A PLACE OF EXODUS

A distinguished poet reflects on his Texas roots and on the Orthodox Jewish upbringing from which he distanced himself.

Growing up in Houston, "boots and belts and ten gallon hats" were as much a defining part of Biespiel’s life as his secret desire to become a rabbi. He and his family lived in Meyerland, the main Jewish neighborhood in mostly Christian Houston. Though the community was home to Holocaust survivors and a Jewish community that kept a close eye on events in Israel, Meyerland Jews still "spoke Hebrew with a southern accent, punctuated ironically with y'all.” The author’s most significant memories, which he renders in immersive detail, concern major Jewish celebrations, religious classes at the local synagogue, and his encounters with Rabbi Segal, who believed that Jewish codes defined life for all Jews. Just as Biespiel was entering adolescence, Rabbi Segal had singled him out for having the "knack" for religious learning but also as one who was developing a dangerous restlessness. By the time Biespiel entered high school, he had become a powerful debater who openly questioned Orthodox Judaism and challenged—and eventually broke with—Rabbi Segal. For the author, his faith offered only one way to understand a world where "there [were] many ways to be a human being.” Determined to chart his own path, Biespiel "retire[d] from the authority…of the Torah" and left Texas. His meandering path took him through a dozen states and eventually ended in Portland, Oregon. Yet he could not entirely shed his past and eventually returned to visit the place that had made him. “No matter what, consciously or subconsciously,” he writes, “we are clutching some shard of that place.” In this moving, erudite book, the author offers an intimate, searching meditation on personal identity, and he effectively investigates the universal question of the nature and meaning of home.

A poignantly eloquent memoir.