{"product_id":"mazel-tov-isbn-9781782275282","title":"Mazel Tov","description":"\u003cb\u003eA heartwarming, funny and provocative memoir of a woman navigating clashing cultures during her decades-long friendship with an Orthodox Jewish family, new in paperback\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen 20-year-old student J. S. Margot took a tutoring job in 1987, little did she know it would open up an entire world.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the family's Orthodox Jewish household she would encounter endless rules - 'never come on a Friday, never shake hands with a man' - and quirks she had not seen before: tiny tubes on the doorposts, separate fridges for meat and dairy products. Her initial response was puzzlement and occasionally anger, but as she taught the children and fiercely debated with the family, she also began to learn from them.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFull of funny misunderstandings and unexpected connections, \u003ci\u003eMazel Tov\u003c\/i\u003e is a heartwarming, provocative and disarmingly honest memoir of clashing cultures and unusual friendships - and of how, where adults build walls, sometimes only children can dissolve them.\"A gentle chronicle of empathy and understanding.\"\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e - Guardian \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Margot's is an exceptional voice, illuminating a section of society rarely seen in a refreshingly frank manner. \u003ci\u003eMazel Tov\u003c\/i\u003e is a book about finding familiarity in the strange, but also the stranger in ourselves, in which courage and humour save us from the usual romanticising. Any reader interested in the central questions of our time will find enlightenment here.\"\u003cb\u003e - Deborah Feldman, author of the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestseller \u003ci\u003eUnorthodox \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A brave and important contribution to our understanding of memory.\" \u003cb\u003e- Daniel Okrent, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Guarded Gate\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"So much more than a good read... What makes \u003ci\u003eMazel Tov\u003c\/i\u003e especially attractive is that the author effortlessly succeeds in depicting real-life characters.\"\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e - Cutting Edge\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A book that touched me deeply. Wow!\"\u003cb\u003e - Queen Mathilde of Belgium\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A must-read for everyone.\" \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e- De Standaard\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"A compelling and confronting story... beautifully written.\" \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e- De Sleutel\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"the unvarnished account of how two clashing cultures led to lasting friendship… Mazel Tov is a fascinating story about what is possible when pretenses are dropped and true bonds are allowed to form.” \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e- Foreward Reviews \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eJ.S. Margot (b. 1967) is a journalist and freelance writer based in Antwerp. An award-winning contributor to leading national newspapers \u003ci\u003eDe Standaard\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eDe Morgen\u003c\/i\u003e, she has also written five novels and lectures regularly in both the Netherlands and Belgium. In 2017 she was awarded the E. du Perronprijs and the Prize for the best Religious book from the VUKPP for \u003ci\u003eMazel Tov\u003c\/i\u003e, which was also highly acclaimed in the Dutch and Belgian press. \u003ci\u003eMazel Tov \u003c\/i\u003ehas been translated into German, French and Polish and won the Best Book Award in Poland; it is her first book to be translated into English.One\u003cbr\u003e It must have been the beginning of the month. The new academic\u003cbr\u003e year hadn’t yet begun and I was heading for the canteen,\u003cbr\u003e feeling relieved, having just resat the Spanish grammar exam. To\u003cbr\u003e get there, I had to walk through the hall of the university building,\u003cbr\u003e past benches where dozens of students sat chatting and smoking.\u003cbr\u003e The route to the canteen was more exciting than most lectures.\u003cbr\u003e Noticeboards lined the walls, full of intriguing announcements:\u003cbr\u003e “Who wants to swap my landlord for theirs?”, “Feel like coming to\u003cbr\u003e Barcelona with us? Room for one more person. Conditions apply.\u003cbr\u003e Call me” and “Free sleeping bag for anyone who’ll join me in it.”\u003cbr\u003e A single corner was reserved for the university’s job agency.\u003cbr\u003e If one of the jobs displayed in a lockable, plastic showcase looked\u003cbr\u003e interesting, you’d note down the number of the vacancy and go to\u003cbr\u003e the little social services office a bit farther along. There a lady with\u003cbr\u003e a long-suffering expression would tell you the details, which usually\u003cbr\u003e boiled down to her giving you the name, address and telephone\u003cbr\u003e number of the employer. Then, sighing under the weight of her\u003cbr\u003e boring job, she’d wish you good luck with your application.\u003cbr\u003e The agency had provided me with a lot of temporary jobs in the\u003cbr\u003e previous two years, from chambermaiding to dishing out detergent\u003cbr\u003e samples, from headhunter’s assistant to museum attendant.\u003cbr\u003e When I came across a handwritten job vacancy: “Student (M\/F)\u003cbr\u003e required to tutor four children (aged between eight and sixteen)\u003cbr\u003e every day after school and coach them with their homework”, I\u003cbr\u003e immediately wrote the number on my palm. An hour later the\u003cbr\u003e lady from the job agency gave me the contact details of the family\u003cbr\u003e in question. I will call them the Schneiders, which is not their real\u003cbr\u003e name, though their name also sounded German, or German-ish.\u003cbr\u003e The Schneiders, the lady said, were Jewish, but that shouldn’t be\u003cbr\u003e a problem, and if it was a problem, I could always come back and\u003cbr\u003e she’d try to see if we could work something out, but she couldn’t\u003cbr\u003e guarantee anything, because you never knew with people like\u003cbr\u003e that—which she apparently did know, just as she knew that the\u003cbr\u003e Schneiders would pay me 60 Belgian francs an hour, which wasn’t\u003cbr\u003e a lot, but could have been worse. When it came to money, she\u003cbr\u003e informed me, Jews were a bit like the Dutch.\u003cbr\u003e When I stared at her in surprise, she seemed taken aback by my\u003cbr\u003e ignorance. “Why do you think so many Dutch people come here\u003cbr\u003e to study interpreting? Because it’s a good course and it’s cheap.\u003cbr\u003e As soon as they’ve got their diploma, they whizz off back to their\u003cbr\u003e country. So we’re basically training our biggest competitors. Luckily\u003cbr\u003e the university gets a subsidy for foreign students, so it’s not all bad.\u003cbr\u003e What I want to say is: don’t let yourself get pushed around. Don’t\u003cbr\u003e accept an unpaid trial period. Even if you decide to stop after the\u003cbr\u003e first week, they have to pay you for the hours you’ve worked.” I did\u003cbr\u003e quick sums in my head as she babbled on, calculating that I could\u003cbr\u003e earn 600 Belgian francs a week: 2,500 a month. Back then, when the\u003cbr\u003e rent of a small flat was about 6,000 francs a month, it all added up.","brand":"Pushkin Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46304127910117,"sku":"NP9781782275282","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781782275282.jpg?v=1767732457","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/mazel-tov-isbn-9781782275282","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}