Two Tribes
Emily Bowen Cohen
August 15,2023, Heartdrum Books
256 pages
Review by: E Broderick
We talk about Jewish unity a lot these days, about recognizing Jews from across a spectrum of practice, but often these discussions feature the very necessary topic of giving equal respect to Ashkenaz, Sephardic, and Mizrahi traditions while omitting the specific perspectives of Jews of color that aren’t from a Mizrahi or Sephardic background. One such Jew is Mia, the main character of Emily Bowen Cohen’s middle grade graphic novel Two Tribes. When Mia brings up the topic of diversity, there is a rush to inform her of all the Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews attending her school. The only problem is that Mia isn’t from those backgrounds. Her mother is Ashkenaz and her father is Native American and it rapidly becomes clear that nobody is entirely sure how to process that, least of all Mia herself.
Throughout the book Mia is embraced as a Jew, with the Rabbi’s wife even assuring her that she is “one hundred percent Jewish”, however this is besides the point. Mia’s father, from whom her mother is divorced, is a member of the Muscogee Nation. Mia wants to learn more about this part of her heritage but resources are scare and in the case of a school library book – offensive. She tries to express this to the adults in her life but they instead focus on her upcoming Bat mitzvah. In her plight, I recognized two common problems. Adults often disregard the views of children even as those children are trying to explain what they need in every possible manner available to them. Unfortunately, the same pattern is often repeated when a group in the minority seeks help from the majority. Their voices and requests are plowed over in favor of what the majority thinks they should have asked for instead.
When Mia is teased for being adopting by a classmate who assumes she can’t have been born to biologic Jewish parents because of her appearance, Mia is distraught to realize she can’t really talk about her father’s side of the family. Her mother, stepfather, and Rabbi try to protect her by assuring her she is Jewish and nobody should ever assume she is adopted because there are Jews with every possible appearance. This completely dwarfs and disregards Mia’s actual existential issue – she handled the bully just fine, but he awakened within her a desire to understand the Muscogee part of herself and nobody was willing to help her.
Mia’s father, in his own words, made some very big mistakes in Mia’s early years. The details are kept vague, but the reader is given the impression that at the very least he cheated multiple times on Mia’s mother and gaslit her about the entire situation. Understandably, Mia’s mother is hesitant to reopen communications even though Mia still receives cards and occasional phone calls from her father’s family. However, nursing old wounds does little to answer Mia’s questions and she grows so desperate, she cashes in her bat mitzvah money and runs off to her father’s house while lying to him about why she is there.
When Mia finally connects with her father, he tell her that he accepts responsibility for his prior actions and has rejoined the church in order to be a better person. The reader will find proof of that change in the way he respects Mia’s Judaism and says he can’t take her to a fellowship meeting without first discussing it with her mother. Indeed, when Mia is so frustrated about the situation back home that she says he doesn’t want to be Jewish, it is her grandmother that tells her it would be a shame to let all her beautiful traditions go to waste. Mia learns that her grandmother had her own traditions taken from her in a boarding school that “re-educated” Native American children. It was therefore particularly moving for me to read this same woman encouraging her granddaughter to explore both parts of her rich cultural heritage.
Thanks to the trip, Mia meets her cousins, participates in a pow wow and forms a stronger relationship with her father, but when the truth about her visit comes out both her mother and her father both feel betrayed. It is fitting then, that resolution comes in the form of Judaism’s ultimate guide to repentance -the book of Jonah. Through studying Jonah, Mia learns how to repair the relationship between herself and her mother and how to mediate between her parents so she can experience both aspects of her heritage. She also finds the ability to make her voice heard and teaches something to the Rabbi who inadvertently hurt her in the beginning of the book with his comments. It’s a touching scene that shows none of us is above learning from the other.
Often the voices we most need to hear are the ones we are in such a rush to speak over. Therefore, while I’m thrilled to share my experience of this book with you, I would much rather let it speak for itself. Pick up a copy and see what it has to show you. You just might be surprised.