UNCOVERING MOM’S FASCINATING LIFE

When Marin County author Rina Z. Neiman’s late mother, the Israeli folk singer Shulamit Dubno Neiman, performed wearing Yemeni, Bedouin and Arabic garb in the 1960s and ’70s, it wasn’t an act of cultural appropriation. It was a demonstration of cultural identification with these bespoke, richly embroidered linen, cotton and polyester maxi dresses and pantsuits and the communities who produced them. Although Neiman was of Polish ancestry, each of the cultures that surrounded her in Israel became a part of the fabric that made up her own multicultural identity.

This is just one of the many interesting tidbits about her musically gifted and terribly stylish mother that Neiman includes in her debut book “Born Under Fire” (Zivia Books; 258 pages; $14.99). Neiman is a longtime San Francisco writer, event producer and PR professional for Bill Graham Presents, the San Francisco Symphony and Macy’s West.

In the historical novel, which Neiman will discuss in conversation with Sue Fishkoff, editor of J. the Jewish News of Northern California, at the Jewish Community Library of San Francisco on Sunday, Oct. 14, the author parallels the coming of age of her Jerusalem-born mother — who would go on to win a fellowship to the Manhattan School of Music, work at the first Israeli Consulate in New York City in the 1950s, represent Israel as a singer-guitarist in performances around the world and issue a 1972 folk album titled “Shulamith and the Two Guitars” — with the treacherous conflicts that culminated with the 1948 founding of the state of Israel.

Q: What inspired you to write “Born Under Fire”?

A: About six or seven years ago, I had put up a little website with the dresses that my mother collected — this big 30-piece collection of Yemenite and Bedouin dresses, pantsuits and children’s shirts and dresses — and this huge fan of Yemenite embroidery contacted me, wanting to do an article for a publication called Needle Art. I sent her a few pictures and started telling her more about my mother, and she said, “Oh, this is fascinating. I want to know about her for the article.” So I went and pulled out all the stuff from storage, and that’s when I started looking through all these papers, including a sketchbook my uncle illustrated and wrote about the trip they both took to the Galilee in 1947. Then (I) was getting very interested in this generation who were first defining what it was to be an Israeli and how that came to be. As I was looking through the stuff, I had this wonderful story about this trip, and I thought I’ll write about the trip and I’ll expand on each page.

Pamela Gentile S.F. writer Rina Z. Neiman’s book, “Born Under Fire,” was inspired by her late mother.