In the wake of Joanna Rubin Dranger's book "Remember Us to Life" in 2022, many readers got in touch. One reader in particular touched her – the letter writer told her how they had decided to hide their Jewish identity out of direct fear.
The letter was so naked and poignant, and I started crying when I read it, says Rubin Dranger.
In "Hidden Jewish Lives", she interviews over thirty people living with hidden Jewish identities in Sweden, five of the stories are depicted as comic strips.
Stories Come to the Fore
A young woman's grandfather survived the Holocaust and erased all traces of his background, so that the family wouldn't be identifiable as Jews "if it were to happen again". In the family, the hidden heritage has created tensions across three generations.
Another person dare not tell their friends or colleagues at the preschool about their Jewish identity, despite an otherwise norm-breaking life. A third person fears for their children's safety.
Rubin Dranger began to wonder if anyone had written about this before, but couldn't find any evidence of it.
Now, several generations after the Holocaust, these stories are coming to the fore. I initially thought that some of the interviewees were on their way to "coming out" as Jews when they told me, but that wasn't the case for most of them.
When Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 last year, Rubin Dranger was in the middle of working on the book, and many became scared. One person wrote to her: "Just when I start talking about this, it happens".
First, the pogrom-like massacre, and immediately after, a wave of anti-Semitism that hasn't stopped. No one dropped out of the project immediately due to October 7, but some withdrew because they didn't feel safe, even though they were anonymous, she says.
Calculations
For Joanna Rubin Dranger, it's important to bring these stories to light for several reasons. One is that everyone who can identify with them, and who have thought they were alone, can have their experiences validated. But also because they say something about a Sweden that few know about, she means:
We imagine a society where most people can be who they are. These stories show that people hide who they are, because it feels too unsafe and dangerous to be open about being Jewish, she says and continues:
And I think that many people in Sweden can identify with "moderating their otherness" in different situations, it's not just a Jewish experience.
Age: 54 years.
Occupation: Cartoonist and author.
Selected books: "Arg! The Angriest Book of the 90s", "Miss Anxiety & Love", "Miss Remarkable & Career", "Day Dreamer, Daydreamer", "Count with Nell" and "Remember Us to Life".
Current: With the comic and interview book "Hidden Jewish Lives".
