Ripped Away by Shirley Reva Vernick; Fitzroy Books (c) 2022; ISBN 9781646-032037; 132 pages.
SAN DIEGO — Here is a short time-travel novel suitable for Young Adults and older readers imagining two high school students who barely acknowledge each other being transported to Whitechapel, London, during the time of the Jack the Ripper murders. Abe and Mitzi, who are both Jewish Americans, find themselves transformed into the 19th Century Asher and Maya, two Jewish teenage neighbors, born to impoverished immigrant families.
Both in the 21st Century had made the mistake of visiting a fortune teller, who magically had whisked them back in time into situations where they became dependent on each other to get back to their own time. The fortune teller told Abe that he would be required to save someone’s life. Mitzi, meanwhile, would be required to to take a long boat ride.
With Jack the Ripper killing young women, it wasn’t long before ignorant people spread the rumor that a true Englishman could not possibly have committed such gruesome homicides; it must be the work of a Jew — perhaps that of a kosher slaughterer. So, in addition to trying to restore themselves to their own time dimension, Abe and Mitzi also were confronted with virulent antisemitism that threatened their 19th century British families. Maya’s uncle, in fact, was a shochet.
Add to this that Mitzi, in her incarnation as Maya, was blind, and you have a story that is an easy page-turner. Although they are transported into the identities of Asher and Maya — and magically seem to know things that they never had before — Abe and Mitzi also remain aware of the awkward teenagers they had been prior to time travel. They fear however that as the days pass, they will forget more and more of their real lives.
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Donald H. Harrison is editor emeritus of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com