Podcasts religion Israel in Translation Egypt, Interbellum: Jacqueline Shohet Kahanoff's "Jacob's Ladder"

Egypt, Interbellum: Jacqueline Shohet Kahanoff's "Jacob's Ladder"

Published: March 21, 2018, 10:48 a.m.

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In honor of Palm Sunday, this episode features an excerpt from Jacqueline Shohet Kahanoff's Jacob's Ladder. Born in Cairo in 1917, the author depicts life in Egypt between the two world wars in the novel, which was published in 1951, before she settled in Israel.

Here is an excerpt from the novel:
Miss O\\u2019Brien had felt the child\\u2019s hand stiffen in hers, and Rachel\\u2019s unseemly interest in the beggar boy moved her. The child might be loved and spoiled, but she must be unbearably lonely if she cared for such a dirty little scamp. At first when everything in Egypt was strange, new, and often shocked her, Miss O\\u2019Brien had followed Alice\\u2019s instructions and the advice of other nurses that children must be kept away from all that smacked of native life, but now this seemed cruel to her.

Text: Jacqueline Shohet Kahanoff, from Jacob\\u2019s Ladder in Keys to the Garden. New Israeli Writing. Ed. by Ammiel Alcalay. City Lights, 1996.

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