Jonathan Rabb's Among the Living

A shout out to friend and avid reader Pat Abosch for recommending that I introduce author Jonathan Rabb to my repertoire. A professor of literature, currently at Savannah College of Art and Design, Rabb may have gotten the idea for "Among the Living," which was first published in 2016, from the glorious Savannah campus where the student center was once the first major synagogue in the city.

From the 1700's the city of Savannah was a haven for a burgeoning Jewish population which separated itself into Reform and Conservative factions and never the twain should meet. This irony, the fact that religious groups who all ostensibly worship the same god, discriminate against each other is hardly lost on this recovering Catholic who tempted god mightily by daring to sneak into a Congregational church once during my inquisitive youth. Mr. Rabb addresses this and many other important themes in this beautifully written novel.



For Yitzhak Goldah, arriving in 1947 at the Savannah home of cousins he's never met, it's a question of surviving versus actually living. Among the well-heeled friends of the well-meaning Jeslers, Abe and Pearl, Yitzhak is an object of pity and discomfort. Recently released from a German prison camp, Yitzhak cringes each time someone offers him too much food, takes him shopping for new clothes, and studiously avoids speaking of the elephant in the room.

The Jeslers are shocked when Yitzhak declines to attend Sabbath services, unable to imagine that he might no longer be a believer. They advise that things will go "easier" for him if he has a more American name, deciding on Ike.As "Ike" tries to assimilate into Savannah society, working at Abe Jesler's shoe store, he marvels at the naivety of the American people, at their inability to remotely fathom what happened back in Poland and Germany. He finds he has more of an affinity for the black people who work in the Jesler's kitchen and in the back room of the store.

And then he meets Eva, a war widow with a young son, who sees in Ike a man, kind, interesting, smart, and not just a symbol of the Holocaust. As their relationship deepens we sense that Eva might be the person who can restore Ike to the land of the living unless a surprise arrival from his past and the power of survivor guilt intrude on his new life.

The Jim Crow south, the publishing industry, northern union influence on southern businesses, and cultural and religious identity are all part and parcel of this deeply affecting book from a master storyteller. I did not want it to end.