Out of Jordan

A Sabra in the Peace Corps Tells Her Story

De: Dalya Cohen-Mor

Narrado por: Judith West

A riveting memoir of the first Israeli-born Jewish American to be sent as a Peace Corps volunteer to a closed Arab society.

A good memoir is a survivor's tale - the story of a person who has faced obstacles and made it through well enough to tell it. Dalya Cohen-Mor, a Sabra-born American woman, volunteered to serve in the Peace Corps, went through a lengthy and highly competitive application process, was accepted, and was sent to serve in the predominantly Palestinian country of Jordan, of all countries. Upon arrival in Jordan, Cohen-Mor was instructed by Peace Corps supervisors to conceal her Jewish identity, use an alias instead of her real last name, and pretend she was Christian so as not to compromise her safety and efficacy as a Peace Corps volunteer.

As a single woman, a Sabra, and an American Peace Corps volunteer in a conservative Arab society, Cohen-Mor was forced to navigate unchartered territory, redefine her values and attitudes, and discover what it means to be perceived as the other. She lived in the household of a Bedouin host family in a remote village in the eastern desert of Jordan, teaching English at the village girls' elementary school. As she traveled around the kingdom, she often found herself in delicate, complicated, and dangerous situations. After three months of hard work in the Peace Corps, she was accused of being involved in intelligence activities and unceremoniously sent back home. Although she lost her dream to serve in the Peace Corps, she found something more precious in the process: her core identity and sense of self.

Out of Jordan paints a penetrating portrait of contemporary life in Jordan, with insight into the complexities of a closed Arab society - family life, women's roles, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the perception of America in the minds of ordinary people. With relentless honesty and unflinching courage, Cohen-Mor recounts her personal journey across borders and cultures into the living realities of two peoples - Arabs and Jews - with conflicting national identities but a common humanity.

©2015 Dalya Cohen-Mor (P)2015 Audible, Inc.

Fascinating story, horrible audio narration

There's one part of the book where the author writes about how western languages don't have guttural sounds like Hebrew and Arabic and the audio narrator (who also mispronounces many words) is "demonstrating" this but she cannot make the guttural sounds she's supposed to be making. But I persevered because I was interested in the story.

Initially, I did not like the author much. She seemed uptight and pompous. As the story went on, I got to feeling worse and worse for this poor woman and all the crap that she endured.

The book is extremely detailed (often TOO detailed) in some places but really lacking in others, e.g., she mentions her son in passing only halfway through the book and then later that he told her he had a dark side she didn't know about. And that's it. She says her husband is an abusive (how?) philanderer quite a few times but we don't know much more. But the most glaring omission is WTF happened with her family. They have had they're "ups and downs" but she's lost touch with the sister who she was like a second mother to, is on the outs with her older sister, finally sees her mother after years. The only one she's close to is her brother, who figures in the story.

I found myself constantly wondering why a Sabra (born and raised in Israel but then lived in the Netherlands and then the US) and a Jew would accept a posting in Jordan. Ok, there's the whole being fluent in Arabic and being a scholar on the subject of the Arab world (PhD) but she's forced to lie about her religion, where she was born, and just about everything that would be offensive to a Jordanian Arab. Or would get her killed. That's the bottom line, she literally was risking her life by going there. She tries to explain why, and when she's sent home realizes just how stupid her decision to go there was, but...

Also a strange tension between all the things she wouldn't complain about, like her first host family who is paid a pretty penny to host and feed her is basically feeding her a starvation diet, and what she would bring up. Food looms large in this book so as I heard for the 100th time about the lack of it, I wondered why (well, I wondered before the 100th time) she didn't buy nonperishable food on her weekly trips to Aaman, where she could go out on her own during the day without being stoned and yelled at by boys and men. She could have bought whatever she wanted. Or why she didn't eat when she was offered a meal somewhere other than her host family's house. She supposedly didn't want to offend, but come on, if this is all you can think about (and the squat toilet, and no sleep because the baby cries 24/7) and you're weak from hunger, in your 60s and walking 6 miles a day, you turn down a meal? I don't know...after typing all this, I feel like her choices of what to do or not to do were based in fear of being discovered as Jewish and possibly being killed.

In the end, it was really rather riveting.

The Irony

This was a very good listen, the audiobook narration was very good. The book was detailed and enjoyable, I felt I was on the journey with the author. The high’s and low’s of the journey to Jordan, and all the preparation it took to go was palpable. As were the low’s of getting there, and the disappointment of being robbed of the opportunity to complete the full assignment. On one hand, there is the injustice of what happened to the author, on the other hand, hearing how things deteriorated, leaves the listener with thoughts of how it was all meant to play about that way, likely for Dalya’s good.

During different parts of the book, I was left with an impression that the author had a bit of a prickly personality herself. Though, in other parts, I did find myself agreeing with her and sympathizing with how she was treated. I also found it quite ironic that this woman who was declared not to be a spy was turned into somewhat of a spy by the Peace Corps, and asked to lie and deceive while helping to bring about peace.

Overall, very well written and thought provoking, shedding light on many topics.

Not a normal Peace Corps experience

If you are looking for a “typical” Peace Corps experience this is not the book for you. The author has an ax to grind against Peace Corps. The author was dismissed from Peace Corps prior to actually serving. But it is a very good cautionary tale of being Jewish and serving in an Islamic or Arab country, I would highly recommend it for potential Jewish volunteers, but for anyone else I would not recommend it. Being a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer I was looking for a Peace Corps story in a different country and culture from the one I served in. This story did not serve what I was looking for. I’m also concerned that a potential volunteer will get the wrong idea of what serving in Peace Corps is like from this story. The author created her own problems with Peace Corps and I believe that had she been assigned elsewhere, in a non-Arab or non-Islamic country, that her outcome would have been the similar. She was the issue, not Peace Corps.

Worst listen ever

Full of ego, negativity and narcissism. Took it off my shelf after the first hour.