2004-12-24-Holly & Avi Mathis-Masury |
||||
|
|
|||
|
Children
of two cultures find
love in a third
|
Both found their way to the University
of Tuebingen in Germany, where neither had the luxury of simply studying.
Holly had gone from high school and dancing in her native Louisville, Kentucky,
to the study of fashion at the University of Cincinnati, and on to a degree
program in cross-cultural and environmental studies at
Yellow Springs, Ohio’s ultra-liberal Antioch College.
Meanwhile, she explored a succession of alternative life styles including
vegetarianism, Hare Krishna, and the Unitarian Church. Avi followed a girlfriend from Israel
to Germany. Although that long-term
romance ended, he stayed on, earning a master’s degree in physical education
and a doctorate in empirical cultural studies. The muscular Avi also served as a
lifeguard at the Freibad, the outdoor public pool.
He served as a “boy Friday” at the Zimmertheater, appearing
occasionally on stage, serving food at catered events, and otherwise helping
out. He also worked at the
Bierkeller (a student bar near the university), cleaning toilets at 3 in the
morning. And he served as a
personal trainer at Praevis, a preventative medicine clinic created by
cardiologist Dieter Heitkamp. His toughest job, however, came in the
wake of his first time watching Holly perform at the Landestheater Tuebingen—
in what ironically was her company’s final production. He decided to persuade
her to date him after seeing her perform in Orly I and II, an abstract
interpretation of Orlando, a novel by Virginia Woolf about an immortal
human whose incarnations were alternately male and female. Taken by the tall, alabaster-skinned
dancer, the compact, swarthy gymnast tried to find her backstage after the
performance, but she already had left. However,
through a series of seeming coincidences, Avi conspired to keep meeting her
after that, and eventually she agreed to a date. The couple was married by a justice of
the peace Dec. 29, 2000, at her mother’s home in Louisville, Kentucky. They
decided to adopt each other’s last names, so today they are called Holly and
Avi Mathis-Masury. The latter is
the name that Avi used on his doctoral thesis, which examined the attitudes of
Orthodox Jews toward their bodies. Later, Avi joined the faculty in the
department of ecumenical theology, led by Prof. Hans Kueng, whose early work
disputing the “infallibility” of the Pope had resulted in his being removed,
at the church’s insistence, as a professor of Catholic theology and instead
being given a chair in a new department of ecumenical theology. Today Holly is completing her doctoral
program in cultural studies, while continuing to teach dance. Her thesis, which she expects to complete in 2005, will deal
with how the Stuttgart Ballet, comprised mostly of foreigners, helped Germany to
present a better face to the world in the decades following the nazi era. Like many a German city, Tuebingen
struggles with the legacy of nazism. In
one controversy, the medical school had to decide what to do with body parts
that had been gathered from nazi victims and used as specimens for anatomy
classes. The body remnants were
given burials. In another
controversy, the discovery of the foundation of a synagogue destroyed by the
nazis on Krystallnacht prompted city officials to require a building contractor
to leave some of the old foundation intact as a monument to the Jewish victims. Avi says that he never felt
uncomfortable as a Jew in Tuebingen, despite its nazi past.
In fact, as a Yemenite Jew, he at times felt more uncomfortable among
Israelis of Ashkenzaic background. While he said there is among some Germans a
sympathy for the Palestinian cause, and a tendency to discuss Israel in clichés,
such hostility does not seem to extend to the personal realm. There is another dimension to the
couple’s life. In the expectation that someday she will have a child, Holly
has decided to study for conversion to Judaism. A strong motivation for this
decision is her desire for Avi’s extended family in Israel, who are Orthodox,
to accept any children they might have. Completing her doctorate and living in
Tuebingen, far from any Jewish center, Holly knows that sufficient study for
conversion may have to be spread over years, but she has begun.
While in San Diego over the winter holidays to visit with the family of
Avi’s brother, Shahar , Holly met with Conservative Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal of
Tifereth Israel Synagogue to discuss what books on Judaism might aid her to
learn more about the religion. — Donald
H. Harrison |