Last night I attended a Hadassah event in Newton, MA that featured the author of the Beauty Queen of Jerusalem, Sarit Yishai-Levi. I read the book earlier in the year, and found the book fascinating. One of the reasons is that I had not read a book that took place over three generations in Israel (and pre-Israel), and I found it intriguing. The other reason is that when I think of Israeli women I don't think of Beauty Queens. Nonetheless, it was a fabulous book that hooked me in from the first few pages.
Before Sarit spoke about the book, she gave us some personal history. Born in 1947 in Israel, her family is has been in Jerusalem for 8 generations. She is of Sephardic decent, and gave us insight that Sephardic and Ashkenazai Jewish families did NOT intermarry! She served in the Israel army and moved to Tel Aviv. She became a journalist and reported for Montir, HaOlam and Hadashot. One of the most fascinating facts was that she was the first Israeli reporter to interview Yasser Arafat, and she was a female reporter!
She described the research that went behind the novel. She researched ads about what life was like in Israel and pre-Israel by reading newspapers, and interviewing her father. It shows in the book. She described a furniture ad that she saw in an old newspaper, and I instantly recalled Luna's parents heavy furniture!
She described the photo of the Israeli version of the book, and showed us how different it was from the American version. She fought for this book to be released near Rosh Hashana because in Israel book sales explode during that time since nothing is open on Yom Kippur and Israeli's either read or go to synagogue on Yom Kipuur!
She is writing her second novel and the Beauty Queen of Jerusalem will be made into an Israeli film! If you get the chance to hear Sarit speak, please attend. She is a wonderful speaker and engages the audience, and even better if you have a few Hebrew speaking audience members.
You can purchase the book at Barnes and Nobles or Amazon.
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