The Foxtail Legacy is a tale of the legacies we all are heir to — family history, family dynamics, family culture, and genetics. And it is that last category that at the beginning and end of the novel is pivotal in defining who should be and is “family.” All heirs to the immigrant experience — whether descended from the founding Europeans or more recent transplants, experience this. Many later immigrants came here to an established social and economic order, requiring accommodation to an existing order. That is the story David Abromowitz tells in his first novel.
Jacob Itzkowitz, the novel’s moving force and focus, was born in Shavlan, Russia, in what was known as The Pale of Settlement, the portion of the Czarist Russian empire where Jews were allowed to live — and where they endured frequent persecution. As a teenager, Jacob leaves his home and large family to join an uncle in South Africa in 1894 — at a time of significant migration of Russian and Lithuanian Jews. Mr. Abromowitz estimates that approximately 40,000 Jews went to South Africa in search of fortune, and many came to the United States, as well. In fact, many Jews of Russian descent claim South African family history. By chance, young Jacob’s ability with horses and his sharp intelligence brings him to the attention of the Boer president, Paul Kruger, for whom he performs a critical service and is rewarded with enough money to return to Shavlan to marry his cousin. Aboard the ship carrying him on the journey home, he was asked to assist a wealthy, but shady Jewish diamond merchant, which further increased his fortunes. With money to finance his emigration to New Jersey, Jacob plans to join his much older sister and brother-in-law, who have written to assure him he would have a better life working with them in their store.
In the first of many twists of fate, Jacob does not marry the bride he came for, but rather his stepmother’s niece, Shira. She proves to be a great asset in establishing his new life. Arriving in America, Jacob discovers that his sister and brother-in-law misled him about their business. Instead of joining them, Jacob becomes a peddler, driving his horse and wagon through the back roads of rural New Jersey. This is the first of many betrayals by others — even family members, but Jacob also finds himself putting business deals above family and setting a pattern of personal compromises that extend to the next generation of his family.
The novel moves back and forth in time — from 1894 to 2013 — from Jacob and Shira to Jacob’s son Lew and his sisters, to Lew’s son Jake. Through multiple deals and manipulation, Jacob succeeds in establishing himself and his department store — Itzkowitz’s — in Point Pleasant, a developing New Jersey coastal town. Jacob is consumed by his ambitions, and they consume his son Lew, a brilliant scholar, who wanted to be a professor of physics but instead joins his father’s business. While Point Pleasant offers Jacob and his family approval and security, it was not without its prejudices. In the early 1920s, in the novel and in reality, there was a large Ku Klux Klan march through the small seaside town, with Jews and Catholics among its targets.
Over time, Jacob becomes a hardened person who expects his family to embrace his values. Although he is a shrewd judge of people related to his business goals, he is both insensitive and indifferent to his wife, children, and grandchildren. His drive to be successful and respected has absorbed his identity. At a critical moment In the novel, the author tells us: “As if called by a religious vision,…he’d been enthralled by the competition. All his energies would be devoted to racing ahead of the rest. He, Jacob, a peddler from the old country. The man with the accent children found funny. The Jew in a Christian town. Winning yielded power. And power brought acceptance.” (p. 256)
What motivated attorney David Abromowitz to branch out in search of a literary career? Having become increasingly interested in his family’s genealogy, he began to explore more of his family’s history. Point Pleasant was also the birthplace and home of David Abromowitz, whose grandfather — the model for Jacob — died before he was born. “My family history was the scaffolding on which I built the story,“ he said. Jacob’s son, Lew, is loosely based on David’s father. Jake, Lew’s son, and David share similarities, not the least of which is that Jake, too, is a lawyer. But author Abromowitz is quick to point out that much of The Foxtail Legacy sprang from his imagination.
The idea for a novel evolved over time, from friends urging Mr. Abromowitz to write down family stories he told. Just before the Covid transformed all our lives, he enrolled in a writing class, as a first step in preparing to write his novel. Although the class was canceled, Mr. Abromowitz, then working from home, decided to devote a portion of every day to writing The Foxtail Legacy.
Unlike Lew in The Foxtail Legacy, Mr. Abromowitz was not excluded from Princeton because of his Jewish faith. After graduating from Princeton, Mr. Abromowitz went to Harvard Law School, joined the Boston law firm Goulston & Storrs, and has lived in Newton for thirty years. Although The Foxtail Legacy is his first novel, Mr. Abromowitz has also written op-eds for numerous newpapers. He recently founded a new political organization, the New Power Project, and continues to be an advocate for affordable housing.
