On Division is a street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It houses the residents of a cocooned community of Torah-observant Jews. It is also the title of an emotionally gripping novel by a remarkably talented author, Goldie Goldbloom. Warm, tender, at times heartbreaking, the novel is liberally sprinkled with Yiddish words, the language spoken within the tightly-knit community. On Division follows the remarkable story of Surie Eckstein, an astonishing woman of valor.

At fifty-seven, Surie Eckstein finds herself truly blessed. A mother to nine children, Surie is a proud Bubby to thirty-two grandchildren, ( tu, tu, tu) ranging in age from 13 to 30. Surie is equally graced in her forty-two-year marriage. Her husband Yidel is a sweet, gentle man, a popular Sofer (scribe) who, in his spare time, volunteers for an ambulance service and raises chickens in the backyard. Surie is mitzvoth-observant, grateful to “dem Oibishten” (Yiddish slang for G-d) for her bruchis (blessings). Secure within her “kehillah” (spiritual community) Surie thrives inside the ordered lifestyle observing all its prescribed doctrines, its “lock step conformity”. A little overweight, not as attractive as she once used to be, Surie and Yidel continue to have a “quiet love.” Both look forward to retirement surrounded by their eiynikhlekh (grandchildren). But Surie’s arc of grace is about to fracture.

At 57, Surie is pregnant… with twins.

Though warned by doctors at the Manhattan clinic that hers is a high-risk pregnancy, Surie declines an abortion. She believes, “a single child is a whole world,” not hers to destroy. Moreover, Surie keeps the pregnancy a secret from Yidel. Her husband could not withstand another dishonor to the family name. One was enough.

Only four years earlier, Yidel and Surie sustained a terrible tragedy. Their beloved son, Lupa, veered off the “derech” (path). Gay, Lupa was shunned and ostracized by the community who pressured Surie and Yidel to detach from their son. After failed therapy, Lupa left home and died alone of AIDS. Surie has never forgiven herself for Lupa’s death. It left Yidel a broken man.

Now again, the family would be enveloped in scandal. Surie could almost hear “the whispers” of gossips, and feel the derisive looks of her neighbors. Surie and Yidel’s intimate life was exposed. A pregnant Bubby? An aberration in their community! Surie’s condition would further stain and sully the family name for generations. Her grandchildren would not find good playdates, they’d be relegated to less desirable “shedukhim” (marriage partners) when they got older. The entire family would suffer the consequences for transgressing the conventions to which they all joyfully committed. Her pregnancy would surely reignite the shame and humiliation from years past. How does Surie confront the moral dilemma threatening her precious family and her yet to-be-born child?

 

Author Goldie Goldbloom, herself an Orthodox mother of eight, overturns the clichés and misconceptions all too often associated with the Hasidic lifestyle. Goldbloom tenderheartedly taps into the interior life of an eiyshes chail, a woman of valor, torn to reconcile the disparity between her heart, her mind and her faith.