With increasing use of the Internet by all segments of the Orthodox Jewish community amidst concerns that community members are exposed to content which is considered unsuitable, Itzhak Schier, the American cyberentrepreneur who resides and works in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine and is himself a member and activist in the Chabad-Lubavitch movement of Orthodox Judaism, has combined the increasing adoption of new media technology in his community with the desire for quality and wholesome content that community leaders have expressed to him, and now presents The Faithful of the One, the first E-book which is aimed at the Orthodox Jewish reader. A rough draft of the first seven chapters of the book had appeared in 2006 on a community website which Schier later sold, and many readers had asked him to present the rest of the book, which now consists of thirty chapters and an epilogue, for a total of 155 full A-4 pages in PDF format.
The Faithful of the One presents quality Jewish historical content in the form of the story of a family which flourished during the Golden Age of Spain, but was forced to flee during the Inquisition. Generations later (the book is set in the present decade), the family is still prospering greatly, and there has been a return to Torah observance among its most successful American branch. And it is a leader of this branch of the family who finds out that a neighbor, a medical specialist who provides him with emergency medical care needed as a result of an adventuresome business assignment, is actually a hidden Jew himself, the Latin American descendant of conversos who were forced to pretend to adopt Christianity while secretly remaining loyal to Judaism.
A number of coincidences, which in Jewish thought are seen as divine providence, ensue, and the openly Orthodox Jewish American branch and the similar Israeli branch of the family, all successful in fields including commerce, the arts, and medicine, meet with each other and their similarly successful hidden cousins in a joyous family reunion.
In addition, the author, Nissan Davidi, whom Schier will not identify but who is indeed suspected to be the entrepreneur himself, presents us with the heartwarming tales of how the members of the American and Israeli branches of the family returned to full observance of the Torah after various trials and tribulations.
Schier explains: "Besides the historical background of the past, and the saga of the hidden Jews who I believe are indeed far more numerous than we think and indeed may well comprise the Spanish origin elite of Latin America, the book is meant to show that in America of today and even in Israel, we can and must recreate the Golden Age of Spain in that we can and must openly succeed as proud Torah Jews. As I believe that this success can, does and must include adopting new technology on our terms as dictated by Torah, I chose to release this historical and inspirational work as an E-book."
The Faithful of the One is available directly via Schier's website, ABillionShouts.com in PDF format, or via Amazon in their proprietary Kindle format.
