Review from Town & Village, Thursday, March 31, 2005

By Maciej Wroblewski

STUYVESANT TOWN AUTHOR CHRONICLES HER FAMILY HISTORY IN NEW BOOK

 The Lemon Tree, a new book by long-time Stuyvesant Town resident Ilil Arbel, is a story based on her family’s chronicles. The author’s latest book follows her family’s dangerous journey from the ice fields of Siberia to the sand dunes in Tel-Aviv, to fulfill the dying wish of their 19-year-old son and brother Sasha, and plant a tiny potted lemon tree in an orchard in Israel. Traveling on cattle trains on the Trans-Siberian railway, stranded in Shanghai, and facing arrest in Egypt’s Port Said, the pioneering family travels through foreign lands carrying with them Sasha’s beloved tree, which he raised from a seed that he’d found one day when it floated onto his tea. On their year-long journey, he family barely escapes being shot by Manchurian officials for smuggling a few of life’s necessities and time and again face threats of typhoid fever and other diseases that are incurable in 1918. Released in mid-February, The Lemon Tree was inspired by the notes left by Arbel’s mother and Sasha’s sister, Ida Rosenfeld, and the stories she told her daughter over the decades. A natural storyteller, she would often visit her daughter in Stuyvesant Town and share the tales of her extensive travels and life in Siberia, Israel, and Fran According to Arbel, who has lived in Stuyvesant town for 25 years, The Lemon Tree is newsworthy because it reflects the public’s interest in personal memoirs, recently shown by readers from all walks of life. “Many have begun to realize that the experience of private citizens is so much more meaningful, personal, and exciting than the often repetitive biographies of movie stars and political figures,” she explained, pointing to the Internet as an example of a medium where thousands upon thousands of blogging (online journal) sites are dedicated to telling personal stories of ordinary people.  “These sites are created by both scholarly organizations and individuals and I plan to continue exploring this phenomenon in my own way, which, of course, is writing books,” said Arbel, who is currently developing a service where books can be customized for people who wish to see their own biographies or personal memoirs written by a published author and produced by a publishing house Arbel specializes in biography, oral history, folklore and personal memoirs. She is the author of the well-received Maimonides: A Spiritual Biography, and several other books, and many articles. She earned a doctorate in mythology and folklore, and contributes to the award-winning Encyclopedia Mythica. The Lemon Tree is available from the Ingram Book Group, Baker and Taylor, iUniverse, Inc, Amazon.com, Barnes&Noble.com and iUniverse.com. It can also be found at Barnes&Noble and Borders bookstores anywhere.