Yochi Brandes | |
|---|---|
| Born | () February 19, (age&#;65) Haifa, Israel |
| Language | Hebrew |
| Citizenship | Israeli |
| Spouse | Ofer Brandes |
| Children | 4 |
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Israeli novelist and essayist Yochi Brandes (Hebrew: יוכי ברנדס&#;) was born in Haifa on February 19, , to Yaffa (Miriam Sheindl) and Rabbi Yitzhak Ya’akov Rabinowitz, the Biala Rebbe of Ramat Aharon. In her youth, she spent one year living in the home of her grandfather (her mother's father) Rabbi Avraham Abish Kanner, the Tshechov Rebbe. She is married to Ofer Brandes and is the mother of four children.
Brandes studied in ultra-Orthodox Bais_Yaakov schools in Petach Tikva and in Haifa, as well as at the Michlalah Jerusalem Torah College, Bar-Ilan University, and the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary. She holds a B.A. in Bible and Education and an M.A. in Bible and Jewish Studies.
For many years, Yochi Brandes taught Bible and Jewish Thought in high schools from various streams of Israeli society (National Religious, Masorti, and Public schools), as well as at Jerusalem's Beit Shmuel and Herzliya's Interdisciplinary Center (IDC). She trained teachers for Judaic Studies subjects and wrote curriculum in Bible and Judaism. Today, she continues to teach Bible through appearances open to the general public.
In , Brandes founded the “Judaism Here and Now” book series, published by Yediot Aharonot Press, through which approximately 50 books have been published. Authors in this series have included academics, educators, thought leaders, and writers, and the series has reached a broad readership, religious and secular alike.
In , the Habima Theatre produced Brandes's play “Ki Vanu Vaharta” (“For You Have Chosen Us”), directed by Itzik Weingarten, with music composed by Ori Vidislavski. The play centers on the identity crises of members of an Israeli family who discover that their mother was the daughter of a Nazi officer. The musical was performed approximately times before the theatre's recovery plan required its run to end.
Yochi Brandes is involved with contemporary issues of importance to Israeli society and has been a prominent figure for many years on the Israeli media landscape. In the mids, she hosted a segment on the television show “Tzerufim” (“Combinations”) on Israel's Channel 1, and she published a column in the Ma’ariv newspaper. In the late s, she published a series of articles on the Jewish holidays in the Ha’aretz newspaper. From to , she joined the rabbis of the Tzohar organization in the “Parshiot Hashavua” (“Weekly Torah Portions”) television program on Channel 2. In , she published a weekly column in the Israel Hayom ("Israel Today") newspaper.
Brandes's literary work focuses on central figures from Jewish history who initiated revolutions. Her books are based on Jewish sources from a wide range of time periods and societal segments: the Bible, Rabbinic literature, Jewish thought, Jewish law, Kabbalah, Hasidism, and Zionism. Each of her books is centered on a significant era in the history of the nation of Israel, told from unusual perspectives and intensifying the voices of women.
Her literary work can be divided into two phases:
Her first five novels deal with central chapters in the history of Zionism: the Holocaust (Gmar Tov), the Israeli War of Independence (Hagar), the birth of Gush Emunim (Lechabot Et Ha’ahavah), the First Aliyah (Garinim Levanim), and the early days of Tel Aviv (Vidui).
The next five books deal with classical Jewish culture: a novel about the origins of the Biblical monarchies (Melachim Gimmel, translated into English as The Secret Book of Kings), a novel about the creation of Rabbinic Judaism by the ancient Sages (Hapardes Shel Akiva, translated into English as The Orchard), and a novel about the birth of Hasidism through the life and work of the Ba’al Shem Tov (Adele).
Along with these novels, which constitute the major focus of her work, Brandes has published two works of non-fiction: a book of essays on the great women of the Bible (Sheva Imahot), and a collection of articles on contemporary Jewish issues (Hayahadut Shelo Hikarnu).
In all her books, Brandes offers interpretations that differ from the generally accepted versions, usually from the point of view of those groups that lost out in history's telling, and by accentuating the influence of women.
Gmar Tov ("Getting Out for Good", , Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing, edited by Menachem Perry). The novella describes the tragic collapse of the marriage of Sarah and Benjamin, cousins who grew up in the ultra-Orthodox Hasidic world of Bnei Brak, gradually revealing the family history that led to the marriage's unavoidable failure. The book is filled with insights regarding the changes that have taken place within the Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox world over the last two generations. Brandes interweaves the contemporary story of Sarah and Benjamin with events from the World War II period, a blending of eras that was to become her trademark. The book was republished in by Yediot Ahronot Publishing.
Hagar (, Yediot Ahronot Publishing). The novel tells the story of the tempestuous and destructive love of a yeshiva student from the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Me’ah She’arim in Jerusalem and a woman from KibbutzEin Shemer who met while serving in the Palmach during Israel's War of Independence. Another story is told in parallel, that of the Jerusalemite granddaughter who, fifty years later, in the aftermath of a personal crisis, sets out to investigate her grandfather's tragic early love affair and to try to understand the hidden forces that have controlled her own life. In , Brandes developed a play based on the book, which was produced as a one-woman show by the actress Hadas Calderon as part of the Teatronto Festival.
Lechabot Et Ha’ahavah ("Quench Love", , Yediot Ahronot Publishing). The novel centers on a student who decides to write a historical novel about the Essenes, and during the writing process finds out about her mother's youthful love affair with a man of overwhelming charisma and dark secrets. The novel deals with the charged and complicated relationship between a mother and a daughter, with love and betrayal, and with the promising yet perilous search for spiritual meaning. The novel also traces the evolution of [Religious Zionism]] – from the [Mizrachi_(religious_Zionism)|Mizrahi Movement]] of the pre-State period to the various groups and streams among the Israeli settler population in our own day.
Garinim Levanim ("White Seeds", , Yediot Ahronot Publishing). The novel interweaves the stories of two women separated from one another by a century, one living in the days of the First Aliyah and the other in contemporary Israel, and it describes a variety of complicated and contorted relationships between women and the men in their lives: between daughters and their fathers, between mothers and their sons, between wives and their husbands, and between women and their lovers.
Vidui ("Confession", , Yediot Ahronot Publishing). A wide-ranging novel that deals with topics that have occupied Brandes in her previous books: the power of stories and artistic creation to influence our lives and the ways in which each new interpretation of the past shapes the present; questions of fate and free choice; the place of women in a male-dominated world; coping with guilt and atonement. The novel opens with the Kishinev pogroms at the beginning of the 20th century, moves to the revival of Hebrew culture in Odessa and in the early days of Tel Aviv, and concludes in the State of Israel of the dawn of the 21st century.
Melachim Gimmel (, Kinneret Zmora-Bitan Dvir Publishing) (published in English as The Secret Book of Kings in by St. Martin's Press). Following Brandes's move to a new publisher, Professor Yigal Schwartz became her editor. The novel takes place in the early days of the Biblical monarchy and describes the decisive events that led to the division of the kingdom from the unconventional perspective of the House of Saul (and not the House of David) and of the Northern Kingdom of Israel (and not the Southern Kingdom of Judah). This was the first time that Brandes openly posed the questions that were hidden within her previous novels: to what extent can we truly know our past, and just how much are our stories forced into the service of the agendas of history's winners?
Hapardes Shel Akiva (, Kinneret Zmora-Bitan Dvir Publishing) (published in English as The Orchard in by Gefen Publishing). The novel unspools the life story of Rabbi Akiva, the battles between the School of Shammai and the School of Hillel, the creation of Rabbinic Judaism, and the early Christians (the Nazarenes) and their expulsion from the nation of Israel. In this book, Brandes uncovers the true reason for the ultimate victory of the School of Hillel's approach and offers a surprising explanation for Rabbi Akiva's support of the Bar Kokhba Revolt. The book won first place for the Steimatzky Prize.
Adele (, Kinneret Zmora-Bitan Dvir Publishing). The story of the founder of Hasidism, the Ba’al Shem Tov, from the point of view of his daughter Adele. The novel describes how the teachings of the Ba’al Shem Tov developed stage by stage, flowing from the ups and downs he experienced during his turbulent life, and how he initiated an individualistic revolution that came before its time when he decreed that the redemption will come once human beings have become intimate with their own souls.
Sheva Imahot ("Seven Mothers", , Kinneret Zmora-Bitan Dvir Publishing). The stories of seven rebellious Biblical women thanks to whom the nation of Israel exists today: Lot's daughter, Tamar, Miriam, Pharaoh's daughter, Ruth, Michal, and Esther. Brandes gives each figure an alternative midrashic reading, analyzing the Biblical writers’ attitudes toward her and broadening the point of view to include Jewish and extra-Jewish sources from other eras.
Hayahadut Shelo Hikarnu ("The Unknown Judaism", , Kinneret Zmora-Bitan Dvir Publishing) A collection of articles on contemporary Jewish issues that presents the liberal attitudes of the Sages of Israel or Brandes's own liberal interpretations on topics of the day such as same-sex families, abortion, euthanasia, the use of cannabis, obeying the law and circumventing authority.
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