Irene Shaland and her husband Alex have a lifelong passion for travel, evidenced by the fact that their daughter had visited 24 countries even before graduating high school. Irene, an author, educator and lecturer, regularly captivates Maltz Museum audiences with her global exploits and in-depth presentations based on her travel. We recently sat down to talk about her latest adventure—the release of her new book The Dao of Being Jewish and Other Stories.
How did you end up in Northeast Ohio?
Alex and I arrived in Cleveland from Saint Petersburg, Russia, following my parents who came a couple of years earlier. My mother was the ideologist of the family immigration. Our family always knew we didn’t belong in the Soviet Union. My maternal grandfather was the deputy minister of education for the Soviet Ukraine. He was a scientist and a politician. In June of 1937 during Stalin’s Purges, he was arrested. My mother always recounted how NKVD (predecessors of KGB) stormed in and turned the house upside down. All that is left from that night is a torn photograph with an imprint of the NKVD boot. The photo shows a smiling young man of 36, my grandfather, and a smiling little girl of 10, my mom, sitting on his lap. Usually when they arrested one spouse, they’d come back for another, but luckily my family was saved. My grandmother’s maid, who had stayed with the family her whole life, brought a friend from her village, a truck driver. He took my grandmother, my mother and my uncle, then an infant, away into hiding. I grew up with this story. My daughter did too. She even recounted it in her college application essay. My parents came to Cleveland because they had friends here. Alex, his parents, and I joined them in 1982.
How did you get started in travel writing?
My entire education and professional career are based on research and writing. I wrote two books before The Dao of Being Jewish and Other Stories. My first book in this country came out right after I completed my thesis at Case Western Reserve University and it was on intercultural interpretations of Tennessee Williams. My daughter Michelle was in grade school at the time. She looked at the book and then at me before asking, “Mom, you wrote this?” I said I had. Then she added sadly, “Why don’t you write a book that people would actually read?” Of course it took me a long time to realize how right she was. I followed up that book with a methodology of American theater and drama research which also wasn’t exactly the sort of reading people would love to have on their nightstands. But [my husband of 40 years] Alex and I have been roaming the globe for most of our lives. I used to create scrapbooks and invite friends over after trips. We’d tell them our stories and show them photographs and slides. Then we were invited first by JCC and Universal Travel International to start doing weekend special interest bus tours for Russian immigrants. Eventually both of our passions—travel and education—grew into writing essays, numerous published research pieces and a book.
Why is travel so important to you?
Sometimes I think that I live like I have a fire behind me. Traveling the world, researching, studying, meeting people and learning their stories becomes a matter of urgency that I always feel. To be honest, I am a little uncomfortable if I don’t have at least two or three trips planned and booked! I think it’s an internal need to see, experience, learn and share knowledge. Alex and I see travel as having a higher purpose. It’s a piece of art that you create yourself. Whether you travel around your hometown or crisscross the globe, what you create depends on what you bring to and what you take away from the experience. It’s formed from the places you visit, the people you meet and your own impressions.
I believe we all are the stories we tell to ourselves and the world. It’s how our identities are formed.
How did this book come together?
It’s a summation of my research, our travels in search of a global Jewish narrative, personal experiences and interviews, and, of course, stories. My essays were published internationally in the US, UK, Canada and even Kenya. I knew what essays I wanted to include in this book. My challenge was mainly in figuring out how to make them flow. I wanted to be sure that the book didn’t just jump around randomly from continent to continent. I needed to tie all pieces together into one living, cohesive story, both familiar and unknown. We had six professional editors who are our very good friends and who helped us along the way. The cover is based on Alex’s photos and was his idea, but we had a graphic artist in Utah, also a good friend, who put it together. This time we published independently. There were a few publishers who were interested in putting out my book but the timelines were long and, honestly, there is a copyright issue. The copyright for my Tennessee Williams monograph was finally given back to me by the University Press of America after more than 20 years. I did not care about the copyright when I published that book but now, when I lecture extensively and my articles are printed and re-printed internationally, I don’t want to ask a publisher’s permission every time I use my own material. We wanted to be completely in control.
I imagine that was a little more difficult and a little more rewarding.
It was a challenge to figure out how to put it on Amazon as both a paperback and an e-book with all of its layers and photographs. We knew it was never going to be our retirement plan! What is most important for both of us is to share the knowledge, to get the message across. The book is not about me with my essays or about Alex with his beautiful photographs. It is all about those who’d read it.
Talk about the book’s title—The Dao of Being Jewish and Other Stories.
We wanted this title to really say something. The title comes from one of the essays in the book about the Jewish community in China. In China we learned about acculturation versus assimilation. The differences are important, especially for every diaspora Jew. Acculturation is being accepted and integrated into society but retaining who you are—like the Jews of India. Assimilation is giving up your identity as the price of being accepted—like Soviet Jews. Jews have lived in China for more than 2,000 years. Most of them came along the Silk Road. And yet, according to many cultural anthropologists, there are no Jews in China. In fact, the Chinese government itself does not recognize Jews among its 56 minorities. That’s not because of antisemitism, by the way, but because of the specific criteria they use. The Jews were absorbed by Chinese culture. Indian Jews didn’t experience this. The tiniest of the tiniest minorities, they lived in that Hindi-Muslim country for over 2,500 years while remaining fully Jewish and, at the same time, becoming fully Indian. How did they manage to do it? By creating the myths of origins that they kept telling to themselves and to the world? By developing the strongest sense of identity that that resides at the intersection of those myths and rituals? The first Chinese emperor, who liberated his country from Mongols, also got rid of all foreigners. He forbade Jewish names and asked Jews of China to intermarry with their Chinese neighbors. They did that but only along paternal lines. Their DNA proves they are as Jewish as anyone else . . . definitely more Jewish than Soviet Jews who intermarried both ways. In Kaifeng, China, we were told, “Do you think there is only one Dao, or one way, of being Jewish? Just because we don’t have a temple or a rabbi doesn’t mean we’re not Jewish.” They get together for Shabbat. They sing “Hatikvah” by memory. It’s incredible. We met a man in Kaifeng who dedicated his entire life and all his savings to creating a marble memorial with the complete story of his Jewish family going back to the 11th century. I asked him, “How do you know you’re Jewish?” He looked at me like I was from another planet and answered, “Because my father told me and his father told him.” I asked him how he stayed Jewish. He said, “We don’t eat pork and we get together with others and light candles for Shabbat.”
They maintain their identity through stories and traditions.
How has the book been received?
When I first started doing my travel-based, Jewish interest-rooted lectures, especially in New York City, there was such a diverse audience that would turn out. There was something in the stories that was for each of them. Now I find that people buy the book for very different reasons. One woman who came to my talk the other day at a library said, “My son married a Jewish woman and she has been a wonderful influence on him. I want to know more about her background!” She bought the book. During the lecture she stopped me every few minutes to ask about things like Zionism and Hasidism. I always want to add layers to my writing and presentations so I can meet people wherever they are, culturally and educationally. It is never about me but about you. I want you to find a part of these stories that will mean something important to you. And if you don’t? Oh well, I will try not to take it personally!
Alex and Irene Shaland with at the Maltz Museum with Education Director Jeffery Allen
Speak about religion a bit. You don’t always write on Jewish heritage travel topics, but you often do.
As I said, I think there is something in our sense of identity that is determined by stories or traditions passed down from one generation to another. It’s much more than historical facts. People’s self-understanding determines who they are even more than their factual history. Back in the Soviet Russia, we did not have any religious or for that matter, any Jewish identity. It was rather a negative identity, stamped in our passports, signifying only that we had to be five times better than anyone else to get anywhere. Back there, being Jewish was something to overcome—a stumbling block. In this country, my Jewish heritage, and, I do not say – religion, my Jewish identity is very, very important to me. We are what you might call cultural Jews. It’s in our DNA. It is in the way we see the world.
How do you pick the places you want to visit?
Alex will tell you that I am running out of places to go. This is why, he says, we are going to Madagascar! But seriously, it could be an inspiration or an urge caused by something I read or thought about, some strange connections that never happen by chance, but that always have some hidden meaning or logic.
What has been your very absolute favorite place to travel?
Every place is a favorite. We are citizens of the world and I feel like we belong everywhere.
What is the worst travel experience you’ve ever had?
I haven’t had a worst experience, but I suspect that Alex would answer this differently. Alex creates such a cocoon of safety around me that I simply have no sense of fear when we are together. We happened to be in Egypt during their revolution in summer 2013—not by plan, mind you. We were coming back from Nairobi and we were on Egypt Air. When we flew into Cairo to change planes for JFK, our plane was late and we missed the connection. We were given vouchers to a hotel close to the airport for one night. I saw what was happening the day before in the newspapers, but I wanted to be sure Alex didn’t. I knew if he found out, he wouldn’t want to leave the hotel. While he was checking into the room, I tracked down a guide with a limo that would take us to the pyramids, a cruise on the Nile and some ancient mosques. Everywhere we went people started applauding. We asked our driver why they were cheering and he told us, “They are happy I have customers. I haven’t had anyone in two-and-a-half years.” There were no tourists. People were hurting.
I imagine you run into people who don’t travel a lot but have always dreamed about it. What would you tell someone who hasn’t taken the leap?
I’d approach it as a reference librarian. The answer is only as good as the question you ask. I’d want to know what is preventing them from going on a trip. Which factor is holding them back? If it is financial, I I can sit them down and explain how to fly on mileage as we always do, or how to travel on a budget. I can explain which credit card mileage offers are the best and how to leverage them. Of course it isn’t always a financial issue. They may be afraid of traveling alone. Perhaps they’d feel more comfortable traveling with a group. Not everyone is going to travel the way we do—“fast and furious,” using every available hour of daylight to experience every single museum I deem important. There’s no “one size fits all” here. Some people are just fine with taking a cruise and that’s terrific. It has to be an experience that makes them feel comfortable.
What’s your next trip? Do you know?
Of course! We go to New York any time we can. We go to Stratford, Ontario every year. It’s like an ashram for us. In terms of longer upcoming trips, we’re going to Madagascar in November. There is an exciting Jewish story there that I can’t wait to uncover and share. Oh, and in March we’ll be going to Cuba. I managed to do it with my own itinerary while remaining under the required umbrella of People to People. We’ll be meeting a Jewish community there of course.
What is your best travel tip?
The advice is to approach travel with an open heart and open mind.
Where can people find your book?
Right here at the Maltz Museum Store! And on Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Or come to my upcoming talk on August 17 at the Artist Archives of the Western Reserve. You can find my complete lecture schedule at globaltravelauthors.com.
—Sam Fryberger, Director, Marketing & Communications
