Gittel

I love placing Jews in unanticipated milieu. It challenges readers to reassess their internalized stereotypes and also opens up a whole host of narrative questions. In my case, it’s usually some place in space. For Laurie Schneider’s MG historical novel Gittel, the title character is a Jewish young woman in 1911 Wisconsin. While most people think of Jews in typically large enclaves like those found in NY and California, we’re actually far more spread out than that. And in the early 1900’s, when fleeing pogroms and persecution, Jews wound up all over the globe. Including Wisconsin, where they learned to farm despite previously holding very different occupations.

Gittel’s town is by and large welcoming, but Gittel faces one particularly nasty bully, who seems jealous over her ability to succeed and determined to torture her. Gittel’s family encourages her to take the high road, but the reader often agrees with Gittel that sometimes a little defense is necessary when someone just won’t stop picking on you. In the end, we get to see Gittel working out the correct combination of these methods for herself.

Indeed, many of the problems Gittel faces are highly nuanced. For one, she’s probably the smartest kid in town but as a girl she’s not likely to get much education. As it is, many of the boys are not sent for further schooling once they graduate their one room elementary schoolhouse. A girl? Chances are slim to none. Plus, while all the other girls in town are harboring crushes and starting to date, Gittel’s options are limited by both her oversize personality and the fact that most of the Jewish families that came to Mill Creek Wisconsin at the same time as hers are moving away to bigger cities. She’s not sure how her family will feel about her courting with a non-Jew, and the issue becomes rather pressing as the local dairy farmer’s son doesn’t seem to mind girls who are smart and is very handsome.

The book is full of interesting period details, including how everyday tasks were performed, but also more exciting events like a traveling performance in which Gittel is allowed to recite a poem. There are such difficult questions as whether or not it is right for a Jew to sing in the school Christmas pageant (Lord knows some of us are still facing that dilemma) even if this is the only avenue to explore ones talents, and whether we can count it as women’s liberation that a girl might be allowed to head to high school in order to keep her from her non-Jewish boyfriend. But most importantly for me – how in the world is the absolutely gorgeous girl on the cover of Gittel with the stunning mane of hair the same girl all the adults in the book perpetually moan has a lack of good looks and inability to keep her hair in order?

In all seriousness, Gittel is a good draw for kids who like learning about different times, want to see how a Jew might have lived a very different life from their own (or a very similar one! Remember we’re still found on farms even today), and how the answer to life’s questions are never as simple as we wish they were.

Note: BookishlyJewish received an ARC of this book from the author.

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