Beloved Comrades

Tells of three generations in the life of a small (highly unorthodox) Orthodox American synagogue, revealing the alliances, grievances, and secrets pulsating beneath the seemingly mundane facade of institutional life. Through a series of pointed, highly charged encounters, the interlocking fates of its congregants and the interior life of the synagogue itself are explored. By looking at the same events from multiple perspectives, Yermiyahu Ahron Taub dramatizes how even the most seemingly minor incidents create long-lasting effects. In a tableau simultaneously epic and intimate, sweeping and focused, Taub reimagines the synagogue as a means to investigate themes of faith, work, immigration, sexuality, community, art, social justice, and, as the novel's title suggests, friendship and love. "... Graceful and hope-filled book. Let his characters welcome you into Haverim Ahuvim and share their lives. There's a seat waiting for you." -Hill Rag Magazine, "The Literary Hill", Karen Lyon, August 2020"****Probing, sensitive character development reveals strong relationships among the cast, whose members are understood in stages. The book moves from their public personas to more intimate revelations, all leading to legacies of hurt and shame. Strong, forthright writing shows how the synagogue's members are either blessed or restricted within it. Astute physical depictions help in understanding the natures of both the observed and their observers, as when a woman speaks of a potential suitor as being 'handsome, in a blurry kind of way.' Complex issues are introduced with intensity that's tempered by compassion, as when a young boy who's just discovering the pleasure of his forbidden attraction to his black, Muslim friend is discovered by a community member who keeps her knowledge secret. Synagogue members, aware that the boy is 'different' and cannot be 'fixed, ' pity him and his family while praying that their own sons will be spared his curse. Meanwhile, a first grader, Mindl, is called 'Mandy' by her non-Jewish teacher, the trauma of whose past blinds her to the importance of names within Mindl's community. This has a devastating effect on Mindl and her family, and is made worse when no one stands up for the child's right to her name. Each story is compelling. Though restrictions and loss have a major presence in many of them, there are also experiences of fulfillment and joy; the total effect is satisfying. The book's Aramaic, Hebrew, and Yiddish words are an authentic feature and are clarified in the glossary. Beloved Comrades is a sensitive novel about a religious community's relationships and its wide spectrum of dreams, hopes, and desires." -Foreword Reviews, Kristine Morris, May 12, 2020Yermiyahu Ahron Taub (www.yataub.net) is the author of the short story collection, Prodigal Children in the House of G-d (2018), winner of two CIPA EVVY Merit Awards and named a finalist for a Foreword INDIES Award. He is also the author of six books of poetry, including A Mouse Among Tottering Skyscrapers: Selected Yiddish Poems (2017). Taub was honored by the Museum of Jewish Heritage as one of New York's best emerging Jewish artists and has been nominated four times for a Pushcart Prize. With co-translator Ellen Cassedy, he is the recipient of the 2012 Yiddish Book Center Translation Prize and the 2014-2017 Modern Language Association's Fenia and Yaakov Leviant Memorial Prize in Yiddish Studies for Oedipus in Brooklyn and Other Stories by Blume Lempel (2016). Taub's poems and short stories have appeared in numerous publications. He lives in Washington, D. C