The Next Pair Of Shoes
Also available at Judaica stores worldwide
The Next Pair of Shoes is the remarkable journey of young 22 year old Froyim in the early 1900s leaving behind poverty, fear, violence and pogroms to cross the Atlantic in search of a better life, unaware that new challenges await him on the other side. He also left behind the things most precious to him; his wife, young baby, aging parents, and his beloved town. Even before the train has left the station for the port, he is plagued by doubts, yet bound by the silent promise he made to his brother to join him abroad.
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This gripping historical novel is a carefully woven tale of filial love, spousal separation, sacrifice, bravery, and self-doubt. Follow Froyim on his journey from Lomazy, Poland to Buenos Aries where troubles seem to follow him. Will his next move to North America become his permanent residence or merely accentuate the clashes he feels in his heart? Will he be able to stave off hunger and depression or succumb to his new circumstances leaving his wife an agunah?
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The pain and struggle of separation is equally acute for his wife Fraidel Leah still living on increasingly dangerous East European shores with the hope that her beloved husband has not forgotten her while toiling alone in foreign lands to earn money for her passage. How does she, the sole breadwinner for her family, survive when war breaks out, living in a city surrounded by foreign soldiers and her home occupied, first with cruel Russians and then with ruthless Germans?
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When reunion finally seems close at hand, old memories derail it, until a relative comes up with a scheming plan to help Froyim win back his long-separated wife and child.
This story is but one, representing hundreds of thousands, like it; though the details vary from story to story, every family whose relatives came to the Americas, chasing freedom and safety, can relate to this heartfelt recounting of one such odyssey. This story will kindle in my readers a newfound appreciation for those who dared to cross the ocean to pave the way to secure a better future for their progeny and will leave them with a profound impression of the circumstances surrounding the lives of their ancestors.
Book Excerpts
Froyim and Yosef stood silent, gazing into each other’s eyes. They embraced with the desperation of not just brothers, but the same soul about to be rent in two.
“Promise me you’ll come to me,” pleaded Yosef.
Froyim was silent, his body limp, tears stinging his eyes. He nodded silently.
Lomazy was close to the border, and it was common for Russian troops to trek through the town, availing themselves of food or other items from the stores without paying. On one market day, a rifle banged on the table in front of Fraidel Leah. She jumped up and found herself face-to-face with a lone soldier with a scarred chin. He stared menacingly at Fraidel Leah as he circled their stall. He pointed to the rice and Didi handed him a satchel of rice with trembling hands. He grabbed it and sauntered away toward the road that led out of town, glancing back to glare at them once more, an unspoken threat glinting in his eyes.
The streetcar driver noticed his strange behavior.
“Where’re you going, lad?” he asked Froyim when they reached the last stop one afternoon.
“Nowhere.”
“Are you lost?”
“Lost in a country not my own.”
“Ah,” the driver nodded his head knowingly. “You and everyone else in this city.”
Dear Froyim,
I am writing to you as I promised. I arrived safely, Baruch Hashem. It was a long journey and the sea could go from calm to stormy before I could finish reciting the Shema. I admit I was scared when the winds whipped up and I was surrounded by the vast sea with no land or ships in sight. But Froyim, my brother, it was also an awesome sight to be sailing on this huge ocean that G-d created.
One morning while he was plowing the fields, Froyim’s donkey froze in its path and refused to keep going no matter how much Froyim urged him on. Then he understood why: he heard a low growl behind him and turned to see the sun glinting off of a pair of menacing eyes. He was being watched by a feral wolf. In the split second that it took Froyim to process what was happening, the wolf sprang at him.