Glasnost

Nadia Kalman’s grandfather fought for the Soviet Union in WWII. His unit performed with such courage that he and his comrades were honored for their bravery. Their reward? The entire unit, including Kalman’s grandfather, was conscripted for life into the Red Army.

Kalman’s father played soccer. His team, which included a number of Jewish players, was routinely stoned and harassed whenever they played. Such treatment was “accepted and normal.”

This, and more sinister behavior, such as the denial of higher education and well paying jobs, was part of what Kalman called the “net of anti-Semitism” that lay over Soviet society.

And this is why so many Soviet Jews left the USSR when they got the chance, given by lottery, emigrating to Israel and to the US, and, once in the US, to Boston’s North Shore where now, they are our neighbors and friends.

Kalman, who came to the US, to Hartford, CT, in 1979 with her parents and maternal grandparents and $60 in their pockets, was in town as part of the JCC’s Book Month. Her new novel, The Cosmopolitans, is written from her family’s experience. It follows the fictional Ukranian Jewish Molochnik family living in Stamford, CT, as the parents marry off the three sisters to increasingly unsuitable husbands.

Any similarity to Fiddler on the Roof is intended. For, even though the immigrant experience is extraordinarily difficult, those readers expecting a dark and depressing book will be disappointed.

The Cosmopolitans is very, very funny, according to Swampscott Librarian Maureen McCarthy. McCarthy calls Kalman a “writer to look for.” She predicts that “in ten years is won’t be so easy to hear her speak.”

When the JCC Book Month Board was on the prowl for books, that The Cosmopolitans won Kalman Moment Magazine’s Emerging Writer Award, and was also finalist for the Sami Rohr Prize in Jewish literature, which garners a $100,000 prize, caught their eye, according to Co-Chair Joan Finn.

But, it was the subject matter, and Kalman herself, that won them over. Says Julie Newburg, who worked for the JCC to help coordinate the event, the book committee hoped that by bringing the book here that they could both “educate people about the Russian culture and appeal to our Russian community.” We are, she added, “happy to bridge cultural divide” that can often exist between two communities with such disparate backgrounds.

The title comes from two places. One, from Stalin’s campaign against what he called “cosmopolitans,” or rootless people with no place in the world. Stalin considered all Jews to be cosmopolitans in this sense. Second, cosmopolitan refers to the characters’ desire to fit in and be at home in the world.

As Kalman pointed out in her talk, “The feeling of not fitting in anywhere, immigrants feel this.” But, it’s part of being human too. “We all feel we have something that makes us feel different.”

We’re all, in one sense or another, cosmopolitans.

The audience was full of questions after Kalman talk, and enjoyed a delicious brunch provided by City Grill in Vinnin Square.

The JCC’S Jewish Book Month runs from October 26 through November 30. For information on future events, go to http://www.jccns.org/jewish-book-month-2011/