The Rabbi’s Wife, The Bishop’s Wife Paperback – June 29, 2021

This is a wonderful book totally unlike what I've been reading lately. I usually lose myself in mysteries. This story has mysteries of a different kind and is equally engrossing as a Whodunit.Persecution of the Jews is a sad fact that has been going on for centuries. I was not aware of the stories of 13th and 14th century Spain and the slaughter of Jews as well as forced conversions to Christianity.The authors are writing a story about Joana Halevi who woman who was willing to give up the most precious things in her life to maintain her Jewish faith. The authors tell a compelling story of a Jewish patriarch, Shlomo Halevi a well known and respected Rabbi, a leader in the community and advisor to Kings. His conversion was a shock to his wife Joana. He became a high ranking Christian official. Mystery surrounds this conversion and how he took his five children from his wife, Joana, to be raised by his sister in a now Christian household. Why did such a famous Rabbi convert to Christianity? How could he do take his children away from his loving, devoted wife? The writers delve into their research to find answers and see how the story of the Halevi family ends.The actual authors, David Jacobson and his friend Chayuta Deutsch have done a masterful job of research to produce such a wonderfully documented book.What makes the book even more interesting is the second theme of how the book was written using the fictitious characters of Ruth and Daniel collaborating together. They are meeting online in the time of the first serious outbreak of Coronavirus before vaccine and during the isolation of lockdowns. They are each confined to their homes to care for invalids. Daniel who first calls himself by his son's name of Rafi and Ruth who is caring for he husband who is now suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Ruth is messaging back and forth with a person she thinks is named Rafi. Thus begins our tale of mystery and discovery.This is well worth your time and I highly recommend this book.

I would to love to give this book 5 stars, but the amount of typos is extremely distracting. The story was great but I don’t usually enjoy books that jump timelines. The story itself was very interesting and I I would love to read more about that time historically.

Ruth, an Israeli woman dealing with the challenging time of isolation due to COVID-19 while coping with quite a few other personal circumstances that further aggravate her sense of loneliness, learns at a zoom conference about panademics in history of the story of Joanna, a woman from the Middle Ages whose circumstances, while very different, have in her eyes much in common with her own. From that moment on, Ruth, with the help of a mysterious person she meets on the internet while searching for relevant information, slowly unveils and writes the tragic story of that woman who, from one day to the next, lost everything she had in this world. As the present and the past stories unfold, other poignant stories unravel as well, all of which intertwine and come to a common sense at the end of the book. As a lover of historical novels, I was gripped by this unusual story and could not put it down until the end. I highly recommend it.

Compelling story and hard truths to absorb for this Catholic reader. However, the mixed-up jumble of tenses, the punctuation errors, and the misspelled words are very distracting. No blame to the authors (both non-native English speakers), but shame on Amazon for publishing it without proofreading!

I had little to no idea of the Jewish history of this period, and learned a lot from the book - which seemed to be well researched. The device of switching back and forth from the descendent researching the book in present-day Jerusalem to the first-person account of the woman in the middle ages was appealing and effective.

This novel was recommended to me by a childhood friend. I took a detour from my usual reading: sci-fi, fantasy, and mystery.I thoroughly enjoyed reading this work.

This book is tremendously well written. When you read it be prepared to be transported in time to an amazing era of love, fate, and opulence. Vacillating between centuries the stark contrast keeps you glued to the book not only living the scenes in your imagination, but not being able to put the book down. I highly recommend this book for the quality of writing, but also for its historical incredible contribution. Thank you for such a delectable masterpiece. Dr. Beauchamp

This is a painful, but beautiful tale of a girl born to privilege who gave up her luxuries and family to remain faithful to her Jewish beliefs. Inspiring and painful to read as a Jew.

This book seamlessly moves from the 1300s in Spain to 2020 in Israel covering a significant historical period through the experience of a Jewish family. The level of historical and cultural detail is extraordinary. And the up to the minute context of 2020 is clever and interesting. 10 out of 10.