Summary

Aryeh receives a call informing him that Stalin has had a stroke and is dying, news that won’t hit the American newspapers until the next day. Stalin dies at the end of the week. Asher's parents are relieved, believing that the situation will improve for Jews in Russia. Yudel Krinsky tells Asher, however, that Stalin's death “will not bring back the dead,” and notes that “there are many Stalins in Russia.” Asher is transfixed by a photo in the New York Times of Stalin, dead in his coffin, and cannot get the image out of his mind.

Rivkeh tells Asher that the family might be asked by the Rebbe to move to Vienna, Austria, so that Aryeh can work for the Ladover sect in Europe. Asher informs his mother that he does not want to go to Vienna, but she tells him that...