The Life and Times of Hoodie Rosen by Isaac Blum
A Novel
Title: The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen
Author: Isaac Blum
Read by: Josh Bloomberg
Publisher: Listening Library
Publication Year: 2022
ISBN: 9780593630020
Rating: 4.5 stars
I’ve recently gotten into Mariam Ezagui (@miriamezagui) on TikTok. Miriam is an Orthodox Jewish labor and delivery nurse who talks about her life and Orthodox Judaism. She answers questions people submit or just talks about something she is doing or thinking of that day. After Miriam started going viral, several other Orthodox Jewish TikTok-ers started their own series and I’ve been learning a lot about Orthodox Judaism. So far, I’m really into their modest bathing suit recommendations. I’m not very concerned about modesty, but as someone who gets sunburnt just thinking of the sun, I love a full coverage bathing suit.
So, when I came across The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen, I was interested. Yehuda “Hoodie” Rosen is part of an Orthodox Jewish community that has recently relocated to the town of Tregaron. They have set up a yeshiva and a synagogue and Hoodie’s dad works for a company that is trying to build an apartment building so that more Orthodox families can join them. However, the non-Jewish residents of Tregaron, including the mayor, Monica Diaz-O’Leary, aren’t very welcoming to the Orthodox community. The Tregaron town council has created lawn signs posted throughout the town that say “Protect Tregaron’s character. Say ‘No’ to development,” and the council is holding up construction on the apartment building. Hoodie’s dad explains that the best way to fight this injustice is to get people from their community onto the town council so that they have a voice in local politics, but in order to get enough people to run and vote for those positions, they need more community members in Tregaron, and thus need the apartment building. Their hands are tied.
While Hoodie understands what is going on, he isn’t really bothered by it. Like most fifteen year olds, he is more concerned with playing basketball with his friends, avoiding his failing grades in math and Gemara, and trying to survive in a house full of sisters, one of whom is constantly launching projectiles off of their roof. All of that changes the day he sees Anna-Marie dancing outside his classroom window. She is wearing all white, which reminds him that it is the holiday Tu B’Av (when unmarried women used to dress in white and dance to celebrate the grape harvest), but other than the white, it is clear from her outfit that she is not Orthodox. Yet, he is drawn to her. He leaves class to take a walk (something that is allowed for serious reflection at his school, even though this trip doesn’t really count) and find her. He introduces himself and when she says her name, he realizes, not only is she not Orthodox, she isn’t Jewish at all. They meet and part, but he can’t get her out of his mind.
Hoodie and Anna-Marie meet again a few days later. He is cutting through the cemetery on his way to school and she is standing there crying over her father’s grave. They chat and walk together, but both are disturbed to find antisemitic graffiti on some graves of the former Jewish residents of Tregaron. Hoodie wants to tell Rabbi Moritz at school, but instead Anna-Marie comes up with a plan for the two of them to clean it up themselves. However, Tregaron is a small town and members of Hoodie’s community are not pleased to see him around town spending time with Anna-Marie, even if it is for a good cause. It’s even worse because Anna-Marie’s last name is Diaz-O’Leary, and she is the daughter of the mayor that is causing so much trouble for the Orthodox community. After seeing them together in the cemetery, Rabbi Moritz gives Hoodie a strong talking to and tells his parents. Hoodie is told to stay away from Anna-Marie. Yet, as is the case in most small communities, everyone almost immediately knows what has happened and has an opinion about Hoodie’s new friendship.
He manages to stay away until he and his friends run into Anna-Marie and her friends as they walk home after the Friday evening service at the temple. The boys in Anna-Marie’s group are cruel to Hoodie and his friends and many of Hoodie’s friends are made uncomfortable talking to goyishe girls, especially ones dressed like Anna-Marie and her friends. Luckily, nothing too bad happens, but in the aftermath, even Hoodie’s best friend, Moshe Tzvi, makes it clear that he doesn’t support Hoodie’s friendship with Anna-Marie any more than the Rabbis or Mr. Rosen do.
The issue reaches a fever pitch on Sunday when Hoodie breaks off from his friends to hang out at Anna-Marie’s house. Unknown to Hoodie, while he is with Anna-Marie, his friends were verbally and physically attacked by a group of local kids. When Hoodie shows up late and unharmed to a meeting called at the Abramowitz Kosher Market to discuss how the Orthodox community should react and the disappointing response from local law enforcement, it is clear to everyone where he has been. The meeting is broken up by police who say that by having the meeting, the community is violating fire codes.
After the chaotic and impromptu end of the meeting, Hoodie starts to feel the cold shoulder from the community. His father reprimands him and takes his phone so he can no longer communicate with Anna-Marie. The next day, Yoel, his sister’s fiancé, is the only one waiting to walk him to school even though at the meeting they had decided everyone should walk together in groups. At school, other boys call him names under their breath or bump into him a little too hard to be accidental. Moshe Tzvi won’t speak to him. After the morning service, Rabbis Moritz and Friedman take Hoodie aside and to another part of the school. He has been put under cherem that is school and community wide. Until Hoodie apologizes and makes amends, he is an outsider in his community, separated from his friends, and someone no one wants to be seen talking to. Hoodie is frustrated. In his mind, all he has done is clean some graffiti off of some graves and not get beaten up. He sees cleaning the graves as a good deed and not being hurt as a net positive and a circumstance of chance, so he doesn’t understand how he deserves to be cast out of his community for that.
Hoodie is left feeling adrift. At night, he sneaks downstairs to check Anna-Marie’s social media profiles on his sister Zippy’s computer. It’s his only way to see her. Without his phone, they can’t communicate. None of his friends are talking to him and most of his family is avoiding him as well. When Zippy catches him at it, they have a serious talk about rules and rules that are ok to break and rules that are not. Zippy helps him put perspective on why his friendship and interest in Anna-Marie are so upsetting to his community when others break different rules all the time with no consequences. Zippy also tells him that part of becoming an adult is deciding where the line lies for himself and making choices and accepting the consequences that will create the life he wants to live.
Hoodie thinks on the conversation and comes up with what seems like a solution to his problems. He sets off for Anna-Marie’s house the next day to tell her his plan: she wants to attend NYU and he can attend Yeshiva University. They can have some privacy in the city and as long as Anna-Marie converts to Judaism, they can get married and stay in New York and won’t have to deal with censure from either community. When Anna-Marie hears the plan, she is aghast. She tells Hoodie that she’s only fifteen and isn’t wanting to make those kinds of plans yet. She also tells him that she doesn’t like him like that and was only spending time with him because her mother asked her to because she thought it would improve her image as mayor. Hoodie leaves devastated and spends the afternoon walking around in actual serious reflection.
Finally, hoping some food will improve his emotional state, Hoodie heads to the Abramowitz Market for a snack. Unfortunately, Anna-Marie is there too. As Hoodie crouches down to get out of Anna-Marie’s line of sight, a bullet shoots into the store and chaos ensues. Armed gunmen enter the store and start shooting everything and everyone in sight. This is a motivated antisemitic hate crime. Hoodie is able to get to Anna-Marie and break a window to get them both out of the store, however he and several others are shot in the process.
In the aftermath, many regard Hoodie as a hero and an image of Hoodie and Anna-Marie running from the store both bloodied and leaning on each other becomes a symbol of unity and acceptance across the country. However, many in Hoodie’s community still consider him to be under cherem and are not convinced that saving Anna-Marie absolves him. The Orthodox community is shaken in the aftermath of the antisemitic violence and the loss of several community members. Before shooting up the market, the gunmen had also murdered a police office and with the mayor’s daughter being a witness to the shootings, the entire Tregaron community feels the loss.
I really liked this book because it was so honest. It shows the horror of hate and antisemitism and how opening the door to this kind of hate, even by something small like putting up yard signs, encourages hate and violence to escalate out of control. However, Hoodie also realizes that some of the criticisms Anna-Marie tells him about the Orthodox Jewish community have some validity and by moving in, they are changing the flow of the Tregaron community (though of course this is not enough to be deserving of the hate and violence they receive in return). When the Orthodox community turns from Hoodie after his friends are attacked, he is very hurt and begins to think more critically about his community and their rules. He starts to question whether they are as perfect as he had always thought. A big part of coming of age is starting to look at your culture, your community, and your upbringing in a more critical way to see which of their values you want to carry into adulthood and which ones you wish to leave behind. Both Anna-Marie and Hoodie have to face that there are some aspects that they are happy to leave behind and others that they never want to give up.
I also liked that Hoodie and Anna-Marie seem to be realistic depictions of teenagers. They both want to do the right thing, but sometimes go about it the wrong way. They aren’t on the same page about their relationship and what it means. They are both flawed and at times short sighted, but they are trying to learn how to be good people.
I appreciated a further glimpse into the Orthodox Jewish culture and customs. I felt at home with the Rosen family and how loving and relatable they were. I thought this book was witty and profound and I thoroughly enjoyed Hoodie’s narration. It does a great job showcasing the teenage struggle of trying to decide who you will be, which is something that transcends culture and religion.