A prized ‘pomegranate’

Jerusalem-based author Dvora Waysman is awarded the Shabazi Prize for the Heritage of the Jews of Yemen for her acclaimed novel 'The Pomegranate Pendant.'

By RUTH BELOFF
Petah Tikva Mayor Itzik Braverman grants the Shabazi Prize to Dvora Waysman. (photo credit: GIDI LIVYATAN)
Petah Tikva Mayor Itzik Braverman grants the Shabazi Prize to Dvora Waysman.
(photo credit: GIDI LIVYATAN)
At an award ceremony held last Wednesday in Petah Tikva, Jerusalem-based author Dvora Waysman was presented with the 2014 Shabazi Prize for Literature and Art, granted by the Committee of the Shabazi Prize for the Heritage of the Jews of Yemen. The award was given in recognition of her historical novel The Pomegranate Pendant, which chronicles the life of a young Yemenite woman who makes the journey to the Holy Land in the late 1800s. The book was made into a movie, The Golden Pomegranate, which was filmed in Israel and premiered at the Jerusalem Film Festival in 2012. The film’s director, Dan Turgeman, and its producer, Robert Bleiweiss, were each awarded the Shabazi Prize as well.
In advising Waysman of her being selected for the prize, the committee had written to her: “We are pleased to inform you that we have decided to honor and award you with the 2014 Shabazi Prize for your novel The Pomegranate Pendant. We acknowledge its sensitive and creative style, which is deserving of the highest praise. Your book is a special cultural treasure, which adds an important chapter to the Zionist history by commemorating the first aliya of the Jews from Yemen and their participation in the redemption of Eretz Israel and the establishment of the State of Israel.”
The ceremony, hosted by emcee Itamar Pinhas, was held in the plush auditorium of Petah Tikva’s impressive Cultural Center in the presence of Petah Tikva Mayor Itzik Braverman and Shalom Ben-Moshe, the mayor of Rosh Ha’ayin. In addition to the award presentations, there was a diverse roster of Yemenite entertainers, featuring singer Zion Golan; the colorful female folk-dance troupe Bat Nedivim; the singing duo Shiran Karni and Hila Tam; and singer and oud player Yoni Tzoref, accompanied by his son Liran on the darbuka (drum).
The 800-seat hall was filled to capacity, consisting largely of members of the Yemenite community who had come from such locales as Petah Tikva, Rosh Ha’ayin, Kfar Saba and Yehud.
“I wasn’t expecting anything like this,” whispered Waysman, overwhelmed, before going up on stage to receive her engraved plaque and address the large audience in Hebrew and then in English, which her son Mark translated.
The plaque was presented to her by Braverman and Tuvia Sulami, head of Beit Yehudei Teiman in Petah Tikva.
“When I started to write my book, I knew very little about Yemenite traditions, so I went to the Yemenite Step restaurant in Jerusalem and ate jachnun [bread] and drank gisher [coffee],” Waysman recounted in her speech, eliciting a wave of hearty laughter and applause from the appreciative audience. “I listened to Yemenite music and went to the Israel Museum, where I saw beautiful jewelry with gold pomegranates,” she continued.
“And I met people with a lovely nature,” she added. “Even though I grew up in Australia and am Ashkenazi, I now have a small part of Yemenite in my heart,” she said (rousing applause).
No stranger to accolades, the 83-year-old author has received such honors as the “For Jerusalem” citation for her fiction, poems and features about the city; the Seeff Award for Best Foreign Correspondent; and she was named by Na’amat in the US as “a woman who has made a difference in literature.”
Waysman was born in Melbourne and made aliya in 1971 with her husband, Harry, and their four children.
They have 18 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.
She has written 13 books and hundreds of short stories and articles that have been published worldwide. Her books include My Long Journey Home, To Any Jewish Teenager – Letters from Jerusalem, Back of Beyond, My Jewish Days of the Week, Woman of Jerusalem: poetry and essays, Esther – a Jerusalem Love Story, Seeds of the Pomegranate (the sequel to The Pomegranate Pendant) and In a Good Pasture.