The Secret of Redemption
A VERY IMPORTANT BOOK FOR OUR CURRENT MOMENT
Critics have called Jeffrey Gale's THE SECRET OF REDEMPTION an engaging and interesting book that inspires readers to confront uncomfortable truths about the consequences of prejudice, the burdens of history and the multifaceted influences of religious, racial and ethnic identity.

This intellectually rich book `of historical fiction deserves a wider readership because the book speaks to our current moment in both American and world history.

In the United States, we are facing a growing backlash against the importance of diversity and learning about people different from ourselves.

Since October 7, 2023 the world is facing the uncertain endgame about the tragic war
in Gaza and what appears to be an intractable conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

For Rabbi Levin and his daughter, the two main characters in the book, nothing is intractable. Rabbi Levin leads a reform synagogue in Northern Manhattan with a history of having many Holocaust survivors and is actively engaged with many other faiths to address community problems,

Bracha is studying history and Arabic at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and, like her father, seeks alliances and partnerships to address community problems.

There are many other fascinating individuals in the book, including Rabbi Levin's son, Greg. who is studying in Germany and visiting concentration camps, religious leaders of other faiths who are working with Levin on interfaith celebrations and solutions to community problems in Northern Manhattans, and the directors of schools and nonprofits in Israel who are modeling initiatives to bring Israelis, Palestinians and Israeli Arabs together to discuss their differences and share commonalities. Perhaps a sequel might center some of these individuals.

Against this backdrop, the thesis of the book is included in the title: "Forgetfulness leads to exile while remembrance is the secret of redemption".

Through the eyes and experiences of Rabbi Levin in Manhattan and Bracha in Jerusalem, readers are forces to confront the painful racial histories of the United States and the dueling narratives of Israelis and Palestinians.

Father and daughter love Israel and the Unites States, but do not accept the national mythologies as objective truth. However, readers will quickly learn that myths remain inspirational for making changes to improve the lives of people who are treated as second class citizens in the United States and Israel.

The experiences of Bracha and Rabbi Levin largely take place in 2013-4, beginning with a service on the anniversary of Kristallnacht in the first chapter.

Newspapers are covering controversies over immigration and racial tension in the United States, the continuing tensions over the growth of Israeli settlements and policing in the West Bank, and the prejudice against Arab Israelis.

This sets the stage for, in my view, the parts of the book that speak to American citizens as transition to 2025.

Rabbi Levin was a leader and participant in a small conference with other religious leaders, academics and community activists held at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory,

The agenda included many talks on the historical roots of our racial history, including slavery, Jim Crow and the displacement of indigenous Americans.

While this laboratory today employs leading scientists for cutting edge research that includes cell biology, cancer and neuroscience, many educated people know that this laboratory was a leader in the study of Eugenics in the early twentieth century. This fake science was supported by many famous Americans, including Theodore Roosevelt and leading foundations.

While Eugenics can serve good purposes, the research in this era justification sterilization laws in 28 states and, perhaps even more important, immigration restriction laws that discriminated against immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe whose citizens were considered an inferior "race," Yes, the Congress of the United States codifies into law a belief that immigrants from Northern and Western Europe were genetically superior to immigrants from South and Eastern Europe.

Unknow to many Americans is that Hitler and some of his staff were inspired by this Eugenics research the immigration restriction and Jim Crow laws.

To the credit of Gale, he delves into the history of race, including debates about how religious texts and multiple faiths claim a religious rational for prejudice against people of different races. faiths and ethnicities.

This history inspires Rabbi Levin to get involved in interfaith activities and to rent space to churches and schools from other faith backgrounds that was sometimes complicated by opposition from his congregation.

In another part of the world, Bracha is learning more about the different historical narratives about the Palestinian Israeli conflict that she never knew. She is in classes with Palestinians and professors who do not share the founding myth of Israel.

Bracha joins a Palestinian student to do a study of Arabs in Israeli textbooks that are, to no one;s surprise, largely negative. Of course, Israel does not even exist in some Palestinian textbooks. There have been similar studies of the negative portrayal of African Americans in American history textbooks.

Bracha's relatives in Israel present a defense of Israel that excuses any suffering by Palestinians as necessary, This creates a kind of cognitive dissonance that is in conflict with what she is learning in some of her classes and seeing with her own eyes. This includes the second class treatment of Israeli Arabs inside Israel and the more familiar news stories of policing in the West Bank.

The novel ends with the protagonists continuing to live a life of commitment to Tikkun Olam, the Hebrew phase for repairing the world.