Rarely does a novel come along that succeeds on so many levels. Talia Carner’s Jerusalem Maiden is indeed well written, her descriptions of Jerusalem in the early 1900s, so vivid we are transported to another place and time. Meticulously researched, we learn a great deal of history, how the Ottoman Empire’s final days affected those caught in the crossfire. And we also are brought inside the Orthodox Jewish society, learning what it was like for women growing up in such an ultra-religious community.
Yet behind the well-developed story line, Carner raises questions that have no easy answers. Does God punish us for our transgressions? Reward us for our good deeds? And who is qualified to interpret God’s plan?
The Jerusalem Maiden, Esther Kaminsky, is a product of her time and her religion. While we sympathize with her plight, being trapped in a misogynistic society, we also are frustrated by her inability to free herself completely from these outdated beliefs. Yet we all struggle as Esther does, no matter our religion, and it’s that commonality that draws us into her story.
Esther is a gifted artist, producing drawings and paintings that elicit praise from her teacher, Mademoiselle Thibaux. Esther’s talent however, is both a blessing and a curse. She constantly asks Hashem (the name pious Jews use to show respect for God) what he expects of her. Does God expect her to use her artistic talents or is he testing her loyalty?
Each time Esther indulges her love of art, seeking the sanctuary offered by Mlle Thibaux, tragedy ensues, and she is convinced Hashem is punishing her. When her mother, Ima, is taken ill, Esther goes off to pray at the Western Wall and believes she hears God speaking to her, expressing his fury. She soon realizes the words are coming from a mad man standing nearby, but she accepts that he is God’s messenger. “It mattered not who delivers God’s words…How naïve she had been.” She discounts the idea that God has singled her out. “When had a young girl ever been chosen by God for greatness? Not a single biblical story reported such a preposterous idea.”
In Esther’s world, a woman is destined to marry, often not meeting her prospective husband until the wedding day, and to produce many children to glorify Hashem. Esther watches her best friend, Ruthi, marry Yossel, a biblical scholar, who becomes abusive. Deep in her heart, Esther knows this is not the path she wants, and she devises a plan that will allow her to continue her art without embarrassing her parents. Esther’s cousin, Asher, is a gifted musician, caught in the same dilemma. If they marry, they can continue their art, even move to Paris. Asher tells Esther he will not sleep with her and, initially she is upset that she may be defying Hashem’s plan to produce children. In the end, however, she accepts his decision.
Esther’s father, however, has a different plan. On her wedding day, Esther finds herself marrying not Asher, but Nathan, a wealthy businessman from Jaffa. The marriage accomplishes two things for the Kaminsky family—keeping them supplied with food and exiling Esther from Jerusalem where her outspoken nature will no longer subject the family to scorn.
Nathan is a decent man and a good husband, but Esther still feels trapped. She fulfills her obligation, giving Nathan three children. She is never accepted by Nathan’s sisters who constantly intervene in her life. She finally finds an opportunity to escape. Esther’s sister, Hanna, unable to conceive, is divorced by her husband. Nathan agrees that Hanna can come to live with them. Ironically, the childless Hanna is the better mother. When Nathan leaves on an extended business trip to Paris, Esther feels comfortable leaving her children in Hanna’s care. She writes to Nathan, telling him she will meet him in Paris.
On her own in Paris, Esther is reunited with Mlle Thibaux and her son, Pierre. Esther finally begins to fully appreciate her artistic talents and envisions the life she believes she was meant to have. Paris is alive with artistic fervor and Esther is on fire, painting with intensity and seeing one of her paintings hang in the Louvre. Pierre, a sculptor, introduces Esther to a community of artists where she feels inspired and appreciated. He also is responsible for her sexual awakening, showing Esther that there is more to making love than just producing children.
Carner, the former publisher of Savvy Woman magazine, has long fought for women’s rights. For Jerusalem Maiden, she has drawn on her own family history. As a young girl, she heard stories about the ground-breaking females in her family, a great-great-grandmother who traveled from Jerusalem to Russia at age fourteen to get Halitza (a form of Jewish release from marriage), and her great-grandmother, who was so intelligent her father allowed her to sit outside the door to his yeshiva (Jewish religious school) and listen.
Her grandmother, also named Esther, was an artist who never found expression in her world. And Carner’s mother is a successful Israeli artist who has sold thousands of paintings, although she began her career in her forties.
“Esther’s story is still universal,” Carner says, speaking about her book. “Having lived abroad and having worked with women in Third-World nations, I learned to appreciate our freedoms and opportunities. Yet, even in the 21st century, all too many woman in Western societies are bound by self-imposed social, religious, or psychological constraints firmly rooted in their heads, constraints that hold then back no less than did Esther’s God—or the rabbis interpretations of His will.”
The Jerusalem Maiden
Talia Carner
