Steve Stern’s latest book A Fool’s Kabbalah is based on a true if tragic story. In the aftermath of World War II, academic Dr Gershom Scholem, was sent by the Hebrew University to Europe to rescue any books and artefacts that have survived the Holocaust. In this book Scholem’s actual, almost picaresque quest is juxtaposed with the life of Menke Klepfisch, a classic Yiddish fool, who returns to his shtetl on the eve of the Second World War with warnings of a great conflagration to come that go unheeded.
A Fool’s Kabbalah is a tough read. Scholem’s journey through a ghost-ridden Europe to find the traces of lost communities is a tragic one. But it is a quest that is tinged with hope, particularly as his methods to save these items become more radical. Menke’s tale is the more tragic – documenting as it does the occupation of a small Polish town. Menke’s story chronicles the demonisation, degradation and then slow destruction of the Jewish community of the town by the occupying Nazi forces. Stern shows how Menke uses humour to deal with the tragedy, but even this ultimately cannot save him from the depredations of the Germans.
With anti-semitism on the rise globally, and with memory of the Holocaust fading or under threat, these stories are timely. And while both threads of this story are harrowing and tragic in their own way, they also demonstrate an indomitable spirit and it is important that they keep being told.
A Fool's Kabbalah by Steve Stern
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