Rachel's Hope by Shelly Sanders

Rachel's Hope is the final installment in the Rachel trilogy that traces the journey of Rachel Paskar and her family who have fled the 1903 pogrom in Russian to Shanghai, China and are now in San Francisco. 

It is the winter of 1905 and sixteen-year-old Rachel, her sister Nucia and Nucia's husband Jacob, and the orphan Menahem arrived eight days ago in San Francisco. They have just been released from quarantine. Rachel and Nucia's mother and father are dead: her father murdered during the Kishinev pogrom in Russia while her mother died from from consumption in China. The four of them are searching for the lodging house the woman at the Eureka Benevolent Society had marked on the paper map.

A month later both Rachel and Nucia are working as maids at the Haas home on Franklin Street in the upscale neighbourhood of Pacific Heights.The Haas family were Bavarian Jewish immigrants who own a prosperous dry goods store. Although the Haas are Jewish they practice some American customs like Christmas and Easter. Nucia works as the upstairs-maid wearing a white uniform and meeting with the mistress of the house every day. Rachel however, works downstairs wearing a black uniform like the other maids. The Haas also have a Chinese servant, Wah who does their laundry.

After work Rachel and Nucia walk home to their boarding house on Sixth Street where they live in a second floor flat at the back of the house. They are met outside by Jacob and Menahem. Jacob announces that he has taken out a loan from the Hebrew Free Loan Association to start his own business as a vendor selling food from wholesalers to restaurants and shops. This upsets Nucia who believes his steady job at the Standard Shirt Factory is safer and she worries if his business fails. Rachel, however supports Jacob's plan believing that they should take risks to improve their lives.

Menahem attends Spring Valley School and struggles to be accepted. Rachel finally buys him some new clothes but they are much different that what he is used to wearing. Boys in America wear short pants with high socks, not the long pants Menahem is used to wearing in Russia. In a letter to Sergei, Rachel tells him that Gentiles live peacefully with Jews and that Jews can become prosperous in America. 

Rachel, Nucia, Jacob and Menahem begin to settle into life in San Francisco. They attend synagogue at Temple Sherith Israel along with Mr. Bloom and his wife Esther. The service is a Reform Sabbath and Rachel notes that it is very different from the services in Russia and China. They form a strong friendship with the Blooms who invite them over for Saturday dinner, and who often give Nucia leftover meat and fish from their kosher store. Rachel and Nucia also attend free English classes for new immigrants at the First Chinese Baptist Church. Rachel finds that she is beginning to understand English. Jacob with his job as a vendor also becomes proficient in English. In order to better fit in with his new classmates, Menahem decides to change his name to Marty. Rachel also begins taking high-school English and mathematics classes two nights a week. She hopes to obtain her high school diploma in three years. She hasn't given up on her dream of becoming a journalist.

In a remarkable twist, Rachel meets Anna Strunsky in the large bathhouse at the Sutro Baths located at Lands End. Anna is a Russian Jewish immigrant who came to America when she was nine-years-old and is now a journalist. She is planning to return to Russia later this year to cover women's stories for San Francisco Bulletin and California Women's Magazine. She wants to cover the worker's strikes. Rachel states that Russia is not safe for Jews as there have been riots and over five hundred Jews have been killed. And people in St. Petersburg are being shot by the Cossacks and police when they demonstrated for better working conditions. Anna believes she will be safe because she is an American reporter. Anna offers to help Rachel with her English, if she will help her relearn Russian. 

Rachel meets up with Anna at a cafe called Coppa. There, Anna shows Rachel some articles about the movement to free the Russian people. She tells Rachel that she has read about the terrible lives of the Russian peasants, about the factory workers' strikes and the massacres of Jews. Rachel explains how her father lost his life in the massacre that happened in her town of Kishinev and how it was instigated by the lies published by the newspaper editor in the village. She tells Anna, "I dream of being a writer, like you, to tell the truth and make sure people don't forget what happened to us." Rachel also tells Anna about Sergei Khazhenkov, who is fighting for the workers in Petersburg. Anna asks Rachel to write down details about him so that when she returns to Russia she can try to locate him. Rachel reveals that she cares for him but because he is Gentile they cannot be together.  Anna tells her that things are changing and that she is seeing someone who is not Jewish.

To help Rachel in her quest to become a journalist, Anna advises that she must read more. At the public library at City Hall she loads Rachel down with copies of Uncle Tom's Cabin, Wuthering Heights, Ten Days in A Madhouse, and Around The World In Eighty Days. Rachel has her letter about arriving in San Francisco published by the Jewish newspaper, Emanu-El complete with her full name. Rachel becomes interested in the women's suffrage movement after attending a meeting of the National Council of Jewish Women at Temple Emanu-El. With four hundred women in attendance, Rachel learns that men in California voted against suffrage because many women involved in the suffrage movement were also involved in the temperance movement and the men did not want to lose their right to drink alcohol. This leads Rachel to send an article to the Israel's Messenger in Shanghai for publication. While the Editor-in-Chief publishes her article which she wrote in Yiddish, he encourages her to focus on writing in English for American newspapers.

On April 18, Rachel, Marty, Jacob and Nuncia flee their flat in the early morning hours. As the buildings around them topple. they escape unscathed. They watch as the Wells Fargo Bank crumbles to the ground. The falling bricks from the dry goods store injure some and kill others. As they flee down the street, sunken in some places by several feet, they see twisted streetcars and watch as the broken gas lines, catch fire. Buildings along Market Street catch fire, one after another.  The smoke makes Marty cough and he beings to struggle to breathe.

In the morning Jacob learns that everything south of Market Street is gone including synagogues, the Haas Brothers store. Four days later, Rachel and her family visit their runined boarding house and decide to walk to Golden Gate Park where people are being assigned tents to live in. Rachel takes Marty to a hospital where he is diagnosed with asthma and is treated by the doctor. Rachel and Marty spend several weeks at Mr. Levison's home, to allow him to recuperate. There, Rachel helps Nathan Pearce care for his baby daughter, Ruthie, after his wife was killed in the earthquake. Although Rachel feels a growing attachment to Nathan, she decides to refuse his offer to work for him as a nurse for Ruthie and opts to return to Jacob and Nuncia who are still living in a tent. Back in Golden Gate Park, Rachel wonders if she will ever achieve her dream of becoming a journalist. The earthquake seems like such a setback for all her plans to finish her schooling and attend university.

During this time from 1905 into early 1906, Rachel's friend, Sergei has fled St. Petersburg after the deadly march on the Tsar's Winter Palace and has slipped onto a train to Moscow. He is a fugitive, a member of the secret revolutionary group, the Combat Organization, wanted in the murder the Interior Minister of Russia, Viacheslav von Plehve. He had supported the anti-Jew pogroms including the one that killed Rachel's father. When he's caught on the train after falling asleep, a stranger, Dimitri Kalyayev bribes the police officer, telling him Sergei is his son. Dimitri explains that he helped Sergei because he recognized him from the newspaper and he provides Sergei with directions to a safe house. 

The two storey wood house on Volgogradsku Prospekt belongs to the writer, Maxim Gorky. Shortly after he arrives, Boris Savinkov, the leader of the Combat Organization in Petersburg, and the architect of the von Plehve assassination, arrives. Gorky doesn't believe the tsar will give the Russian people more power or freedom. Sergei agrees to help distribute the newspaper Iskra to every factory in Moscow to encourge the workers to fight for better wages and working conditions.

Two weeks later, many Moscow factories are on strike: thirty thousand workers on strike demanding a democratic government and better working conditions. Food is scarce. Gorky wants to form a soviet council like that in Petersburg that is intent on "obtaining democracy for all Russian people." While Savinkov believes that the bombings and assassinations have helped their work towards democracry Sergei does not and neither does Gorky who believes "The pen is the mightiest weapon, much more powerful than any bomb." He believe words give people the courage to fight and so Gorky proposes they distribute leaflets.

On October thirtieth, the tsar signs an Imperial Manifesto supposedly "guaranteeing civil liberties for all Russian people  and legal power for the Duma."  but as Gorky suspects, the tsar has the power to veto legislation passed by the Duma and citizens can still be arrested for speaking out against the government.

Sergei is involved in getting dynamite for the Moscow revolution on December 5th. Savinkov organizes the securing of weapons while Gorky orders the distribution of signs to get more people involved. They build barricades across Tverskoi Boulevard. The intent is to block off all of Moscow's main streets from the Russian troops. Barricades are also being constructed on the circular street around the Kremlin. 

The revolution begins but Sergei is ordered back to Gorky's house. Despite controlling some areas, they have lost men so Savinkov tells Sergei they want to bomb the headquarters of the secret police (Okhrana). However, Sergei doesn't want to be involved in another bombing but he finally agrees to instruct the bombers, fifteen yea old Victor and sixteen year old Arkady. However, the bombing doesn't go as planned with one of the bombers, Viktor shot and killed. 

On December 17th, Sergei and more revolutionaries are at Krasnopresnenskaya Street with loaded rifles, facing a large number of government troops included the Semenovsky Regiment. Gorky gives a speech and then the fighting begins. For hours Sergei and the other revolutionaries fire at the soldiers. However, when the government begins shelling them Sergei and the others are forced to flee through the streets. Sergei is quickly captured and taken to Taganka Prison in Moscow. An elderly man in the prison who has been exiled before tells Sergei he will languish in prison on March and without a trial will be exiled. That is what happens: Sergei is exiled for five years to Chita in Siberia, thirty-eight hundred miles from Moscow. Will Sergei ever survive to leave Russia and find Rachel?

The question remains, will Rachel's hope to be reunited with Sergei come to pass and if so, do they have a chance at a future together?

Discussion

Rachel's Hope is a engaging and well-written conclusion to the Rachel Trilogy. In this third novel, Rachel and Sergei's stories are told beginning in the Winter of 1905 through to Winter of 1908. The author makes use of two alternating narratives, that of Rachel Paskar and Sergei Khazhenkov to describe the event of this period. In San Francisco in America it is a time of recovery from the devastating earthquake of 1906, while for those in Russia, it is a period of social and political upheaval that sees the seeds of revolution sown.

Life in San Francisco is described through the eyes of Rachel Paskar, a new immigrant and refugee from the Jewish pogroms in Russia. When she goes shopping at a store for Menahem and herself, she is treated with respect as a customer. However, she remembers what it was like in Russia, "The colorful fabrics reminded her of the thread store her mother had loved in Kishinev. Rachel recalled the last time she'd gone to that store for her mother, when the owner had called her "a stupid yid."

Rachel finds that that the Jewish community are less strict about their practice of Judaism than in Russia and China. In the Sherith Temple, Rachel is amazed at the opulence of the temple, a sign that in America one can show pride in being Jewish, something not possible in Russia. "In San Francisco, Jews could build grand buildings like Sherith Israel with its plush red-velvet seats, impressive organ, and bright stained-glass windows. Here, one could show pride in being Jewish."  She observers that men and women sit together instead of being segregated, and the rabbi tells them that married women do not have to cover their hair with a headscarf, both of which trouble Nuncia. Mrs. Bloom counters that she likes "...being able to choose how I want to be Jewish.". Mr. Bloom who is Jewish is selling both kosher and non-kosher food as even Jews are eating non-kosher foods. While Mr. and Mrs. Bloom support the loosening of restrictions, Nunia expresses concern. "These traditions are the only link we have to Russia...By holding onto them, we are keeping our memories alive." However, Rachel points out to Nucia just how different everyone looks and the different languages they hear on the street. "Don't you see how different people look from one another here?...You can dress however you like, speak in any language, practice any religion, be who you want to be here in America."

Rachel, Jacob and Nuncia struggle to understand why some immigrants want to change their names. Menahem announces that he wants to change his name and in fact is already going by "Marty". He tells his family that the teacher struggles with the name. Nuncia reminds Menahem that his parents gave him his name and it is the name of his grandfather but he isn't convinced. Mr. Bloom explains that many immigrants have long names that are difficult to pronounce and so it's not unusual for them to use a simpler name. 

She also finds that women have more opportunities in America than women in Russia, but still not as many as men. When Anna tells her about women in America working to get the right to vote, Rachel remarks, "Back in Russia I would have been happy with permission to go to university, or to travel without a note from my father."  Rachel finds school different in America where students can voice their own opinions. "In Russia, teachers spoke and students listened. Personal views didn't matter unless you were a grown man. To speak your mind as a student had not been acceptable."

When Rachel attends a meeting of the National Council of Jewish Women at Temple Emanu-El regarding women's rights, she notes that a meeting attended exclusively by women would never be allowed in Russia. And unlike Russia, Rachel can read whatever she wants, choosing books from the library that Anna Strunsky takes her to. It's important to note however, as Sanders writes in her Historical Note, that Jewish immigrants to San Francisco faced a much easier time than Jews in other American cities. "The broader integration of Jews into the host society is what set San Francisco apart from other major cities at the time, where Jews continued to exist in more ghetto-like conditions"

Rachel's Hope is a study in contrast between America and Russia in the early 1900's. While America is seen as a land where most immigrants had the opportunity to better their lives, Russia is being torn apart by rebellion and revolution as its people, most of them destitute, fight for basic rights. Workers in Russia are the lowest paid in Europe. There are demonstrations for better living conditions, better wages, safer working conditions in factories, and more say in the governance of the country. As the people struggle to obtain change, their peaceful demonstrations are met with force and violence. Sergei remembers the demonstration at the Winter Palace. "Just a few days earlier, he and thousands of other factory workers, women, and children had marched to the Winter Palace, the tsar's home in Petersburg, to protest for better working conditions, increased wages, and an end to the catastrophic Japanese-Russian war. It had been planned as a peaceful demonstration, but when they arrived, the Russian military opened fire, killing and injuring thousands of protestors."  As the government and the tsar resist any change, the people of Russia resort to bombings and assassinations. 

Sergei's description of life in Moscow is in marked contrast to the shops and restaurants in San Francisco. While Rachel experiences her first meal in a restaurant where she can choose what she wants to eat, life is very different in Moscow. Sergei notes: "...he moved past the closed-down shops with empty shelves...Food had been scarce since the railway workers' strike. Supplies couldn't get  into the city. Shops had been drained of food, clothing, and necessities. The lack of medicine forced the hospital to close." People are starving, among them Sergei notes, are many hungry children. Four days into the rebellion, Sergei observes the children in Moscow who are helping build barricades, how they do not have warm clothing. "Not one wore clothing suitable for the frigid winter air. The girls had threadbare, stained shawls around their shoulders. The boys had coats that were either too small with sleeves halfway up their forearms, or too large leaving space for the icy air to seep through."

His experiences in Russia change Sergei forever and in ways that eventually lead him to realize he can never be with Rachel.  His conscience is troubled because he was involved in the assassination of a government official. He witnesses the death of many people during the unsuccessful revolution. At Gorky's  house, Sergei is still haunted by the murder of von Plehve. "I will never be free from guilt, he thought as he wiped his brow. Even though I am not behind bars, guilt is suffocating me, destroying me from the inside." When he finally does escape Russia and makes his way to San Francisco, his reunion with Rachel is not what either of them were expecting.

In Russia Rachel and Sergei could not be together because he is Russian and Rachel is a Jew. But in America they still cannot be together but this time it is different. Sergei tells Rachel, "Much more divides us now...Too much has happened to me. Too much time has passed." He explains that he doesn't want to bring back memories of the past with his presence and that he does not fit into her world. Athough Rachel still believes he is the good person she knew in Kishinev, Sergei tells her, "You don't know that. You don't know anything about me. You don't know what I had to do to get here. You don't know the nightmares that keep me up at night, what I wish I could change about my past." Rachel and Sergei are a study in contrasts, Rachel a survivor who is thriving, Sergei a survivor but deeply scarred.

Despite the tragedy of Rachel and Sergei, the novel ends on a hopeful note. Rachel is moving forward with her dream of becoming a journalist by attending university and has met a man, Alexander who is in love with her.

A mark of good historical fiction is the ability of the author to develop the setting. Author Shelly Sanders' portrayal of life in both revolutionary Russia and early 20th century San Francisco feels authentic. The chcaracters are well crafted and included a few real-life characters of Maxim Gorky and Anna Strunsky. The author realistically portrays several historic events that occur in the novel: the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and the 1905 Russian Revolution. Readers are directed to Sanders' Historical Note at the back.

Although this trilogy was written over ten years ago, it is an important and timely work, considering the rise of anti-semitism in America, Canada and Europe. Highly recommended.

Book Details:

Rachel's Hope by Shelly Sanders

Second Story Press      2014

ebook

482 pp.

Rachel's Promise by Shelly Sanders

Rachel's Promise is the second book in Shelly Sander's historical fiction trilogy about a young Jewish girl in the early 20th century. The story is set against the backdrop of the Russian-Japanese war of 1904 to 1905. It follows Rachel Paskar, a Jew, and Sergei Khanzhenkov,  a Christian, as separately,  they leave their home town of Kishinev after the Jewish pogrom has destroyed the Jewish sector, leaving hundreds of Jewish people dead, homeless and without a means of livelihood.

Kishinev was established by Tsar Catherine II in 1791 in a region of Russia called the Jewish Pale of Settlement. The purpose of the town was to move all Jews in Russia to this area, "...to rid the rest of Russia from Jewish competition and influence."

The novel opens with Rachel, her sister Nucia and their mother Ita on their way to Shanghai, China via the Trans-Siberia Railway. Rachel's father was killed during the pogrom.  They are fleeing Kishinev, Russia hoping to eventually travel to America. At the urging of Sergei, Rachel and her family have taken seven-year-old Menahem with them from the Kishinev Orphanage. Rachel has made a promise to her Christian friend, Sergei to look after the homeless boy. They must travel by train to the very eastern border of Russia, to Vladivostok where they will catch a steamer to Shanghai.

Their journey by train takes two weeks and is mostly uneventful except for the frequent searches by the Cossacks who are soldiers who work for the Russian emperor, the Tsar. Rachel is filled with fear for the journey but she also misses Sergei whom she cares very much for. However, because he is Russian and not Jewish, any relationship between them is strictly forbidden. Rachel meets a young couple, Isaac and Shprintze, who are also traveling to Shanghai. When it comes time to buy tickets for passage to Shanghai, Rachel elicits the help of Shprintze and another young man to buy an extra ticket for her mother Ita who has been refused due to her health. 

On the journey to Shanghai, Ita is diagnosed with consumption and placed into quarantine on the ship. When they arrive in Shanghai, Rachel is told that her mother will remain in quarantine and if she does not improve, will be sent back to Russia. After being examined and fed, Rachel, Menahem, Isaac and Shprintze are told to go to the British Concession on the west side of the Huangpu River. There Rachel and Shprintze find work in a laundry on Bubbling Well Road, while Nucia works as a seamstress. One day Rachel walks down to the hospital by the harbour and is able to talk to a doctor who tells her that her mother is very ill, will not recover, but will not be sent back to Russia as she is too sick to travel. 

Five months into their stay at the hostel, Rachel learns that Shprintze is expecting a baby. While happy at this prospect, Shprintze also realizes that any money they have will go towards the doctor and the baby. Then Rachel discovers that Mr. Neb Ezra, publisher of the newspaper, Israel's Messenger has published her first article, although without crediting her. He writes her a letter attesting that she is the author of the article and pays her. At an evening meal, she notices that Nucia has been spending time with Jacob, a boy from a shtetl in Kiev. 

Shprintze gives birth to a daughter, Zelda with the assistance of Rachel and Dr. Goldszmit. After a week of rain, Rachel visits her mother in the hospital by sneaking in through the laundry chute. Her mother tells her she is ready for death, and four nights later, Ita passes away. The doctor kindly arranges for Rachel and Nucia's mother to be buried according to Jewish custom. Rachel authors a second article on the Russian-Japanese War and how Russian Jews are fighting for a country that doesn't want them. Mr. Ezra is impressed with her writing and publishes the article. Although her name is not attached, the payment is good.  

Then Nucia tells Rachel that Jacob has asked her to marry him and has accepted his offer. Because he has saved enough money for his and Nucia's passage to America, Nucia offers Rachel her savings so that they can travel to America together. Nucia and Jacob are married a week later by Suzhou Creek. By January 1, 1905, Rachel, Nucia, Jacob and Menahem have received their papers to travel to America and have booked passage on the S.S. Mongolia. They will travel to San Francisco. Rachel reveals to Nucia and Shprintze that she loves Sergei but they tell her it is best she is going to America. After four weeks in the steerage hold, they arrive in San Francisco. Rachel has kept her promise - to bring Menahem to America.

Meanwhile, Sergei is still in Russia but preparing to leave Kishinev and his family consisting of his mother and father and his eight-year-old sister, Natalya. His father, Aleksandr, had been Chief of Police until he lost his job after the pogrom. He is a drunkard who did nothing to help the Jews during the pogrom. He accuses Sergei of being a coward for leaving. As he leaves home, Sergei thinks back on the pogrom. It began because of stories printed in the anti-Jewish newspaper, Bessarabetz, which blamed Jews for the deaths of Christians. For three days the rioting continued, as the police were ordered by Viacheslav von Plehve, the Interior Minister in charge of the police in Russia, not to intervene. Sergei wants to get rid of Plehve, who he believes hates the Jewish people. 

On the train to Saint Petersburg, Sergei reminisces about how he first met Rachel, saving her from being beaten by Russian girls. He is impressed by the beauty of the city with its Summer Garden, the beautiful Neva River, the elegant hotels and "stunning cathedrals topped with golden onion-shaped domes...". But when Sergei tries to find a place to stay, the reality of his situation becomes apparent to him. He ends up in a dirty hostel and is soon robbed of all his money. Unable to support himself and find work, he lands a job in one of Saint Petersburg's many dirty factories where the work is dangerous. Sergei is forced, due to circumstances, to live in the factory barracks and losing most of his wages to pay for this.

Working in the Putilov factory testing the couplings for trains, Sergei witnesses the workers suffering terrible workplace accidents with no compensation from factory management. Sergei meets Lev, a twenty-one year old man who works next to him at the factory. Incensed at the terrible working conditions and the poor treatment of injured workers, Sergei learns from Lev about the Party of Socialist Revolutionaries, an organization working towards rights for Russian workers. The party organizes strikes and demonstrations outside factories to try to force the government to enact laws protecting workers and providing better wages.

At first Sergei decides against joining the party because it is anti-government and does not support the Tsar, whom Russians have been taught to love. The strikes are mostly ineffective; organizers are exiled to Siberia and strikers fired. However, in January 1904, Sergei's right hand is mangled in an accident at the factory. Despite being injured at work, he receives no pay. The injustice of his situation and that of the many injured workers makes him decide to participate in his first strike at the Ekaterinoslav factory. The strike is an eye-opener for Sergei, who witnesses the Cossacks intervening, whipping strikers, shooting and trampling them to death.

All of this leads to Sergei becoming more radicalized. When his injured right hand heals, he struggles to draw but one of the workers tells him, he can draw posters for the Revolutionary Party. On February 9, on a walk to the Winter Palace before work, Sergei realizes he has been in Petersburg for ten months but has saved no money for university. He is struck by the intense devotion of people who have gathered at the Palace for the Tsar who is leading his people into a war with Japan.

He has a chance encounter with Boris Savinkov, head of the Combat Organization known for assassinating government officials. Two weeks later, Sergei is eventually invited to a secret meeting and he joins the Combat Organization. He switches to the night shift at the factory pretending to be a newsboy during the day. Eventually the target for assassination is Interior Minister Viacheslav von Plehve who has imprisoned innocent people in the dungeons of Peter and Paul, and has encouraged the Kishinev and Gomel pogroms.   Dora, who will make a bomb from nitroglycerin warns that although this is the most effective way to assassinate him, there will be innocent casualties. This revelation makes Sergei nauseous. Although he wants Plehve dead for what he did to Rachel's family, he knows that his death will not bring him back nor restore the other victims. Although the assassination is successful, Sergei feels no triumph.  It is at this point that Sergei begins to question the path he has set out upon. But when he attempts to leave the Combat Organization, Savinkov refuses to allow him to do so. 

Eventually Sergei attends a meeting run by Father George Gapon who leads the  Assembly of Russian Workers which "defends workers rights through peaceful means." On a cold Sunday morning, January 22, 1905, Sergei joins Father Gapon and thousands of Russians on a peaceful march along Dvortsovaya Street to the Winter Palace. Father Gapon who is leading the procession carries with him a petition of one hundred fifty thousands names demanding better working conditions including a shorter work day and better wages, and an end to the Russian-Japanese War. Along with Sergei is his friend Pavel who believes that the Tsar doesn't know how bad things are for the working class. At the Narva Gate leading to the Winter Palace, a thick line of Cossack and Hussars suddenly began firing into the crowd. Pavel dies saving a woman and child and Sergei is shot in the arm but escapes.

When the Combat Organization is betrayed and Sergei's name is listed among those involved, he loses his job at the factory and is forced to flee into the forest to save his life. At the Vitebsk train station, Sergei jumps onto a train bound for Vladivostok. Sergei has enough money from drawing posters to bribe his way out of Russia to finally meet up with Rachel and Menahem in America. During all this time he has been writing to Rachel in China and he still desires to travel there and meet up with her and Menahem. But then he thinks about all those who have sacrificed so much to try to better conditions in Russia and he knows he needs to stay for now. Some day he will go to America, just not now. 

Discussion

Rachel's Promise was inspired by the author's maternal grandmother, Rachel Talan Geary and her sister Anna "Nucia" Rodkin who fled to Shanghai, China from Russia. In the early 1900's, Shanghai was a safe haven for many people but especially Jews who fled from pogroms in Russia. The story alternates between Rachel and Sergei's narratives, with the book broken into four parts Summer 1903, Fall 1903, Winter/Spring 1904 and Summer/Fall 1904. Although the novel is titled Rachel's Promise, the book is more about Sergei's life and struggles in Russia. 

This novel is well written and filled with interesting details about the hardships in Russia over a decade before the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. Sanders attention to historical detail is evident throughout the novel, especially in Sergei's narrative. For example, the plight of workers in Tsarist Russia is portrayed through the character of Sergei, as he becomes one of Russia's millions of working poor. He finds accommodation in a dirty hostel and is quickly robbed.  Sergei's experiences spotlight the plight of workers in Tsarist Russia. He is hired on by a metal works factory in Saint Petersburg where he is paid three hundred kopeks for working seventy-one hours a week but ends up with only sixty kopeks after paying the factory for a room and meals. The factory barracks are dirty and crowded. Sergei notes that he is only ",,, a few miles from the center of Petersburg, where lavish buildings and statues adorned streets and gardens." Even more disturbing is how this harsh life affects the men. Sergei meets a worker, Lev, whose hunched posture and lined face makes him look like he is thirty years old. He is shocked to learn Lev has been there for only five years and is only twenty-one-years old. Even worse is the plight of workers who if they survive, receive nothing for life altering injuries. Workers who organize strikes are exiled to Siberia and workers who strike are fired. 

There's plenty of information about historical events from the turn of the century that young readers may not know much about, in particular the Russian-Japanese War of 1904-05. For example, Sanders explains how Russia and Japan are fighting over Port Arthur, on the southern tip of Manchuria, which does not freeze over in the winter and is a vital harbor and therefore desired by both countries. The author also provides information on the massacre of workers and Russian citizens on "Bloody Sunday" in Saint Petersburg on January 22, 1905.

Life in Shanghai in the early 1900's is portrayed in Rachel's narrative. Shanghai is filled with Jews from Russia. She finds the smells and the heat and humidity overwhelming, the food strange. Life in Shanghai is difficult, and the work backbreakingly hard. However, Sanders does convey the sense of community that the Jews have in their little area.

Rachel and Nucia struggle with maintaining their Jewish identity. Nucia admonishes Rachel for writing a letter on the Sabbath. When Rachel notes that Nucia never complained about breaking many Sabbath customs while traveling to Shanghai, Nucia tells her, "...Writing is not necessary for survival. You need to observe the Sabbath, to pray that our lives will be filled with divine blessings." But Rachel tells her that she's tired of praying for things that never happen as it did not save their parents. "We have to make choices and do things that will improve our lives, instead of hoping for divine help that will  never come." However she tells Menahem that "Though it's hard for me to have faith all the time, I'm still proud to be a Jew."

Sanders has created well-rounded characters that keep her readers fully engaged. Many of the characters in the novel were real people: Edward Ezra. Father Gapon, Interior Minister Viacheslav von Plehve, Dora Brilliant and Boris Savinkov. Rachel is intelligent, determined and hard-working, a devoted daughter to their mother who is dying of consumption in a hospital in Shanghai. She stands up to Mr. Ezra who publishes her article in his newspaper without crediting her and perseveres to write articles that result in her making enough money to travel to America. 

Sergei is open minded, kind, and is accepting of his Jewish neighbours. The pogrom horrifies him. Like Rachel, he is hardworking and has a keen sense of justice to the point where he becomes motivated to work for change in his beloved Russia. This results in him repeatedly deferring his plans to leave Russia and meet up with Rachel. His extreme poverty suggests he likely never makes it out of Russia to America. Sergei's experiences demonstrate how Russia ends up on the path to revolution years later in 1917. 

Rounding out this wonderful novel, is a map at the front showing Rachel's journey to Shanghai, a Glossary as well as a detailed Historical Note. Highly recommended for those who enjoy historical fiction. The final book in the trilogy, Rachel's Hope will be published in 2014.

Book Details:
Rachel's Promise by Shelly Sanders
Toronto: Second Story Press   2013
273 pp.

Rachel's Secret by Shelly Sanders

It is 1903. Fourteen-year-old Rachel Paskhar is a Jewish girl who lives in the village of Kishinev with her father Gofshar, her mother Ita and her older sister Nucia. On this cold winter day, she is skating on the River Byk with  her friends, Chaia Berlatsky and Leah and their friends, Yoram and Meyer.  Rachel meets up with fourteen-year-old Mikhail Rybachenko when she trips over a branch. She doesn't want to skate with her friends who have been spending more time with their boyfriends than with her. 

Mikhail suggests that maybe Chaia is thinking of marriage but Rachel believes that is ridiculous as they are much too young to be considering marriage. However, Mikhail tells her that his mother was married at sixteen and his grandmother even earlier. Rachel responds that she wants to be a famous writer and marry someone she loves and only have she has travelled the world. As they continue to argue, suddently Mikhail pulls Rachel into an embrace and kisses her. This shocks Rachel who admonishes him.

They encounter fourteen-year-old Sergei Khanzhenkov who also likes Rachel and wants her to skate with him. However, Rachel is not interested. She remembers how they collided a few days earlier and Sergei caused her to drop a bag of flour. He made no offer to replace the flour. So when Rachel refuses to skate with him, he angrily leaves. Rachel and Mikhail continue to skate until Rachel's older sister, Nucia calls her to go home.

Meanwhile as Sergei  and Petya walk home together, they discuss their Jewish neighbours. Petya, whose father is mayor of Kishinev, relates how people complain to him about how crowded Kishinev is because of all the Jews coming to the town. Sergei wonders if Mikhail's father knows that he is interested in Rachel who is a Jew and he tells Petya that his father believes the Jews are taking all the jobs and that they will eventually control Kishinev. But Petya feels that the Jewish shops do good work. 

Sergei lives with his mother Tonia and father Aleksandr,  his Aunt Carlotta, and his younger sister, eight-year-old Natalya. His father is a police officer who expects Sergei to also soon become a police officer and marry. However, Sergei doesn't want this for himself and decides he needs to tell Mikhail that they must leave Kishinev sooner than planned. Meanwhile as Mikhail skates, he thinks back on the conversation he had with his grandfather earlier that day: how he wanted to attend university and travel, not begin working in the factory as his grandfather wanted. His grandfather wants him to work in his factory that processes tobacco but Mikhail believes he can find work in St. Petersburg. 

At the river's edge, Mikhail meets his Uncle Vasily and his cousin Philip. Some previous quarrel had resulted in Vasily and Philip not being welcome in Mikhail's grandfather's home. Vasily is drunk and quarrelsome, revealing that he lost his position at the factory. Mikhail is tripped by Philip resulting in him crashing to the ice and hitting his head. He offers to intervene with grandfather on Vasily's behalf but Vasily tells him that won't make a difference. If Mikhail is gone, then Vasily's father has no one but him to run the business. Mikhail pleads for his life but Vasily stabs him in the chest and repeatedly in the back, arms and legs, killing him.

Meanwhile, halfway home, Rachel realizes that she has left behind the new red shawl her mother made for her. She runs back to the river and locates it by the bench near a grove of trees. But while there she hears the familiar voice of Mikhail and peering through the trees she witnesses Mikhail's brutal murder by his uncle. Terrified, Rachel flees home, falling and dirtying her skirt. At home she is so distraught she can't eat and is consumed by guilt, wondering if her friendship with Mikhail was responsible for his murder. Nucia also reveals that Rachel was skating with Mikhail, resulting in her mother admonishing her for being seen with a gentile. 

At school the next day Sergei is puzzled by Mikhail's absence until a policeman reveals that blood was found on the ice of the River Byk and that Mikhail is missing. Sergei is questioned by the policeman but doesn't reveal that Mikhail was with Rachel. Later that night Sergei learns that Mikhail's body has been found far away in Dubossary. When he shows his father the next day where he last saw Mikhail and reveals that he was with Rachel, his father tells him to stay away from Rachel, that she is bad luck. Sergei questions his father as to why he and the other policemen are so focused on the Jews. As he is walking past the grove of trees, Sergei finds Rachel's red shawl that she was wearing the day she was skating with Mikhail. He quickly retrieves it, hiding it from his father. 

Rachel is so distressed over Mikhail's murder that she doesn't attend school for several days. Her father Gofsha, who works as a shoemaker's assistant, arrives home with the news about Mikhail's murder and how his body has been found in Dubossary. Her father questions her, and while Rachel desperately wants to tell him what she saw, she is afraid he won't believe her and that the police will know that she saw the murder. Gofsha tells Rachel's mother Ita, that they are not to go out alone and not beyond lower Kisinev where they live as there is talk that a Jew may be responsible for the murder.

At her school, the Jewish Gymnazyium, her friends Chaia and Leah reveal that their families will not be attending shul tomorrow because of the rumours being spread that Mikhail's murder was committed by a Jew for his blood. At Shabbos with her family and Mr. Talanksy and his son Sacha, Mr. Talansky tells Rachel's father that the gentile newspaper, Bessarabets is blaming Jews and calling them parasites. When news of Mikhail's murder spreads, the Russian community begins spreading the lie that Mikhail was the victim of a blood libel. Fed by anti-Jewish propaganda from the local newspaper, racial hatred ignites and seethes in the town of Kishinev. People have already been blaming the Jews for many things as the area has a history of prejudice against them.

One afternoon while Sergei is in Chuflinskii Square with his parents and Natalya, they witness a well-dressed Jewish family being harassed and beaten by Russian peasants. No one intervenes to help the family. Natalya tells Sergei that everyone including her friends and the teachers are talking about Mikhail's murder and the blood ritual. As the situation worsens, Rachel is harassed by a shopkeeper then attacked by a group of teenage girls who kick and punch her. She is rescued by Sergei who drives the girls away and offers to walk Rachel home. He apologizes to her for causing her to drop the bag of flour. Sergei asks her why the Jews are believed to commit "blood libel" and Rachel explains that when the bread they make for Passover, matzah is old or wet, a red mold develops. This is the source of the ugly rumour. Sergei also encourages Rachel in her determination to be a writer, telling her that his sister who is smart should have more choices.  As they begin to develop a friendship, Rachel finally confides in him about Mikhail's murder. Sergei attempts to tell his father what he knows about Mikhail's murder in the hope that the real culprits will be arrested and the Jewish community exonerated, but his father refuses to act until he hears from the Governor.

Nevertheless, the damage has already been done. Violence and hatred are unleashed against the Jewish community in Kishinev in the form of destroyed homes and businesses and the massacre of fifty one innocent people. Rachel must come to terms with the losses she suffers and Sergei must deal with the part his own father had in the violence against their Jewish neighbours.

Discussion

Rachel's Secret takes readers on a journey inside the 1903 pogrom of Kishinev, Russia. The book was inspired by the experiences author Shelly Sander's grandmother endured as a survivor of a pogrom in Russia. Many of the characters in the book are real people who lived through the events Sanders describes including Ita and Gofsha Paskar, Chaia and Hosea Berlatsky, Sergei's father Aleksandr Khanszenkov, Bishop Iakov and a few others. The novel describes events over the time frame of March to May of 1903.

The Kishinev pogrom was a real event that occurred in the town of Kishinev on Easter Sunday at noon,  April 19, 1903. Kishinev at this time was part of the Russian Empire, having been annexed from Moldava in 1818. About half the population of Kishinev were Jewish in the late 1800s. While Jews owned many businesses and factories, most Jews lived in poverty, attending their own schools, As mentioned in the novel, the Bessarabets, a Russian newspaper regularly published anti-semitic and inflammatory articles about the Jewish population. 

The pogrom was triggered not only by the anti-semitic propaganda published in the newspapers but also by the murder of Mikhail Rybachenko, a Ukrainian boy, in the town of Dubossary located north of Kishinev, and the suicide of a Jewish girl. The horror began at noon with the harrassment of Jews in Chuflinskii Square. As Sanders describes in her novel, many of the Christian homes and businesses had crosses chalked on them, or icons in the windows, protecting them from the mobs that began to roam looking for Jews. They descended upon the Jewish quarter, smashing windows, demolishing property, looting, raping and murdering. The local police stood by and watched as Jews were beaten, mutilated and murdered. The pogrom ended three days later with murder of thirty-four men and seven women, almost five hundred wounded and two thousand homeless. The local population was unrepentant over what had happened. And it would be repeated two years later in 1905.

In Rachel's Secret, Shelly Sanders has written a balanced fictional story based on the horrifying events of 1903. The Jewish community are shown as being peaceful and integrating as much as they are allowed into Russian society, speaking both Russian and Yiddish. The novel's three main characters, Rachel Paskar, Mikhail Rybachenko, Sergei Khanzhenkov are friends drawn into horrific events beyond their control. Rachel is a witness to the murder of Mikhail that sets in motion the pogrom of 1903. The pogrom is described through the eyes of Sergei, who watches the raging mob, while his father, chief of police does nothing.

The three main characters are well developed and believable even though one of them, Mikhail, has only a minor part in the story. They are realistic because like most teenagers in the 20th century, they want more than what tradition has to offer the young of a new century. Rachel wants to marry for love but only after she has travelled and become a writer. Sergei doesn't want to be a police officer but instead wishes to travel and become an artist. Mikhail also wishes to leave Kishinev to attend university rather than take over the family's tobacco business. 

Rachel is strong, sensible heroine who like all young people wishes for a better future. She is overwhelmed after witnessing the brutal murder of Mikhail, a boy she likes. Initially, Rachel questions if she is responsible for his murder. "Rachel feared that Mikhail's uncle had seen them together, that maybe she was partly to blame for the stabbing." She is haunted by these thoughts."Seeing Mikhail killed made Rachel wonder if their friendship was to blame, because he'd ventured outside his world and into hers, because he'd cared about her more than he should have." 

Rachel is also consumed by fear and guilt and she desperately wants to tell someone what she witnessed so the perpetrator can be brought to justice. But she knows this is not what will happen should she speak up. "She desperately wanted to tell her father what she'd seen but was afraid he wouldn't believe that a police officer was responsible. He might think she'd been mistaken, that it wasn't an officer at all, and insist on going to the police. Then the man who'd killed Mikhail would know she had seen him and come after her."   Later on Rachel writes in her diary accusing herself of cowardice and improper conduct. "If only I could have stopped Mikhail's uncle, she wrote in Yiddish. For as long as I live, I will regret my actions, my cowardice....I regret also my friendship with Mikhail. I see now that it was wrong, that people from two different worlds do not belong together." 

Eventually Rachel tells her sister, who advises her to keep this secret forever but as she comes to trust Sergei, she tells him as well. At the trial of Mikhail's killers, when it appears they may not face justice due to the lack of a witness, Rachel takes the courageous step of coming forward and giving her account of what she saw that winter day. "She could not bring Mikhail back, but at least she'd made sure the people responsible were punished. Truth had finally conquered evil." 

It is Rachel who takes the initiative and writes to her paternal grandparents, Bubbe and Zeyde asking them to help. They respond with much love and send Rachel and her family three train tickets to Vladivostok, encouraging them to travel to Shanghai and onto America. It is a life-changing choice, all due to Rachel's quick thinking.

Through the characters of Sergei, and some of the minor characters such as Father Petrov, Sanders shows that not all Russian Christians were so prejudiced towards the Jewish people. Sergei is smitten with Rachel, an attraction that is forbidden in both their cultures.  With Mikhail now gone, Sergei finds the courage to approach Rachel and to try to mitigate some of the harm directed towards her and her family. Unlike his fellow Orthodox Christians, Sergei is struggling with how his friends, family and the Christian community treat their Jewish neighbours. When he and his friends are skating for the first time on the river after Mikhail's murder, Sergei finds himself defending their Jewish neighbours. Both he and Petya find the stories of blood libel ridiculous, but their friends Nikolai and Theodore believe that there are too many Jews, and because they are so successful in their businesses, they should be driven out.  When his friends attack a Jewish woman and her two children, Sergei tries to talk them out of it and even attempts to have Petya help him stop the attack. However, when Petya refuses, Sergei runs off, "disgusted by his inability to help."

Sergei becomes very aware of the hypocrisy being shown by his fellow Christians. When he is given a gingerbread cross at the Fast Fair, Sergei notes that it tastes dry. "He stared at the cross and became queasy. This icon was the most sacred symbol of their faith. It represented all that was good and noble. Yet the talk about blood and killing Jews went against everything the icon stood for. " 

This leads him to try and stop the rioters in Rachel's courtyard and to help a young traumatized boy named Menahem. After the riots he continues to visit Menahem at the hospital and at the orphanage. And later, he confronts his father in front of the mayor and Governor von Raben for his prejudice and lack of action. Again and again he challenges people for their prejudice towards their Jewish neighbours ;the shopkeeper who sells him tobacco and even his own mother who doesn't understand the involvement of her husband, Sergei's father in the pogrom. Sergei transforms from the timid schoolboy into a courageous teenager, willing to call out evil when he encounters it and willing to help others.

As with Sergei, not all Christians participate in the brutality. Father Petrov attempts to stop the mob, explaining that "Jewish people don't eat any meat that has blood in it."  Sacha Berlatsky reveals to Rachel afterwards, that he and his father, along with other Jews, survived because a gentile family hid them in their home.

Rachel's Secret is a well written novel about a real event, the first pogrom of the 20th century. In that regard, the 1903 pogrom in Kisinev was harbinger of events to come in Russia and Eastern Europe. This novel should be required reading for middle grades to help young readers understand how prejudice grows and is often learned from misinformation, envy and lies. The author has included a Historical Note and a Glossary at the back. A map showing the location of Kishinev in 1903 Europe would have been very helpful for younger readers.

Book Details:

Rachel's Secret by Shelly Sanders
Toronto: Second Story Press 2012
245 pp.