The Postcard

The story continues with Emma pregnant with Myriam, Lélia’s mother. Emma and Ephraïm share the pregnancy news at Pesach (Passover), a Jewish holiday that inspires Ephraïm toward revolution. Passover is meant as a reminder “to be wary of ease and comfort,” which are signs of slavery (14). Ephraïm’s father is free of most of the restrictions placed on Jewish people in Russia; he holds a position of status in the merchant’s guild. At dinner, Nachman tells his gathered family they must leave Russia. He senses a change and warns that, someday, Europe will want all the Jewish people dead.

Nachman recalls a childhood Christmas when, in a time of extreme antisemitism and violence, drunk gentiles raped the women of the house and killed the men. The May Laws, enacted by Tsar Alexander III, stripped Jewish people of most rights, which pacified Russians for over 30 years. Nachman has seen hatred of Jewish people grow, resulting only in death.

Now the Black Hundreds, a right-wing group, is gaining strength, and Nachman is fearful for his children. Nachman bought land in Palestine and invites them all. Nachman urges his children to avoid Europe, which is already developed and settled, and go to America or Palestine. The children rebuff Nachman’s urgent pleas, spending a quiet, peaceful evening at the family dacha, or summer home.

Emma worries that her father-in-law, Nachman, may be right; Ephraïm is a socialist, and the Bolsheviks are killing off the revolutionaries. Ephraïm hides in Moscow while visiting a pregnant Emma. The police break into the home. Emma manages to scare them off with pregnancy pains. When the officers leave, Ephraïm promises Emma that if the baby in her womb lives, they will flee Russia for Latvia, a recently independent country with few restrictions on Jewish people. He does not heed Nachman’s warning to stay away from Europe.

Emma’s child Myriam (Mirotchka) is born in Moscow in August 1919. Ephraïm and Emma sell everything except the family samovar in preparation for their move to Riga, Latvia. They travel at night, crossing the border into Latvia safely, though they are chased.

The story of the family’s escape from Russia is told to Anne by her mother, Lélia, via letters Myriam wrote before Alzheimer’s disease affected her communication abilities. Lélia pieced together the family’s history from letters, rumors, memoirs, and tales from Myriam and other family members. Lélia extensively researched the family before telling Anne, who reveals she is pregnant.

Emma, Myriam, and Ephraïm settle in Riga, and Ephraïm’s caviar business takes off, allowing them to buy a dacha in a wealthy area. Emma teaches piano lessons; the May Laws forbade her from finishing her education.

They learn that Anna, Ephraïm’s one-time lover, married and moved to Germany. Ephraïm’s siblings settled in Europe or Palestine, where the parents’ grove has become prosperous. Ephraïm and Emma have a second child, Noémie, in 1923, but the caviar business crashes, nearly bankrupting them. They are advised to leave Riga, where antisemitism is growing. They flee to Palestine.

It takes 40 days to reach Palestine from Riga. They stop in Lodz, Emma’s hometown in Poland, where they are attacked by antisemites hurling rocks. Emma’s father’s business and property are routinely attacked.

At Sedar in Lodz, they play duck, duck, goose, and Myriam thinks whoever wins will live the longest. They continue their journey by train before reaching the port of Constanza, where a steamship ferries them to Haifa. They eat apples and honey, a symbol of comfort and ease, and thus, danger, in Judaism. However, Ephraïm does not believe in the old ways and enjoys the sweetness.

The family is shocked to see Nachman and his wife, Esther, who have been hardened by their new life farming oranges in Palestine: In Moscow, they lived luxuriously. While Ephraïm’s parents are happy, Emma and Ephraïm are shocked, and the orange grove is not profitable.

Ephraïm gets a job at the electric company. Nachman tells him about Zionism, the Theodor Herzl concept of a Jewish state. Ephraïm’s daughters attend kindergarten and learn Hebrew, which was mostly a written language prior to the Zionist movement. A third child, Itzhak, arrives in 1925.

After five years, the orange grove is bankrupt, and the family destitute. Ephraïm is jealous of his brother Emmanuel, a Parisian actor. Ephraïm and Emma decide to go to Paris, but Nachman warns them about antisemitism in Europe. They again ignore Nachman’s warnings.

The children go with Emma to Lodz, Poland, while Ephraïm goes to Paris to prepare a life for them. Uncle Boris, Ephraïm’s brother, visits Emma and the children in Ludz and teaches them about naturalism. Boris, an active communist, lives in Czechoslovakia. In Lodz, the children get to know their maternal grandparents.

Ephraïm marvels at his freedom. He dreams of his first love, Anna. He reunites with his brother Emmanuel, who has Americanized his name. Ephraïm falls in love with the city.

The family arrives and settles in a Parisian suburb, with Itzhak now called Jacques. By 1931, they are successful and relatively wealthy. They’ve moved closer to Paris and its better schools. The girls are determined to live as artists in Paris.

As Nachman warned, Parisian attitudes shift, and Ephraïm’s family feels the change. Ephraïm meets a friend who left Russia for Germany. He tells Ephraïm that life in Germany was unbearable for Jewish people, and many fled to Paris. Rumors of trouble in Germany spread quickly. After seeing the face of Germany’s chancellor Adolf Hitler, Ephraïm shaves off his mustache.