The House of the Red Shield

A novel of the Jewish Enlightenment

By: Lizzi Wolf

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Length: 6 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

Frankfurt. London. Manchester. 1750-1800. The dawn of the Jewish Enlightenment . . .

The House of the Red Shield follows two generations of a family from the Frankfurt shtetl, swept up in cataclysmic changes brought about by the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment) that shook the rabbinic establishment to its core and questioned the very idea of what it means to be Jewish.

Mayer’s life goal is to become a Court Jew – financial advisor to the wealthiest Prince in the Holy Roman Empire. After five decades of banging his head against the castle wall, will he finally achieve his dream? Will it hurt if he breaks a mitzvah (religious law) here and there – in order to gain favor with the fickle Prince?

Prince William, a year older than Mayer and the father of twenty children by five different women, brings the Frankfurt merchant-banker into his inner circle of midnight confidantes, sharing with him the most intimate details of his personal life. But will he ever entrust Mayer to invest so much as a shtikel of his wealth?

Gutie, Mayer's wife and the mother of his ten children (5 boys and 5 girls) is a perfect Jewish hausfrau - observing all of the mitzvahs required by the Laws of Family Purity. She also secretly reads Haskala pamphlets – banned by the rabbis on pain of Excommunication (Yes! Jews had Excommunication back then!) – and dreams of opening a secular school.

Nathan, Mayer's 23-year-old son, is sent to London with half the family’s wealth and a single mission: Unlock the secret alchemy of turning money into more money. But none of his clever investment schemes are good enough for his father. Meanwhile, he’s drawn further and further into the delights of life as an assimilated Anglo-Jew.

The Berlin Head Rabbi has fled in the night - hoping to escape the pressures of his apostate flock, who refuse to obey the Laws of God. The London Head Rabbi is retiring early, fed up with struggling against the forces of assimilation among Anglo-Jews. How will Judaism adapt to this tectonic shift?

The author, who has a Ph.D. from University of Michigan, has based this novel on extensive reading of over 50 sources in order to depict the historical, cultural, social, and religious atmosphere of Jewish life in late-18th-century Germany and England. However, this is a work of imaginative fiction. All characters, situations, scenes, dialogue, etc. are not to be regarded as historic fact.

Excerpt:

For the first time in seven years, Mayer crossed the Mainz River bridge into the Free City of Frankfurt.
Upon passing through the southern gate, he was confronted by the Judensau – a brightly-colored mural that depicted a Jew licking scheisse from the arsehole of a giant hog.

He had forgotten how disconcerting the whole thing was. Beneath the belly of the sow – which stood twice the height of a man – three Jewish children suckled on its bloated teats. Another child nuzzled his face into her snout. A rabbi with a long beard and yarmulke oversaw this specious ritual with proud approbation. From the sky a horned Devil looked down upon the tableau with malicious glee. A banner emanating from his mouth bore the words: Drink it, Jew, drink its milk. Rabbi, eat its excrement!

Moving past this abomination onto the wharf, crowded with sailing vessels and river boats, Mayer breathed deeply the miasma of ocean-seasoned wood, hay-fed manure, and fermenting brewer’s yeast. The quays were piled . . .