THE RABBI'S SUITCASE

Kehlmann presents a multi-generational historical novel based upon the migration of his Orthodox Jewish ancestors from Eastern Europe to Jerusalem and onward to New York.

In 1879, Rabbi Moshe Yitzchak Siev, who lives with his wife and children in the small town of Ariogala (in present day Lithuania), announces to his wife Shayna Sara that it is time for them to heed the religious and spiritual calling of Jerusalem and to breathe the sweet sacred air of the Jews’ ancestral home (“as children of Abraham, we’re going to follow in his footsteps, leave our home, our father’s home, and heed the Lord’s words”). A year later, despite the reluctance of his wife and offspring, Rabbi Siev leads his family out of Ariogala on a journey to the coast, where they embark on the Tikvah, a rusted steamship that will bring them to the Turkish-controlled Holy Land. So begins a long and arduous trip, including a year’s stay in Cyprus. During this period, the Siev’s eldest son, Yosef, only 11 years old when they begin their migration, meets Chana (Chanke) Rosen, the young girl who will one day win his heart. The immigrants finally arrive in Jerusalem in 1882, and in 1886, Yosef and Chana marry. (Many years later, the author will be born as their great-grandson.) Jerusalem is beset by poverty. Yosef studies for the Rabbinate and begins drafting samples of his talent for calligraphy. He travels to New York, hoping to sell his work, and while there becomes a naturalized American citizen. His granddaughter Zipora Siev (the author’s mother) will one day make New York her home. Kehlmann’s prose carries the hint of Sholem Aleichem’s charming linguistic lilt (although only a bit of his humor), and it is liberally peppered with Yiddish phrases. He tenderly captures the essence of Orthodox shtetl–style life—the customs, the superstitions, and the mannerisms. Zipora, the novel’s chief protagonist, struggles against the strict religious constraints of her Orthodox upbringing in a relatable way, and her love affair with the more cosmopolitan Reuven Borstein is depicted passionately (and very graphically) through his letters to Zipora from Paris.

A poignant, informative portrait of Jewish life under Turkish and British rule before Israeli statehood.