Review of “Eskimos of Jerusalem” in the New York Jewish Week, by Steve Lipman

One of the best guides to another culture is its local columnists. Jimmy Breslin’s and the late Mike Royko’s colorful legends in New York and Chicago served as social barometers. But they are a dying breed. Fortunately, Israel has Sam Orbaum.
    He is best known for “But Seriously,” his satirical column in The Jerusalem Post Magazine. Though it is fiction, it is a vehicle for expressing Orbaum’s take on national politics and history and his own life, and it has earned a loyal readership.
    “Not Page One” is non-fiction, profiles of quirky, gripping, sometimes unforgettable personalities.
    Orbaum writes about the character and characters of Israel, introducing Sabras and emigres, seculars and haredim, Jews and non-Jews. The book’s title refers to the first column in this collection of 116, about Eric Knutsen, “a dyslexic Eskimo harbormaster” who settled in Jerusalem and observes that “living in Alaska, strange as it seems, was excellent preparation for living in Jerusalem.”
    Technically, not everyone in Orbaum’s book is Israeli. There’s Aaron Feuerstein, the Massachusetts industrialist who rebuilt his burned-down plant, saving 200 jobs; Judy Carr, the Toronto housewife who anonymously saved Syrian Jewry; and Batia Schmidt, whose stirring story of Holocaust survival did not emerge until after her death.
    But Orbaum writes mostly about Israelis off the beaten track. He finds the Cactus King of Israel and the Palestinian newspaper editor who’s become a star actor at the Jerusalem English Speaking Theater.
    His column’s collective message: Israel is more than the blaring headlines, more than the peace negotiations and threats of war. It’s the Jews and Arabs and Christians who quietly live extraordinary lives.