Chapter 1 Summary

An outsider brings awakening to a close-knit but closed-minded Jewish community in the novel The Ladies Auxiliary by Tova Mirvis. Batsheva Jacobs, an eclectic Jewish convert, becomes the object of gossip on the first day that she moves in the Memphis Jewish community. The ladies try to accept Batsheva because the Rabbi's wife seems to approve of her but their opinions change when the girls who Batsheva teaches become more rebellious. They blame the negative changes on Batsheva and try to force her from the community. Themes in the novel include hypocrisy in religion, the emptiness that can take over religious rituals, and the danger of judging a person by their appearance alone.

Batsheva and her daughter Ayala attract attention right away when they move into a Jewish community in Memphis just as the members of the neighborhood are preparing for Shabbos. The...