You are a Jew first, an American second. Be grateful for this country but you will never be safe here. Don’t stand up and make waves, support whoever is in power, be sure they do not notice you. Revolution is bad for Jews, no matter which side you are on, they’ll ultimately blame you.

This is the stuff of many Jewish childhoods in the diaspora, especially following the Shoah. For the children of displaced people and the grandchildren of survivors bed time stories feature villains that are all too real and dreams are to survive and be safe. Because safe feels like the best one can hope for and survival was a duty to the Jewish people.

Keep you head down. Stay safe.

This is also the prevailing wisdom in 1956 Hungary, the setting of Katherine Locke’s powerful historical fantasy “This Rebel Heart”. When the story begins Csilla Tisza is preparing to flee Hungary, a country that first abandoned her family to the Shoah and then murdered her parents for being “Zionists” despite her fathers loyalty to the communist party. Csilla does not have time for idealisism and political movements the way her father did. She’s too busy “keeping careful the way she used to keep Shabbat”. Because in her reality “disappeared” is a verb that the government perpetuates on its citizens for no apparent reason. In her world, living to see tomorrow saps all of her energy. As her aunt puts it, “survival is a siege”. 

When unrest in Poland sparks protest in Budapest, Csilla has no intentions of being swept up in the hysteria. She intends to leave. To survive. Until she meets an unassuming engineering student who demands more of her and an angel of death that reminds her that she, and her past, are so much more than her present. 

Csilla takes to the streets in the face of unacceptable tyranny, much like our youth of today have done. She knows that she is unlikely to succeed. She sees the antisemitism and hatred for Jews spreading within fringes of the very movement she helped to form, and she still stands her ground and protests. Cries out for a country to be lawful and just even though it has never demonstrated an ability to do so in the past. She shows up for a country that has never shown up for her. Because, to paraphrase our sages, if she doesn’t show up, who will? If she is only for herself, then what is she? If not now, when?

These are the questions that Jews across the world have been asking over and over these last few years. These are the questions that have sparked intense debate across communities. The older generation, their scars still bleeding from watching other idealistic movements ignore the antisemitism in their midst -sometimes even using political upheaval as an excuse to purge themselves of Jews- advise waiting it out. But our youth insists on standing up. .

Because if kids can’t dream of bigger and better, then what really is the point? Because we are Americans AND Jews and one of those things should not have to take precedence over the other. Because there will never be a country that is “ours” but that does not mean our traditions are less important, our roots less firm, our duty to do what is right less sacred. 

To be a Jew is to belong to nowhere and everywhere all at once. To be a Jew is to do what your heart knows is right, even if you have a “rebel heart” like Csilla. 

Along the way, Csilla, her student, and her angel, somehow manage to walk arm in arm through the streets of Budapest and share the most romantic vibes despite the fact that their world is crumbling around them. Another thing they share in our common with the youth of today. The world may feel like it is ending, like every new day brings a new challenge and threat to our existence, and yet human acts of kindness and love still prevail.  

I know it’s “historical fiction,” but this is a story for our time. Or maybe it is a story out of time. Belonging to every instance in which a person decides to stand up for what they know is right in the face of overwhelming odds stacked against them, despite the sad fact that often Jews are made to suffer disproportionately for their protests, even when our side “wins”. Because there’s a little Rebel heart in each of us, if only we learned to listen. 

Note: I received an e-arc of this book from the publisher by requesting it through NetGalley

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E Broderick is a writer and speculative fiction enthusiast. When not writing she enjoys epic games of trivial pursuit and baking. She currently lives in the U.S. but is eagerly awaiting the day a sentient spaceship offers to take her traveling around the galaxy.