Fic­tion

Stones Don’t Bear Wit­ness: A His­tor­i­cal Nov­el of the Kishinev Pogrom

Boris San­dler; Bar­nett Zumoff, trans.
  • Review
By – October 31, 2011

In April 1903, East­er time, in the Bessara­bia province of Rus­sia, the Kishinev Pogrom con­tin­ued for three days and left forty-nine Jews mur­dered, hun­dreds injured, and homes and busi­ness­es destroyed. It was a pre­lude to what the twen­ti­eth cen­tu­ry would bring. 

Russ­ian Jews lived in a pre­car­i­ous world, sat­u­rat­ed with hate,” where super­sti­tions, rumors, and mar­ket­place gos­sip replaced truth. The main sources of infor­ma­tion were the vir­u­lent­ly anti-Semit­ic news­pa­pers whose ban­ner head­lines con­stant­ly fed fear and hatred to the peas­ants and gov­ern­ment offi­cials. They fueled Russ­ian nation­al­is­tic fer­vor by blam­ing Jews for all of Russia’s ills. There are no heart­warm­ing Sholem Ale­ichem tales here.

The Dubossary inci­dent, in a vil­lage about twen­ty-five miles north of Kishinev, is the focus of the first por­tion of the book. A four­teen-year-old Chris­t­ian boy is mur­dered. Vil­lage life and prej­u­dices, fam­i­ly intrigue, cor­rupt offi­cials, and the infa­mous ages-old blood libel lie all con­spire to bring the sit­u­a­tion to the brink of a pogrom. Although the Jews are gen­er­al­ly blamed, some see through the lies and the inci­dent passes. 

But in Kishinev, the Dubossary furor, out­side agi­ta­tors, intim­i­da­tion, and an unre­spon­sive mil­i­tary do pro­duce a well-planned pogrom. The Zhids” are accused of tear­ing the Russ­ian world apart, and San­dler pro­vides the his­tor­i­cal back­ground and grip­ping eye­wit­ness accounts of the vic­tims and vic­tim­iz­ers. Nar­ra­tives of ter­ror, mur­der, and also resis­tance are relat­ed in relent­less detail. 

Boris San­dler, a writer, film­mak­er, and edi­tor, has writ­ten a his­tor­i­cal nov­el that could apt­ly be titled Anato­my of a Pogrom. San­dler expert­ly weaves a fas­ci­nat­ing, fac­tu­al, ana­lyt­i­cal, and human account of how and why this pogrom occurred where and when it did. Stones Don’t Bear Wit­ness presents the evi­dence and sce­nar­ios in a well-researched you are there” style that should sat­is­fy his­to­ri­ans and inter­est­ed read­ers alike.

Reni­ta Last is a mem­ber of the Nas­sau Region of Hadassah’s Exec­u­tive Board. She has coor­di­nat­ed the Film Forum Series for the Region and served as Pro­gram­ming and Health Coor­di­na­tors and as a mem­ber of the Advo­ca­cy Committee.

She has vol­un­teered as a docent at the Holo­caust Memo­r­i­al and Tol­er­ance Cen­ter of Nas­sau Coun­ty teach­ing the all- impor­tant lessons of the Holo­caust and tol­er­ance. A retired teacher of the Gift­ed and Tal­ent­ed, she loves par­tic­i­pat­ing in book clubs and writ­ing projects.

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