Rachel's Hope (24 page)

“Who were you with?” asked Rachel. “Where were you?”

“I was with another exile escaping across the rivers in Siberia.” He cupped his hands under the water, then cleansed his face. A thick, jagged scar stretched across the palm of his right hand.

“Does it still hurt?” She ran her finger lightly over his scar.

Sergei opened and closed his hand. “No. It just gets stiff in the cold.”

“Maybe you'll be able to draw again one day.”

“It's not because of my hand that I don't draw,” he said gruffly, pulling his hand away from her.

“Oh.” Rachel turned her head to hide her disappointment. A black salamander with a reddish-brown stripe scurried across a few leaves that had fallen to the ground.

“I thought…” Sergei began. “All I could think of was finding you. The whole time I was in exile, thoughts of you kept me going.”

“Me, too,” said Rachel. “When I got lonely in Shanghai, and after the earthquake that shattered our new lives here, I often thought of you.”

He jerked his head up and looked around, as if he was afraid of someone or something.

“You don't have to worry,” said Rachel. “People here don't care if Jews are friends with gentiles.”

“Much more divides us now,” said Sergei. “Too much has happened to me. Too much time has passed.” He touched her hair. “I hardly even recognized you.”

“We can get to know each other again. And what about your dream of being an architect? You could get a scholarship, go to school here.”

Sergei shook his head, stood and tossed a pebble into the creek. “I'm not ambitious and idealistic like you. America is not a perfect world. I can't go searching for impossible dreams. Besides, I need to find a job soon, so I can bring my mother and sister over.”

“How are they?”

“I don't know. I haven't been able to write to them for a couple of years. They probably think I'm dead.”

“You must write them.”

“Not until I can afford to send for them. Not until I can make promises I can keep.”

“You kept your promise to me and Marty.”

Sergei threw another stone. It bounced off a rock and plunged into the water. “Menahem, Marty, barely spoke to me. He looked at me like…like I was a freak. Maybe I am.”

“Don't say that. He remembers what you did for him. I know he does. It just might take him a little while to get to know you again. He was so young when he last saw you.”

“I don't want him to remember. If all that is gone from his mind, then he's better off. That's why I won't see him again. I don't want to stir things up for him—or for you.”

Sergei paced along the edge of the creek, back and forth like a restless fox. He turned his head left and right, constantly on alert, never letting his guard down.

Rachel watched him for a few minutes, with an uncomfortable heaviness in the pit of her stomach. “What about
me
? Do you want to see me again?”

He stopped pacing. “I don't fit into your world here.”

“That's not what I asked.”

“I'm happy I was able to find you. I'm relieved you're doing so well.”

“But?”

“But you know I can't see you again.”

“Why?”

“We're different now. You're a good person. You're going to be a great writer some day. You deserve happiness.”

“You're a good person, too.”

“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.”

“I'm a good listener.”

“I can't tell you what I've been through. I can't tell anyone.”

Rachel lowered her head and tried, in vain, to blink back tears.

Sergei sat beside her and turned her chin until her eyes met his. “I want you to remember me as the person I was in Kishinev. I want you to remember the good things about me.”

He kissed her gently on her cheek and was gone.

⚓ ⚓ ⚓

Rachel remained at Strawberry Creek for over an hour, weeping softly, mourning the loss of the Sergei she once knew. When all her tears dried up, she poured creek water over her face and got to her feet. Her legs were shaky as she headed back toward her boarding house.

Along the way, Rachel stopped and watched several shiny automobiles drive past. She remembered how she'd almost collided with an automobile the day they'd arrived in San Francisco. The city had seemed so strange and advanced. She'd felt lost. Overwhelmed. Now, so many automobiles navigated the streets, she didn't think twice about their sound or speed. The old world she knew in Russia had blended like flour and water with her new world in America.

As she walked across the street, her thoughts returned to Sergei. Would he ever be able to talk about what had happened, or would he keep the past locked up inside of him the way she still evaded questions about her past—the massacre in Kishinev.

No, she decided when she turned onto her street. Better to leave those memories behind and go forward with gratitude for her new life, her freedom, her future in America.
The past needs to be folded away like fine linen, to be brought out only on special occasions, when the time is right to remember people and events that have strengthened me and made me the person I am. There is no room for past regret, only for today's hope.

Rachel opened the door, looked straight ahead, and confidently marched inside.

Historical Note

Judaism is not a religion of the individual, but one that places us within the context of the Jewish people past, present, and future.

—Rabbi Larry Raphael, Congregation Sherith Israel, San Francisco, 2014

Between 1896 and 1906, six thousand Russian Jews fleeing pogroms arrived in the San Francisco area. These immigrants joined a well-established German Jewish population, who had an immediate disdain for the more observant, old world, Yiddish-speaking newcomers. The German Jews were afraid that the much poorer and less educated Jews from Russia would provoke anti-Semitism amongst Americans.

Russian Jews were encouraged to assimilate like the German Jews, who had a modern, American approach to Judaism. They celebrated Christmas and Easter, spoke in English instead of the language of their parents, and went to Reform synagogues where they prayed in English rather than in Hebrew. Anna Strunsky was an extreme example of the modern Jewish American woman, with her socialist beliefs, her feminist aspirations, her many published articles, and her trip to Russia to investigate the revolutionary activities.

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. This integration allowed San Francisco Jews like Adolph Sutro to prosper. The Sutro Baths were the largest in the world and featured life-sized copies of Greek and Roman statues on the grounds, seven swimming pools, 500 dressing rooms, and a two-acre roof made of 100,000 panes of glass. The Haas home, a Queen Anne Victorian mansion, still stands today at 2007 Franklin Street and is a museum, offering a valuable window into the lives of wealthy Jews in the early 1900s.

The San Francisco earthquake on April 18, 1906, left hundreds of thousands of people homeless, including the large Jewish population that lived south of Market Street. This earthquake is still considered to be the greatest natural disaster in the United States, and it altered the landscape of San Francisco. Refugee camps with tents were set up in Golden Gate Park and other parks within the city, and many of the wealthier Jews traveled to Oakland, which had sustained little damage. Fires burned for three days, more than 3,500 people died, and 25,000 buildings were destroyed on 490 blocks. For almost a year, people who'd lost their homes lived in tents and got their food from breadlines.

In Russia at the turn of the twentieth century, Moscow became a hotbed of dissension and revolution. The authorities ruled the city with a total disregard for human rights—political assemblies weren't allowed, students weren't permitted to walk together on Moscow streets, workers toiled away in horrible conditions for little pay, and one couldn't even throw a party without written permission from the police.

During the spring and summer of 1905, strikes brought Moscow to a halt. Barricades were erected in streets and the working people formed the first mass political proletarian organization in world history: The Soviets of Workers Duties. Russian author, Maxim Gorky, who grew up poor and abused by his grandfather, was sympathetic toward workers, publicly opposed the tsarist regime, and was arrested many times. He gave financial support to the Social Democratic Party, wrote articles for banned publications, and was involved in the 1905 Moscow insurrection. Bombs were, in fact, made in his basement.

On October 17, 1905, Tsar Nicholas signed an Imperial Manifesto that promised freedom of conscience, speech, and assembly. But he retained control of defense and foreign affairs, making this manifesto meaningless. This slight dilution of power was not what the people wanted. Reform was their goal, and their anger led to massive strikes with more than two million workers protesting the new manifesto. This led to the October uprising in Moscow, which lasted nine days. Several thousand armed workers were involved. They were eventually stopped by troops and sent to hard labor or exile. More than half a million people were exiled between 1900 and 1905, with women and children joining their husbands and fathers voluntarily, making up the largest portion. Of the criminals, less than half had a court trial. The death rate was 300 to 440 per 1000 exiles, with many children among the dead.

These events became the trigger for the 1917 Russian Revolution, which changed the world.

Glossary

Balalaika:
A Russian instrument with a triangular body and three strings

Bourgeois:
Middle class

Cossacks:
Russian soldiers belonging to a certain ethnic group. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the tsarist regime employed Cossacks to provide police services such as preventing pogroms and suppressing the revolutionary movement.

Droshky:
Two- or four-wheeled open carriage

Duma:
A government assembly created by the Russian tsar

Etape:
The shelter where exiles stayed overnight when being transported on long journeys

Kamera:
A prison cell in Russia

Kati:
Low-fitting felt boots worn by Russian exiles

Kirghis:
Russian nomads who live in Siberia

Kopeck:
A Russian coin. In 1704, Russia was the first country in the world to introduce a decimal system, where 1 kopeck is worth one-hundredth of a ruble

Kosher:
sanctioned or permitted by Jewish law

Matushka:
Mother or little mother in Russian

Okhrana:
Russian secret police

Pelmeni:
Russian dumpling filled with a mixture of ground beef, pork and onions

Pirozhki:
individual baked or fried buns stuffed with different fillings

Pogrom:
A Russian word for persecution or massacre

Priva:
Russian word for halt

Samovar:
An urn with a tap at the bottom for boiling water for tea

Shabes:
A Yiddish word for the Jewish Sabbath, the most important day of the week for Jews. It begins eighteen minutes before sunset on Friday and ends on Saturday night about forty-five minutes after sunset. For observant Jews, no work or active pursuits, such as writing or tearing paper, are allowed.

Shtetl:
A Yiddishh word for a small town with a significant Jewish population

Shul:
Another name for synagogue, where Jews worship and study

Socialist:
One who advocates public ownership of industries, resources, and transport

Suffrage:
The right to vote in a democracy

Tarantas:
Large, four-wheeled Russian carriage

Telegas:
A horse-drawn Russian cart, crudely built to carry loads of materials, not people

Troika:
A sled or carriage driven by three horses harnessed side by side in Russia

Tsar:
The Russian ruler until the revolution in 1917

Tsarist:
autocratic rule

Yarmulke:
A small skullcap worn by orthodox and conservative Jewish males

Acknowledgments

Rachel's Hope
marks the culmination of The Rachel Trilogy and an intense three-year journey for me. I am deeply indebted to my editor, Sarah Swartz, for pushing me to produce my very best writing. I have learned so much from her about structure and character development, lessons I will carry with me as I go forward. None of these books would have been possible without the support and dedication of Margie Wolfe and Second Story Press. Their confidence in me, and their unwavering passion for Rachel, Sergei, and historical fiction gives me hope for the future of books and reading.

I was fortunate to receive a substantial grant from the Canada Council for the Arts to research and write
Rachel's Hope
. This allowed me to travel to San Francisco to see places in my book that are largely unchanged since the early 1900s, such as the Haas home and Sherith Israel Synagogue. Seeing these places and walking the streets my characters walked gave me the details I needed to lift the setting off the pages and make it authentic.

I am thankful to have such supportive and patient family members who have put up with this sometimes-moody writer. To Amanda, Bethany, and Ian, for being first readers, and for reminding me of what's important on difficult days. A heartfelt thanks to Gayle Geary and Michael Lavigne for their guidance in San Francisco, as well as Howard Freedman, director of The Jewish Community Library, who reviewed the manuscript to ensure the depiction of early twentieth century San Francisco Jews was accurate. I'd like to thank Sue Fishkoff and Liz Harris, at
j. the Jewish news weekly of Northern
California, for letting me sift through original copies of the newspaper from 1905 to 1908. At this time, it was called
Emanu-El
. I am so grateful to Congregation Sherith Israel in San Francisco, especially Nancy Sheftl-Gomes and Rabbi Larry Raphael, for welcoming me and for giving me a tour of this stunning synagogue. A big thanks also to the Haas-Lilenthal House staff for giving me a tour when this museum was actually closed.

A number of books were important in researching this novel—
Cosmopolitans: A Social & Cultural History of the Jews of the San Francisco Bay Area
by Fred Rosenbaum;
Jewish San Francisco
by Edward Zerin;
The Promised Land
by Mary Antin;
Earthquake Exodus, 1906
by Richard Schwartz;
Siberia and the Exile System
by George Kennan;
My Childhood
by Maxim Gorky;
Mother
by Maxim Gorky.