[Editor’s Note: Each day this week, the newspaper will present excerpts from the new novel by Dr. Rosemary H. Cohen, “The Mother of Jerusalem Is Crying,” inspired, as all of her extensive writings are, by the sudden death of her teenage daughter 19 summers ago.]
The Preface, Part III
Re “Didn’t I Have Good Examples in My Family to Follow?”
Some years later, my blameless brother-in-law, Haim Cohen, was kidnapped by Muslim fanatics. They held him hostage for nine months. On the eve of Christmas, his body was thrown in the yard of a church. His body received three bullets.
My mother-in-law, who was crying for nine months, died of grief over her son’s death.
Hs fault was to be born in a Jewish family.
Haim just wanted to live a simple life with his wife and children. But he had chosen a wrong time and place to be born.
After going through all of these experiences, it is normal that conflicts in any part of the world breaks my heart, especially the Israel-Arab conflict that has existed for decades. I have learned, first-hand, what a mother goes through when she loses a child. But it is not only the mother who grieves, of course. The father, sisters and brothers suffer from the loss all of their lives. It affects and changes everyone. When I see or hear some of the parents who are obliged to face the media, to put a smile on their faces and affirm that they are proud of their son or daughter’s martyrdom or receive some money from certain groups, I am able to see the traces of tragedy and deep sadness in the wrinkles of their faces.
What about the next day when they do not hear or see their child anymore?
Nothing in the world can replace the child who is absent, even if there are twelve other children present at home. That lost one has his or her own place.
To Honor Her Memory
In honor of Liana, we organize music competitions and festivals every year. In the second year, I wanted to do something more than a concert. We invited an Israeli and an Arab musician for the festival, a young Jewish girl violinist and an Arab pianist. Both were very talented. They played solo and duo pieces. If they were able to play such beautiful duos in harmony, the question was, why couldn’t the politicians play the same rhythm and tune together during al of these years?
It was while seeing these two young people together that the idea of “The Mother of Jerusalem Is Crying” found shape in my mind. I thought I was the best delegate to write about this subject.
I had seen the suffering of my parents all my childhood. I was not present during the Genocide, but I had nightmares about it all through my childhood. Although my parents never talked about it in front of me, I knew all, as if I had been present there. I know how much different our lives would have been if my grandfather had not been killed.
(To be continued)
Dr. Rosemary Hartounian Cohen, who lives in the Fairfax District, earned her Ph.D in sociology from the Sorbonne in Paris. She lived in two other countries before moving with her husband and children to Los Angeles in 1984. She has published three books in America and is at work on her fourth. Since 1985, Dr. Cohen has operated Atelier de Paris, an international art business, on Robertson Boulevard. She may be contacted at rosemary@atelierdeparis.com
