In this story by Dan Jacobson a nominally Jewish university graduate, whose spiritual emptiness is compared with the vast emptiness of the South African veldt, encounters a black Israelite preacher. To his lay rabbi’s delight, this prompts him to begin a search for religious enlightenment. Unfortunately, the search ends when his bigoted father forbids further communication. The Israelite’s selfless missionary zeal is contrasted with a sheep-stealing native farm hand, who realizes that setting up his own church in a black community can be more profitable than working for a wage. Themes include religion, search for meaning, death, social class, racism.
In understanding the father’s extreme reaction to his son’s association with the Israelite preacher, it is useful to consider some history. Despite the name, South African “Israelites” had no connection with the Jewish religion. Rather, they were a break-away cult from the American Church of God and Saints of Christ, among whose beliefs was that black Africans are descendants of the ancient Israelites. This suggestion would have been grossly offensive to racially biased immigrant Jews
Through the Wilderness Text / PDF (13,000 words)