Everyone is welcome to join our online (Zoom) book discussion group on Wednesday March 11, 2026. For more information and a Zoom invite, contact Davo Knepler at [email protected]. We will be discussing The Last Dekrepitzer by Howard Langer. The author will be join......More
Everyone is welcome to join our online (Zoom) book discussion group on Wednesday March 11, 2026. For more information and a Zoom invite, contact Davo Knepler at [email protected]. We will be discussing The Last Dekrepitzer by Howard Langer. The author will be joining us for the discussion. WINNER NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD The fiddler busking in the Columbus Circle subway station in 1965 is the Dekrepitzer Rebbe, the sole survivor of the obscure Dekrepitzer Hasidic sect known before the war for its rebbes' fiddling. The Last Dekrepitzer follows the life and spiritual quest of Shmuel Meir Lichtbencher a/k/a Sam Lightup, from his isolated shtetl in the mountains of southern Poland, where he is brought up to be the future rebbe, to the wharves in Naples, where he jams with Black soldiers waiting to ship home at the end of the war. Dressing him in the uniform and dog tags of an AWOL soldier, they smuggle him home to rural Mississippi. He lives for years among the Blacks, speaks Black English, preaches and plays the blues with the Brown Sugar Ramblers trio. His marriage to a Black woman, Lula Curtin, legal by Jewish law though forbidden under Mississippi law, results in a cross burning that forces them to flee to Manhattan. He plays on the streets of Harlem and Midtown with the Reverend Gary Davis, the great blind guitarist whose mission is saving souls for the next world. Shmuel Meir's devout wife, though she knows herself to be the Dekrepitzer Rebbitzen, is spurned by the Jewish community. Through it all, Shmuel Meir fiddles his prayers in defiance of God. But God gives the Dekrepitzer Rebbe no peace. For more information and a Zoom invite, contact Davo Knepler at [email protected]. Everyone is welcome to attend. Sponsored by Gan HaLev-the Jewish Congregation of San Geronimo Valley and the Fairfax Library, and assisted by the Jewish Library of San Francisco ADA Accommodation Request | Solicitud de Adaptaci贸n ADA
