College Identity

In Sayed Kashua’s novel Second Person Singular the passage that I found to be the most interesting was when Amir is training to take care of Yonatan. This passage brings the prejudice that exist in Jerusalem into perspective. Amir gets into a conversation with Yonatan’s previous care taker, Ayub, at night while he is training. The conversation centers around schooling which might be why I find it so interesting. The conversation seems like a typical conversation with someone who is an educated person. Amir was asking about the previous caretakers life and where he was educated. Ayub studied at the David Yellen College which wouldn't have been out of the ordinary if it wasn’t for his Jordanian matriculation certificate. Having recent experience with the pressure to conduct my studies at a top level institution this passage really had an impact on me. The way Amir told the story was that because Ayub’s matriculation certificate the fact that he studied at David Yellen College was an great accomplishment. This ties into the prejudice seen in Jerusalem. Someone who is of Jordanian decent has increasingly less benefits in Israel. Ayub goes onto explain the prejudice of going to university outside of Jerusalem. Aruba says “ Birzeit and Bethlehem Universities are…better than David Yellen but whats a Jerusalem resident going to do with a degree from there? Everything here is Israeli.” (Kashua 79) What Ayub is pointing out is that while someone could have studied at a higher level because the university may not be Israeli a degree to pointless. Aruba and Amir’s conversation opened my eyes to a daily prejudice that people experience just because they or their past is non Israeli. 

The novel was telling a story about the struggle faced by those in Jerusalem to do well when they are not Israeli. The fiction of the novel does not erase the oppressive reality of Jerusalem. Amir need to assume the identity of a Jewish man in order to have successful life is not fiction. The reality is the if you are an Israeli Jew your chances to get ahead are greater than if you are Arab, Palestinian, or Jordanian. 

Kashua, Sayed. Second Person Singular. Grove, 2013.