By Rabbi Rachel Esserman

People emigrate to a country for a variety of reasons. Some leave their native shores after experiencing persecution. Others come for economic reasons; a few even plan to return to their former homes once they’ve made their fortune. Then there are those looking to escape family pressures or seeking to live their lives on their own terms. A few of these possibilities are explored with two recent novels about Israeli women who emigrated to the United States: “Happy New Years” by Maya Arad (New Vessel Press) and “Hunting in America” by Tehila Hakimi (Penguin Books) offer views of two very different women and their approaches to life away from home.
Except for its short preface and afterward, “Happy New Years” features the yearly letters Leah writes to the friends she made when attending college in Israel. Perhaps “friends” is too strong a word: it becomes clear over the course of 60 years of letters that Leah is only close to one of the women. Not having been born in Israel – her family moved there from Romania – seems to affect the way her fellow students thought about her. But she is determined to keep in touch with them, even after she moves from Israel to the United States. 
When life takes an unfortunate or unpleasant turn, Leah is still upbeat, painting a prettier picture the one than really exists as, for example, when the promised job as a Hebrew teacher in Boston she moved to the U.S. for does not materialize. It’s only in the postscripts that are for Mira alone that Leah admits to life not being perfect, whether it’s her job, her marriage or her children. Even with Mira, though, she doesn’t always reveal the complete story. It’s only by reading between the lines that readers gain true insight into her actions. Toward the end of her life – when Leah re-evaluates parts of her past – she does finally write about events that shamed her, although the shame belongs to the people who mistreated her. 
Although Leah makes many mistakes because her naiveté, in many ways, her life reflects the changes in the world around her. At first embracing the life of a housewife who takes care of her children, she later focuses the same amount of enthusiasm in her work, hoping to make a fortune selling real estate. Whenever she is knocked down in life, she tries to rise up again, remaking her life and herself to fit the new version of the world she embraces.
“Happy New Years” leaves much for readers to debate. Did Leah create some of her own problems by placing herself in situations she should have known would turn out badly? Was she naive to believe the promises made to her or was she actually seeking to profit from those she pretended to help? The afterward of the work, with essays written by one of Leah’s sons and her granddaughter, shine a different light on this interesting, complex woman.
While “Happy New Years” takes place over a period of years, the unnamed narrator of “Hunting in America” only writes about the first months in her new home. After accepting a job and moving to the U.S., the narrator doesn’t attempt to create much of a life for herself outside of work, that is, except for joining her co-workers on a deer hunt. She not only discovers a liking for the sport, but develops a close relationship with a married co-worker, David.
Life seems steady until there are questions about her position in the office; her relationship to David is also changing. The narrator describes her life by the number of times she goes hunting, as if those moments define her world. When a problem arises on a solo hunt, readers are forced to debate exactly what occurred since the narrator never clearly describes the scene. The same is true of the work’s abrupt ending, leaving readers to decide if what is suggested actually occurred.
“Hunting in America” offers as many questions as it does answers. Its narrator doesn’t come across as a particularly pleasant person, but that may be because her prose is emotionally flat, as if her emotions are buried deep inside. Readers may wonder if she suffers from depression, especially after learning one of the reasons she moved to the U.S.
The women in both works came to the United States in the hopes of creating a new life. Leah had planned to return to Israel, but changed her mind when she realized her sons identified as Americans, rather than Israelis. The narrator in “Hunting in America” picked an unusual way to adjust to life in the U.S. since most Jews are not hunters. Then again, this allowed her to distance herself from her past. Readers may find it easier to sympathize with Leah than the unnamed narrator. That’s partly because “Happy New Years” is a far richer work with more depth than “Hunting in America.” While the former work comes highly recommended, it’s difficult to pinpoint readers for “Hunting in America.”