Book 1, Chapters 22-28 Summary

In the summer of 1939, Poland is a republic with 3.5 million patriotic Jewish citizens, freed from historic ghettos but living with remnants of the Dark Ages like excessive taxation, economic strangulation and identification by yellow cloth badges. They know that mob violence can erupt whenever Poland suffers a political or economic downturn, as in 1936. The violence of 1936 is small by comparison with 1648, when half a million died and desperate Jews began following messiahs, Cabalists and Hassidim. Poor, simple and unassimilated, Mendel and Leah Landau know they are intruders in their own country. Mendel passes to his children the dream of living free someday in a reestablished Israel. Thousands of Polish Jews support Zionism, but they are divided over the aspects they emphasize. Being a union baker, Mendel joins the Redeemers and structures his family's life around its activities. His eldest...