Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 60 of a new online serial novel, Nine A.M., by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

1.5 marks – 500 grams sugar – March 23

2 marks – 250 grams fish – March 24

2 marks – 5 kg potatoes and carrots – March 24

1.5 marks – 200 grams white cheese – March 24

4 marks – 2 bottles cleaning soap – March 30

Total for payment: 10 marks

“The bill is really big already. Will you pay it now, Naomi?” The young cashier was really sweet, but Naomi knew that the payment had nothing to do with her. She had also spent a long time behind that counter.

“Is it alright if I wait two more days to pay, until we get our salaries?”

“I hope so,” Chaika Shmuelson replied as she rubbed her forehead. “I mean, if they don’t make an inspection tomorrow morning.”

“If they come, send someone to call me quickly from the preschool, and I’ll come to take the scolding.” If she’d even go to work tomorrow. Based on her headache right now, she had no idea whether she’d be up to doing anything tomorrow.

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 59 of a new online serial novel, Nine A.M., by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

A torn page flying around on the ground in the camp, near the Wangels’ garden:

I have no energy anymore,

But I have to earn enough.

It’s impossible for me to imagine life when we are destitute—like others here.

The little paper had the misfortune of getting stuck to the sole of Wangel’s left boot, as he entered the manor house’s garden from the direction of the camp. With repulsion, Wangel removed the stained paper that had stuck to his boot and crumpled it into a ball. After a minute, regretting it, he opened the paper and smoothed it out. He would find the one who had thrown trash on the ground!

But there was no name on the paper. It was a torn paper from a work hours report, and on the other side, there was Hungarian writing. Wangel wondered who he could ask to translate the words for him. Of course, Leo Sherer would be a good choice, but he might perceive it as belittling to be asked to translate two lines on a torn note. Maybe his younger daughter Eva could do it.

At that moment, his wife and two daughters entered the front gate of the manor house’s garden.

“Hi, Josef!”

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 58 of a new online serial novel, Nine A.M., by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

Yahadus notebook belonging to eleven-year old Surele, last page:

-Roizy, what happened to Morah Naomi? She’s not feeling well?

-I guess not. A minute ago, she got confused and said chametz instead of matzah.

-And at the beginning of the lesson, after she came back and was shaking and sat for a few minutes till she started to teach, she told us we’re waiting to go out to galus instead of to the Geulah. Did you notice?

– Sure. And it’s not like her to get confused twice in one lesson!

-Should we ask her what happened to her?

– You think that’s nice? Is it okay for us to ask?

-I don’t know, but I think we have to.

-Why do we have to?

-Because otherwise what we wrote here is just lashon hara, and if we ask her what happened it will be that we spoke lashon hara l’toeles.

“It’s not so simple to speak lashon hara l’toeles,” the voice of Morah Naomi said above them. The girls recoiled and then blushed. “You have to plan it ahead of time, before you talk, and there are a few conditions that must be met. But it’s fine, I forgive you. I see that you are really worried about me.”

“Do you feel okay?” Roizy asked timorously.

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 57 of a new online serial novel, Nine A.M., by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

Don’t do things hastily.

But sometimes that is better than not doing them at all!

Leo Sherer’s newsletter had a column featuring sayings that he himself wrote. No one knew from which bottomless pit Leo got all of his endless—and sometimes foolish—sayings, but some of them certainly had a source. And Babbe had said regarding this particular one, which had been published a few months earlier, that she was familiar with it in Polish; she’d heard it back when she was a girl in Lodz. She liked the saying and claimed it was wise.

Naomi gripped the phone, after her big declaration, knowing that this was an opportunity that was unlikely to repeat itself. But what was she going to say to the secretary at Hanter’s?

She claimed that she was Jewish. It sounded like a bad joke, as if someone had been sitting and waiting for her call, and had decided to make fun of her and drag her into a trap.

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 56 of a new online serial novel, Nine A.M., by Esther Rapaport. Check back for a new chapter every week.  Click here for previous chapters.

Copyright © Israel Bookshop Publications. 

Sign next to the soaking pools:

If it is not necessary for you to be here, do not stand in this area. Some of the materials are corrosive and harmful to your health!

David Elkovitz didn’t usually spend a lot of time around the smelly pool area. But now he was standing in for his father-in-law, whose fever had spiked the day before, to accompany Hauptmann Wangel on his routine inspection of the factory.

The cordless telephone was stuck in the pocket of the man’s brown uniform, and Elkovitz had a few ideas about how to get him to take the phone out of his pocket and put it down in a random place, so that he could forget about it for at least ten precious minutes.

The Nazi delicately pressed two fingers to his nose. “The substance in there doesn’t look clean,” he snapped. “When was the liquid last changed?”

“Yesterday, Herr Wangel,” said Pinchas, one of those in charge, as he nervously raked his fingers through his graying cowlick. “The color you are seeing is caused by the furs that are resting on the bottom of the pool.”

“And everything is as high-quality as usual,” Aryeh chimed in from the side. He was holding a large stick, and checking something in the depths of the pool.