What if the Hebrew literary centre moved from Israel to another country?

MATI SHEMOELOF says one of the aims of his new novel, The Prize, is to expand the boundaries of the Hebrew language beyond Israel’s borders

JERUSALEM’S NOVEMBER SKY turned blue and the temperature dropped. I put on my yellow sweater and caught a taxi from the hotel to the Leo Baeck Institute, where the virtual launch of my novel, The Prize, was about to begin. In Berlin, where I live, it’s been a traditional autumn, with dark skies and endless burning leaves falling from the trees. In Jerusalem, the trees are always green.

There were five speakers at the launch. The two in Germany were ready to begin, a third had just arrived from Berlin and there were two Israeli speakers. Most of them spoke about the history of Germany’s Jews. This mingling of Israeli and German identities resembled the plot of my novel, which focuses on the tension between the Israeli and German societies.

In the novel, the German government announces a new international prize for Hebrew writers, the Berlin Prize for Hebrew Literature, which will revive the Hebrew Literary Centre in the city. Between the two world wars it flourished and there were more Hebrew publishers here than in Palestine.

Chezi, an Israeli-Jewish guy of Iraqi descent who moved to Berlin to be with Helena, his German wife, is the first winner of the award for his book, Staying in Baghdad. His win provokes a political storm in Israel. Coincidentally, on the morning of his win, Helena is booked in for an abortion

At the launch, I looked at my Bagdad-born mother, who came with her husband. She was proud of me. She was one of the main reasons I wanted to write this novel. I wanted to bring something from her character into the plot.

Chezi’s mother, Amira, a traditional Jewish-Iraqi Israeli-mother comes to Berlin to try and save Chezi and Helena’s marriage. Amira’s character is based on my mother.

The Leo Baeck Institute in Jerusalem researches the history of German Jews. It was the first time that I was regarded as a German Jew with words from the German and Israeli scholars.