The Fur Traders

On the day before Chanukah in the year 1684, a shocking event takes place in the beis midrash of the leading yeshivah of Amsterdam. The event leads to private accusations and confrontations and a public uproar that threatens to change the course of many lives. The complications that arise send the central characters on a hair-raising journey across the Atlantic Ocean and into the wilds of Indian country in upstate New York.

In The Fur Traders, Avner Gold tells the explosive story of three friends, brought together by crisis and contention, who embark on a journey of discovery that brings them face to face with mortal danger time and time again. And in the end, it is their loyalty and devotion to each other that provide the only prospects for survival in every sense of the word. It is a story of treachery, anguish, despair and the redemptive powers of true friendship.

The Fur Traders - the third new book in The Strasbourg Saga, following The Long Road to Freedom and Scandal in Amsterdam - is a work of historical fiction that contrasts the highly developed Jewish community of seventeenth century Amsterdam with the fledgling communities just beginning to lay down roots in colonial America. In one vivid scene after another, it highlights the opportunities, challenges and isolation that characterized Jewish life in the colonies.