Lisa Pearl Rosenbaum, A Day of Small Beginnings

A Day of Small Beginnings

Lisa Pearl Rosenbaum

Little, Brown, November 2006, $24.99

ISBN 0316014516

In 1906 Zokof, Poland, in 1906, Itzik Leiber intercedes in the assault of three small Jewish boys, but his intervention leads to the death of a peasant. Frightened, as protecting Jews is not an acceptable defense, Itzik hides in a Jewish cemetery. There the spirit and soul of Friedl Alterman, who died last year at eighty-three years old, enters the frightened lad. Friedl protects and guides Itzik as he flees his hometown, planning to vanish in Warsaw before he escapes to the United States.

Eighty-six years later, Itzik's son, recognized international law expert, Professor Nathan Linden, who anglicized his last name, has come to Poland as a guest of the government. Obsessed (by still protective Friedl), he detours from his itinerary to visit his father's hometown. There he meets the last Jew residing in Zokof, Rafael Bergson, who pleads with the agnostic Nathan to use prayer to release Friedl's soul so she can move on. However, he seems to make no progress, leaving it to his choreographer daughter Ellen to accomplish the deliverance.

Using a paranormal element to foster the link between the old and new world, and amid three generations of Jews, Lisa Pearl Rosenbaum tells a terrific tale of Jewish life, especially during the twentieth century mostly in America. The changes from Itzik to his granddaughter are astonishing, as she is so assimilated in American life, while he is a refugee with one major foot in Europe and a smaller toehold in the United States. Fans will appreciate this enjoyable, clever and insightful tale.