David Gelernter

Leizar David Gelernter

Leizar is a gripping story through five generations, of one man's journey against incredible adversity




It's 1843 in a little shtetl village in Russian occupied Poland. The baby is delivered amidst blood and pain into squalor. Mother dies in childbirth.......




Through 100 years and five generations of the Domansky family, the story takes in a huge sweep of human history. From the pogrom-plagued shtetls of Eastern Europe in the 1800s to post-WW2 suburban London.




A champion of early democracy, Leizar is a writer who faces pogroms, prison, antisemitism, and the travails of two world wars. He survives the injustice reined on downtrodden people from the Cossacks. With death and destruction all around, desecration of his wedding in Poland, kangaroo trials and brutal punishment. The family live in four countries, eventually sheltering from bombs blowing out the windows in North-West London in WW2.




And yet there are tender human moments of true love he shares with his wife Chaya. Together they build a dynastic family.