Norma Greenstein

A Return to Goshen Norma Greenstein

The Novel, A Return to Goshen, recounts events in the life of a Jewish family, the Harts, in Charleston during the Civil War. Miriam, a wealthy Jewess from Philidelphia, marries Jacob, a Jew from Charleston. Upon moving to her husband's home, she is confronted with the "peculiar institution" of slavery. Although she tries to conform to Southern society she cannot shed her instinctive abhorrence of slavery. After Miriam interfers in the beating of a small slave boy, Jacob defends his wife's honor in a duel. He enters the Civil War as a field surgeon and is wounded at Gettysburg and found on the battlefield by his cousin, Daniel, an officer in the Union Army. The story revolves around the historical events in Charleston ; the firing on Fort Sumter in 1861, the deprivation of Charleston's populace during the war, the bombardment of Charleston in 1863, and the evacuation in 1865. Historical figures are woven into the plot, either by anecdotal reference or by appearance. The title refers to the slavery of Jews in Goshen and the irony of Jewish slave-owners celebrating their ancestors release from Egyptian slavery every Passover.