And Perhaps ..: The Story of Ruth Dayan,

by Ruth Dayan, Helga Dudman (Other Contributor)

Physical description; 275 p. : illus. ; 22 cm. Subject; Dayan, Ruth.

236 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

Reviews

[Elliot Ratzman]

Until they divorced shortly before this memoir Ruth Dayan was the wife of Moshe Dayan, Israel’s celebrated one-eyed military man. They spent their first decades together on a collective farm, arguing, milking cows, and negotiating life before the state of Israel. Their lives of radical austerity and idealism quickly dissolve as Dayan becomes a war hero, rising through the ranks of the Israeli military and political establishment. Their home becomes lavish, filled with the archeological items that were Moshe’s obsession…along with womanizing. Ruth throws herself into the development of crafts—weaving and jewelry—organizing new immigrants and new Arab subjects for artisanal projects. The Dayans’ relationship with Arabs is in turn orientalist and genuine. Crucial chapters: on the ‘48 war, gives a sense of the human toll of the war; on the Mizrachim immigrants, as Ruth learns about different Arabic-speaking Jewish communities; on her ‘60 visit to Albert Schweitzer in the jungles of Gabon.

[Yehudit Levinson]

Ruth Dayan's history as she recalls it from her childhood up through the 1970s. Very modest in her telling, not flouting all the people she came in contact with, although being such a small country and very involved in its establishment she did come in contact with many personna. Not angry at her husband over their eventual divorce.
Today, after Oct 7, 2023 the book feels very dated with the euphoria after the 1967 6 day war. Her jubilation over the opening of contact with the Arabs in East Jerusalem feels naive, even though she does end her story with an encounter with a Palestinian woman, who she prefers to leave anomomous and advises her that the Arab Palestinian people have to first to become united amongst themselves if they want to achieve self determination for their own statehood.