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The Last Dekrepitzer
WINNER NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD
The fiddler busking in the Columbus Circle subway station in 1965 is the Dekrepitzer Rebbe, the sole survivor of the obscure Dekrepitzer Hasidic sect known before the war for its rebbes' fiddling. The Last Dekrepitzer follows the life and spiritual quest of Shmuel Meir Lichtbencher a/k/a Sam Lightup, from his isolated shtetl in the mountains of southern Poland, where he is brought up to be the future rebbe, to the wharves in Naples, where he jams with Black soldiers waiting to ship home at the end of the war. Dressing him in the uniform and dog tags of an AWOL soldier, they smuggle him home to rural Mississippi. He lives for years among the Blacks, speaks Black English, preaches and plays the blues with the Brown Sugar Ramblers trio. His marriage to a Black woman, Lula Curtin, legal by Jewish law though forbidden under Mississippi law, results in a cross burning that forces them to flee to Manhattan. He plays on the streets of Harlem and Midtown with the Reverend Gary Davis, the great blind guitarist whose mission is saving souls for the next world. Shmuel Meir's devout wife, though she knows herself to be the Dekrepitzer Rebbitzen, is spurned by the Jewish community. Through it all, Shmuel Meir fiddles his prayers in defiance of God. But God gives the Dekrepitzer Rebbe no peace.
The fiddler busking in the Columbus Circle subway station in 1965 is the Dekrepitzer Rebbe, the sole survivor of the obscure Dekrepitzer Hasidic sect known before the war for its rebbes' fiddling. The Last Dekrepitzer follows the life and spiritual quest of Shmuel Meir Lichtbencher a/k/a Sam Lightup, from his isolated shtetl in the mountains of southern Poland, where he is brought up to be the future rebbe, to the wharves in Naples, where he jams with Black soldiers waiting to ship home at the end of the war. Dressing him in the uniform and dog tags of an AWOL soldier, they smuggle him home to rural Mississippi. He lives for years among the Blacks, speaks Black English, preaches and plays the blues with the Brown Sugar Ramblers trio. His marriage to a Black woman, Lula Curtin, legal by Jewish law though forbidden under Mississippi law, results in a cross burning that forces them to flee to Manhattan. He plays on the streets of Harlem and Midtown with the Reverend Gary Davis, the great blind guitarist whose mission is saving souls for the next world. Shmuel Meir's devout wife, though she knows herself to be the Dekrepitzer Rebbitzen, is spurned by the Jewish community. Through it all, Shmuel Meir fiddles his prayers in defiance of God. But God gives the Dekrepitzer Rebbe no peace.
266 pages, Hardcover
Published September 3, 2024
25 people are currently reading
255 people want to read
About the author
Howard Langer
2 books8 followersHoward Langer was born in New York and brought up on the west side of Manhattan. His father served on the U.S.S. Missouri and was present at the Japanese surrender in 1945. His mother taught reading in Spanish Harlem for over thirty years. Howard attended the City College of New York when its English faculty included, among others, William Gaddis and Joseph Heller. He obtained a teacher’s degree from the Greenberg Institute in Jerusalem where he had the opportunity to study under the poet, Yehuda Amichai, and the novelist, Aharon Appelfeld. He holds an M.A. in English from the University of Toronto, where he studied Shakespeare with the scholar-poet Sheldon Zitner, who first began publishing his remarkable books of poetry at age 75.
While Howard won awards for his fiction as an undergraduate, he ultimately attended law school at the University of Pennsylvania where he has taught for the last twenty years. His law practice has specialized in protecting the vulnerable and his most notable case involved a class action that recovered $200 million from a bank that had abetted fraudulent telemarketers who preyed on the poor and elderly. The case restored to the victims all that had been taken by the telemarketers. His pro bono work has been recognized by the Philadelphia Bar Association and Community Legal Services among others. His text on Antitrust law, The Competition Law of the United States, is currently in its fourth edition. He has published a number of short non-fiction pieces in recent years.
He began writing The Last Dekreptizer in 2021 after attending a zoom workshop by George Saunders sponsored by the Free Library of Philadelphia at the height of the Covid pandemic. Inspired by Saunders' presentation, Howard began writing the next morning what eventually morphed into the novel.
Howard and his wife live in Philadelphia. He has two adult sons.
While Howard won awards for his fiction as an undergraduate, he ultimately attended law school at the University of Pennsylvania where he has taught for the last twenty years. His law practice has specialized in protecting the vulnerable and his most notable case involved a class action that recovered $200 million from a bank that had abetted fraudulent telemarketers who preyed on the poor and elderly. The case restored to the victims all that had been taken by the telemarketers. His pro bono work has been recognized by the Philadelphia Bar Association and Community Legal Services among others. His text on Antitrust law, The Competition Law of the United States, is currently in its fourth edition. He has published a number of short non-fiction pieces in recent years.
He began writing The Last Dekreptizer in 2021 after attending a zoom workshop by George Saunders sponsored by the Free Library of Philadelphia at the height of the Covid pandemic. Inspired by Saunders' presentation, Howard began writing the next morning what eventually morphed into the novel.
Howard and his wife live in Philadelphia. He has two adult sons.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
July 22, 2025
In 1924 America slammed the door on immigrants from Eastern Europe and parts of the world other than Northern and Western Europe via the national origins quota, which was amended in 1952 but not fully lifted until 1965. So I thought Shmuel Meir Lichtbencher's 1945 entry into the country in this novel would have been a rarity. Not so, as AI tells me that President Truman signed a law that for a couple of years allowed entrance to displaced persons. Still, Shmuel Meir's entry was unusual: he was smuggled in by Black soldiers returning from Europe after the war in the place of a soldier who'd gone AWOL. He had no one left in Europe and nowhere else to go, so that's how he ended up in the Mississippi Delta with some of his newfound friends, and that's why the English he learned was Black English. Another theme of the book and a driving force of its story is Shmuel Meir's violin playing. After what he'd seen -- and lost -- in Europe, his only route to God, for whom he no longer had any words, was through music. This novel is the story of his finding his way back to God and to life in post-war America. I've read that the last wave of mostly Eastern European Jewish immigrants before 1924 came without America's racial mores and may have reacted a lot like Sam. Welcome to America, Shmuel Meir, also known as Sam Lightup, or just Sam Light.
My husband and I read this one out loud, and we both liked it, so that makes two thumbs up!
My husband and I read this one out loud, and we both liked it, so that makes two thumbs up!
December 19, 2024
The Last Dekrepitzer
This is a moving novel of loss, language, and music. Howard Langer has woven an almost magical tapestry that links the Holocaust, the pre-Civil Rights Era American South, and Harlem. The story of his protagonist – a fiddle-playing Holocaust survivor who makes his way from post-war Europe to Mississippi and finally to Harlem – is as unlikely as it is oddly believable. The author shows how music can provide both solace and hope (even if dim) of reconnecting the lost threads of a life and a people.
This is a moving novel of loss, language, and music. Howard Langer has woven an almost magical tapestry that links the Holocaust, the pre-Civil Rights Era American South, and Harlem. The story of his protagonist – a fiddle-playing Holocaust survivor who makes his way from post-war Europe to Mississippi and finally to Harlem – is as unlikely as it is oddly believable. The author shows how music can provide both solace and hope (even if dim) of reconnecting the lost threads of a life and a people.
January 10, 2025
Howard Langer’s The Last Dekrepitzer is a compelling and unusual novel that I highly recommend, particularly for readers interested in stories that explore identity, faith, and cross-cultural connections. The book traces the remarkable life of Rabbi Shmuel Meir Lichtbencher—known by several names, including Sam Lightup, Sam Light, and the Dekrepitzer Rebbe—from his childhood in a small Polish village, through the horrors of World War II, and ultimately to his life in America, spanning rural Mississippi, Manhattan, and a chicken farm in New Jersey.
Shmuel Meir is the last scion of the Dekrepitzer Rebbes, leaders of a small and obscure Hasidic dynasty in Poland. His world is shattered by the Holocaust, which wipes out his community in a brutal fashion. He survives only because he is rescued by African American GIs who smuggle him back to the United States at the end of the war. This bond with the Black soldiers introduces him to their community in rural Mississippi, where he is cared for and begins to rebuild his life. While the war strips Shmuel Mair of much of his faith, he retains a profound belief in God and develops a deep appreciation for the people who saved him.
One of the most striking aspects of the novel is Shmuel Mair’s violin. He plays a mixture of Hasidic melodies and Black gospel music, a symbolic merging of his two worlds. Notably, he plays his great-grandfather’s violin "backwards," holding it in his right hand and the bow in his left—an apt metaphor for his unique and unconventional journey. His music becomes a beacon as he performs across New York City, longing to reconnect with anyone who might have survived the destruction of his village.
The novel is particularly sensitive in its portrayal of the Black communities in rural Mississippi and New York City. Sam, as he is often called, finds solace, love, and a sense of belonging among these communities, seeing them as an extension of the family he lost. His relationship with Lula, a Black woman who converts to Judaism and becomes his wife, is tender and beautifully rendered, drawing parallels between the isolation and resilience of both their cultures.
While The Last Dekrepitzer doesn’t serve as a primer on Hasidism or Judaism, it offers a vivid window into life in mid-20th-century Mississippi and New York City. Langer’s descriptions of these settings are immersive and evocative, capturing the texture of the era and the intersections of race, religion, and music. The novel resonates with echoes of Michael Chabon’s masterpiece, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, blending historical fact and fiction in a similarly inventive way. It also outshines at times, The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store in its exploration of the deep, historical bonds between poor Black and Jewish communities of the mid-Twentieth Century.
The book’s strengths lie in its richly drawn characters and its exploration of identity through Sam’s multiple names. Each represents a different facet of his life and identity, shaped by trauma, resilience, and love. Langer also gives depth to Lula, portraying her as a woman of immense faith, love, and compassion. The novel’s portrayal of the street music scenes in New Orleans and New York City during the 1950s and 60s is particularly vivid; you can almost hear Sam’s violin blending with the rhythms of gospel and jazz in the subways and streets.
However, the novel has its flaws. As Langer’s debut, it occasionally suffers from uneven pacing, with some parts of Sam’s life detailed exhaustively while others are rushed or skipped. The narrative perspective can also be confusing, shifting between characters without clear transitions. Most notably, the ending is abrupt, lacking a proper climax or resolution.
Despite these shortcomings, The Last Dekrepitzer is a deeply moving and thought-provoking read. Langer’s ability to weave themes of music, faith, and cultural intersectionality makes this novel stand out. I look forward to his future works—perhaps a sequel exploring the life of Sam and Lula’s son, a Black Hasidic violinist navigating the complexities of New York City in the 1960s and 70s. Now that would be another story worth telling.
Highly recommended. The Last Dekrepitzer
Shmuel Meir is the last scion of the Dekrepitzer Rebbes, leaders of a small and obscure Hasidic dynasty in Poland. His world is shattered by the Holocaust, which wipes out his community in a brutal fashion. He survives only because he is rescued by African American GIs who smuggle him back to the United States at the end of the war. This bond with the Black soldiers introduces him to their community in rural Mississippi, where he is cared for and begins to rebuild his life. While the war strips Shmuel Mair of much of his faith, he retains a profound belief in God and develops a deep appreciation for the people who saved him.
One of the most striking aspects of the novel is Shmuel Mair’s violin. He plays a mixture of Hasidic melodies and Black gospel music, a symbolic merging of his two worlds. Notably, he plays his great-grandfather’s violin "backwards," holding it in his right hand and the bow in his left—an apt metaphor for his unique and unconventional journey. His music becomes a beacon as he performs across New York City, longing to reconnect with anyone who might have survived the destruction of his village.
The novel is particularly sensitive in its portrayal of the Black communities in rural Mississippi and New York City. Sam, as he is often called, finds solace, love, and a sense of belonging among these communities, seeing them as an extension of the family he lost. His relationship with Lula, a Black woman who converts to Judaism and becomes his wife, is tender and beautifully rendered, drawing parallels between the isolation and resilience of both their cultures.
While The Last Dekrepitzer doesn’t serve as a primer on Hasidism or Judaism, it offers a vivid window into life in mid-20th-century Mississippi and New York City. Langer’s descriptions of these settings are immersive and evocative, capturing the texture of the era and the intersections of race, religion, and music. The novel resonates with echoes of Michael Chabon’s masterpiece, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, blending historical fact and fiction in a similarly inventive way. It also outshines at times, The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store in its exploration of the deep, historical bonds between poor Black and Jewish communities of the mid-Twentieth Century.
The book’s strengths lie in its richly drawn characters and its exploration of identity through Sam’s multiple names. Each represents a different facet of his life and identity, shaped by trauma, resilience, and love. Langer also gives depth to Lula, portraying her as a woman of immense faith, love, and compassion. The novel’s portrayal of the street music scenes in New Orleans and New York City during the 1950s and 60s is particularly vivid; you can almost hear Sam’s violin blending with the rhythms of gospel and jazz in the subways and streets.
However, the novel has its flaws. As Langer’s debut, it occasionally suffers from uneven pacing, with some parts of Sam’s life detailed exhaustively while others are rushed or skipped. The narrative perspective can also be confusing, shifting between characters without clear transitions. Most notably, the ending is abrupt, lacking a proper climax or resolution.
Despite these shortcomings, The Last Dekrepitzer is a deeply moving and thought-provoking read. Langer’s ability to weave themes of music, faith, and cultural intersectionality makes this novel stand out. I look forward to his future works—perhaps a sequel exploring the life of Sam and Lula’s son, a Black Hasidic violinist navigating the complexities of New York City in the 1960s and 70s. Now that would be another story worth telling.
Highly recommended. The Last Dekrepitzer
December 30, 2024
The Last Dekrepitzer
It is hard enough to understand the culture one lives in. It is terribly hard to understand the depths of two different cultures. It is almost impossible to tie two cultures together. In his remarkable novel Howard Langer ties Jewish and Black culture, past and present into a deep and yet easy to read novel. He writes about people of belief, who have every reason to lose faith, but keep on believing because there is no better alternative in our broken world. In a way, this book reminds us of the affinity that should be between Blacks and Jews since both peoples know what slavery means.
This is also a book about language and what it means to be human, about a world which is so broken and terrifying that words become useless. What is there to say after a lynching of a Black man or the lynching of Six Millon? Do we have words for God, or does he have words for us? The Gospels and the Blues and the Jewish Hasidic tunes are essential to us humans because only they can comfort us. It is like the Shofar Jews blow on the high holy days. The voice of the Shofar is what we hear when words can no longer express our anguish with words.
This is a warm humane book, about people and love and rebuilding and the endless possibilities which are possible when people manage to stay human. It is a book for people of faith and for people who are struggling to find meaning in a world which has too much suffering.
Jeremy Stavisky
It is hard enough to understand the culture one lives in. It is terribly hard to understand the depths of two different cultures. It is almost impossible to tie two cultures together. In his remarkable novel Howard Langer ties Jewish and Black culture, past and present into a deep and yet easy to read novel. He writes about people of belief, who have every reason to lose faith, but keep on believing because there is no better alternative in our broken world. In a way, this book reminds us of the affinity that should be between Blacks and Jews since both peoples know what slavery means.
This is also a book about language and what it means to be human, about a world which is so broken and terrifying that words become useless. What is there to say after a lynching of a Black man or the lynching of Six Millon? Do we have words for God, or does he have words for us? The Gospels and the Blues and the Jewish Hasidic tunes are essential to us humans because only they can comfort us. It is like the Shofar Jews blow on the high holy days. The voice of the Shofar is what we hear when words can no longer express our anguish with words.
This is a warm humane book, about people and love and rebuilding and the endless possibilities which are possible when people manage to stay human. It is a book for people of faith and for people who are struggling to find meaning in a world which has too much suffering.
Jeremy Stavisky
August 3, 2025
A fascinating story that was both simple and complex at the same time. As a story it takes place in the mid-twentieth century starting in Europe and moving to the United States. It is at its heart, a story of the holocaust and the annihilation of over six million Jewish people. The Nazi war crimes figure prominently in the story, though they are not the focus but more the context.
It is a complicated story in that it features the rebbe from Dekrepitzer, a small Polish shtetl of hassidic Jews, who must come to terms with the horrendous impact the war had on his personal life and consequently his relationship with God. For Rebbe Shmuel Meir Lichtbencher, a prodigious religious scholar and extraordinary fiddler whose sacred music are his heartfelt prayers to the Almighty, the war will take everything from him but his life.
His story was not unique. Millions of lives across Russia and Europe were upended, destroyed and ultimately lost to the brutality and cruelty of the Nazi regime. As it so happened, even this tiny sect of religious Jews living deep in the mountains and forests of Poland could not escape Hitler's reach. But it wasn't the Germans that snatched the rebbe from his flock, it was the Russians, in particular one officer who had heard of the amazing fiddling of the young rabbi.
Much of the story takes place in the United States after Shmuel is secreted away on a military transport ship at the end of the war by a group of black soldiers going home to Mississippi. It is within this loving community that Shmuel must begin to make sense of his life, of everything he has lost, and most importantly for a rabbi, his relationship with God.
It is a lovely story of loss, of resilience, of reinvention. A surprisingly simple story with complicated undertones. A man who knows hardly anything of the outside world, who can not speak or read English, who has no life experience other than being the religious leader of his small sect of European Jews, finds himself living in yet another version of systemic racism: the cruelty and brutality of the KKK in the deep south.
Shmuel himself asks for nothing, expects nothing, especially from God after what he has witnessed in the war; yet in spite of his broken heart remains firm in his belief that God exists. The war may have taken away the words to his prayers, but words mean nothing anymore to this man cast adrift in an unfamiliar world. It is all in the music pouring out of his heart where he speaks directly to God.
A rebbe without a flock, a man whose fiddling—the soul-wrenching anguish and sadness and anger coming straight from his heart—is the deeper part of the story. It is a beautiful story of unfathomable faith. Of the necessity of community and the willingness to accept help from others. Of how grace can reveal itself in the form of people who come into our lives when we need them. First in Mississippi and then in New York city, grace comes to Shmuel through all the extraordinary people who open their hearts and home to him.
It is a complicated story in that it features the rebbe from Dekrepitzer, a small Polish shtetl of hassidic Jews, who must come to terms with the horrendous impact the war had on his personal life and consequently his relationship with God. For Rebbe Shmuel Meir Lichtbencher, a prodigious religious scholar and extraordinary fiddler whose sacred music are his heartfelt prayers to the Almighty, the war will take everything from him but his life.
His story was not unique. Millions of lives across Russia and Europe were upended, destroyed and ultimately lost to the brutality and cruelty of the Nazi regime. As it so happened, even this tiny sect of religious Jews living deep in the mountains and forests of Poland could not escape Hitler's reach. But it wasn't the Germans that snatched the rebbe from his flock, it was the Russians, in particular one officer who had heard of the amazing fiddling of the young rabbi.
Much of the story takes place in the United States after Shmuel is secreted away on a military transport ship at the end of the war by a group of black soldiers going home to Mississippi. It is within this loving community that Shmuel must begin to make sense of his life, of everything he has lost, and most importantly for a rabbi, his relationship with God.
It is a lovely story of loss, of resilience, of reinvention. A surprisingly simple story with complicated undertones. A man who knows hardly anything of the outside world, who can not speak or read English, who has no life experience other than being the religious leader of his small sect of European Jews, finds himself living in yet another version of systemic racism: the cruelty and brutality of the KKK in the deep south.
Shmuel himself asks for nothing, expects nothing, especially from God after what he has witnessed in the war; yet in spite of his broken heart remains firm in his belief that God exists. The war may have taken away the words to his prayers, but words mean nothing anymore to this man cast adrift in an unfamiliar world. It is all in the music pouring out of his heart where he speaks directly to God.
A rebbe without a flock, a man whose fiddling—the soul-wrenching anguish and sadness and anger coming straight from his heart—is the deeper part of the story. It is a beautiful story of unfathomable faith. Of the necessity of community and the willingness to accept help from others. Of how grace can reveal itself in the form of people who come into our lives when we need them. First in Mississippi and then in New York city, grace comes to Shmuel through all the extraordinary people who open their hearts and home to him.
February 16, 2025
On the surface, The Last Dekrepitzer, by Howard Langer, tells a compelling, extraordinary story of a Hasidic rabbi who has lost his people, but finds a way to cope with the help of strangers and acquaintances who befriend him. The approachability of the plot, and the short chapters, make it an easy and enjoyable read; however, there is an artistry in the writing that gives the reader access to some deeper and profound insights into what it means to live, and live Jewishly, in today’s world.
What do you do when your ancestral responsibility to pray for your community can’t be met because your community no longer exists? In a larger sense, because we are human, how do we relate to each other and to eternity as the community of our birth must inevitably disappear?
Howard Langer performs a Holmesian inversion. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. wrote that the life of the law has not been logic. It has been experience. In this book, Langer suggests that the law of life is not logic, but experience. What the rabbi has experienced shapes and limits how he can relate to people and to God. Against that experience, logic, and the words that might express it, fail. But that is not the end of the story.
In several superficial ways, the Last Dekrepitzer’s main character is very much like the movie character, Forrest Gump. Both spend significant time in the American South, are at the mercy of chance and unpredictability and have a standard of decency that makes them devoted to family and friends. Forrest meets and influences a young Elvis Presley; the rabbi, a young Jerry Lee Lewis and an older Gary Davis. Both are at extreme ends of the intelligence continuum. But the Last Dekrepitzer poses difficult questions of what it means to be moral and religious.
[Spoiler alert.]One example is how much a rabbi who lives in the South of the 1950’s can help a white rabbi with a Black wife. It brings up the uncomfortable conflict of what obligation a rabbi, at that time, owed to his congregation as opposed to those in great need of help. It reminds me of what Eli Evans wrote about in “The Provincials.” Rabbi search committees in the South in the 1950’s and 1960’s would ask the question of candidates: Is there anything you will do that might jeopardize the safety of our congregants? This was code for “Are you going to publicly support civil rights work?”
Another example. Can a rabbi who can not bring himself to say words of prayer be considered a good Jew? In one sense, there is a fidelity to the essence of one of the oldest Jewish prayers, the Silent Amidah. In Anita Diamant’s lovely phrase, the words “fall away,” as we silently face the Eternal. But here, the words are pushed away by experience and the connection to God is one of reproach…yet it endures. [Spoiler alert.] If the rabbi’s son is Moshe, that makes the rabbi the pious Amram. What does piety look like today, if it’s not what tradition demands?
And what does it even mean to be Jewish? Langer subtly weaves into his story the central themes of Judaism–creation, redemption, and sanctification–and suggests some answers. Our past and our traditions do not define us, but they can be gifts in helping us create our lives. Redemption can be found in unlikely places and, given that Moshe is the son of the rabbi, it might be found in the future. The potential for holiness resides in everything we do and in every one. There is no need for an intercessor. “I’m the rebbe, but I ain’t your rebbe….Can’t be your rebbe.”
The messages in the novel fit in astoundingly well with those of some of the current leading Jewish thought leaders. In “The Triumph of Life,” Irving Greenberg writes about the changes that living Jewishly today require: the zone of holiness has expanded in every area, the covenantal relationship demands renegotiation, lay leadership must take on more responsibility as well as the challenge of pluralism. In “Seeking the Hiding God,” Arnold Eisen, in the continuing presence of doubt and in absence of accurate knowledge of the Creator, implores us not to abandon our attempts at a relationship with God. Moreover, he praises Heschel’s “Religion and Race” address: Our tragedy begins with the segregation of God, the bifurcation of the secular and the sacred. And in “The Amen Effect,” Sharon Brous gives the tachlis for how to live a virtuous life: Show up with a tender heart.
In “The Last Dekrepitzer ,” Langer recognizes the historical and personal experiences that constrain us in showing up as we might desire, but we can still make a difference through our actions. It is not enough to listen to the Music. Using tradition’s gift, we must create it.
What do you do when your ancestral responsibility to pray for your community can’t be met because your community no longer exists? In a larger sense, because we are human, how do we relate to each other and to eternity as the community of our birth must inevitably disappear?
Howard Langer performs a Holmesian inversion. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. wrote that the life of the law has not been logic. It has been experience. In this book, Langer suggests that the law of life is not logic, but experience. What the rabbi has experienced shapes and limits how he can relate to people and to God. Against that experience, logic, and the words that might express it, fail. But that is not the end of the story.
In several superficial ways, the Last Dekrepitzer’s main character is very much like the movie character, Forrest Gump. Both spend significant time in the American South, are at the mercy of chance and unpredictability and have a standard of decency that makes them devoted to family and friends. Forrest meets and influences a young Elvis Presley; the rabbi, a young Jerry Lee Lewis and an older Gary Davis. Both are at extreme ends of the intelligence continuum. But the Last Dekrepitzer poses difficult questions of what it means to be moral and religious.
[Spoiler alert.]One example is how much a rabbi who lives in the South of the 1950’s can help a white rabbi with a Black wife. It brings up the uncomfortable conflict of what obligation a rabbi, at that time, owed to his congregation as opposed to those in great need of help. It reminds me of what Eli Evans wrote about in “The Provincials.” Rabbi search committees in the South in the 1950’s and 1960’s would ask the question of candidates: Is there anything you will do that might jeopardize the safety of our congregants? This was code for “Are you going to publicly support civil rights work?”
Another example. Can a rabbi who can not bring himself to say words of prayer be considered a good Jew? In one sense, there is a fidelity to the essence of one of the oldest Jewish prayers, the Silent Amidah. In Anita Diamant’s lovely phrase, the words “fall away,” as we silently face the Eternal. But here, the words are pushed away by experience and the connection to God is one of reproach…yet it endures. [Spoiler alert.] If the rabbi’s son is Moshe, that makes the rabbi the pious Amram. What does piety look like today, if it’s not what tradition demands?
And what does it even mean to be Jewish? Langer subtly weaves into his story the central themes of Judaism–creation, redemption, and sanctification–and suggests some answers. Our past and our traditions do not define us, but they can be gifts in helping us create our lives. Redemption can be found in unlikely places and, given that Moshe is the son of the rabbi, it might be found in the future. The potential for holiness resides in everything we do and in every one. There is no need for an intercessor. “I’m the rebbe, but I ain’t your rebbe….Can’t be your rebbe.”
The messages in the novel fit in astoundingly well with those of some of the current leading Jewish thought leaders. In “The Triumph of Life,” Irving Greenberg writes about the changes that living Jewishly today require: the zone of holiness has expanded in every area, the covenantal relationship demands renegotiation, lay leadership must take on more responsibility as well as the challenge of pluralism. In “Seeking the Hiding God,” Arnold Eisen, in the continuing presence of doubt and in absence of accurate knowledge of the Creator, implores us not to abandon our attempts at a relationship with God. Moreover, he praises Heschel’s “Religion and Race” address: Our tragedy begins with the segregation of God, the bifurcation of the secular and the sacred. And in “The Amen Effect,” Sharon Brous gives the tachlis for how to live a virtuous life: Show up with a tender heart.
In “The Last Dekrepitzer ,” Langer recognizes the historical and personal experiences that constrain us in showing up as we might desire, but we can still make a difference through our actions. It is not enough to listen to the Music. Using tradition’s gift, we must create it.
November 24, 2025
I really appreciated meeting Howard Langer a few weeks ago on his book tour through Cleveland, Ohio. As he writes, we cannot truly understand the pain and trauma of war unless we've experienced it. In this narrative, Sam Light or Rebbe Shmuel Meir Lichtbencher, prays with his violin through music. "Sam was a rabbi. I understood that the first time we met when he described how he got his violin. He comes from a shtetl -- a small town -- in Poland. He's still a rabbi, whether he wants to be or not". And Sam says his feelings toward God changed after the war (p. 246) "You don't got no grandfather, grandmother, no aunts, no uncles, no relatives at all on my side of the family. They all lived once. I ain't just drop from Heaven. They all got killed in the war. You knew that. The Almighty, He had a hand in that. One day, I'll tell you how I finished His work, buried them all. I say the Kaddish for all those people because there do be an Almighty, don't you ever doubt it, and I remind him what He did. The rest of the prayers, they thanks and praise. I don't got it within me to give Him thanks and praise no more."
I appreciated the violin, music, as a way to express all that cannot be expressed with words. And where there are words, the author was true to the character who knew four languages but English was not his first, so the English is written as Sam would have spoken it. A complicated story to write on several levels. If you like James McBride's novels, you will like this one as well. Howard Langer is in his late 60s/early 70s. This is his first novel! It took him two years to write; he started in 2020 during COVID with much encouragement from his family. I am inspired by this effort.
I appreciated the violin, music, as a way to express all that cannot be expressed with words. And where there are words, the author was true to the character who knew four languages but English was not his first, so the English is written as Sam would have spoken it. A complicated story to write on several levels. If you like James McBride's novels, you will like this one as well. Howard Langer is in his late 60s/early 70s. This is his first novel! It took him two years to write; he started in 2020 during COVID with much encouragement from his family. I am inspired by this effort.
December 19, 2024
Howard Langer’s The Last Dekreptzer is a masterful debut that weaves history, faith, and music into an unforgettable tapestry. At its heart is Rebbe Shmuel Meir Lichtbencher whose odyssey from war-torn Poland to the Mississippi Delta and eventually to Harlem explores the profound intersections of Jewish and Black cultures.
Langer's vivid storytelling captures the mystical power of music, from Hasidic niggunim to gospel and blues, while tackling themes of resilience, identity, and the search for faith amidst tragedy. The rebbe’s journey is not only a testament to human endurance but also a poignant exploration of cultural unity in a divided world. With richly drawn characters, historical depth, and a profound sense of place, The Last Dekreptzer is both enlightening and deeply moving. A must-read for fans of historical fiction with heart and soul.
Langer's vivid storytelling captures the mystical power of music, from Hasidic niggunim to gospel and blues, while tackling themes of resilience, identity, and the search for faith amidst tragedy. The rebbe’s journey is not only a testament to human endurance but also a poignant exploration of cultural unity in a divided world. With richly drawn characters, historical depth, and a profound sense of place, The Last Dekreptzer is both enlightening and deeply moving. A must-read for fans of historical fiction with heart and soul.
January 19, 2026
I thoroughly enjoyed this quirky novel. Shmuel Meir was the last member of a remote Hasidic sect. He survived the war by being taken to Russia before the Germans invaded Russia and served in the Russian Army. The Dekrepitzer rebbes had a long history of fiddling the sacred music of the sect. Shmuel Meir played the violin that a Gypsy had given to his grandfather. He held it in a peculiar way. Escaping Europe he ended up in Mississippi with a couple of Black soldiers he’d met in Naples. They taught him English with their speech patterns. He married a Black woman, had a child and fled to NY when they Klan came after him. He met Reverend Gary Davis, a blind Black preacher who played guitar on the streets of the city. Davis was a real person. Eventually he met Schiff, a luthier, and learned the art of repairing and restoring violins.
December 20, 2024
The Last Dekrepitzer is a novel that links the Blood Lands of Eastern Europe, the Jim Crow American South and the Post-War, Upper West Side of Manhattan in a story that is an exploration of the possibility of religious belief after the Holocaust. It is also a meditation on the power of wordless music as both prayer and protest in an age where the integrity of words has been destroyed. Along the way, there are mini-discourses on Hasidic life just before the annihilation, on old-time fiddling, NYC street music, and what it means to restore the soul of a violin. Finally, it is about Hope as the indignant refusal to abandon the redemptive promise of love.
May 18, 2025
Howard Langer's book The Last Dekrepitzer was wonderful, and I believe his first ever novel. For me it combined several areas of my own (passionate) interest ie blues music, spiritual music (Reverend Gary Davis, as well as his intense spirituality described) , Jewish/Hasidic spirituality of the main character who is literally unable to utter oral prayers but only musical prayers, especially via "niggunim"; and the draw for me to the Holocaust and the main character's devestating impact from it.
The book flows beautifully, despite the above description I give was fairly light and uplifting in many ways.
I give a high recommendation for Howard Langer's "The Last Dekrepitzer
The book flows beautifully, despite the above description I give was fairly light and uplifting in many ways.
I give a high recommendation for Howard Langer's "The Last Dekrepitzer
April 24, 2025
So many Jewish-themed books are released every year that is impossible to read and/or review all of them. That means that sometimes I pass on a book, that is until it’s again brought to my attention. I had originally decided not to ask for a review copy of “The Last Dekrepitzer” by Howard Langer, filing it under “not even I can read everything.” However, when I learned that it won the 2024 Miller Family Book Club Award at the National Jewish Book Awards, I changed my mind.
Read the rest of my review at https://www.thereportergroup.org/book...
Read the rest of my review at https://www.thereportergroup.org/book...
September 24, 2025
I really enjoyed this book - it reads like an Isaac Singer story. Wonderful story and characters - especially the main characters - the Dekrepitzer Rebbe, and his wife Lulu. I really liked reading about someone who experienced horrific events throughout his life and was very angry with G-d but still prayed by playing the violin with his left hand. He also had memorized the Talmud and could tell you what was on the other side of a page of Talmud that he punctured with a pin. The book was terrific right up to the end, when it kind of petered out. Nevertheless I highly recommend this.
October 20, 2025
I thought this book started slowly, but it’s well worth continuing. About a rabbi who returns to his small village in Eastern Europe to find the Nazis have destroyed everything, He eventually gets to America, where he first lives in a Black community in the South, learning to speak English from that community, and eventually moves to New York. His heritage includes fiddling, and he entrances people with his backwards manner of doing it - he holds the fiddle in his right hand. The story is almost a saga, and his life takes several turns. I found it kind of enchanting.
December 15, 2024
A surprisingly good book. The overall subject is quite esoteric - imagine the Venn diagram that includes Holocaust survivors, black WWII veterans in rural Mississippi, street buskers in midcentury New York City, and learned Hasidic rebbes who communicate with their congregations through song. Langer has constructed a moving story that takes us through all of that. Very well written characters and dialogue.
April 18, 2025
Although simply written, this book was very engaging as it told the story of a Shmuel Meir, who inherited a fiddle from his grandfather and should have been the rebbe in his small town in Poland, but WWII intervened. The story takes us through his escape from Europe, to living with a Black family in Mississippi, marriage to a Black woman, and their escape to NYC. Music is important throughout, as is his relationship with God through music.
October 6, 2025
Wow..I did not want this book to end
This was a truly enjoyable read with many familiar references to life in a Polish shetl before the war and life after the devastation that became the landscape of Eastern Europe. To read about these strong characters in my own native New York City, as well as New Jersey, was a heart-warming, engaging experience. I enjoyed the depth of the story and only wanted more.
This was a truly enjoyable read with many familiar references to life in a Polish shetl before the war and life after the devastation that became the landscape of Eastern Europe. To read about these strong characters in my own native New York City, as well as New Jersey, was a heart-warming, engaging experience. I enjoyed the depth of the story and only wanted more.
October 21, 2025
Absolutely loved this book and the story is so original and captivating. I enjoyed all of the themes resonating throughout which include loss, grief, resilience, power of music, blind faith, the pull of tradition, and commonalities between the Jewish and Black communities. I also found interesting Shmuel’s lack of interest in returning to the Hasidic world once in America. He could not go back after all he had seen, I suppose.
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June 19, 2025Historical fiction about the last surviving member of a remote Hasidic sect, a fiddle-playing rebbe with no followers, busking in a subway.
Highly recommended by Fred.
It seems well written, complex and interesting, but it just isn't holding me, so maybe I'll try it again sometime when I'm in a different mood.
Highly recommended by Fred.
It seems well written, complex and interesting, but it just isn't holding me, so maybe I'll try it again sometime when I'm in a different mood.
December 19, 2024
This is a brilliantly crafted novel, with wonderful characters that stay with you long after finishing the last page. I wanted it to go on so I could spend more time with them! The locations are beautifully realized and the story carries you with it. Immensely satisfying and worthwhile!
February 13, 2025
Read it! The book pulls you along and in, even if you are not familiar with the Jewish traditions it describes. Langer's main character is a complicated, deep man, struggling to make sense and make a life in a world that makes no sense. It is a compelling read.
December 29, 2025
I love this book! The story is unlike anything I have ever read before and the characters are unforgettable. An exploration into the effects of the Holocaust, racism (anti Jewish and anti Black), and deep, accepting love despite vast differences. A beautiful story full of hope and meaning.
December 19, 2024
A great book. Captures the resilience after despair and despondency of a tormented soul, whose healing is through music.
January 16, 2025
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I was engrossed throughout the book and didn't want to put it down. Creative and humane storytelling. I hope this author writes more books.
January 30, 2025
What a special book. A gripping, epic plot, with rhythm, tone, pacing, wisdom, and soul. One of the best novels I've read in recent years.
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June 10, 2025Young Jewish Rabbi escapes WWII Europe with his fiddle with help from black American soldiers and settles with them in Mississippi.
August 17, 2025
The most moving, important book I’ve read in a long time. It has element is James McBride’s book The Heaven and Earth Grocery store but better. I highly recommend it
August 17, 2025
This is an extremely creative, strange and beautiful book. It left me with lots to think about. Something about the main character reminds me of Forest Gump; albeit as a Hasid!
August 27, 2025
A moving and authentic tale of losing an old world and being lost in a new one.
October 12, 2025
A unique and engrossing look at disparate cultures meeting in a fantastical but wholly illuminating vortex. Most highly recommended.
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