though he constantly pushes Judy toward academic perfection. All of this culminates in the chapter’s final sentence: “And she’d gotten [her new nose] the fairest way, through suffering” (136). With this utterance, the scenes in Chapter 7 take on an analogous meaning for Jewish suffering and their attainment of Israel. In a way, suffering becomes justification.

Chapter 8 begins with an anecdote about Andrew Jackson’s inauguration as president of the US in 1829 and the raucous of the celebration in the White House. The anecdote is an example of historical interpretation in that the events did indeed occur but opinion is divided about how much damage was caused, and the idea that Jackson purposefully let in a rabble-rousing mob to destroy the interior just so he could redecorate is far-fetched. Nevertheless, the anecdote serves as an indicator of the mixture of historical fact, myth, and storytelling that will feature throughout the events involving Ben-Zion Netanyahu. Consequently, shortly after the anecdote is told, Ben-Zion finally arrives.

The arrival of the Netanyahus is chaotic. The three boys wild and unruly, and the first indicator of a cultural clash between the American Rubens and the Eastern-European/Israeli Netanyahus is witnessed in the shoe-removal scene. While the Netanyahus and the Rubens talk and get to know one another, further discrepancies between American and Israeli culture are introduced. Perhaps the most blatant is the difference in American wealth and prosperity versus the spartan lifestyle in those founding years in Israel—Tzila comments on how wonderful disposable diapers are, and both Tzila and Ben-Zion enjoy the color TV, a luxury item nonexistent in Israel. There is also the language barrier. Though both couples are Jewish, only the Netanyahus speak Hebrew. Neither Edith nor Ruben can speak enough of it to make anything Tzila and Ben-Zion say intelligible. This fact greatly separates the notion of what makes a Jew, especially an Israeli Jew versus one from the Diaspora, such as the American Jew, embodied by Ruben, Edith, and even Judy. Even the names of their children indicate a vast divide between the Netanyahus’ observance of Jewishness/Judaism and the Blums’. Though Judy could be short for Judith (Yehudit), who Ben-Zion points out was the one who beheaded the infamous Assyrian general Holofernes. However, Judy is simply named after Edith’s grandmother. Perhaps the grandmother was named after the biblical heroine, but the fact remains that from the Blums’ perspective Judy’s name bears no religious significance. Her name stands in stark contrast to the Netanyahus, whose names are significant in Jewish religion and history.

Cohen also explores Jewish stereotypes in Ben-Zion’s character, such as the way Ben-Zion deals with Edelman’s car. The miserly stereotype is perpetuated in how Ben-Zion vehemently denies culpability in the accident simply because he does not want the responsibility of having to pay for the repairs. There is no historical record that can verify that the real Benzion possessed this trait, but Cohen’s intention is to explore these stereotypes, not to represent anyone with perfect accuracy. This stereotype is explored further in Chapter 11.