Kerry Greenwood: Raisins and Almonds

'Yes, yes,' snarled Isaac Cohen. 'My name is Ivan Vassiliov. Of course I was here. Four years I have been here. I was sent to infiltrate the Jews in Melbourne, the young counterrevolutionaries, the Zionist conspiracy to overthrow the revolution. I learned the language, I learned the customs, I read Torah. I was a very good Jew. When I found out about the compound, I received my instructions. I had orders to kill the inventor when I had his invention. The revolution needs it.'

'You were going to kill me?' asked Yossi, bewildered. 'You were going to kill me?'

'Of course. With you dead and the formula in my hands, who was to say where it came from?' asked Isaac reasonably. 'I tell you, the New Russia requires it.'

'But, Isaac,' he protested, and Ivan Vassiliov turned in the policeman's grasp and spat in his face.

'Filthy Jew,' he snarled.

'That's quite enough of that,' said Robinson. 'Come along. Immigration'll want you after you get out of jail,' he said to the young man. 'They'll deport you smartish and I hope the Russians have joy of you. Nasty piece of work,' said Robinson, and shoved the struggling ex-Cohen from the room.

Yossi was led away to wash his face. Julia Abrahams said helplessly, 'But he seemed so nice.'

'Zeeser Gottenyu!' Mrs Grossman fanned herself. 'Sweet God, a Russian! In my house , yet!'

Mr Abrahams went to the cupboard, poured busily, and passed around small glasses of strong sherry. Everyone sipped and gradually started to recover from the shock. The voices rose to fever pitch then began to die down.

That's the last revelation I have for today,' said Phryne. 'Not a nice one but it is the last. Everyone else in this room is definitely who they say they are.'

She looked around. The students were clumped together. The three Kaplans had the advantage of knowing each other from birth. Yossi was well known. Everyone was now known, except this strange woman who had seduced Simon and solved the mysteries.

There was something that everyone was dying to know but no one liked to ask.

Mrs Katz took another biscuit and nudged her husband, who shrugged. Julia Abrahams looked at her husband, but he was staring into his glass. The students shifted and muttered but did not speak. Then Simon rose from his chair and came to sit next to Phryne.

'I have to know,' he said. His parents looked fondly at him. Simon could be relied on to ask the question on everyone's lips. Such a good boy.

'Phryne darling,' said Simon, forgetting that his mother was listening. Tell us. Please. We have to know.' 'What?'

Simon took Phryne's hand in both his own. 'How did you know that the spy was Isaac Cohen, I mean, Ivan Vassiliov?'

'A spy can learn a language,' said Phryne. 'A spy can study Torah, be circumcised, and can acquire a protective veneer of shared history or shared study. But one thing cannot be faked. You can authenticate an Englishman by asking him to sing Humpy Dumpty or Old King Cole or asking him about the Old Woman Tossed Up in a Blanket . You can verily a Pole by asking him to say a little prayer, which every Polish child learns at its mother's knee. Orphaned, lost, brought up by wolves, every child born in Poland knows his Our Father.' 'So?' asked Julia Abrahams.

'So I just took them into the next room, and asked them to sing me Raisins and Almonds ,' said Phryne.

Bibliography

If anyone would like to duplicate my research, here are my sources. I have made one deliberate anachronism: I moved the Society restaurant to Bourke Street four years early.

u/r = unknown reference–I had given the book back before I noted the reference.

Album of Melbourne Views 1925 (author's collection)

Amirah: An Un-Australian Childhood Amirah Inglis, Heinemann, Melbourne 1983

The Australian Jewish Herald 20 September 1928

A Book of Household Management Mrs Beeton Ward Lock, London 1901

The Book of Werewolves Sabine Baring-Gould, Causeway Books, New York 1973

Bridging Two Worlds: The Jews and Italians in Carlton Arnold Zable et al., catalogue, Museum of Victoria undated

The Castle of Otranto H. Walpole, Penguin Classics, London 1989

Celebrate Jewish Festivals Angela Wood, u/r

Dawn of Magic L. Pauwels and J. Bergier, Panther, London 1964

Dictionary of Alchemy M. Haeffner, Aquarian Press, London 1991

Education of Hyman Kaplan L. Rosten, Penguin, New York 1968

Eliphas Levi and the French Occult Revival C. Mcintosh, Rider, London 1972

Experimental Magic J. Brennan, Samuel Weiser, New York 1981

Fortune Telling B. Rakoczi, Man Myth and Magic, London 1970

From Moses to Qumran H.H. Rowley, Lutterworth Press, London 1963

The Heir of Udolpho Mrs Radcliff, Penguin Classics, London 1981

The Holy Bible , King James edition

The Holy Kabbalah A.E. Waite, Oracle, London 1996

Jewels and Ashes Arnold Zable, u/r

The Jewish Problem Louis Golding, Penguin, London 1938

The Jews in Victoria Hilary L. Rubenstein, Allen & Unwin, Sydney 1986

The Joys of Yiddish Leo Rosten, Penguin, New York 1959

Living Traditions I. Becher, Mallard Press, New York 1993

Man, Myth and Magic, an encyclopedia ed. R. Cavendish, Purnell, London 1972

Melbourne Markets 1841-1879 u/r, State Library

Melmoth the Wanderer Sebastian Maturin, Penguin Classics, London 1989

Murder Australian Style Jim Main, Unicorn Books, Melbourne 1980

The Murdered Magicians Peter Partner, Crucible Press, London 1987

The Mystical Quabbalah Dion Fortune, Aquarian Press, London 1987

Natural Rubber and the Synthetics T. Tryon, u/r Bailleu Library, Melbourne University

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia ed. I. Wigoder, W. H. Allen, London 1977

Paracelsus: Magic into Science H. Pachter, Collier, New York 1961

The Religions of Man H. Smith, Perennial Library, New York 1958

The Return of Hyman Kaplan L. Rosten, Penguin, New York 1970

Teyve's Daughters Sholom Aleichem, trans. Frances Butwin, Crown, New York 1969

Trial and Error: an autobiography Chaim Weizman, Hamish hamilton, London 1949

The Torah D. Charing, Mallard, New York 1994

The World's Great Religions Time Life, New York 1986

Maps and journeys—the City of Melbourne, Carlton

film: Bitter Almonds: The Jews in Melbourne

Yiddish words

alav ha-sholom (m) or aleha ha-sholem (f): may he/she rest in peace

bubelah : baby

dreck : rubbish, dirt

feh!: an exclamation of disgust

gevalt : (equivalent to) enough!

Goldene Medina : the Golden Land, Australia

gonif : a thief

Gottenyu : God or Lord

Kaddish : prayer for the dead

kasha : cooked cereal

kasheh : questions

mazik: a clever little devil

megillah : the whole long tale

meshuggener: an idiot, a fool

meshumed : an apostate

mezuzah : a charm placed on a doorway to sanctify a house

miesse meshina: an ugly fate or death

mitzvah : a blessing, a good deed

mispocheh : family

nu : a multitude of meanings (sim to eh? in Greek or Ar in Australian)

nudzing: nagging

schlemiel: an idiot

schlimazl : an unlucky idiot

shah : silence