The Man in Seat 22A

"There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom; and their laws are diverse from all people; neither keep they the king's laws; therefore it is not for the king's profit to suffer them." (Esther 3:8)

This is Haman in the 4th century B.C.E., petitioning the king of Persia for agency to kill all the Jews in the land. The story is emblematic of the irrational and virulent anti-Semitism which came before and presaged the future: kill the Jews because they are Jews. The Jews were scattered, and their laws were different. No mortal threat, no sovereign's fiat, would supersede their determination to live by G-d's law, an ethical monotheism that has kept the Jews vital even to this day. Theirs is a story like no other.

Dr. Herbert Ausubel and his wife, Stephanie Ausubel, knew that better than most. Herb, with a distinguished career as a physician, is also a trained historian, writer, and lecturer. Thanks to a rich family history, he knew he was descended from a long line of physicians, scientists, writers, and more, reaching back to King David. Stephanie, a fine pianist, was aware of her lineage of acclaimed musicians and rabbis.

Then, genealogical gold. The Ausubels learned of an ancient trunk, passed down through generations of Stephanie's family, filled with priceless historical documents, later housed in the Annenberg Institute for Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. And so, the authors began their 32-year research journey around the world. The result was a magnificent six-book saga of their families' story, which is also the narrative of the entire Jewish people.

The Man in Seat 22A, the final book of the series, is a masterpiece. Venerated rabbis such as Rashi and Hillel, and others lesser known, become living characters confronting the challenges of their times, their wisdom preserved up to and through the two most consequential events in modern Jewish history: the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel.

Thus, the Man in Seat 22A has no face and no name. He is Everyman, every Jew persecuted in the crucible of anti-Semitism, culminating in the Nazis' paroxysm of venality that was so evil, no language on earth possesses the words to fully translate it.

At last, both literally and figuratively, the Man in Seat 22A will step out of the ashes of persecution, exit an airplane, and touch the soil of a free, independent Jewish state, the homeland of a certain people.