The Jewish Dog (26 page)

Joshua said nothing and looked toward the horizon
.
They continued holding hands and let the hours pass.

“I need someone to help me with the lumber before winter and with the potatoes in the spring
.
Look what I have left
.
A handful of geese and chickens
.
You know what I had before the war? Five milking goats
,
and I can't even count how many chickens and geese
.
The partisans took them all
.
Even worse than the Germans
!
The Germans put a bullet in your head and – pop
!
– that's it
.
The partisans starve you bit by bit.

“I'll stay with you for a while
.
But I can't stay longer on this land soaked in the blood of my brothers
.
Europe has cast us out
.
Caleb and I have no choice but to sail to the land of Israel.”

Olga stroked my head and smiled at me lovingly.

“I'll miss the little
pisher
.
”

Joshua added a stroke of his own and answered for me
.
“I'm sure the little
pisher
will miss you too.”

“And when you reach the Land of Israel
,
will you send me money?”

“What's mine is yours
.
I swear by everything holy that I won't rest until I send you enough money to buy seven fat
,
beautiful goats.”

Joshua had made his decision
.
Worn out and sickly
,
his skin shriveled and his hair thinning
,
he had nothing left in Europe and would sail to the blossoming Jewish garden
,
the Land of Israel.

CHAPTER 35

C
ertificate!” demanded the Jew in the grey coat, standing on the pier next to the ship
Tekumah
, holding the rope barrier in his hand. Joshua presented his papers. The Jew flipped through the paperwork with a blank expression. First he made sure that no documents were missing. Then he double-checked the validity of the certificates and the validity of the signatures.

He looked carefully at Joshua's face and compared it to the face in the picture.

“How old are you?” he asked.

“Twenty-five.”

The man examined Joshua with suspicion.

“What I've seen and what I've been through has aged me prematurely
.
I am not very healthy,” explained Joshua
,
and coughed twice to make his point
.
His coughs were sharp and hollow.

“Here you go,” the man said
,
and returned the certificates to their owner
.
He lowered the rope
.
“You can go through
,
sir
,
but the dog must stay here
.
Direct orders from the ship commander
,
sir
.
Absolutely no animals on board.”

Bloody Cossack
,
I thought
,
and watched Joshua
,
waiting for what he would say.

“The dog comes with me!” Pride and might were apparent in his eyes and voice
.
“This dog shared a bed with me in Treblinka for months
.
He refused food so I could eat
.
This dog stood by me as I watched the smoke pillars rising from the crematoria
,
carrying my brothers and sisters away
.
This dog fought beside me with the partisans
,
and he hid with me in a musty cellar for many
,
many months
.
This dog is no less Jewish than you or I
.
Our nation is his
,
and our God is his
.
Where I go
,
he goes
.
Either we both board
,
or we both stay.”

The man softened
.
“Wait here,” he requested
.
“I'll speak with the captain.”

A few minutes later
,
he returned
.
“Choose a room at the very bottom
,
deep in the belly of the ship
.
And don't let his snout out the door
.
If anyone sees him
,
they'll throw you both into the sea.”

One night
,
Joshua decided to disobey the captain
.
He took me with him to the upper deck
.
We watched the dark waters together
.
“Do you see
,
Caleb?” he said
.
“Do you see this huge sea? On the ground there are wars
,
and man seeks to control every bit of land
,
but the sea remains immune
.
The water stirs quietly and sends foam to the beach
,
and the fish swim in the depths like they have since creation
.
Look carefully at the sea
,
Caleb my dear
.
A day will come when this sea will unite us.”

I didn't quite follow his point
,
but it was clear that he had told me a great secret
.
He kissed me on the forehead and we returned to our room in the ship's hold.

At some point during our voyage
,
we met a Jew named Elijah
.
Elijah was a tall man with a tangled beard and a patch over his right eye
.
After a few minutes of conversation
,
Joshua and Elijah shook hands
.
They discovered that Elijah knew Joshua's family.

“And what about the rest of the family? Is there anyone left?”

Joshua said nothing.

“It's just you?”

“Yes,” he mumbled
.
“It's just the two of us.”

Elijah said that Adolf Hitler
,
may his name be blotted out
,
had a dog too
.
The dog's name was Blondi
.
When the tyrant understood that his game was up
,
he poisoned his dog and then killed himself
,
along with his beloved
,
Eva Braun.

Every dog has his day
,
I thought.

Joshua petted my head and said
,
“The living dog is better than the dead lion.”

Hark
,
nations of the world
!
He who poisons Jews will ultimately end up poisoning himself
,
his wife
,
and his beloved dog!

CHAPTER 36

I
n the Land of Israel
,
we settled near the beach in a small village called Tel Aviv
.
Although bones didn't grow on trees and
gefilte
fish didn't swim in the Yarkon River
,
Israel was a wonderful place
.
Men and women walked the streets without fear
,
and spoke Yiddish spiced with the language of Abraham
.
Every now and then
,
through the open window
,
I heard men calling in Yiddish
,
“
Alte zachen
,
alte zachen. . . .
”
10
Their accent didn't remind me of any specific
shtetl
.
11

We settled in a small building
,
two stories tall
,
that housed three tenants
.
Above us on the top floor lived Martin Hoffenbach
,
a God-fearing violinist whose face fondly reminded me of Kalman Gottlieb
.
I liked lying on his doormat and listening to him play.

The apartment on the ground floor was occupied solely by Mrs
.
Simchayoff
,
a heavy woman with gold rings and bracelets
,
a gold watch
,
gold teeth
,
and a heart of gold
.
The previous winter she had taken in a tiny
,
black kitten who was blind in both eyes
.
I couldn't believe that out of all the cats in town
,
she chose the blind one
.
Catz in a zack
,
12
I thought to myself
.
I couldn't ignore its resemblance to the cat Karl Gustav had killed in the park
.
Mrs
.
Simchayoff told Joshua that the kitten's life had been in great danger
,
as the infection in his eyes almost left him paralyzed
.
The kitten had spent a week under medical supervision
,
clinging to life by his tiny claws
,
but now he was feeling much better.

I was fond of the cat
,
who was named Parshandatha
,
and I treated him with respect and mercy
.
It was amusing to watch him find his way between the furniture in the Simchayoff household
,
or try to catch a fly with the help of his triangular radar-like ears.

All Mrs
.
Simchayoff had to do was move one of the pieces of furniture
,
and little Parshandatha would be completely lost
.
It took him a long time to adjust to the new arrangement
.
The little half-wit
,
catzisher moyech
,
13
would even have trouble finding his food dish
.
He would walk into a wall
,
and his soft face showed simple astonishment
.
I once heard Joshua suggest jokingly to Mrs
.
Simchayoff that she put Braille signs on the wall.

When I saw the kitten struggling in his search for the food dish
,
I shook my head in amusement
,
wer is de catz und wer is dir putar
.
14
I let him hold on to the edge of my tail and I'd lead him to the bowl that Mrs
.
Simchayoff set up for him
.
I gladly acted as his guide dog
.
Joshua told me that Mrs
.
Simchayoff had a place in heaven saved right next Olga Berdyczewski
,
on the dais of honor
.
The Master of the Universe repaid those who saved the helpless.

Joshua acclimated nicely and established friendly
,
neighborly relationships with all the families – old and new – that lived nearby
.
On Friday nights
,
we could hear Shabbat songs floating in from the neighboring houses
,
and at the end of the meal
,
Joshua's friends would visit us and bring me a sizeable portion of leftovers
.
Jews from all over the globe came to enrich my bowl with the splendors of their kitchens
.
I was lucky enough to taste kibbeh
,
kababs
,
moussaka
,
chorba
,
chulent
,
couscous
,
goulash
,
and stuffed artichokes
.
For the first time in my life
,
I had to raise my paws in defeat and say
,
“Enough
,
thank you
,
I'm full.” Fresh schnitzel placed in my dish would try to entice me to take a bite
,
but I defiantly declared
,
“No
!
There's no more room in my belly!”

The years of famine were over.

After Friday night dinners
,
I would doze in the yard and get the holy dirt of Israel all over my fur
.
I felt wonderfully Zionistic
.
My mouth absorbed immigration and my stomach united Diasporas
.
Joshua would come and sit by my side
.
He would open the Book of Books and read me the adventures of Joshua and Caleb – the biblical
Palmac
h
15
warriors – who
,
just like us
,
had a long
,
difficult journey on their way to the Land of Israel.

On weekdays
,
weather permitting
,
we would go on a morning walk along the beach
.
I would run on the sand and Joshua would look into the horizon and silently ponder
.
Once we met an old man
,
short and bald
,
who seemed to have large cotton wads glued above his ears
.
Joshua waved at him and whispered to me that this man was the alpha male of the Israeli pack.

The days
,
weeks
,
and months passed pleasantly
.
Joshua and I barely parted
,
and therein
,
of course
,
lay the secret of happiness
.
Unlike the cold European years
,
the years in Tel Aviv were mostly summer and very little winter
.
The summer sets a lazy tone
,
tempting you to go to the beach
.
What could be better than playing in the sand
,
licking up salt water
,
and
schnorrin
g
pieces of meat from the generous barbeque chefs who chose the beach as the prime location for their art? I made two good friends at the time
.
Azit
,
a fearless female with suicidal tendencies
,
and Balak
,
a slightly unstable and fickle Jerusalemite.

I was no longer a young dog
,
and Joshua's health was also poor
.
Nonetheless
,
we lived every day to the fullest
,
appreciating these years of calm
.
And indeed
,
everything was peaceful
,
until that strange evening
,
two years after we settled in Israel.

There was an odd tension in the air that evening
,
as though everyone was waiting for a heaping serving of pleasure
.
It was similar to my feeling each time Mrs
.
Simchayoff began removing steaks from her grill
.
All the residents sat glued to their radios and listened carefully
.
They held pencils and
,
with shaking hands
,
filled out a three-columned table
.
At the end of the radio ceremony
,
everyone came streaming out of their houses
,
waving flags
,
singing and dancing in the city squares
.
Joshua was too ill to dance in the streets
.
The weakness from his war wounds hadn't yet left his body
.
He sat on the balcony
,
watching the celebrating crowd with sheer happiness in his eyes.

That night
,
before we went to sleep
,
Joshua said the
Shema
prayer
.
As he said “Love the Lord your God
 . .
 .” he began to cry bitterly.

He spoke to the darkness.

“Why did You look away when my parents and siblings were gassed to death? Why did You stay silent when Your children were burned to dust?”

I had questions of my own
.
“Why do You let neglected dogs die
,
exhausted? Why don't You help blind cats who are starving to death?”

Joshua went on
.
“Why would You command me to love You
,
and then do everything to make me hate You?”

I licked the tears that flowed like water
.
These tears were the last drink that I tasted.

“And though You did everything You could do to make me hate You . . .” he stopped himself from crying
,
“I still love You
.
I never stumbled in this commandment
.
He read the verse again
.
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart
,
with all your soul
,
and with all your might.”

I knew that this time God was listening from the heavens.

“My God and the God of my forefathers,” Joshua said
.
“I've seen enough
!
Caleb is old and sick
.
His legs are failing him
.
The gleam has left his fur and his teeth are falling out
.
And I am not exactly healthy anymore either
.
I'm sick of missing them
!
All I ask is this
:
Take us both to Hershel and Reizel
.
Please
,
don't separate us again
.
The separation is a wound that will never heal
,
the blood will never clot
.
Take us together to Father and Mother.”

His prayer was answered.

That night
,
we went to sleep and never awoke.

Loved and admired in their lives
,
and in their death not parted.