J. S. Margot

Even though the interview went rather poorly, the Schneider family employs the narrator as a tutor for their four children. The two boys cope with school quite well, but the oldest daughter Elzira struggles and needs support. The children do not go to an ordinary school, just like the family is not the ordinary Antwerp family. They are Orthodox Jews and with her tutoring job, the doors to a completely new world open for the young student. Gradually, she does not actually become a member of the family but they grow totally fond of her and even when the kids have grown up, they not only stay in contact but support each when they are in need.

The Flemish journalist and novelist Margot Vanderstraeten narrates her encounter with the Jewish community at the beginning of the 1990s when she was a student. She is quite young, only a couple of years the children’s senior when she first enters their life and thus can only wonder about what she sees and learns about the family’s faith, the different types of Judaism and a life in her hometown of which she did not have the least idea.

She is confronted with a lot of contradictions and unbelievable concepts, however, she also learns that they can provide anchors in life and give orientation in the modern world. Over the years, she also understands why some Jews prefer to keep to themselves and why all of them always have a passport at hand. At times funny, at times pensive – the novel gives insight in an unknown world without judging any way of life or religion. It is a wonderful memoir which first of all shows how people can bond even though, at first, they could hardly differ more. By showing Jews not only in Belgium but also in Israel and the USA, she also underlines that all of them find their very own way of interpreting their religion and of uniting an old faith based on ancient rules with the modern world.

Einblick in eine geschlossene Welt verspricht das Buch. Einblick in die modern-orthodoxe Welt der Juden in Antwerpen.
So nah und doch so fern erscheint die Welt in die sich Margot hineintasten muss Vorbehalte und Klischees aufweichen und die Welt zulassen nicht ohne der geschlossenen Gesellschaft mehr Offenheit abzuverlangen.
Es sind nicht inbdingt die jüdischen Gebräuche und Feste die Auskunft über deren Welt geben, es sind die Gespräche mit den Jugendlichen und den Eltern, die Einblick in die Gedankenwelt geben und wie schwierig es ist als Aussenstehender und der westlichen Welt zugewandtem Menschen diese Welt zu verstehen. Auch das Austausch von Toleranz ist nicht einfach, die einen tolerieren, die anderen fordern Toleranz.
Aber es ist im Vordergrund die Geschichte einer Freundschaft vielleicht auch eher ein Protokoll, es liest sich manchmal recht nüchtern, obwohl die Autorin ihr Herzblut in die Freundschaft legt.
Empfehlenswert für jeden der sich auf eine Reise in eine WElt mitten in Europa begeben möchte.