Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
The Schmooze

30 Days, 30 Texts: ‘Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number’

In celebration of Jewish Book Month, The Arty Semite is partnering with the Jewish Education Service of North America (JESNA) and the Jewish Book Council to present “30 Days, 30 Texts,” a series of reflections by community leaders on the books that influenced their Jewish journeys. Today, Rachel Brodie writes about “Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number” by Jacobo Timerman.

I was always a conscientious objector (aka bad sport) when teachers used the pedagogic conundrum: If you were stranded on a desert island and could take only one book… until I read Jacobo Timerman’s “Prisoner Without a Name, Cell Without a Number.”

I was 16 and as enamored of the low-affect nihilism of Sartre and Beckett as I was fascinated by the manic irreverence of Saturday Night Live and The Clash. At the same time, my favorite subject in school was Talmud and I fantasized about moving to Jerusalem.

Timerman’s book came as a brutal assault on my psyche. His imprisonment and torture under Argentina’s Peronist regime was obviously horrifying, but the fact that it had occurred only five years earlier was what really astounded me. Timerman’s experience exposed what I, as a yeshiva-educated young American Jew in 1983, held as a core tenet of faith — “never again”— as the product of wishful thinking.

I’m pleased to report that I did not become unduly paranoid. Instead, in hindsight, I credit Timerman with the politicization of my commitment to tikkun olam, and adding kindling to my predilection for questioning authority. I also learned to value experiences over material things because, unlike the proverbial desert island in so many ways, Timerman didn’t get even one book during his solitary confinement. But he makes clear that, throughout his ordeal, he availed himself of the books he’d already read and that were held in his mind, out of reach of his tormentors.

So what book would I take if I could choose only one? Not Timerman’s. I’d take a Tanakh.

Rachel Brodie is the founder and Executive Director of Jewish Milestones.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.