Customer Reviews

The Tenth Prayer: A Novel of Israel

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"The Tenth Prayer" is a historical novel that deals with the period from the end of World War II until the Eichmann trial in the early 1960's; a span of about fifteen years when climactic events were going on in the Jewish world. It starts with the bricha (the "escape") when veterans of the Jewish Brigade; Jews and non-Jews of the Allied armies; Christian-Zionists; and Haganah and Palmach agents from Palestine all joined forces to get Jewish survivors out of the Allied internment camps in Europe and into Palestine which was still under the British Mandatory regime and closed to Jewish immigration. This meant running a British naval blockade with decrepit, overloaded ships that were no match for the British navy. Most of the survivors ended up in British prison camps on Cyprus. Thanks to the author's set of characters; some of whom may represent real persons, the reader gets a good feeling for what these days were like, both for the survivors and for those who risked their lives to get them to Eretz Yisrael. To some extent, the novel reflects the author's personal experience. Stephen Esrati is a retired journalist from Cleveland, Ohio. Born in Berlin, he lived in Palestine for about four years during the early 1930's and emigrated with his family to the United States in 1937. During W.W II. he served in Italy with the U.S. Army. When the war ended, Italy became a major staging point for illegal immigration to Palestine: many of the bricha ships embarked for Palestine from various ports in southern Italy. According to the brief bio; Esrati served in the Irgun Zvai Leumi (Etzel), the Jabotinsky-Revisionist underground led by Menachem Begin that was active during the pre-statehood era. Most of the main characters were members of one or another of the opposition undergrounds. The book depicts the vicious; often bloody hatred that routinely marked the relations between the opposition undergrounds and the mainline Haganah and Palmach. These events are portrayed in the novel which depicts several instances of this ideological struggle between the socialist-sometimes Marxist; even Stalinist left; and a nationalist-free-market right; which marked the story of modern political Zionism almost from its beginnings. My own participation in the story goes back to May 1948 when I was a student at Yeshiva College in New York and an ardent Betari-Zionist. As the May 15 date of declaring statehood approached; so did the time of personal decision making. An organization called Land and Labor for Palestine, cited in the novel, offered young men like myself a free steamship ticket to the promised land. A close friend and I accepted the offer and we left N.Y. for Palestine on the U.S.S. Marine Carp in early May. Ten or twelve days later; about a week after statehood was declared; the ship reached Beirut; a scheduled stop. The next stop was Haifa and Lebanon was already at war with the new Jewish state. Since it was assumed that most of the young, male, Israel-bound passengers would be inducted into Tzahal soon after debarking at Haifa, the Lebanese were unwilling to let them continue the voyage. The ship was surrounded by armed soldiers and after a long day of talks, the negotiations failed. Sixty men; Americans and Palestinian Jews; were taken off the ship and driven eastwards to a military prison camp in Baalbek, about 80 kilometers north of Metullah. We were kept there for about two months after which we were taken back to the port, placed on our old friend, the Marine Carp, and transported back to the United States. The story is told in greater detail in The Tenth Prayer.    The author's bio states that he was on the Marine Carp with us. My memory of him is vague; but then so are lots of things from those long ago days. I often think that at least some of the story of Zionism can be learned the easy way by reading novels. Two oldies, "Exodus" by Leon Uris, and "The Source" by James Mitchner, come to mind; and there are others. Not everyone has the patience and will to dig into full-fledged history books. The historical novels have the virtue of being not only relatively easy reading; but are informative as well. I would gladly place  "The Tenth Prayer"  in this category. It is not only "a good read," with adventure, romance and action; but it recalls an important segment of Israel's early years; along with the heroic events and ideological struggles that marked those crucial days. For the curious; the "tenth prayer" of the title is not anything specific in the novel, but it does capture something of its essence. The "tenth prayer" refers to the tenth blessing of the daily amidah prayer; "Sound the great horn for our freedom; ...and gather us from the four corners of the earth ...."

Reading Steven G. Esrati's "The Tenth Prayer" is like looking over the shoulder of two painters completing two pictures: you see the final product arise from the first drawings. Steven writes his novel in two different layers: one shows the pains of Israel's development from WWII to 1960, the other layer gives a fine view of some characters involved in this development.
The killing of Israeli cabinet member Rechavam Zeevi by palestines today when I write theese lines shows that these pains are far from over.
I'm too young to remember the events the book tells but Steven's way of writing this novel gave me a good impression of the problems and contradictions which accompanied Israel' evolution during these 15 years. Sure, it is fiction, but a good one.
One is tempted to look in the internet when Naomi was Israel's ambassador to the United Nations. A fine book, Mr. Esrati!

As one personally involved and knowing the events and persons ( even 'fictitious' ) it was like reliving history. I have recommended the book to my family, freinds , and inquisitors to capture the agony and glory of Jewish survival and rebirth

On several occasions in the Old Testament it is remarked on what a stiff-necked people are the Jews. It was so more than 2,000 years ago and their necks are still stiff, even when a little bending might help. This, along with the Jews' determination to rule their own lives comes through loud and clear in "The Tenth Prayer" by Stephen G. Esrati. It is announced as "A novel of Palestine." It is that. It brings to life once again the fight of modern Jews to clear the debris out of their homeland and make it a place to live in happily for them. But there are so many factions and the opinions so varied that those who should be friends battle each other at critical times and their efforts are not as successful as they should be for all their bleeding. Esrati tells his story in separate but cohesive bundles, humanly telling small stories of Jews in Russia, the United States, Germany and elsewhere coming home to fight for freedom. The whole adds up almost to a continuation of the Old Testament in modern dress. The Jews in Esrati's story are as outstandingly contumatious as the ones in the Old Testament. If they could direct their energy at the enemy rather than at one another they would perhaps have better success. The United States ran into this problem during its war for independence, but here the issue was whether to seceed from England or not and those who were against seceeding moved to Canada, eventually calming the waters. In Israel the problem is not so simple. In Esrati's story the problem is how to solidify gains. On this there are terrible differences of opinion leading to the many political parties that beset the Israel today. One who has been reading of the Near East's problems for half a century or more will gain added dimensions to the words that used to swirl through the newspapers. Irgun Zwai Leumi. The Stern Gang, which prefrred to be called the Stern Group. It all has the feel of reality. Although a notice says places and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, don't be confused. This is based in fact. The author was himself in the Irgun and he was on the ship Marine Carp, and imprisoned by the Arabs along with fellow fighters journeying to Israel. This story he hells with particular grittyness. --Emerson Batdorff

Reading Steven G. Esrati's "The Tenth Prayer" is like looking over the shoulder of two painters completing two pictures: you see the final product arise from the first drawings. Steven produces his novel in two different layers: one shows the pains of Israel's development from WWII to 1960, the other layer gives a fine view of some characters involved in this development.
The killing of Israeli cabinet member Rechavam Zeevi by Palestines today when I write theese lines shows that these pains are far from over.
I'm too young to remember the events the book tells but Steven's way of writing this novel gave me a good impression of the problems and contradictions which accompanied Israel' evolution during these 15 years. Sure, it is fiction, but a good one.
One is tempted to look in the internet when Naomi was Israel's ambassador to the United Nations. A fine book, Mr. Esrati!

I (non-Jewish German) read Leon Uris' Exodus at the very impressable age of 17 or 18. Since then, I am a staunch supporter of Israel. I consider myself lucky to have found now, at a much more mature age, a much more mature book from an insider that allows an in-depth insight into the incredibly complex history of that incredible little country and explains even a little bit of the miracle for which the very existence of Israel stands.