Levi Kaufman

Oil and Water Levi Kaufman

"Oil and Water" is set nearly a century after the building of Jerusalem's Second Temple. Alexander the Great, the Greek conqueror, is dead and his empire is split; its Middle Eastern division contested by the Ptolemies of Egypt and the Syrian Seleucids. Tens of thousands of Jews, taken to Egypt as slaves some decades before, have only recently been freed. Some of these Jews, though deeply changed by their difficult experiences, sought to return to a homeland many of them had never seen. . . a homeland which might not even want them back. "Oil and Water," an historical novel, explores ancient political movements and fundamental struggles over power, glory and, for some, over truth. The book also probes one young man's very personal struggle to choose between idealism and assimilation; between his great thirst to drink from the waters of the Torah and the pain and loneliness of cultural alienation.