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Comments (0)Israeli author Aharon Appelfeld, a Holocaust survivor now in his 70s, has written more than 20 works of fiction and non-fiction about World War II. “Laish,” his latest, takes the reader on an ill-fated odyssey through Eastern Europe before the war.
Laish is a 15-year-old orphan who joins a caravan of Jews as they meander through the countryside. They are on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, hoping to escape the religious persecution that has plagued their lives. The widowed, the orphaned, the elderly, the sick, devout rabbis, black-marketeers, murderers, thieves and adventure-seekers slowly make their way to the port city of Galacz, from which they hope to sail to Israel.
But the caravan’s journey is harrowing and it takes years. The story is told through Laish’s eyes, and he has never known a life other than the one spent in the caravan. After the pious rabbi who leads the pilgrimage dies, the leadership vacuum is filled by the black-marketeers, whose motives are far from pious, but who provide the money necessary to move to the next town.
As it pushes forward, the caravan experiences every misery imaginable, including a typhoid epidemic, a bitter winter, barbaric violence between members of the group and soul-crushing despair. Each successive stumbling block tests the surviving travelers’ physical endurance and their belief that they will finally arrive at their destination.
When, at last, the group arrives in Galacz, they are forced to commit a final act of barbarism in order to board the ship. Whether the travelers physically manage to make it onto that ship bound for Israel ultimately feels just as important as whether their souls will remain intact if they do.
“Laish” is beautifully written. It is a parable about Jewish survival in the most dire of circumstances and the faith in finding a permanent home that has sustained the community during those times.