THE BOOK FAIR
READ AND FULFILL YOUR LIFE
Joel Gross
THE LIVES
OF RACHEL
Author: Joel Gross
Published: 1984; 2011
Genre: Historical Fiction
Cover: E-Book
Pages: 304
Review:
The historical novel spans seventeen centuries, from 168 BCE to 1484 CE. The family matriarchs carry the name, Rachel, and also share ownership of their inheritance of family jewels. The novel begins with Rachel Kane visiting Jerusalem with her husband, in the 1980’s and quickly fades into the story of Rachel bat-Mordecai-ha-Cohen, in the year 168 BCE. A synopsis of each vignette follows.
Rachel lives in Modein, near Jerusalem. Saul, Rachel’s husband returns from a long trip abroad. Saul offers Rachel a gift; hair jewelry for her beautiful, red hair. The hairpin contains a ruby, the symbol for the tribe of Judah, Rachel’s tribe. Rachel, though an accomplished artisan jeweler, holds one true desire in life, to give her husband a healthy son. As the Assyrian Greeks rule the kingdom of Israel, King Antiochus IV, a barbarian, forces his pagan rites in the Temple. The Jews, unable to bear the sacrilege brought upon their nation, rise up and fight alongside the Maccabee brothers to rid their country of the pagan Greeks idolaters, and win their country’s freedom.
The descendants of Rachel’s brother, Shimon, appear during the Roman era of 63 BCE. Saul and Mira, along with their daughter Rachel and son David, are sold into slavery during the reign of Pompey. Amid harshness and cruelty, Rachel and David struggle to survive their Roman captors. Rachel, a jewelry artisan hopes her profession will save her.
Rachel, daughter of Ezra ben-Ahiav and Miriam, is born is 461 CE, outside of London. Rachel marries a pious man, Ambash, the love of her life. One evening, on his way home, Ambash is accosted and murdered by barbarians; Rachel is twenty-seven and childless.
The latter 700’s CE: Twenty-year old Rachel wears the necklace inherited from her great aunt. The necklace is fashioned from a diamond, a ruby and an emerald. Rachel uses the necklace in her powers for healing. Under Byzantine law, Jews and Christians are strictly separated, Jewish physicians, not allowed to treat non-Jewish patients. This does not prevent Rachel from tending to the poor.
1095 CE, The First Crusade: Twenty-seven year old, Rachel Barzillai lives in Mainz, Germany, with her only child, Deborah. Rachel awaits the return of her husband, Yosef, who two years before, ventured on a journey to locate trade routes for his shipping company; some rumors suggest his return, other rumors do not. Rachel, forced to sell off most of her wealth, refuses to sell the necklace she wears. She knows little of the necklace other than it was a gift to Rachel bat-Akiba, from her father, in Persia, some five centuries before.
The stories speak to the long history of the Jewish people and the difficulties of surviving anti-Semitism throughout the centuries.
THE BOOKS
OF RACHEL
Author: E.L. Doctorow
Published: 1979; 2010
Genre: Historical Fiction
Cover: E-Book
Pages: 448
Joel Gross continues the tapestry of the rich saga of Jewish history in Europe in his second book, “The Books of Rachel”, spanning the centuries from 1475 CE until 1979 CE. The detailed vis begin with Rachel Kane about to be married, but before the ceremony, she receives the family diamond of her inheritance, from her father. A synopsis of each vignette follows.
Zaragoza 1475: Judah Cuheno, a jeweler, purchases a diamond in the rough he plans to fashion for his sister Rachel. Upon return to his family in Zaragoza, Spain, he finds the town much changed, as the fear of the Inquisition took hold. His father, a renowned physician, Abraham Cuheno, and his cousin, Diego de Santangel, Chief Justice of the City, prove no match to the power of the Inquisitor. The family that thrived in Spain for eight hundred years is summarily murdered one by one.
Venice 1610: Rachel Cuheno defies her parents and meets her sister, Devorah, who lives the life of a courtesan, in the house of a wealthy Venetian, Pietro Bellini, a mean and ugly man. David Ha-Cohen, the wealthy son of a Jewish, Amsterdam businessman, comes to Venice to offer Bellini’s uncle, the Doge of Venice, a business proposal of great magnitude. The Christians lock the Jews in the ghetto by night and into subservient jobs by day. To avenge his people, David offers the dying city of Venice the deal of a lifetime, but only if Jews are included in the commerce.
Berlin 1753: Rachel Cohen, an unobservant eighteen year old and great disappointment to her father, is given in marriage to Philip Meier, a secular man in his forties; Philip Meier is Rachel’s choice. The marriage, though loveless, worked for the couple, as each carried out their own desires, until the arrival of Mordechai of Mir. Philip welcomed the young Mordechai, an honored Rabbi, a sage among men, into his home. The story comments on the Blood Libel.
Jerusalem 1852: Rachel Cohn, youngest child and only daughter of the wealthy Cohn family of Paris, leaves her parents a note telling them she has booked passage for Jerusalem. During her voyage, she meets an American, Rex, whom she befriends. Upon landing in Beirut, she is whisked from the ship to the house of the ruling governor where she meets, Avi, the handsome, Jewish dragoman.
Cambridge 1937: Rachel Kane, born in 1927, a self absorbed seventeen year old, fancies herself an artist and dresses like Marlene Dietric, until she meets her distant German cousin, nineteen year old, Wilfred Cohen. Wilfred visits England acting as the emissary for his father and the Jews of Germany, bringing a plea for help to his English cousins.
New York 1979:
Robert Kane joined the air force and later married a German refugee. The couple moved to New York, and had three children. Their youngest daughter, Rachel, marries in June, 1979 and awaits to receive her legacy, the Cuheno diamond.
The dark thread of anti-Semitism binds these stories together.