How public events affect private lives is a Leitmotiv of this moving
memoir. Eva and her secular Jewish family managed to evade the Holocaust
and lesser public disasters, but not some private ones. They were able
to leave Vienna a year after the Nazi Anschluss (Annexation) of
Austria. In New York and several other places and cultures, she evolved
from a shy, often fearful child and adolescent to an increasingly
self-confident feminist and outspoken peace activist.
She married George Moseley believing he was the "black sheep" of his
right-wing military family. While his political views and attitude
toward her Jewishness sometimes wavered, she remained true to her
parents' social-democratic principles and the "Jewish value" of justice
for everyone. Family relations and troubles play out in a context of the
Cold War and changes in Jewish status with the rise of Israel. After a
not-so-amicable divorce and George's violent death (an unsolved
murder?), her attitude toward Jewishness changed because of Israel's
oppression of the Palestinians.
Worried about the future her offspring--and everyone else--will face,
she devoted much of her time as a dissenting citizen concerned with
issues ranging from nuclear weapons and climate change to advocacy for
Palestinian rights and opposing unquestioning US support of militarized
Israel.
