Naomi Alderman: Breaking the silence

Naomi Alderman’s Disobedience (Viking, March 2006) is, the author points out, practically the first novel about Orthodox Jews in Britain since George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda. It’s not that there isn’t plenty to write about. But the community, Alderman says, likes to keep its head down. "There’s a symbiotic relationship between natural British reticence and Orthodox Jews’ desire to remain hidden--they feed off each other, so British Orthodox Jews do keep silent."

Which is why Alderman’s first novel is likely to cause waves. It is set in Hendon, where Alderman grew up in an Orthodox family (which was not as strict as many), and explores that world from the inside. The picture it presents is both affectionate and critical.

When an eminent rabbi passes away, his estranged daughter Ronit returns from New York to the community she has left behind. But it is not so easy to shake off the past. Years before, Ronit had a relationship with Esti, who is now the wife of Dovid, the man in line to be the rabbi’s successor. Rebellious Ronit forces the secrecy surrounding homosexuality in the community out into the open.

Alderman, a lively and confident woman, knows that the novel is likely to provoke controversy. "I really hope that people who come from my world will read it and see that there is real affection and love there. I fear that they will only see the points where I’ve made criticisms," she says.

Word is already out in Hendon, and the reaction so far is mixed. "While on the one hand I’m getting a bit of, ’I’m afraid if this novel is published, we are not going to be able to remain friends’, at the same time people are quite excited to see how the community is portrayed."

It was a couple of years spent in New York, working for law firm Freshfields, which gave Alderman the impetus for the book. In America, she found the Orthodox Jewish population far more outspoken than their British counterparts. It was an "eye-opening" experience, she says.

"Orthodox Jews in New York do not feel the same way as Orthodox Jews in Britain do about the need to keep absolutely silent. They are not afraid of being engaged in the wider world, of saying, ’This is who I am and I have a right to say how the country is run’."

She was in New York at the time of 9/11, witnessing the fall of the Twin Towers from her office windows. Shortly afterwards a documentary called "Trembling Before God", about Orthodox Jewish gay and lesbian people, was released. "It was an intense time, and a combination of seeing the film and having been through everything in Manhattan meant that suddenly a lot of my friends starting coming out to me--literally about six people in the course of a few weeks. The film is incredibly moving--it’s about the pain of secrecy in people’s lives."

Alderman wrote a short story on the subject, and when she later applied for an MA in creative writing at UEA--a life change prompted by the shock of 9/11 and her realisation that her comfortable, well-paid job didn’t reflect her true ambitions--she already had the theme she wanted for her novel.

Alderman stresses that she hasn’t thrown off her Orthodox upbringing--she continues to live within the community in Hendon, to keep a kosher home, and to observe the Jewish Sabbath. Her faith is "still very important to me in a number of different ways".

"There are a lot of wonderful things about the world I’m writing about," she says. "But I have real problems with some aspects of Judaism, the attitude towards women. We’re not talking about wife-beating or people being burned alive. But in the world of Orthodox Jews, it’s about 1830. It’s not that we don’t want women; they’re really super and we’re glad to have them around. But their role is not a public role."

The theme of silence is crucial in the novel, she thinks. "I realise now that I probably chose the most silent group in the world to write about. Orthodox Jews in Britain are a silent group, and within that, women are supposed to be silent. And within that, lesbians are probably the most silent of all.

"I think what I came to in my book is that the most important thing is to be able to talk about where you come from and what’s going on for you."