The Yiddish Policemen's Union

In the alternative-history novel, The Yiddish Policemen's Union (2007), American author Michael Chabon imagines that during World War II, Jewish refugees were settled in Sitka, Alaska and that the State of Israel was destroyed in 1948. As a result, Sitka—now a thriving, Yiddish-speaking metropolitan area—is the center of the Jewish Diaspora. However, this year, the American government is due to return control of Sitka to the state government of Alaska. In this context, Sitka detective Meyer Landsman is ordered not to investigate a murder, in order to avoid bad publicity, but he presses ahead with the investigation anyway. The Yiddish Policemen's Union won many awards for science-fiction writing, including the Nebula Award for Best Novel, the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, and the Hugo Award for Best Novel. It was shortlisted for several more, including the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel.

Detective Meyer Landsman, Sitka Police Department, is down on his luck. Drinking heavily and estranged from his wife, he is living in the Hotel Zamenhof, where an identified male victim is found murdered. Landsman and his half-Jewish, half-Tlingit Native Alaskan partner, Berko Shemets open an investigation. However, before they are able to make any headway, their superiors order them to shut the investigation down. In a few weeks, the U.S. government is due to decide whether Sitka will cease to be a Federal District and “Revert” to the control of the Alaskan state government. “Reversion” is the stated policy of the U.S. President, an evangelical Christian who wants the Jewish Diaspora to return to the hellishly divided region of Palestine. Sitka’s Jews hope to retain their autonomy. In this context, Landsman’s superiors explain, murder investigations are undesirable.

Landsman and Shemets ignore this warning and proceed with their investigation. They identify the deceased as Mendel Shpilman. The son of an organized crime boss, Heskel Shpilman, Mendel was rumored by some to be the Tzaddik Ha-Dor, the one man born in each generation with the potential to be the Messiah.



The detectives visit Verbov Island, a Sitka neighborhood that is home to the city’s most orthodox Jewish sect, known as the Verbovers, to interview Heskel Shpilman. He explains that he has not seen his son for 23 years, although he will not say why they were estranged.

Meanwhile, Landsman comes across information leading him to a suspect he has been tracking in another case. A gunfight breaks out and Landsman kills the suspect in self-defense. He is stripped of his badge, but still, he refuses to abandon his investigation into Mendel Shpilman’s death. He interviews Mendel’s mother, Batsheva, who explains the young man’s estrangement from his family: On the day of his arranged marriage, he fled, confessing to his mother that he was gay. While on the run, he became addicted to heroin. Not long before his death, he called Batsheva to tell her that someone was hunting him.

Next, Landsman learns that Mendel’s sister, Naomi, had remained in touch with Mendel. A commercial pilot, she supposedly died two years previously in a crash, but Landsman realizes that her flight records have been doctored. He visits the Peril Strait wilderness, over which her last flight passed, and he discovers a fake drug treatment center, operated by Heskel Shpilman’s gang.



Landsman infiltrates the center, learning that Heskel’s gang wanted to lure Mendel out of hiding: They established the fake treatment center to attract his notice. Naomi had brought Mendel there unawares, and been killed to prevent her from revealing his whereabouts.

After a run-in with the gangsters, Landsman visits the local police department, where he is shown a mystery they have been pondering: a strange pen full of cows, including one red heifer.

Landsman takes his findings to Hertz Shemets, Berko’s father and a retired senior police officer. Hertz recognizes the red heifer as a component in a religious rite intended to hasten the Messiah’s coming and the Jews’ return to Jerusalem. Hertz adds that this rite would also require the demolition of the Dome of the Rock, a Muslim sacred site in Jerusalem. The final component in the rite is the Tzaddik Ha-Dor—Mendel Shpilman.



With this last piece of the puzzle in place, Landsman approaches Bina Gelbfish, the director of the Sitka Police Department and Landsman’s former wife. Bina suspects that the evangelical U.S. President may have sponsored the plot to conduct the religious rite, hoping that the Jews’ return to the Holy Land will spark the Second Coming. Bina’s suspicion is soon confirmed: She receives orders from the U.S. government to drop the investigation, while Landsman is bribed and threatened by federal agents to keep secret what he has learned.

The plan goes ahead and the Dome of the Rock is destroyed. In the aftermath, Landsman learns that Mendel’s murderer was none other than Hertz Shemets, who hoped to foil the rite by murdering the Tzaddik Ha-Dor. As the novel ends, Landsman calls a contact at a newspaper, intending to reveal everything he knows.