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Artist in Spotlight The Wind of the Khazars by Marek Halter.

By Cecilia Rothschild
Association for
Jewish Theatre
The Wind of the Khazars
Book Reviews
by Marek Halter
Boston Stage
Translated by Michael Bernard
Call for Proposals
The Toby Press, New Milton, CT
Children & Young
people's Theatre October , 2003 The group of warrior tribes called the Khazars, who
Conferences & between 700-1000 C.E controlled the region from north of the Caucasus
Symposiums south to Kiev, and from the Black Sea to the Caspian, have long
fascinated historians. Particularly compelling are the legends surrounding
David's Front Line
their conversion to Judaism. "The Wind of the Khazars," just released in
Editor's Notes an English translation, is French author Marek Halter’s sweeping
exploration of the enigmatic Kingdom of the Khazars.
Ellen Schiff's Shelf

European Born in Warsaw in 1936, Halter and his family fled the Warsaw Ghetto The Wind of the Khazars
Association for during the war, settling in a part of Russia that would become the setting
Jewish Culture - for "The Wind of the Khazars." At the war’s end, the family moved to
EAJC Paris, and Halter went on to a distinguished career as an artist, novelist
and human rights activist. His "Book of Abraham," also historical fiction,
Festival in
has been translated into numerous languages. And "Le Fou et les Rois,"
Spotlight
or "The Jester and the Kings," a book that discusses his own work as an
Film Reviews activist for peace in the Middle East, won the "Prix Aujourd’hui," the
First Curtain
French equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize.

From Page to In "Wind of the Khazars," Halter uses a dual-plot structure that boldly
Stage juxtaposes past and present to heighten the work’s tension beyond that
Global Arts of the usual historical novel. The timeless beauty of the Caucasus, where
Initiative "the folds of the mountains, moving between sun and shadow, looked
like drapes of ancient velvet" is the backdrop for the complex plots that
Heritage
the author skillfully weaves together. Although at times challenging to
Holocaust Theatre follow, Halter’s fast-moving style carries the reader along many diverse
adventures toward an inspiring conclusion. The book is rich in period
Info Center
detail and descriptive passages, reflecting the extensive research the
Interviews author did on the history of the Khazars.

Introduction to
The central character is Marc Sofer (the word sofer means "scribe" in
Jewish Theatre
Hebrew), a successful present-day, Paris-based novelist of Polish-Jewish
Israeli Theatre descent who broods over his reasons for writing: he seems to have so
Worldwide little ability to influence real world events.

Jewish
A foil for Halter himself, Sofer sets out on a lecture tour that will lead him
Intercultural
to a fascination with the Khazars. He meets a beautiful but elusive
Performance
red-headed woman with a Russian accent, who challenges him with the
Group
question of whether he still believes enough in dreams to write about
Kaleidoscope on them. On the same trip, a Russian Jew from the Caucasus presents Sofer
New York Stage with a rare Khazari coin inscribed with a menorah and Hebrew letters and
Magazine Reviews tells him about an immense cave deep in the Caucasus mountains, which
contains glittering streets and an ornate synagogue.
Merchant of Venice
Michael's Corner Sofer’s curiosity leads him to Oxford and Cambridge, where he examines
rare manuscripts on the Khazars, including correspondence between a
New Publications
rabbi of Cordoba, Spain, and a king of the Khazars. Trying to imagine the
Open Space lives of this remote people, Sofer accepts the red-headed woman’s
challenge. He will travel to the land of the Khazars to fully explore their
Open Stage -
existence. When he lands at the Baku airport in Azerbaijan, Sofer
Intercultural
simultaneously finds himself in a place of forgotten peoples, shadowy
Junction
Russian Mafia, volatile disputes over oil rights, and explosive ethnic
Philadelphia Stage politics.

Play Reviews
"Passing through the mirror of time," Sofer senses the presence of the
Production Point characters he has studied and of events long past. The Khazar ruler,
Khagan Bulan, had been converted to Judaism in 740 C.E. by persecuted
Productions on
Jews who fled to his kingdom. The combination of absolute rule with
Tour
devout belief, exemplified by his reign, was carried on by Bulan’s
Recommended successors. Despite his conversion to Judaism, Bulan and future Khazar
Website kings practiced a policy of religious tolerance. The Khazar Rabbi Hanania,
Research & summed up the Khazar credo this way: "A warrior fights with his body
Collections alone. He who studies the Torah fights with the minds and hearts of a
whole people behind him." As the kingdom expanded and consolidated its
Revisiting the Past
control of important trade routes, its borders were threatened by
Solo Performance - incursions from neighboring powers: the pagan Rus to the north, the
Online Catalogue Persian and Baghdadi empires to the south, their sometime allies, the
Byzantine Greeks, and the Asian hordes that united under Genghis Khan
Spanish
to the east.
Spanish / Español
: Artículos Sofer feels a special bond with young Isaac Ben Eliezer of Cordoba who in
954 C.E. was sent to the distant Khazar court by Rabbi Hazdai Ibn
Spanish / Español
Shaprut, chief rabbi of Sephardi Jews. Ben Eliezer was instructed to learn
: Noticias y
all he could about the armor-clad "steppe warriors," who were
actividades
considered unique among Jewish communities at the time, because they
culturales
possessed power to rule other tribes and collect tribute. Traveling for
Story Theatre long months through dangerous European cities, Ben Eliezer carries a
Success Story
letter asking the current Khazari ruler to explain the astonishing news of
this Jewish kingdom, and to ask whether the Khazars will bring the
The Arab- Israeli messiah.
Melting Pot

The Bible on Stage The reply dashes the Sephardic rabbi’s hopes: Given the precarious
position of the Khazars in this area of increasingly intense tribal rivalries,
The European
their ruler can no longer assure Jews that they can take refuge in his
Research Center
kingdom, and he doubts that the messiah will appear in the guise of a
The New York Khazari ruler.
Scene
While residing at the Khazari court, Ben Eliezer meets and falls in love
The Next
with Attex, a beautiful red-headed princess, who has been promised in
Generation
marriage to a Byzantine Greek ruler. Defying her father’s wishes Attex
Theatre and flees to her mountain hideout. In the ornate hidden caves, she and Ben
Physics Eliezer spend one night of bliss in a "marriage before God." She urges
him to leave her and return to Cordoba with the letter. When enemy
Theatre in
warriors overrun her hidden sanctuary, Attex is killed, but Ben Eliezer
Spotlight
cannot identify her remains among the carnage, giving rise to the legend
Upfront Europe that she had escaped with the wind howling through the mountains.

What's New in
When Ben Eliezer finally returns to Spain with the letter for the rabbi, "a
Israel ?
rumor from Asia was already spreading through the markets of Sepharad
What's New in like dirty smoke," that Itil, the capital of the Khazari kingdom had been
London ? overrun by Russian invaders. By 1016 C.E. the final waves of Rus and
What's New in Asian conquerors drove the Khazars into the mountains and west into
Washington DC ? Eastern Europe where they mixed with the local populations. All that
remained was the legend that the Khazari rulers had created secret
What's Next ?
sanctuaries for the preservation of Jewish worship in the mountain
What's up in caverns that dotted their kingdom.
Australia ?
Immersed in visions of this history, Sofer explores the ethnic diversity of
What's up in
the region, from the Azerbaijan cities of Baku to Quba, to Sadoue,
Europe ?
Georgia, today crisscrossed by oil pipelines. The redhead who challenged
Yiddish Theatre him mysteriously reappears and tells him that her name is Sonja. She
explains that she belongs to the "New Khazars," a group that lives in the
Save caves, trying to catalog and preserve the few remaining treasures of the
ancient kingdom’s past glory and to save the site that might soon be
Print
exploited by international oil companies.
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Sofer is enthralled by the cavernous city she shows him, complete with
Post Comment
richly decorated synagogue, ark, mikvah and library. Sonja confides that
as a young Russian-Jewish history teacher in her native Georgia, she was
not allowed to teach about the profound cultural influence the Khazars
had on Russia. Even fellow Jews, she says, knew little about the Khazars
until recently. She begs Sofer to use his fame as a writer to expose this
injustice that threatens to obliterate the scarce remaining traces of the
Khazars.

Like Ben Eliezer and Attex, Sofer and Sonja spend one rapturous night of
lovemaking together in the magnificent caverns before she disappears
during a sudden invasion. The vivid depiction of men in black rappelling
from helicopters with bullets flying is action writing at its best. The men
are there the behest of a consortium of oil barons who wish to delay
discovery of the "miraculous pocket" of oil deep in the mountains until a
more profitable moment in the future. They bomb the caves which
shelter the remaining Khazari treasures and kidnap Sofer, making him
promise not to write about the Khazars and his modern-day captors.

The Khazars have intrigued writers for centuries. Among those taken by
their tale are Judah Halevi, who wrote the medieval masterpiece "Il
Kuzari," to Arthur Koestler, author of "The Thirteenth Tribe." Disputes
over historical identity and ancestral claims give current relevance to
Halter’s work. New bits of physical, linguistic and ethnographic
information about the Khazars have given rise to fierce controversies.
Even anti-Semitic internet Web sites have joined the debate to allege
that Ashkenazi Jews are solely descendant from the Khazars and
therefore not entitled to claim Israel as their historic homeland. Many
scholars, including D.M. Dunlop, who is cited by Halter in the book, say
that the Khazars need a great deal further study.

Through the character of Sofer, Halter ponders the impact Khazar history
has had on his own life. As a Polish Jew, Sofer muses that he might be
descended from these daring steppe horsemen. In the end, the power
they had harnessed, the "winds" of their expansion, became the "Wind of
the Khazars...chasing the Khazars themselves...toward Europe, effacing
all traces of the Jewish Kingdom...carrying off forever the vestiges of
ancient times." Just as Ben Eliezer lost Attex, Sofer has lost Sonja, but
his fingers tingle defiantly with the prospect of writing about the
forbidden subject. This haunting and unforgettable tale of beauty and
devotion in a harsh landscape is a compelling story of the power that
once was the Khazars.

Source: Aufbau

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1.the wind of the khazars by marek halter

joyce, redmond (1/18/2004)
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