There have been pogroms since--there will always be pogroms--but Nechuma refuses to contemplate a return to a life in hiding, a life without sunlight, without rain, without music and art and philosophical debate, the simple, nourishing riches she's grown to cherish.
-- Nechuma (chapter 3)

Importance: Nechuma, the Kurc matriarch, is old enough to remember the horrors of World War I vividly, recalling, for instance, how they spent three years living in a basement. She worries about the threat of war from Germany, but remains convinced early in the novel that they will not have to go back underground. Unfortunately, the devastation to come - the war, the ghettos, the work camps and death camps - will be even worse than she could have possibly imagined.

Before, she would have called herself a mother, a wife, an accomplished pianist. But now she is nothing more than, simply, Jude.
-- Mila (chapter 5)

Importance: "Jude" is the German word for "Jew...