Inspired by his mother’s diary—discovered only after her death -- son Aubrey Kagan re-organizes Shulamit Kagan’s “life stories” into a nifty memoir titled A Tourist from Petach Tikva. Motivated by the Zionist movement Kagan’s family fled Russian pogroms to arrive in, then, British mandated Palestine amid turbulent political upheavals and lived in joy to experience the realization of the State of Israel. An engineer with a skill set of a writer, Aubrey Kagan, takes a page out of his mother’s journal to highlight her childhood and celebrate “the best day, Israel’s independence, when Ben Gurion declared Israeli sovereignty.
Born in 1927 Shulamit’s diary evocatively records her early childhood living among the Haredim in a tiny apartment on the edge of Mea Shearim a religious neighborhood in Jerusalem. Shulamit’s father Moshe was a staunch Zionist, a popular and dedicated teacher, but uncommunicative and somewhat pedantic at home. Shulamit deeply respected Alteh, her mother as “the most intelligent and well-read person I have ever known”. However living under primitive conditions with no running water, no refrigerator not even an icebox, cooking on a Primus stove Alteh was often depressed.
Shulamit describes the fear her family felt when they were threatened by intermittent explosions, the riots of 1929, the “deadly revolts of 1936, 1939 in Jerusalem Hevron and Tzfat when local Arabs massacred dozen of Jews, ransacked homes and synagogues. The family including “Bobbie” were evacuated and relocated to Tel Aviv a “little Paris” by comparison to the staid Jerusalem. Shulamit notes, the thrill of “mastic”, chewing gum she first tasted in Tel Aviv.
When she was nine Shulamit learned about the plight of the ma’apilim (illegals) and their battle with the stringent British border controls during the 1930s. Three refugees lived with them in their cramped apartment. Shulmit recalls, “the end of my childhood” September 1940 when the Italian Air Force bombed Tel Aviv killing over 100 citizens, mostly children. That incident affected her and left a deep emotional scar. She was again evacuated with her younger brother Avi to stay with her beloved uncle Gavriel in Kfar Saba where she enjoyed a great sense of freedom, security and independence.” Her carefree life was short lived.
At 14 Shulamit’s school principal explained the existential problems facing Israel during the battle of El Alemein “when the fate of the entire Jewish people was at stake” if the Allies lost. At seventeen in 1944 Shulamit began training for service as an officer in the Haganah; her brother Avi, chose the revolutionary Irgun. Battling for Israeli independence Avi tragically lost his life–hit by a “dum dum” Arab bullet.
Author Aubrey Kagan’s book is chock-full of a family’s personal experiences corresponding to Israeli political and military events. A Tourist in Petach Tikvah is perhaps now more relevant than ever especially for a new generation of Zionists.