Just Jennifer

The Frozen Rabbi by Steve Stern (Algonquin, May 11, 2010) 

*Please note, I do not have a review copy of this to share.  The library has copies that you can request!

In a novel that explores Jewish tradition and diaspora, a Rabbi from 1889 Poland is frozen in a block of ice after a strong winter storm.  Over the next one hundred years, the ancestors of Bernie Karp (a fifteen-year-old living in modern day Memphis, Tennessee), cart the cleric around Eastern Europe, and eventually to Lower Manhattan, as a religious talisman, believing that when the time is right, Rabbi Eliezer will release himself from the ice and  his destiny will be revealed.  This miracle occurs during a power outage in Tennessee and Bernie Karp (whose main interests in life up to this point are eating and planning when and how to lose his virginity) becomes sure that this is a sign for him and begins to school himself on the ancient and mystical ways of his religion as the Rabbi becomes more secular and opens a House of Enlightenment in a strip mall.  The transformation of Bernie and the Rabbi, as Bernie moves from slovenly teen toward the mysticism of Judiasm and the Rabbi trades the mysticism and simplicity he left in 1889 Poland for a more secular life is fascinating to watch develop.  The novel ends, of course, in the only way it can, but it is a very fitting end for Bernie and for the Rabbi.