Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 87 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. 

Beretta / 93R

On a stack of rusting rifles in the first box lay a wooden box on a slant, and this was what was etched into it. Binyamin opened the cover and looked at the metal object there. What a shame he’d never had a real opportunity to examine this thing from up close. Maybe he’d had an opportunity, but not a real one.

A few years ago, which now felt like at least a thousand years, he had been a young fourteen-year-old boy who had successfully finished his studies in the preschool, and had also been through his stint working at the kennels. Finally, he’d reached his training period at the factory. The job he’d been assigned was errand boy for Max Sherer, who worked sewing the furs and finishing them. Binyamin had mainly made him tea and searched for his needles that kept falling on the floor. He’d also watched and asked questions, and when Max was in a good mood, he’d allowed the young Binyamin to practice on some damaged bits of fur.

Then, one day, when Max didn’t come and the other worker was busy on the other side of the factory, Binyamin had—of his own accord—sat down at the corner table, picked up a needle, and began to work. Miraculously, his gamble paid off, and on that day, Leo Sherer and Josef Wangel came for an inspection—and were impressed at the outcome of the boy’s efforts, despite his never having had any professional training.

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 86 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. 

Visiting hours for the public at the shivah house:

Morning between 6:00 and 7:00 am

Afternoon between 2:00 and 3:00 pm

Evening between 8:00 and 8:45 pm

It was only 6:30 in the evening, but Naomi ignored the sign on the door and knocked. It was the first time she’d ever knocked at this door—or had even approached it. It was the first time she was seeing the unusual door handle—an elongated tube made of gold-colored metal that was cool and smooth to the touch—which was very different from the round wooden knobs that the rest of them had on the doors of their little houses.

Did it make the Sherer family happy that this knob adorned the door of their home, or was the point just to indicate that their status was different from that of the other residents of this place? Naomi didn’t have time to think about that, because just then the door opened, and Eva stood there, staring at her. After a moment she said, “Yes?”

“Eva…” Naomi said. “I will come later in the evening to be menachem avel. But right now, I need to speak urgently with Suzy. Is that possible?”

“Yes,” Eva said and walked back into the house.

A moment later, Suzy came to the door. She blinked when she saw Naomi but then recovered quickly. “Is Dror okay?” she asked.

Israel Book Shop presents Chapter 85 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. 

Condolences on the passing of your loved one.

Hauptmann Katarina Wangel

Hauptmann Josef Wangel

Gefreiter Teresa Wangel

Gefreiter Helena Wangel

The note was accompanied by a red artificial flower that was passed from hand to hand among the people who had come to console the mourners.

“Who brought it here?” Yosef Posen asked. “They came themselves?”

“No,” Irwin, Leo’s son-in-law, replied. “Sol went to them after the funeral.”

“What for?” someone asked.

“Technical matters,” Irwin answered.