On today’s episode, host Marcela Sulak reads from Yoram Kaniuk’s story “The Beautiful Life of Clara Shiato,” translated by Ruvik Danieli and found in the anthology 50 Stories from Israel. Clara raises three children in Greece with a man who escaped from persecutions in Turkey, suffers through the second world war in hiding, and finds passage to Israel after the war to live an impoverished life in Tel Aviv:

“She always remembered the hidden fear. When Clara Shiato was twelve years of age, she stood by the window and hung curtains. Before the clowns passed by, on their way to the circus, she saw Shmuel Abuman with his brother. He raised his eyes and saw Clara, and then a strange fear filled her, and her eyes, those bright eyes, grew dark, and she felt as if the blood had drained from her face.”

Yoram Kaniuk was born in Tel Aviv in 1930, joined the Palmach at age 17, and published over thirty books. He married a Christian woman and successfully petitioned Israeli courts that his religion be changed from Jewish to no religion, making Kaniuk considered a Jew by nationality but not religion. The verb lehitkaniuk was coined thereafter in reference to this process.

Texts:
Yoram Kaniuk, “The Beautiful Life of Clara Shiato,” translated by Ruvik Danieli. 50 Stories from Israel. An Anthology. Edited by Zisi Stavi. Yedioth Ahronoth Books and Chemed Books, 2007.

Music:
Ravel Kaddisch – Yehudi Menuhin
Beethoven – Yehudi Menuhin

Producer: Ariella Plachta
Technical producer: Tammy Goldenberg