Rabbi Gabrielle Commits a Felony

by Roger Herst

  "Where's the electron accelerator?" Gabby was capable of duplicating the enthusiasm of a teenager.

  "Mounted about half way up," Gideon pointed to what looked like a giant electrical box on a mezzanine floor above their heads. "When we're operating, we use a tremendous amount of power. That's converted in the accelerator into electron beams that pass through the products to be treated. The beauty of this process is that we irradiate right through the packaging. Of course, the dose used must be changed depending upon the target. We have a battery of computers re-setting the doses and direction of the beam. It's a preferred method of sterilizing medical products, such a syringes, cardio thoracic devices, and most disposables such as razor blades, condoms, toothbrushes, and sanitary napkins. The pharmaceutical industry is particularly high on the process since it must insure against liability for HIV viruses. The army loves us because the food we irradiate withstands temperature and humidity. Put in financial terms, we save the military each and every month more than it cost to build one of the plants the government won't give us a license to operate."

  They passed under the electron beam accelerator, down a long passageway, then diverted into another warehouse, this one also stacked with materials waiting to treated. "The process only takes a few minutes," Gideon continued. "But we must manage a lot of logistics and that is increasingly difficult with a single accelerator and increasing demand."

  A large sign warning of gamma radiation drew Gabby's attention. In high school, physics was not her favorite subject, yet she knew enough to ask, "Where is the gamma radiation from an electron beam?"

  "Oh, that's from our cobalt chambers we used to operate. But we've transitioned entirely to e-beam."

  "If you have the chambers, why not alleviate some of your backup by using cobalt?"

  Gideon made a suddenly change of direction and ushered Gabby back toward the office building. "At the present moment, we don't have any cobalt on campus. We've shipped our supply to another location that doesn't enjoy the infrastructure we have here at New Frontiers. Cobalt is simpler and cheaper then electron beam radiation, but it's not as versatile."

  "Is it dangerous, Gideon?" she asked with genuine curiosity.

  "Not much," he said. "Cobalt is a relatively low grade source of radiation. Of course, it must be carefully sealed in depleted uranium boxes. They can be a bit heavy, but nothing you couldn't transport in the trunk of an automobile."

  By the time they returned to the office, Gabby felt more comfortable with New Frontiers, especially since the Department of Defense had made a commitment to use it. She also understood why Melanie worried about accidents. Technical difficulties hurt Gideon's bottom line, but a physical injury to one or more employees could be far worse.

  "Since I'm apparently the messenger here," Gabby said as she was about to step into the cold night air, "do you want me to take a message back to Senator Zuckerman?"

  "Yes," he smiled, "but I wouldn't dare ask you to relate something as foul as I have in mind. I just hope that old busybody will keep his hands off me, otherwise I'll sick my friends in the Department of Defense on him. Senators like to throw their weight around, but they don't like to get pushed."

  "I know a different part of Arthur Zuckerman, Gideon. Take my word for it, the man has substance to him."

  Gideon gave her a departing kiss. "I'll take your word for it because yours is a very good word, indeed. I'll put a call into Zuckerman's office and if he wants to talk, we will. Thanks for coming out tonight. D'reshat Shalom to Kye. Say hello to Kye for me."

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Kye usually rose before Gabby, though she habitually started her day before sunup. When she lifted her head from the pillow Wednesday morning, there was a large bouquet of red and white carnations on a nightstand beside the bed. She called into a home intercom for Kye, who immediately came from the kitchen to the bedroom and bounded over to her with a good morning kiss.

  "They're beautiful," she said, pointing at the flowers.

  "For a beautiful mother. This is a red-letter day for us, Gabrielle. And of course, Archibald."

  "I don't think we've talked about names yet, Kye," she smiled, touching her left breast for any last minute signs of swelling. There was none.

  "Any spotting?" he asked.

  She laughed, and headed for the bathroom. "I haven't had a moment to look yet, but it doesn't feel like it. Give me a moment and I'll make an inspection."

  Kye sat back against the bed to wait and heard a toilet flush, then an exclamation of joy. "None, Kye. I think we've done it this time! Carmel must have done the trick."

  "Are we free to tell the world?" he inquired.

  "Heavens, no! Not just yet. I want to talk with Melanie first. I'm sure she'll ask me to come in for an examination and the obligatory pregnancy test. I guess I could buy a kit at the pharmacy and do it myself, but Melanie is likely to be more thorough. I've got an early morning appointment with Shenna Benjamin at the Holocaust Museum."

  "Maybe you shouldn't take your normal jog this morning," Kye offered.

  "Are you kidding? If anything, I'm a few days pregnant, not months. And I'd like to celebrate our fortune with the future daddy. Are you in the mood to run?"

  The US Holocaust Museum made ample space available for permanent and revolving exhibitions of Holocaust memorabilia, but had miscalculated the growth requirements of the research and curatorial departments. Shenna Benjamin's cubical was hidden in a warren of offices separated by low partitions. She had to borrow a chair from a neighboring cube for Gabby to sit, and then offered her a cup of coffee.

  When settled, Shenna opened a folder and refreshed herself with the contents. "We've made progress on the Knishbacker name you asked us to research. All known Jewish family names in Europe have been gradually entered into a massive database. Whatever is known about people bearing these names, where they lived, their ages, children, what ghetto they were evacuated to, or which concentration or death camp – everything, everything is noted. Then we co-match with spelling variations – the most frustrating part of the process. It's taken over fifteen years to enter the data we retrieved from German archives. But new information is constantly being found, so our lists are anything but complete."

  Shenna withdrew a computer printout and handed it to Gabby. "You can see that there were Knishbackers in Silesia, Vichy, France, the Koeningsburg area, and the Ukraine. Three members from Vichy, France managed to slip through the Pyrenees to Spain and actually caught a ship to New York. They have relatives in Albany, New York and Salt Lake City. As far as we know, all other Knishbackers perished."

  Gabby examined the list and shuffled the papers, scanning the limited information about the Silesian and Koeningsburg Knishbackers. The Ukrainian Knishbackers drew her immediate attention. Rabbi Moishe Lieb Knishbacker, born in the village of Otinaya in 1889 died in a mass shooting of Jews in the Szeparowce Forest shortly after the Wehrmacht swept into Soviet Russia in the summer of 1941. His son, Rabbi Wolf Issador Knishbacher, met his death in the Belzac Death Camp two years later.

  "Do we know anything more about these rabbis?" Gabby's curiosity was sharpened.

  Shenna turned to her desktop computer and booted up software to retrieve data about individuals. She typed in the name Knishbacker before tapping an index finger against the desk, waiting for the software to retrieve information about members of the Knishbacker families. The village of Otinaya narrowed the search. An electronic notation from a Museum researcher directed Shenna to a second historical summary, which required several extra clicks to access.

  "It says here that Rabbi Moishe, the senior, was Rosh Yeshiva, the head of a yeshiva in Kolomya, about twenty-five miles south of Ivano Frankovsk," Shenna read for Gabby's benefit, adding from her own knowledge. "That's probably why the Germans selected him for early execution. To facilitate rounding up scattered Jews, they first eliminated the leadership. The Yeshiva shel-Maalah of Kolomya was renowned for the quality of its scholarship. Jewish communities in Nort
hern Europe generally disdained schools in the Ukraine, but not Rabbi Knishbacher's. My researcher noted that Knishbacher fought constantly with the predominate Hassidim who considered him a fanatic and stern disciplinarian who tyrannized his students."

  "What does that mean?" Gabby interrupted.

  "No details provided," Shenna replied. "We can ask the research team to look into it."

  "That would be helpful. Was Rabbi Knishbacher's son, Rabbi Wolf Issador Knishbacher, also at the Yeshiva shel-Maalah?"

  "The report says he was an instructor. But we don't know any more about him."

  Gabby eased back into her chair and let her imagination pull together unconnected fragments of information. Shenna Benjamin noticed how she appeared to be distancing herself into an imaginary world of thought.

  When Gabby re-emerged, she said, "This is great information. But I need to know more about Rabbi Wolf Issador, who perished in Belzac. Did he have any survivors? And if so, where are they?"

  "We'll do our best. Can you tell me why this is important?"

  Gabby took papers from her lap and placed them on a desktop and leaned forward, clamping her hands together. "Sergeant Dormeyer's map placed the Torah stolen from Ohav Shalom in the Ukraine, not distant from Kolomya. I'm dealing with a rabbi in Brooklyn who calls himself Olam v'Ed, but his real name is Knishbacher, who runs a school of Talmudic studies that emphasizes the powers of memory over the written text. There are a lot of overlapping coincidences here."

  Shenna Benjamin became more animated. "Do you think he had something to do with the theft of your Torah?"

  "It seems crazy, doesn't it? Here's a man who, from all I can gather, deeply reveres the Torah. Would an academic genius steal and profane a book he already knows by heart? As a teacher of Torah, he already has access to innumerable copies of the Torah."

  "But you're still suspicious, aren't you?"

  "That's not quite the right word. I just wonder if he is any relation to the Knishbacher rabbis who died in Europe."

  That afternoon, Gabby wrote an email to a Dr. Yechiel Stern, Professor of Rabbinics at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati.

  How would I seek information about Rabbi Moishe Lieb Knishbacher, Director of the prewar Yeshiva shel-Maalah in Kolomya, Ukraine, and his son, Rabbi Wolf Issador Knishbacher? Your suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

  Shalom. G. Lewyn"

  On Thursday, Gabby purchased a drugstore home pregnancy kit based on a monoclonal antibody specific to chorionic gonadotropin, a hormone known to increase when a woman is pregnant. Though an over-the-counter test, it represented an elegant merging of several biomedical discoveries. The chorionic gonadotropin in a plastic tube attached itself to a sample of Gabby's urine. To this mixture, she added an enzyme designed to change color when in contact with a relatively high level of chorionic gonadotropin. To her delight, the color of the urine did not change, an indication that she was indeed pregnant. To check her findings, she made an appointment to see Melanie Ganeden the next morning.

  Melanie's schedule was packed, but reacting to Gabby's urgency, she agreed to see her before an early morning clinic. They hugged warmly, then Melanie held Gabby out in front of her as though inspecting a daughter. "You're the kind of patient that if I prescribe a drug, you'll go to the Internet and come back know more about it than I do. So you've already given yourself a test?"

  "Yes, but I'm not sure that I did it correctly."

  "There are lots of pregnancy tests. If you wish, I'll give you one based on another methodology," she said reading the packaging for the home test that Gabby brought along. "This is a monoclonal antibody test. We'll try something else. For confirmation."

  "Do I need another pelvic?"

  "A quick one wouldn't hurt. Since I've seen you recently, I'm sure everything is fine, but we'll have a look to be sure. You'll have to provide us with another urine sample."

  After a quick examination, in which Melanie found nothing to worry about, she excused herself to see another early morning patient, but asked Gabby to wait for results of the second test. Gabby dressed herself and consulted her palm top organizer to review her own schedule for the day. Twenty minutes later, Melanie returned with a wide smile. "It's positive," she said as she closed the door behind her. "You're going to be a mother, Gabby, and I can't think of anyone more deserving or better suited. Now, I think it's time for a Mazal Tov!"

  "I don't know," Gabby rose to accept a kiss of congratulations. "Rabbis usually have brilliant but screwed up kids. I hope Kye and I don't create a neurotic."

  "All the rabbis' kids I know have turned out far better than average, though only a few seem to follow their parents into the rabbinate."

  "I can't wait to call Kye in California. You wouldn't believe the home we stayed in out there when our baby was conceived."

  Melanie's happy face seemed to enlarge with omniscience. "Are you telling me conception didn't happen in the back seat of a car?"

  "Too old for that. Now, if you've got just a moment, tell me what's happening on the home front with Gideon and you."

  Melanie's smile disappeared and was replaced by a distant expression of fear. She sighed audibly, ripping off her glasses. "I'm not sure, but all my instincts tell me something's going on. I'm now using a vaginal O-ring for local estrogen release, but Gideon isn't interested. I know he's very busy at New Frontiers, but in the past, even when he was busy, we were close. That's no longer true. I don't know who he's sleeping with, but I have a mental image. My guess is she lives out of town."

  Gabby held back Claire Davenport's name that Gideon had provided in confidence. What purpose would be served by revealing it anyway?

  "He's also invading our savings account. What really frosts me," Melanie's mood became cold, "is that we have a joint bank account, so in a way, I'm financing his love-affair. That's more than a loyal wife should be asked to do, don't you agree?"

  "You bet," Gabby said without hesitation. "Why not open your own account and stop feeding a bad habit?"

  "I'm thinking about it, but I want to be certain before I jump. This will trigger an argument and I feel guilty about doing that when he's working night and day. I was hoping that things would slow down at New Frontiers so that we could have an honest talk."

  "By not confronting him now, you're only postponing a problem. The earlier you do, the better chance you have to solve it. I know how you're feeling, Melanie. Bitterness tends to build over time, and it's hard to reverse once it's gone on too long."

  Melanie rubbed her forehead, gently nodding agreement. "Well now," she said, "let's not spoil a happy moment, Gabby. I see a lot of pregnant girls around this office but few who thrill me like you. I know you've got a lot to read, but I'd like you to read a pamphlet about what to expect. You know the rules about alcohol. In the pamphlet there's a list of dangerous drugs to avoid. If you see any other physicians other then myself, let them know immediately that you're pregnant. And I'll want to see you in about a month."

  "You will deliver our baby, won't you?" Gabby asked as they were about to depart the examining room.

  "I told you that I'm a bit rusty on obstetrics, but I'll certain scrub in with the obstetrician."

  "Who do you recommend?"

  "Hey, Mommy, that's nine months from now. Let's cross that bridge a few months down the road. Just go out and enjoy yourself. Mazel Tov to Kye. He's one lucky man."

  "I know," Gabby said, thinking of what might have happened had Gideon shown interest in her when she had a crush on him.

  At Ohav Shalom, Chuck had stuck a yellow Post-it to the door of Gabby's study, indicating there was an important email waiting for her. She booted her computer and routinely called up her email inbox, but never actually got around to reading the messages to answer several telephone calls. She rang Kye before he left the Carmel home for a morning jog at 5:30 am. He was late that morning and was just getting out of bed.

  "You always said it would happen in this bed," Kye sounded his wonder when she told
him there was no longer any doubt about pregnancy. "You know I haven't given as much thought to parenthood as you, Gabrielle, but I'm absolutely thrilled beyond words. It's going to be the greatest adventure of our lives. I've been thinking about Schopenhauer who wrote that men and women are attracted to each other primarily for reproduction. Maybe it was Nature working inside us and now it's coming to fruition. It's hard to believe that all this wouldn't have happened had you not been jogging in front of me at the Greenbrier in the middle of deer season."

  "It's unbelievable, Kye. A total mystery. Start thinking of names for our child. How are things going out there?"

  The California coast was blanketed in a thick morning fog, hiding the noisy surf beyond from the bedroom window. Kye stood at the bedside and stretched. "A bit better than I would have anticipated, but my partners are pressing me about living in California. I don't want to put pressure on you, Gabrielle, but I can't put them off much longer. When you step up to the plate, once in a while you have to take a swing. The offer on this house isn't open ended. I've learned that a Silicon Valley executive has offered a royal ransom for this house. Besides, if you decided it's not for us, I've got to rent an apartment nearby."

  "I hear you, Love," Gabby said. "This is going to be one of the most difficult decisions in my life for our family. Yes, we can now talk about our family. So the decision has gotten more complicated."

  "I have a bottle of Schramsberg champagne ready to drink over our child," Kye said.

  "Hey, I'm not supposed to have alcohol, but it's early and a taste won't hurt. Suddenly, I've got to be thinking about things like this. When are you coming home?"