Recap: The police free the Jewish students and professors. Daniel is reunited with his father. Rabbi Diamond and his father both have a strange reaction to each other. Rabbi Diamond calls his father Shmuel, and they stare at each other in shock.
I looked at Yisroel Meir and he looked at me.
“I’m glad you’re okay,” Rabbi Diamond said and wiped away a tear.
Then suddenly, both of our fathers were hugging.
“What’s going on?” I whispered to Yisroel Meir.
Aunt Shira appeared with Uncle Oren. She stared at my father hugging Rabbi Diamond. “Steve, thank G-d, you’re okay.”
Rabbi Diamond was standing beside Dad. Aunt Shira stared at him. “I can’t believe it! No wonder – when I saw your son, I was shocked. Yisroel Meir looks just like you.”
“What’s going on?” I asked my aunt. “You know Yisroel Meir’s father?”
My father and Rabbi Diamond exchanged a look and then my father was the first to speak. “Danny, there’s something I need to tell you. Actually, I should have told you this a long time ago. I’m sorry.”
Rabbi Diamond nodded at me. “Daniel, your father and I are half-brothers. Yisroel Meir is your cousin.”
“What!?!”
“It’s a long story. Let’s go back to your house and let your father rest up, and then we’ll tell you all about it.”
We all headed to our house. Dad went into his room to rest, and Rabbi Diamond sat down on the couch. He was stroking his beard. Yisroel Meir and I were both waiting to hear what in the world was going on.
Aunt Shira offered everyone some water and fruit.
“Baruch Hashem, Steve is all right,” Aunt Shira said. “What a scare!”
She handed Rabbi Diamond a cup of water. “How have you been? It’s been a long time.”
“I’ve been fine. I’m glad we’re all together again,” Rabbi Diamond said.
“Me, too,” she said. “Me, too.”
…
After Dad finished resting, he came out of the room dressed in a suit and sat down next to Rabbi Diamond.
“I’m gonna tell you the story – you and Yisroel Meir. I didn’t realize when you brought Yisroel Meir home that he was my nephew. I should have noticed he looked like Ephraim.”
We waited for Dad to tell more.
“Ed and I were always close. When he went away to college, he started a journey into learning more about Judaism. It took him to Israel and then eventually he was fully observant. He wanted me and Shira to join, but I was stubborn. He started calling me by my Hebrew name, Shmuel, but I didn’t want any part of it. I went my own way. There was a big fight – all my fault.
“But now – well, now, I was held hostage in that library by those people, and the reason was because I am Jewish. I started thinking: If they are so set on eradicating Jews and Judaism, there must be something really valuable about it, and I want to find out what it is.” He turned to me. “Danny’s been finding out about it from you, Ephraim, and now it’s time I started, too.”
I couldn’t believe it. I had a cousin my age, a whole family of cousins, and an uncle and aunt. And now Dad would come with me to the Shabbos meals. It was really amazing. I had to thank Hashem.
Aunt Shira explained that she had followed her older brother’s lead and often regretted losing contact with their youngest sibling. She was very emotional when she spoke about how happy she was that my dad was okay and that we were all reunited now as a family.
We decided to spend the rest of Shabbos together at the Diamonds.
Yisroel Meir motioned me to come into his room. “Hey, we’re cousins – and friends, too,” he said.
Those words gave me the warmest feeling ever.
“What do you think of that? We didn’t even know our fathers were half-brothers.”
“Pretty crazy!” I said. I kept hearing him saying we’re cousins – and friends, too.
“Want to read more from the books?”
Yisroel Meir took out the book and we plopped down on his bed to read.
To be continued…
Susie Garber is the author of a newly released historical fiction novel, Captured (Menucha Publishers, 2025), as well as historical fiction novels Please Be Patient (Menucha, 2024), Flight of the Doves (Menucha, 2023), Please Be Polite (Menucha, 2022), A Bridge in Time (Menucha, 2021), Secrets in Disguise (Menucha, 2020), Denver Dreams, a novel (Jerusalem Publications, 2009), Memorable Characters…Magnificent Stories (Scholastic, 2002), Befriend (Menucha, 2013), The Road Less Traveled (Feldheim, 2015), fiction serials, and features in Binah Magazine and Binyan Magazine, and “Moon Song” in Binyan (2021–2022) and Alaskan Gold (2023–2024).