Yehudit Hendel’s Spectral Journey to Poland

Abstract:Yehudit Hendel’s Le-yad kefarim sheketim (Near Quiet Places, 1987), which follows her 1986 visit to Poland, is read mostly as part of a broader discussion of Israeli Holocaust literature rather than as a vital part of Hendel’s oeuvre. This paper seeks to weave this work “back” into her corpus and to offer a new reading of one of her less discussed books. Although Hendel states that her journey followed a spur-of-the-moment decision, the intense presence of the Holocaust in her work from its inception suggests a different story. Furthermore, the evidence of material from Hendel’s literary estate requires not only that we rethink the trips she planned but never carried out during her journey but also that we take a fresh look at some trips that may have taken place yet were left out of her book. Hendel’s journey is a spectral, melancholic journey, which, as manifested in Le-yad kefarim sheketim, proves to be the only one possible.