“And God took Job’s children, his cattle, his house, his health—but not his faith.”
Chapter 1: Mendel Singer’s Life in Zuchnow
The novel opens in the small Jewish village of Zuchnow in Imperial Russia, where Mendel Singer, a pious and humble Torah teacher, lives with his wife Deborah and their four children: Miriam, Jonas, Shemariah, and the youngest, Menuchim, who suffers from epilepsy and physical disabilities. Mendel’s life is simple but filled with hardship, particularly due to Menuchim’s condition, which the family sees as a divine punishment.
Chapter 2: The Decision to Emigrate
Deborah, desperate for a better life, convinces Mendel to emigrate to America with their healthy children, leaving Menuchim behind with a Christian family, as doctors claim he will never recover. The family settles in New York’s Lower East Side, where Mendel struggles to adapt to the secular, fast-paced life.
Chapter 3: Struggles in America
Miriam falls into a life of promiscuity, Jonas enlists in the army, and Shemariah abandons his Jewish roots, embracing American capitalism. Mendel, now a broken man, loses his faith as he receives news of Jonas’s death in World War I and Shemariah’s descent into corruption.
Chapter 4: The Return of Menuchim
Miraculously, Menuchim—now healed and a successful musician named Alexei Kossak—arrives in America. His return restores Mendel’s faith, symbolizing divine mercy. The novel ends with Mendel’s quiet reconciliation with God, though his worldly suffering remains unresolved.
Key Ideas
- The fragility of faith in the face of suffering
- The immigrant experience and cultural dislocation
- Parental love and sacrifice
- The tension between tradition and modernity
- Divine justice and human endurance
Who should read this book?
- Readers interested in Jewish literature and diaspora narratives
- Those exploring themes of faith and suffering
- Fans of early 20th-century European realism