Generational Differences

Rutchen and her father have a strained relationship. Shlezi never appears happy with her, while she, on the other hand, often tries to please him. Rutchen's trip to Switzerland is an attempt to please her father by securing even more small change for his collection, even though she finds his collecting destructive. Shlezi growls at her when she returns from jail, haggard and broken, for he only sees her failure instead of her attempt to bond with him on his terms.

As Jews, Rutchen and Shlezi share the legacy of the Holocaust, though in different ways. Shlezi is much closer in age to those who experienced the events of the Holocaust; he could even be someone who fled Europe and eventually made it to Israel. Rutchen, a young adult, was either born in Israel or left Europe soon after her birth to live in Israel. The tension...