The House of Hefetz

This saga of the rise and fall of the Hefetz clan is a story about strong women, greed and ambition, set in Jerusalem before World War I. Nehama Hefetz is a powerful matriarch who manipulates the marriages of her daughters, Hava and Deborah. The beautiful Hava obliges her mother by divorcing her first husband, Alexander Gill, and marrying the fabulous Georgie Elia. But Elia turns out to be a degenerate opium addict. Deborah loves Alexander Gill but marries another man.

Two other women interfere in this cycle and push the house of Hefetz towards ruin: Elia’s mother Sarah Hayoun, an extremely learned, aristocratic Indian Jewess, and Mathilda Blatt, a boarding-house owner, whose star rises as Nehama’s wanes. The saga develops against the colorful backdrop of Jerusalem, with English missionaries, German Templers, Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews, adventurers and pilgrims.