A Jewish family explores their faith in Gale’s novel.

Patriarch Rabbi Levin, the head of the Rodef Tzedek synagogue in New York City, prepares for a Kristallnacht observance and, later, a seder. His son, Greg, is studying German and is visiting concentration camps in Germany while living in Berlin. Rabbi Levin’s daughter Bracha’s journey is explored in more detail as she studies Arabic in Israel and confronts the Israeli-Palestinian conflict head-on. There is not much of a conventional plot; the story simply observes the Levin family as they navigate the intersection of their faith with real-world issues, such as Bracha’s fight for the rights of Palestinians even as she is surrounded by advocates of Zionism and discussing nationalism with the friends she meets in Israel. Rabbi Levin oversees bat mitzvahs in Manhattan and attempts to get the synagogue involved in “social action projects.” Later, Rabbi Levin and his wife, Tova, travel to Israel to visit Bracha. The novel feels thoroughly researched, and the author makes a concerted effort to showcase the varying opinions regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. However, the author’s tendency to meticulously contextualize nearly every conversation between the characters with historical information and exposition often leads to dialogue that, while informative, reads as cluttered and unrealistic. For example, when Rabbi Levin is speaking to a friend, he says, “In 1954, in the landmark case of Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka, the Supreme Court ruled that separate was inherently unequal…Through white flight, red-lining, blockbusting, and gentrification, also known as urban renewal…” These are important issues to examine through fiction, but the execution could flow better and feel less like the characters are speaking in formal essays. Another (albeit smaller) problem is the shifting chronology, which can be a bit confusing. Despite these issues, Gale’s story is worthy and takes great pains to explore Judaism and Zionism in a comprehensive and honest way.

An engaging and exhaustive look at Zionism and Judaism through a fictional lens.

In Gale’s debut novel, an American-British rabbi works to support refuseniks in the 1980s.  

Even in its later decades, the Soviet Union was an extremely oppressive place for Jews to live. They were subjected to constant casual prejudice and systemic discrimination in employment and education and were forbidden to learn Hebrew or engage in any religious practices. Still, many engaged in those practices clandestinely and requested exit visas so they could immigrate to Israel or the West. Some families were permitted to leave, but most were refused. These refuseniks, as they came to be known, were not only denied the freedom to leave the country, but were often fired from their jobs, violently harassed, and even imprisoned. As Jewish communities in North America and Western Europe became conscious of the plight of their coreligionists, they began organizing to support them. Gale’s novel is essentially a vehicle to relate this specific history. In the early 1980s, Gale’s protagonist, Rabbi Levin—like Gale, an American-born Reform rabbi—is the leader of a congregation in the East End of London. Many members of the synagogue and broader community are active in working to support the refuseniks. Strategies range from “twinning” British Hebrew School students with Soviet peers so that the latter could be bar- or bat mitzvahed in absentia to writing letters to actually visiting the USSR to show support and deliver Jewish texts and ritual objects. Despite his hesitations, Levin feels called to join a mission to the Soviet Union—an experience which brings him and his congregants closer to their Soviet counterparts. The parts of the book about Levin’s own life are monotonous; readers do not need to know so much about the logistics of the character’s High Holiday services, for example. There is also little distinction between Levin’s personal dialogue and his sermons. On the other hand, the sections drawn from the real-life experiences of the refuseniks are nuanced, historically accurate, and often fascinating. Through Levin’s observations, readers will gain insight into the realities of religious persecution and the complexities of providing aid.

A sometimes-engaging polemical story rooted in the realities of authoritarianism and activism.