‘Born Under Fire’ sheds light on mother’s life as a Renaissance woman

When Marin County author Rina Z. Neiman’s late mother, the Israeli folk singer Shulamit Dubno Neiman, performed wearing Yemeni, Bedouin and Arabic garb in the 1960s and ’70s, it wasn’t an act of cultural appropriation. It was a demonstration of cultural identification with these bespoke, richly embroidered linen, cotton and polyester maxi dresses and pantsuits and the communities who produced them. Although Neiman was of Polish ancestry, each of the cultures that surrounded her in Israel became a part of the fabric that made up her own multicultural identity.

This is just one of the many interesting tidbits about her musically gifted and terribly stylish mother that Neiman includes in her debut book “Born Under Fire” (Zivia Books; 258 pages; $14.99). Neiman is a longtime San Francisco writer, event producer and PR professional for Bill Graham Presents, the San Francisco Symphony and Macy’s West.

In the historical novel, which Neiman will discuss in conversation with Sue Fishkoff, editor of J. the Jewish News of Northern California, at the Jewish Community Library of San Francisco on Sunday, Oct. 14, the author parallels the coming of age of her Jerusalem-born mother — who would go on to win a fellowship to the Manhattan School of Music, work at the first Israeli Consulate in New York City in the 1950s, represent Israel as a singer-guitarist in performances around the world and issue a 1972 folk album titled “Shulamith and the Two Guitars” — with the treacherous conflicts that culminated with the 1948 founding of the state of Israel.

Q: What inspired you to write “Born Under Fire”?

A: About six or seven years ago, I had put up a little website with the dresses that my mother collected — this big 30-piece collection of Yemenite and Bedouin dresses, pantsuits and children’s shirts and dresses — and this huge fan of Yemenite embroidery contacted me, wanting to do an article for a publication called Needle Art. I sent her a few pictures and started telling her more about my mother, and she said, “Oh, this is fascinating. I want to know about her for the article.” So I went and pulled out all the stuff from storage, and that’s when I started looking through all these papers, including a sketchbook my uncle illustrated and wrote about the trip they both took to the Galilee in 1947. Then (I) was getting very interested in this generation who were first defining what it was to be an Israeli and how that came to be. As I was looking through the stuff, I had this wonderful story about this trip, and I thought I’ll write about the trip and I’ll expand on each page. Then I realized that wasn’t the whole story. That was only a part of one chapter.

Q: Did researching and writing this book make you feel more connected to your Israeli heritage?

A: When I was really young, we used to go to Israel every summer, so I really felt half Israeli. But I grew up here, and after my mother died of breast cancer, when I was 11, we really became part of our American Jewish family, and it’s different. It’s something I think about and struggle with daily living here. But I feel strongly that I understand where my mother was coming from now in terms of how she lived and how she grew up. Reading all about this generation and what they were — literate, hard-working, musically talented and tough — I feel like I identify more with that right now.

Q: One of the things that’s most striking about your book is that amid so much Arab-Israeli conflict there are examples of Jews like your mother and her family that befriended and worked side by side with Arabs.

A: I got a lot of that information from my mother’s first cousin. I’m very proud of that, and that’s one of the things I wanted to explore in the book.

Q: How do the dresses that your mother wore play into her inclusive attitude?

A: My mother was a performer, and every time she had a performance, she looked for something that’s going to represent her. She looked for things that are East and West, so it was bridging cultures. We were in the Old City once and she was looking for a Bedouin jacket, and suddenly she started bargaining in Arabic with a shopkeeper. And I felt like this was my mother’s identity, too. She was from the Middle East and she was Israeli, so there was a big welcoming of the Yemenite, the Moroccan, all the cultures around her, and we were all going to be one big happy family.

Q: What message do you hope readers take away from “Born Under Fire”?

A: I hope they get a better understanding of Israel and its history. The influx of Germans because of Hitler changed the whole balance there, and that’s just one part of the history. There were people who came earlier and had a different attitude. I think it’s such a charged place and a charged topic. I think it’s trying to say, “Hey, it wasn’t always like it is today.”

Josh Rotter is a San Francisco freelance writer. Email: style@sfchronicle.com.