Cour­tesy of Ezra Choueke

1. Despite the dif­fi­cult rela­tion­ship between Lucie and her moth­er-in-law, they were able to do great things for their fam­i­ly. How did their dif­fi­cul­ties in work­ing side by side make Lucie a better/​more inde­pen­dent busi­ness­woman and at the same time pro­vide for a good home life?


2. After World War Two, how did Lucie use her Syr­i­an, deal-mak­ing men­tal­i­ty to pro­vide food and med­i­cine to the local pop­u­la­tion? In your opin­ion, did this raise any moral ques­tions? How did her out­ward appear­ance as a white female in Japan help in this situation?


3. In 1930’s Syr­ia there were many arranged mar­riages between old­er men and younger women, espe­cial­ly due to finan­cial cir­cum­stances. In this book, we take a look at some of the many dif­fi­cul­ties of these sit­u­a­tions. Are there any ben­e­fits in com­par­i­son to how peo­ple meet each oth­er today with regards to the con­ti­nu­ity of Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ties and fam­i­ly finan­cial strength?


4. Lucie had an uncon­ven­tion­al rela­tion­ship with her hus­band, par­tic­u­lar­ly com­pared to present val­ues. How did Ezra show his love and respect for her?


5. Did Lucie’s famil­iar­i­ty with the fam­i­ly busi­ness help Ezra in his old age? In the lat­er years of their lives, how did the big age gap between Ezra and Lucie help pro­vide for their family?


6. Dur­ing World War Two, how did the Japan­ese peo­ple and gov­ern­ment treat Jews in Kobe? Did this con­trast with their polit­i­cal alliance with Germany?


7. With regards to Kosher food, how did the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty of Kobe ben­e­fit from the influx of refugees from Europe in 1941?


8. What was the mis­un­der­stand­ing that almost result­ed in Lucie’s death at the end of World War Two in the vil­lage of Bunka­mu­ra? Can you see the point of view of both sides?


9. How did Lucie ben­e­fit from the Amer­i­can sol­diers appear­ing in the vil­lage at the con­clu­sion of World War 2? Did she make sure her Japan­ese neigh­bors ben­e­fit­ted as well? In the fol­low­ing months, did Lucie iden­ti­fy more with the Japan­ese police, Amer­i­can sol­diers, or want to stay out of the con­flict entirely?


10. Did Lucie’s abor­tion anger you? Was she jus­ti­fied due to the issues with lack of food, war, and the prob­lems with­in her fam­i­ly? How would her future have been affect­ed if Dr. Sakamo­to had agreed to her sec­ond request?


11. One of Lucie’s great per­son­al assets, in my opin­ion, was her almost com­plete indif­fer­ence to rejec­tion in busi­ness and her ulti­mate con­fi­dence in her­self. She kept try­ing until she suc­ceed­ed. Why is this instru­men­tal to evolve in busi­ness over decades and when seek­ing new mar­kets for goods?


12. I, Lucie’s grand­son, wrote the book togeth­er with her and we col­lab­o­rat­ed on all but the final draft. I did­n’t imag­ine myself in Lucie’s shoes and cre­ate a nar­ra­tive, I lis­tened to what she said and wrote down the sto­ries as she told them. Would this book have been bet­ter and more insight­ful had a grand­daugh­ter col­lab­o­rat­ed with her instead of a grand­son? Why or why not?


13. Fari­da, Lucie’s moth­er-in-law, was the third wife of a man who passed away after the birth of their first son. How do you believe this affect­ed her out­look on life? What if Fari­da’s first child had been a daugh­ter instead of a son? How would her life in Syr­ia have been dif­fer­ent? Do you believe these events and her cul­ture were reflect­ed in her personality?