The Kishinev pogrom of Easter, 1903. It's over one
hundred years since that murderous assault on Jews occurred. Practically no one
knows of it, today, but at the time it was Cause célèbre and the
reason many Jews left their homeland of centuries to travel under severe
conditions. [Pictured is a cartoon from 1903 showing President Theodore
Roosevelt imploring the Russian Czar to end the meaningless support of attacks
on Jews.]
The reader is taken on one of the routes Jews used to
escape. The journey together ends as Meyer boards a ship for Canada. Ephraim is
missing and remains so for almost twenty years.
Meyer continues on to Canada. He works in Montreal for three
years while waiting for his wife and son. A second son is born in Montreal
after which they move to Saskatchewan. Because of his ability with various
languages, Meyer moves back east. During World War I he does limited work
behind enemy lines. As finances become tight and his job is not secure, Meyer
begins a new career rescuing Jews whose lives have been totally disturbed from
the aftermath of World War I. Upon successfully completing his mission, Meyer
returns to a relatively prosperous life until the Great Depression and World
War II where he again assists the Allied effort in defeating Germany.
This story is fictional. The places are not nor are some of
the details of incidents surrounding Meyer’s life.
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