The Family Morfawitz, by Daniel H. Turtel
This novel is told through the eyes of Hezekial Morfawitz, the rejected son of Hadassah and Zev Morfawitz. He was born disabled, deformed and unpleasant to look at, and so he was given away at birth by his cold-hearted mother who had designs for her future that did not include such a child. Her husband did not object either. However, Hezekial was destined to return to his family, years later, as the result of an act of revenge against his father Zev, by his mother, Hadassah. Zev had a roving eye and constantly abused the vow of fidelity.
Hezekial’s parents, Hadassah and Zev Morfawitz both survived the Holocaust, uniquely, compromising their souls when necessary, and ultimately with a combination of courage and mendacity, both reached the American shore. There, similar in character, they met and married. They had dreams of building their empire and worked steadily to achieve that goal, mercilessly and savagely climbing the ladder of success. Neither one was particularly scrupulous or honorable in their behavior, rather they did whatever was required to achieve their goals, removing obstacles along the way without regard for the consequences or for those they destroyed.
The depravity of the family is portrayed as generational. Their wealth gave them power and their power gave them their legitimacy. They lacked a code of ethics. They made their own laws and were motivated only by their greed and need for power and fortune. Although their acts of moral turpitude have been compared to the Trump’s, I found little comparison. It might just as easily have been compared to the Bidens, who indeed actually have a son who produced an illegitimate grandchild that they do not recognize or accept, in much the same way as Hadassah refused to recognize Zev’s “bastard” children or her own imperfect child. Even the Kennedy’s, who hid their mentally ill child away from the world and subjected her to lobotomies which left her unable to function normally, could come to mind, but the author chose to hone in and humiliate a Jewish family for its unending depravity. Because they are real estate moguls, building a monument to themselves, and Trump is so often portrayed that way by our news media, I believe, the thought immediately comes to mind, unfairly, but was probably the actual intention of the author. In this way he could attract a certain kind of reader, sadly one that might take away a very negative view about all Jewish people, since he has exaggerated every stereotype within the Morfawitz family. They behaved reprehensibly, without showing any humanity to others.
The book reeks of anti-Semitic dialogue and portrayals. There is no one in the book that deserved my respect. I did not find it funny, because I found the picture of the Jewish family to be abysmal. No family I know, is or was, like that, and I grew up in the era of the book. No Jewish survivor of the Holocaust, that I ever knew, lacked a moral compass because of their experience, more likely they were made stronger and more determined because otherwise they would not have survived. They worked hard to achieve whatever they did, not by hurting others, but by being grateful for their freedom. They were dedicated to their purpose of improving their lot in life by promoting education for their children so they would be better prepared to fight back in this world, a world that did, and still does, seem to birth evil in so many places.
Yet, this author has ascribed every negative personality and moral trait to the matriarch, patriarch and their progeny, though many of the children came from the patriarch’s utter lack of marital fidelity. The Morfawitz family destroyed people without any sense of remorse; they thought they were better than most people even as their very behavior singled them out to be the worst kind of examples of anyone in society. They let no one stand in their way, legitimately or illegitimately, without making them pay for it. Any slight required the most horrible punishments to be meted out. The characters were quite despicable.
To think that portraying Jews in this way is humorous, because the writer is talented, is a mistake as far as I am concerned. If this book was about any other religion or race, it might remain unpublished or even banned as hate speech. Even those characters that are horribly abused in the book, those hurt brutally by the Morfawitz family, have few redeeming qualities. It is as if the whole of humanity has been compromised and made depraved by the actions of the Morfawitz family, who of course, are even worse. A reader might find him or herself desperately hoping for retribution against this family, because of its cruelty toward others. Might this spill over into our reality in society? This book is hard to read for a Jew because it highlights all of the worst character components of all human beings and rolls them up into this Jewish Family, survivors of the Holocaust, who became as brutal and as ruthless as their enemies.
The only Jews I know, or have ever known, who have survived pogroms or the Holocaust or have come to America from places that rejected them, have worshiped the Statue of Liberty, not to compete with its message or better it, like Hadassah and Zev, but to live up to its promise of welcome and opportunity. So, would I recommend the book, I am not sure, because it paints such a horrible picture of a Jewish family that it is bound to stain an entire population of Jewish people with the same ugly brush. Is it written well, and is it engaging, yes, which is why I find it so upsetting. The author has a gifted pen, but one can only wonder why he wrote such a book as this, with a vicious sense of humor, that offered no redeeming features for any Jew, even in the end.
Jewish people should be respected for their achievements, kindness and compassion, not judged for the debauchery that this book promotes by featuring such a corrupt family as members of the Jewish community. I am afraid that there are people who will simply now put all Jews into the box of unethical, greedy, selfish, and power hungry humans. The book reinforced too many negative stereotypes using the cloak of artistic talent.