Zimmerman's Tefillin

by Ronald W. Pies

A small-town Jewish family finds their windows waxed with a swastika. An aging widower, following a Talmudic commandment, "buys" himself a medical student for companionship. An English teacher who dreams of being a prize-fighter takes on a bully at a Catskills resort. An aging physician becomes pen-pals with the sister of a Nazi war criminal. A young physician deals with hunger, death, and a manic woman who wants him to fix her toilet. And Max Dershman may find himself in a nursing home, but that doesn't stop him from chasing after the social worker. Throughout these tales, Ronald Pies, MD, explores the Jewish-American experience through the physician's eye, the poet's soul, and the Borscht-belt comedian's wit. Sure, death and disease may be just around the corner, but so is love, and maybe a good deli.

176 pages, Paperback

First published April 12, 2004