SH'MA

by Robert Dresner

A war of attrition between Israel and its nuclear armed neighbors is eminent. Through an odd twist of fate, the outcome rests in the hands of Rifka Kliensfeld, an embittered Holocaust survivor, and Shmuael Rabinowitz, an impoverished old rabbi. She measures her life against the number of dead she has known; he survives on the promise of peace in the name of the almighty God, who hears his prayers and never answers. Together, Rifka and the old rabbi form the heart and soul of Israel, a nation divided against itself and the rest of the world. Muslim fighting Jew for possession of Holy Land, Jew fighting Jew in an unprecedented struggle for control of the West Bank, the super-powers are preparing to impose their own maddening solution to these conflicts when the world incurs The Vengeance of Allah, nine highly trained Syrian terrorists who hold Israel for ransom and the entire world at their mercy. The world is teetering on the brink of Armageddon when Michael Katz returns to Israel to comfort his aunt Rifka. An aspiring American artist, Michael poses an unlikely hero, and an unwilling disciple of the old rabbi, himself an unheralded, unanticipated quirk of divinity who finds God in the heart of his worst enemy and hope at the bottom of despair.

260 pages, Paperback

First published October 17, 2012