THE ADVENTURES OF YADEL THE DREIDEL

A religious children’sfable that dramatizes the sweep of Jewish history.

Lazris’ novel centers on an enigmatic immortal named Yadel who travels to various places and time periods in a magical spinning dreidel. He visits Jewish families, offering toys and treats to children and telling talismanic stories from Jewish history that illuminate the intricacies of their culture. Yadel concentrates specifically on Hanukkah—which he claims to have invented—and in order to explain its significance, he tells a story from the year 65, involving two friends: a Roman named Clausius and a Jewish man named Simon. Clausius is a seeker, following his curiosity into all kinds of philosophies and religions, from atheism to Christianity and various cults of the Empire; by contrast, Simon is a devout adherent of his faith, which gives Lazris a perfect opportunity to deliver exposition about Judaism. Yadel’s narrative later moves to other points in Jewish history—to Lodz, Poland, in the 16th century, for example, and to the plight of Sephardic Jews in Spain. This narrative device effectively allows Lazris to comment at length on various events; in the Hanukkah story, for instance, he asks, “Why were the Jews suffering?...[B]ecause they were not following the laws and were becoming too Roman.” Yadel’s core, recurring message is made crystal clear for readers: “Hanukkah is a holiday warning us about the vile allure of zealots, of those who claim to be holier than thou, and who use God as an excuse to punish those they deem to be less pious than them.” The fact that his message is a pedagogical one gives the book a patronizing flavor at times. At the same time, though, Lazris manages to fill the proceedings with a good deal of narrative energy as the story proceeds.

A dense, atmospheric, and enthusiastic religious fantasy.