Tamara and Her Desires

Tamara and Her Desires is a moving, poignant story of an epic love born from theprofound scars of second-generation Holocaust survivors.Tamara, the daughter of Hungarian concentration camp survivors, grows up in an Israelivillage in the 1950s and 1960s. Yet the blooming landscape cannot mask the scorchedearth inside her home: an abusive, hardened mother and a father perpetually lost in thehorrors of Auschwitz. Amid these shadows, Tamara navigates a magical childhood,evolving from a spirited tomboy into a young woman with an awakening sense ofidentity and sexuality that will alter the course of her life.Uri grows up on a kibbutz founded by Polish and Russian survivors, inheriting a heavylegacy of silence from parents who are incapable of warmth. He matures into a strikingSabra (native Israeli)—a gifted athlete and an elite military officer—who hides a deepabyss behind his disciplined exterior.When Tamara and Uri meet during their military service, they forge a connection thattranscends words. Recognizing a shared, desperate hunger for the love they weredenied, their souls entwine in a lifelong bond. Navigating tragedy, grief, and atumultuous quest for self-fulfillment, their enduring passion becomes their ultimatesanctuary.Tamara and Her Desires is a powerful exploration of a generation’s struggle to forge anew identity in an emerging nation, and the rare gift of finding oneself entirely withinanother. Unforgettable and deeply moving, this is a story that grips the heart andrefuses to let go. Eliezer (Lonka) Gotlib was born in the USSR in 1946 and immigrated to Israel in 1959,where he was raised on Kibbutz Lohamei HaGeta'ot ("the ghettoes' warriors"). Heserved for 24 years in the IDF Intelligence Corps, retiring as a Colonel and receiving theCorps' Prize for Creative Thinking. In his civilian career, he served as a corporatedirector in the financial sector and spent 15 years as a senior executive at IsraelRailways, spearheading major national infrastructure projects. A dedicated civicadvocate, he co-founded the public ethics organization Amitai and led it voluntarily for adecade. His anti-corruption efforts earned the association the President’s VolunteerCitation and won him a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010.