A DREAM THAT VANISHES

About the Book

People have dreams which animate their lives. But are people themselves dreams perhaps? Shakespeare said so in “The Tempest”: “we are the stuff dreams are made on.” Follow one family of dreamers, enthusiasts of social justice, Zionism, music and literature, who escape from pogrom-ravaged Russia to the challenges of pre-World War I Turkish Palestine, and then on to the safety and prosperity of America. Growing up in America, Leah Isaacson tries to balance her American identity with loyalty to the Zionism of her father, but her marriage to the anti-Zionist editor Pinya creates problems. The nightmare of the Hitler years changes Pinya, reconciling him to the Zionist dream. He creates a newspaper to support renascent Israel. The family joins in this effort, linking their lives to the rebirth of a dream.

About the Author

Judith Civan studied English literature at Radcliffe and Columbia, then worked as a reporter and feature writer at the Newark Star-Ledger and was a columnist for the New York and Washington Jewish Weeks. She is the author of “Abraham’s Knife: the Mythology of the Deicide in Antisemitism”, a literary and historical study of the origins and ramifications of the deicide accusation, and the novels “Leaving Egypt” and “Choosing”.