Rabbi Prinz

Rabbi Prinz is a prominent Newark rabbi whose prestige gives him influence with the city’s authorities during the anti-Jewish crisis of 1942. He does not stop the climate of fear or prevent the Roth family from deciding to leave, but his standing helps secure police protection for the South Ward and makes that protection visible to a frightened child.

Standing in Newark

Rabbi Prinz’s influence is described as a continuing force among Newark’s powers: at a moment when Jewish residents fear that government-sanctioned persecution may follow, his prestige has so far helped ensure that no Jewish family has been forced into anything worse than relocation. That distinction does not make the community feel safe. The Roth family’s experience of the crisis has become so destabilizing that Herman Roth admits he was wrong to dismiss the danger, and the family begins making plans to emigrate.

The book sets this local authority against a broader political atmosphere in which antisemitic claims are repeated as public explanations for national disorder. During the emergency that follows President Lindbergh’s disappearance, reports blame Jewish residents for the riots and present them as conspirators against the government. Rabbi Prinz’s influence offers a counterweight at the municipal level, but it cannot contain the reach of those claims or restore the family’s former sense of security.

Securing police protection

As tension escalates in Newark, Mayor Murphy promises Rabbi Prinz a full-scale police mobilization across the South Ward. The planned coverage extends east to Frelinghuysen Avenue and north to Springfield Avenue. The city is also to deploy its mounted police: two platoons of twelve officers, divided among four precincts, are assigned to patrol streets west of Weequahic and south toward Union County. The deployment follows attacks in the surrounding area, including the burning of a Jewish-owned liquor store and the smashing of synagogue windows.

The protection is not merely an official assurance. On the night of October 15, the narrator hears police horses moving along Keer Avenue and imagines them as a barrier against violence advancing toward the family’s house. In that childhood vision, the horses’ presence at the end of the street is something Rabbi Prinz has caused to materialize through his standing with the authorities. The scene gives his influence a concrete form: civic connections become mounted patrols on the neighborhood’s streets.

Limits of his protection

Rabbi Prinz’s role is protective but limited. His influence helps secure a police presence in Newark, yet it cannot remove the fear that has taken hold or guarantee what may happen next. The Roth family’s decision to flee is made despite the local protection, as the crisis has made it impossible for Herman to feel that ordinary life can continue safely. The contrast is central to the portrayal of Prinz: his authority can affect what the city does, but it cannot settle the larger political emergency or restore the family’s confidence in remaining in the country.

The novel therefore presents his influence as both consequential and fragile. The police horses offer the child narrator a temporary image of safety, while the family’s departure plans show how little that defense can promise beyond the immediate neighborhood. Rabbi Prinz’s standing matters because it produces a real response from civic power; its limits matter because the response cannot make the surrounding danger disappear.