‘Last Dekrepitzer’ online author talk set Feb. 25

The Lewes Public Library, Seaside Jewish Community and Southern Delaware Alliance for Racial Justice will welcome author Howard Langer for a discussion of “The Last Dekrepitzer” at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 25, via Zoom.

In Langer’s National Jewish Book Award-winning novel, a Hasidic rabbi, saved by Black soldiers at the conclusion of the war, engages in a spiritual journey through the Jim Crow South and racially divided New York. He pursues his quest through a range of music, from blues to gospel to Hasidic niggunim, fiddling his prayers in defiance of God. Yet God gives the Dekrepitzer Rebbe no peace. 

“Repeated readings reveal more insights in this emotional novel dealing with issues of race, the legacy of the Holocaust, and God’s relationship with humanity,” said Enid Zafran, SJC book group leader. 

Registration is required at tinyurl.com/AuthorEventsLPL or 302-645-2733.

Langer attended the City College of New York when its English faculty included, among others, William Gaddis and Joseph Heller. He obtained a teacher’s degree from the Greenberg Institute in Jerusalem, where he had the opportunity to study under Yehuda Amichai and Aharon Appelfeld. He holds a master of English degree from the University of Toronto. Langer currently teaches law at the University of Pennsylvania and practices law in Philadelphia.