November 2016 – 2 Jews = 3 Shuls

by Sandra Tankoos

The year is 1992. A very respected Rabbi is found murdered in his synagogue located in a wealthy suburb on Long Island. Deborah Katzman is the first woman to become president of the synagogue. She is a child survivor of the Holocaust and a successful bankruptcy attorney. The synagogue’s lay leaders had hoped that a woman with her background would be able to reduce the growing friction within their walls. The Rabbi had been growing more and more traditional at the same time as his congregants were becoming more liberal. Younger women were clamouring for equal participation in religious services; older congregants were opposed to the Rabbi’s newly heightened religious practices. Emotions were exploding … but is all of this enough to cause someone to murder a man of God? The Temple leaders, each an interesting character in their own right, are trying to achieve some modicum of harmony within this once peaceful house of worship. The search for the killer is the plot that is carried forward until the murderer is uncovered in a surprise ending.