Tightrope: Six Centuries of a Jewish Dynasty

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Tightrope: Six Centuries of a Jewish Dynasty
    Michael Karpin  
ISBN: 978-0-470-17373-2

http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitl ... 73734.html

The 750-year epic tale of the extraordinary Backenroth family, this is at the same time an engaging, scrupulously researched narrative history of Jewish life since the Middle Ages. Throughout this time span, the Backenroths could be found at some of the most important events in Jewish history: the migration of their community from western to eastern Europe, the creation of the Hasidic movement, the birth of Zionism, and the loss of so many of their family during the Holocaust. As they struggle to survive, the Backenroths marry, find their fortune in oil, and spawn families with last names that are still widely known.

This sweeping family saga is shaped by real people -- talented and creative women and men swept by the dramatic tides of the history into distant regions and complex situations, where they were forced to display resourcefulness and courage in order to survive. Time and time again they slid from prosperity and opulence to profound poverty and distress, and time after time they managed to surmount crises by virtue of their personal abilities, their tenacious belief in their values, and family solidarity.

Chapter 1 Excerpt
http://media.wiley.com/product_data/exc ... 173734.pdf



TIGHTROPE

Transfer

Dawn breaks over the great plain north of the city of Kraków, Poland.
At the edge of the plain flows the Vistula River. A dirt road runs along its
bank. The morning mists rise, revealing two dozen wagons scattered on a
lush green meadow between the road and the river. Horses and mules graze,
while scores of adults and children mill around among them, preparing to
set out on their journey. It is early autumn in the year 1350, and these are
the members of the Backenroth clan. They began their trek the previous
winter from the land the Jews called Ashkenaz, known today as Germany. 1
Vigorous young men saddle the horses and the mules and harness them
to the wagons. Young women in long dark dresses bake bread in makeshift
field ovens and feed the fire with dry twigs. Three mothers sit separately,
nursing their babies. The older men gather around the venerable
Rabbi Elimeilech Backenroth (they usually pronounced his name using the
Ashkenazi accent — Eli mei lech — or abbreviated it to Meilech). He is the head
of the family, whose word is law; he is the final, indeed the only, arbiter. 2 Not
one action is taken during the trek without his being asked to determine
whether it is correct and desirable.

Before the wagon train moves out, a few women extinguish the embers of
the campfires. Men hurriedly load the baggage onto the carts. Someone calls
out to the children in Yiddish, " Gikh yetst, zum boyd arayngeyn! " ( Quickly
now, get onto the wagons! )3

The sunrise illuminates a striking panoramic scene: dozens of wagons
in a long train moving slowly eastward across the plain along a wide dirt
road. From the drivers ' seats, men urge the horses on. Behind them, on the
flat wagon beds, the women and the children are crowded together amid
the baggage. Taking up the rear is a band of young men carrying axes, with
daggers strapped to their waists. The men are bearded, long - haired, and
covered with the dust of the journey. On their heads are hats with huge
brims — not the three - cornered hats seen in depictions of Jews in Christian
religious paintings of the era, but the headgear of German peasants. Some
of the men have crude leather boots on their feet, but most have wrapped
their feet and calves in cloth leggings, which are bound tightly with cords.
On the far southeastern horizon the high ridges of the Carpathian mountain
chain gradually come into view. This is their destination.
The idyllic picture, painted in the gentle autumnal colors of the Polish
countryside, seems reminiscent of old photographs of early settlers in the
western United States. In truth, however, the reality is depressing, even
tragic, because the migration was caused by a cruel historical event. Members
of the Backenroth family have departed from their home of the last several
centuries, the land of Ashkenaz, to escape the horrors of the Black Death.
This monstrous epidemic of bubonic plague swept Western Europe in the
The path of the Backenroth clan on their journey east, 1350.

Years 1347 to 1351.

The Backenroths are making their way to Galicia, in
eastern Poland (today part of Ukraine).
This was the second great migration undertaken by the clan. The first
took place a thousand years earlier, after the failure of the Jewish rebellion
against the Roman Empire, during the first century, had compelled their
forefathers to abandon the land of Israel and go into exile. 4 Since that first
uprooting, Jews had always prayed facing the direction of Jerusalem, and
in every home they inhabited they always left one corner in one room
unpainted, as a reminder of their destroyed homeland.