What has happened to civility?  That’s what Aaron Kaufmann was thinking about on January 1, 1864.  So many people look at Rebekah and me as if we don’t belong in this new land!  Oh, maybe not everybody.  Sheriff Coffee is cordial enough. But this morning, those three hooligans tried to pull a ring off of one of Rebekah’s fingers.  It was the ring I gave her mother when we wed.  It’s about all I have left of her mother, aside from her prayer book, sewing and knitting needles.  Thank God Adam Cartwright was in town with his father and brothers.  He heard Rebekah’s cries!  He went after one of the guys.  A gent with an Irish accent came and gave another of the hooligans a good drubbing.  And then a  couple of others came to help us.  Did I hear Yiddish?  Or was it Apache or Spanish?  They walloped the daylights out of those three!  We were so shaken up by the incident!  Those hooligans called us Kikes, Yids, and words so much worse, I don’t even want to recall them.  And I didn’t even defend my daughter against them!  (How could I?  It’s the Sabbath and I will not break the Sabbath by being violent in retaliation.)  This is supposed to be the land of opportunity, the land of prosperity.

I brought my family out of Russia to escape the pogroms.  My wife, Rebekah’s mother was murdered during one of those pogroms. We lost Rebekah’s brother, Joshua, to marauders as we made our way to Genoa, Italy to sail to America.  And we still can’t escape the persecution!

Well, Mrs. Brown did come over and comfort Rebekah after those kind town folks shoved the meshuganahs over to the jail entrance.  Mrs. Brown said that we are people of  The Book and as such, shouldn’t be treated so shabbily.  She’s made a promise to us.  “You may not observe the way Christians do, but you believe in God”, she said.  And she told me she’s made a New Year’s resolution:  She’s going too make sure we feel welcome here.  That’s her promise and her resolution.  I believe her.  Why she’s already working with Ben Cartwright to have a welcoming party for us.  And Ben has told me that he’s going to make sure the food is Kosher!

Maybe this new land is civil.  Maybe Rebekah and I can make a home here and prosper.  I think there is another Jewish family in Virginia City.  With civil people like Mrs. Brown, the Cartwrights and Sheriff Coffee, we may just make it!  I hope I can find Rebecca a nice Jewish boy to marry.  I wonder if Mrs. Brown might want to play matchmaker.  Maybe that young Albert Michaelson?  He likes to study, a hallmark of our people!

What’s that?  Adam just came back from the Sheriff’s office.  Those hooligans will be spending New Year’s Day in jail and maybe longer until a hearing is convened to determine their fate.  They’re charged with attempted theft, battery, bullying and disturbing the peace.  And there are folks gathering around us who are saying they saw what was happened and will testify on our behalf.  Some of them are saying they left the Old Country because of persecution, too!  They understand!

Rebekah!  Stop looking at Adam like that!

Oy, children!