The Forbidden Daughter by Zipora Klein Jakob

Author:Zipora Klein Jakob
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2024-02-12T00:00:00+00:00

LAZAR GOLDBERG FLED FROM LITHUANIA AT THE END OF the war and settled in Texas with his wife, Toibeh, and three of his brothers. He became a wealthy merchant and a respected man in the local Jewish community. However, his status did not erase the memory of the dark days in the ghetto, the horrors of war, and the covenant he had made with his cousin and soul mate, Jonah. From a distance, he followed Elida’s fate. Through his brother Berke, he sent money to the Ruhin family and his assistance enabled them to travel to Poland. His brother-in-law Pinchas did everything necessary to supply the Ruhin family with all the necessary papers to get to Israel.

From far away, Lazar excitedly received the news of Elida’s arrival in Israel and planned to meet her. In a conversation with Toibeh, which lasted deep into the night, they decided that he would adopt Elida and bring her to the United States. To his sisters in Israel, he wrote:

Toibeh and I want to bring Jonah’s daughter to us, so that she will be our daughter. We have failed to bring children into the world, nor will we in the future. Inwardly, I always knew that the time would come when I would be able to fulfill my promise to Jonah. I’ve sat on the sidelines and let the poor girl suffer for too long. Now that the girl has managed to get out of Vilna, I will bring her to me, and she will be our daughter. Perhaps this will ease my conscience, even if only a little, for abandoning Jonah and Tzila there in the ghetto.

Lazar arrived in Israel in July 1957, intent on fulfilling his covenant with Jonah. His first meeting with Elida took place at Leah’s home. Elida was eager to meet him, but she was also anxious. She recognized him from the photographs—wavy hair gathered back, blue eyes, thick lips, and protruding teeth—and she knew he was the one who had helped bring her to Israel.

Lazar stood with tears in his eyes. He hugged her and sobbed, “Meidele, my girl. Where are you, Jonah? What happened to us? If you only knew. Jonah,” he whimpered. He sat down on a chair and held his head between his palms, his shoulders shaking with his sobs.

Elida stood in front of him, embarrassed. She could not comprehend how badly shaken this man was. She could not know that he was remembering Jonah carrying her in his arms and delivering the basket beyond the ghetto fence, his tear-streaked face hidden under a hat; the dark alleys; the smell of death. The words of his covenant with Jonah were etched in his memory: “If one of us does not survive, we will adopt the other’s children and raise them like our own. We will be their parents and will love them as if they were our own flesh and blood.”

In the days that followed, Lazar clung to Elida but did not share these dark memories with her.

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