Promise Me, Jerusalem

“When you have a boy from a family like Goldreb practically begging to be meshadech with you, you don’t do anything silly. You call your husband over and you drink l’chaim.”

“My husband is in shul,” I said.

“So we’ll go get him.” Esther stood up resolutely.

I went to my bedroom, locked the door, and breathed deeply.

The shidduch wouldn’t happen anyway, since I had nothing to give.

Duvid and Chaya Davidovitz are a proud Yerushalmi couple, raising their large brood in the traditions of old. Now their oldest daughter, Malka’la, is of marriageable age, and they don’t have any means of providing for her – not a wedding, not a trousseau, not a dirah.

Both Duvid and Chaya want the coveted shidduch to happen, even if it means going out on unfamiliar paths in a quest for parnasah. But how far can they stretch themselves for Malka’la before tragedy strikes their home? And where can they turn for help when their entire world seems to be disintegrating around them?

Talented author Chany Rosengarten has woven a tale of Yerushalayim of the recent past, when families struggled to put bread on the table and children grew up before their parents’ plans for the future had a chance to unfold. In a story spanning decades and continents, Duvid, Chaya, and Malka’la struggle with the trials of facing the unknown and conquering their fears, as they hold on fervently to the promise of Jerusalem.