The Yiddish Policemen's Union

Kitka and Landsman fly over Beth Tikkun Retreat Center, which, from the air, looks like a men’s training facility. Landsman deplanes at a floatplane dock, after which Kitka leaves him behind. Landsman infiltrates the clinic, which flies the flags of the United States and the Star of David. A plaque indicates that the flagpoles were donated by Jewish benefactors in California. There are many other plaques throughout the facility that indicate the facility was funded by Jewish American benefactors.

Landsman comes across two men who are waiting for him. He introduces himself as Lev Felnboyger and pretends that he has come as a prospective patient seeking recovery. The men introduce themselves as Dr. Roboy and his assistant, Fligler. Dr. Roboy leads Landsman into a locked room, where Fligler takes Landsman’s gun and knocks him out.

Landsman reawakens in a kitchen, bound on a counter. Baronshteyn, Roboy, and Fligler are present. Though they try to intimidate him, Landsman accuses them of holding Mendel Shpilman at the clinic sometime in the past. Roboy worries that the facility has been compromised, but Baronshteyn assures him that nobody else knows about Landsman’s whereabouts. Landsman tells them that he has written out an account of the criminal operations at Beth Tikkun and sent it to his lawyer, but they are not convinced.

Baronshteyn orders Fligler to threaten Landsman with a knife. They are interrupted by a young American, whom Roboy steps away to attend to. Roboy and the American speak in a peculiar dialect of Hebrew. Baronshteyn explains that Roboy is a genuine rehabilitation therapist and that Mendel chose to seek his help. Mendel eventually left the facility of his own accord. Baronshteyn denies that Mendel was ever a threat to his status in the Shpilman family. Roboy returns to tell Baronshteyn that someone is coming in 10 minutes, which means they cannot kill Landsman yet. Landsman is sedated instead.

Landsman reawakens in a detainment cell. He is handcuffed to a steel cot and notices graffiti written in Naomi’s handwriting. Dragging the cot around, he tries to kick at the door and call for someone’s attention. When no one answers, he tries to break open the window with the cot frame. The frame falls through and pulls Landsman out of the cell. He lands in snow.

Fligler comes to apprehend Landsman. Landsman strikes at him with the cot, incapacitating him. He takes Fligler’s automatic gun and aims it at several more men who are about to intercept him. He catches sight of a new man wearing a sweater with a penguin design. The men duck away to avoid Landsman’s gunfire. He uses the gun to break himself free from the cot.

Landsman runs down a dirt road into the woods. He eventually reaches a machine shed and finds an electric cart. He drives away and is chased by men in a black car. The chase gives Landsman a clearer view of the industrial complex he is in. Landsman’s interceptors begin firing at him as they get closer to the cart. They drive past and block his cart, getting out to apprehend him. Just then, Inspector Wilfred Dick intervenes, arriving on his motorcycle. Dick, who is Tlingit, informs Landsman’s captors that they are on Tribal land. Dick goes to speak to a man in the interceptors’ car. He then rescues Landsman by taking him into custody.

Dick takes Landsman to the Emergency Room to get his injuries treated by a doctor named Rau. Rau diagnoses him with alcohol withdrawal, citing several severe symptoms. Landsman explains that his alcohol addiction is a symptom of his inherited trauma as a Jewish person. Rau also observes that Landsman tends to rant, suggesting that he has a mood disorder.

A sergeant escorts Landsman to a cell in the St. Cyril jail to wait for Dick. Left alone, Landsman recalls the loneliness he felt after Naomi’s death. He distracts himself by thinking about Mendel Shpilman and how he got to Beth Tikkun. He believes Baronshteyn’s assertion that Mendel had gone to the clinic of his own volition because Naomi wouldn’t have flown them to Peril Strait if she knew Mendel was being coerced to travel. It was when Mendel arrived at Peril Strait that he saw something that made him ask Naomi to take him back. As revenge against her, Mendel’s escorts killed Naomi before looking for Mendel.

Berko comes to pick Landsman up from his cell.

Berko and Landsman meet with Dick. Berko and Dick affectionately insult each other in greeting. Dick warns them that because his duty is to Peril Strait, he is inclined to obey orders if the Beth Tikkun administrators force Dick’s superiors to arrest and charge him. Nevertheless, he asks them what police business brought them to Peril Strait.

Landsman shares everything he knows, including his suspicion that the people behind Beth Tikkun killed Naomi. He also shares his observation that at Beth Tikkun, he heard Roboy and the young American speaking a dialect of Hebrew reserved for speaking to God. He traces this dialect back to the Hebrew used by Zionists after the destruction of Israel in 1948.

Dick explains that the man in the car was an old man, though he didn’t give Dick his name. He knows that Landsman isn’t motivated by a desire for truth, but revenge. He warns the detectives that the Beth Tikkun administrators are so powerful that Landsman may not get what he wants. Berko appeals to him to help them out. Because he favored Naomi, Dick offers to show the detectives something.

Dick takes Landsman and Berko back to Peril Strait, where Landsman sees an optical illusion of cows in an airborne pasture. The vision resonates with the Jewish diaspora’s fantasy of greener pastures upon their arrival in Alaska. As they get closer, they see the real pasture. Dick explains that the cows are imported. He saw the Beth Tikkun enforcers herding them once, confirming his suspicion that the cowherd belongs to them. Landsman wonders who among the Sitka Jews is powerful enough to subvert American real estate law and hold that much land in Alaska.

Berko points out that one of the cows is red with white spots. He gets closer to examine it and discovers that the spots are painted. This means that the cow is actually a red heifer, a sin offering in Jewish tradition, which is now rare in the modern world. Jewish tradition also specifies that these cows are a sign of the Messiah’s coming and of the restoration of the Temple in Jerusalem. The detectives interpret this to mean that the red heifer was bred to expedite the Messiah’s arrival.

The three policemen leave when they hear the Beth Tikkun enforcers approaching. Landsman is skeptical that the Tlingit Tribal Council would allow Jews to own and develop as much of their land as they have seen thus far, not unless the Jews promised the Tlingit Council repossession of Sitka in return. Berko posits that the man in the penguin sweater is the mastermind behind the deal, facilitating the exchange of land. This begs the question of what motivated the United States government to authorize such a deal. Dick steps back from their investigation. Landsman suggests that they should visit a place called the Massacre Spot, much to Berko’s chagrin.

When Hertz Shemets married Berko’s mother, he closely studied Tlingit history and culture so that he could learn how to subvert them and claim their lands for Jewish Sitka. This included his study into the events that took place at the Massacre Spot: the beach where Berko’s ancestor, Chief Kohklux, killed 12 Russian hunters in 1854. Because the Massacre Spot was legally designated as Tlingit territory, Hertz used his intelligence funds and his marriage to Laurie Jo Bear to buy the land. He inherited legal ownership after his wife’s death.

Hertz now lives in an inauthentic Indigenous longhouse that he constructed on the Massacre Spot. Berko resents his father and is estranged from him. Before they enter the house, Landsman apologizes for his recent behavior. He assures Berko that the Shpilman case has inspired him to be more like his old self again. Berko doesn’t believe that Landsman has behaved poorly as of late.

Hertz welcomes Landsman into his home, then he goes to greet his son in private. In the house, Hertz and Landsman share a drink. Looking around, Landsman sees that Hertz is playing a solitary chess game, substituting one of the pieces with his Vicks inhaler. He accidentally knocks the chessboard over and searches for the missing pieces. Hertz dismisses it, saying it’s not important. The two discuss Emanuel Lasker, whose book Hertz owns.

Hertz invites the detectives to eat moose chili with him. Hertz expresses his awareness that Landsman has been suspended. He reproaches his son for indulging Landsman’s behavior when he has a new child on the way. Berko nevertheless affirms his loyalty to Landsman. Landsman explains that they are visiting as part of their investigation into Mendel Shpilman’s murder, which Hertz is also already aware of. When Landsman explains how the murder led them to Peril Strait, Hertz interprets the murder as a conspiracy of Indigenous killers. This leads Landsman to discuss the cow pasture and the paramilitary training facility with ties to the Verbovers and the Americans. Hertz, who dislikes puzzles, asks them what color the cows were.

Berko tells Hertz about the red heifer. They argue over Berko’s obvious insinuation that Jews are behind the scheme. Hertz reminds Landsman about Alter Litvak, the old man he recognized at the Einstein Chess Club. Litvak lost his voice in a car accident that also killed his wife. When Hertz reveals that Litvak worked for him as an unofficial covert enforcer, Landsman realizes that Litvak was the man Dick saw in the car. Hertz reveals that Litvak was the informant who helped Dennis Brennan expose Hertz’s counterintelligence operations. He suspects that Litvak did this so that he could steal Hertz’s job in the United States government.

Hertz recalls the traditional belief about the red heifer sacrifice, which is supposed to be made on the same hill where the Jewish Temple used to stand, now the site of the Qubbat As-Sakhrah shrine. He speculates that whoever bred the red heifer may be plotting to destroy the Muslim shrine. Litvak may be involved in this plot as part of his work for Hertz, which included demolitions. Hertz urges the detectives to stop Litvak before it is too late.

Berko connects Hertz’s admission about Litvak to the Synagogue Riots that killed his mother. He realizes that Hertz provoked the riot to undermine Jewish groups who were endangering Sitka’s progress towards Permanent Status by trying to steal Indigenous land. Hertz tries to apologize to his son, but an enraged Berko tears off his Jewish garments, expressing resentment toward Hertz for raising him as a Jew. When Hertz tries to downplay his influence on Berko, Berko humiliates him by forcing his torn garments onto Hertz. Landsman pulls Berko away.

As Berko and Landsman leave the house, they hear a gunshot. They run back inside to find that Hertz, who has attempted suicide, is still alive. Landsman picks up the gun that Hertz used and identifies it as the same gun that killed Melekh Gaystik. Berko carries his father to the car so that they can take him to the emergency room. Later, he calls Ester-Malke to tell her about Hertz and Litvak’s role in Laurie Jo Bear’s death, as well as about Hertz’s suicide attempt. A few minutes later, Ester-Malke calls Berko back, convincing him to accompany Hertz to Sitka General Hospital. Berko urges Landsman to find Litvak.