Letters from Rifka

In Warsaw, the family must be examined by a doctor again before they can board the steamship. The doctor discovers that Rifka has ringworm, and Rifka remembers the peasant from the train who had sores on her scalp. The doctor says that the treatment can take months. The family tries to pay a bribe so that Rifka can board, but they are told that even if Rifka makes it to America, she will be examined upon arrival. The Americans will see that she has ringworm and send her back at the steamship company’s expense. While the family attempts to get a ticket from another company, Rifka waits outside with their food budget. Rifka spends all of the money on an orange, unaware that she was overcharged. The salesman calls Rifka a thief when the family protests, and they are forced to pay even more money to get him to leave them alone.

The family meets with a woman from the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS). She gives them assistance money and suggests that everyone, except Rifka, leave for America. She suggests that Rifka go to Belgium, which is friendly to immigrants and has doctors who will care for her while she recovers from ringworm. Rifka, whose hair has begun falling out, is distraught and afraid to be alone. At the same time, she realizes she cannot go back to Berdichev. Continuing to write to her cousin in the Pushkin book, she writes, “Tovah, I am like an orphan now” (50).

Rifka leaves for Antwerp. Her mother gives her a gold chain and locket, and her father gives her his prayer shawl, or tallis, before they part. In Antwerp, Rifka stays with a nice couple named Gaston and Marie. She has a very nice room and is well cared for. Her family writes to her to let her know they have made it to New York and are living in an apartment.

Rifka’s 13th birthday arrives, and she is sad to not be with her family. She makes herself a Star of David out of straw and recites all the prayers she knows as a substitute for her bat mitzvah, or traditional Jewish recognition of her reaching adulthood. She writes, “Maybe you would think me foolish, Tovah, but I did a mitzvah” (54). Rifka places the Star of David in her Pushkin book. She has begun writing to Tovah in the margins of the book because she has run out of pages and hopes to one day send all the letters.

A nun named Sister Katrina helps Rifka and tends to her ringworm. Rifka’s hair is gone, and she worries it will never grow back. Sister Katrina suggests she recites prayers to distract herself when she has the urge to scratch at her wounds, which are covered by a kerchief. Sister Katrina also urges Rifka to get out and explore Antwerp. Rifka’s thoughts turn to home, however. Papa has been sending her money. Rifka tries to give some to Katrina, who refuses it, and so she saves it instead. She writes to Tovah that she feels her hair loss is a problem, but it will not necessarily hold her back, just as she feels about Tovah, who has a back problem causing a deformity but who is talented and intelligent.

Rifka finally goes out to explore Antwerp. She finds it to be a friendly and beautiful city, but she becomes lost. She finds a milkman driving a cart and nervously asks him for the way back to King Street, where she is staying. She gets in the cart, chattering “in a mixture of Flemish and Yiddish, gripping the milkman’s hand tightly” (64). The milkman takes her all the way back, and Rifka kisses his hand in thanks. She writes to Tovah that the milkman reminds her of Uncle Zeb in Berdichev: “Kissing the hand of the milkman, I felt at last I could say good-bye to Uncle Zeb too” (65).

Rifka continues to feel happy in Antwerp. She has made friends, especially with a girl named Gizelle, and Marie and Gaston praise her ability to learn yet another language, Flemish. She finds the Belgian people friendly, and also discovers treats like chocolate, bananas, and ice cream. The ringworm is also disappearing, though Rifka’s hair has still not grown back. Rifka also misses her family, remembering details like the yeasty smell of her mother’s hands.