64 pages • 2-hour read
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
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Character Analysis
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death by suicide, suicidal ideation, addiction, pregnancy termination, and racism.
Meyer Landsman
Meyer Landsman is the novel’s protagonist. He is a homicide detective at Sitka Central Police Department who takes on the murder case of Mendel Shpilman when he sees that Mendel died while in the middle of a chess game. This circumstance resonates with Landsman, whose early life was shaped by his relationship to chess. Landsman’s backstory reveals his uneasy relationship with his father, Isidor, who survived the Holocaust, settled in Sitka, and taught Landsman to play chess. Just when Landsman built up the courage to write a letter to his father about how he didn’t enjoy the game, Isidor died by suicide, causing his son to believe that he had disappointed his father to the point of suicidal ideation. Isidor’s true motivations are ambiguous, but Landsman interprets them using the note Isidor left behind, which was a poetic ode to chess. Years later, Landsman realizes that the letter he sent his father didn’t reach him before his death. Isidor’s death thus remains a mystery, and Landsman sees echoes of it in Mendel’s death.
Landsman is a stereotypical hardboiled detective, akin to Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon and Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe in The Big Sleep. Chabon depicts Landsman as a cynical loner who believes he has nothing to live for. Landsman experiences alcohol addiction and suicidal ideation, which are both caused by the guilt and resentment he feels for mistakes he committed in his past. Aside from Isidor’s death, Chabon attributes Landsman’s guilt to the end of his relationship with his ex-wife Bina Gelbfish and their decision to terminate her pregnancy. Landsman believes that because he was ambivalent about becoming a father and afraid that he wouldn’t be able to raise his child well, given the possibility that he would be born with physical defects, he had convinced Bina to get the abortion, which eventually resulted in their estrangement and divorce. The circumstance in which Landsman made this decision resonates with The Value of Uncertainty as a theme because, after the abortion, Landsman feels guilty upon learning that the baby would have been born healthy. At the end of the novel, Bina reminds him that their decision was contingent on their limited knowledge. Landman’s guilt about this decision proves to her that he has a good heart.
Throughout the novel, Landsman is also grieving the death of his sister, Naomi, who was the last surviving member of his immediate family. Her death causes Landsman to feel a prevailing sense of loneliness and hopelessness. This is exacerbated by the imminent threat of Reversion, which promises to eradicate the world that Landsman has spent his entire life in. This feeds into his cynicism, which is why Landsman initially seems nonchalant about what will happen to him once Reversion takes effect. This changes by the end of the novel, however, as he starts to realize that his personal stakes are inextricably tied to the fates of his loved ones: Bina, Berko, and Ester-Malke. He weighs the risk of ruining their residency chances in a post-Reversion world against the responsibility of exposing Alter Litvak’s Zionist conspiracy to the world. When Bina assures Landsman that she will stand by him in the novel’s final chapter, Landsman is encouraged to do what he believes is right as he prepares to tell Dennis Brennan his discovery.
To distract himself from his loneliness, Landsman immerses himself in work, believing it will redeem him to bring justice to the world. Over the course of his investigation into Mendel’s murder, Landsman solves Naomi’s murder, allowing him to understand how she became a casualty in Litvak’s conspiracy. As Wilfred Dick suggests in Chapter 33, this also affects Landsman’s motivations as he becomes driven to expose Litvak in order to avenge Naomi’s death.
Bina Gelbfish
Bina Gelbfish is a major supporting character in the novel, functioning as Landsman’s sidekick and romantic interest. Bina is initially introduced as Landsman’s ex-wife, but she first appears in the novel in her professional capacity as his new commanding officer. The power dynamic between Bina and Landsman suggests that she could threaten his ability to carry out the investigation, especially after she suspends it in observation of the department’s “effective resolution” policy. Chabon uses this tension, however, to reveal that Bina still deeply cares for Landsman and will use her authority to aid him and his investigation.
Bina is capable of intimidating people, usually men, to allow her into restricted areas. This makes her a valuable partner to Landsman, who is frequently shut out of spaces because he isn’t forceful. Bina is also characterized by her capacious tote bag, which she uses to carry all the necessary tools required for her to get through her day. Landsman looks at the bag as a symbol of Bina’s strong character, thinking: “You have to look to Jews like Bina Gelbfish […] to explain the wide range and persistence of the race […]. A mere redrawing of borders, a change in governments, those things can never faze a Jewess with a good supply of hand wipes in her bag” (155). Her bag thus symbolizes her grit and preparedness in the face of change and instability.
One of Bina’s defining character traits is her faith in the justice system as an instrument for social good. She respects the rules of her office and balks at the idea of subverting protocol to reach a desired outcome. She demonstrates this in Chapter 44 when she reluctantly accepts Zimbalist’s deal to solve Mendel’s murder in exchange for his cooperation. Afterward, she cries before Landsman, lamenting that the deal is hypocritical to their authority as law officers.
At the same time, Bina experiences an arc of disillusionment with the criminal justice system she has served her entire career. Earlier in the novel, she becomes frustrated when U.S. Marshal Spade urges her to drop the Shpilman investigation, even when it is clear that Landsman has built a strong case behind it. Her disillusionment peaks when she is interrogated by Cashdollar, causing her to realize that she has been serving the United States’s agenda all along, rather than her objective ideals of truth and justice for the people of Sitka.
Berko Shemets
Berko Shemets is a major supporting character who functions as Landsman’s foil and sidekick. He is also Landsman’s cousin and closest remaining family member. Like Landsman, Berko is a Sitka Central homicide detective. While his father is Jewish, his mother was Tlingit, and his mixed heritage shapes his personal arc.
Berko is the son of Hertz Shemets and Laurie Jo Bear. Early in the novel, it is revealed that Berko was born and initially raised on Tlingit land. When Laurie Jo was killed in the Synagogue Riots, Hertz forced Berko to move to Sitka for his safety. Hertz never discloses his role in instigating the Synagogue Riots, though his caution for Berko is a clue that the Tlingit people would have reason to seek revenge against Hertz for his counterintelligence operations on the border between Sitka and Alaska. Once Berko moves to Sitka, Hertz makes him embrace his Jewish heritage, which he carries on to adulthood. Berko is depicted as a devout Jewish man who wears religious garments along with his regular work clothes. Despite Berko openly embracing his Jewish identity, his Tlingit features cause him to stand out among the residents of Sitka, making him feel like he doesn’t fully belong. In Chapter 12, Berko uses his replica chief’s hammer to scare off the Verbovers who are intimidating Landsman. This draws the attention of Sitka’s residents, who exoticize the presence of a Tlingit person in their midst. They are soon disappointed when they realize that Berko is also Jewish.
Once Berko discovers Hertz’s role in his mother’s death, he comes to resent his Jewish heritage. By embracing one side of his identity more than the other, Berko believes he inadvertently contributed to the suppression of the Tlingit culture and community, from whom the territory of Sitka was taken by the United States government to house Jewish refugees from Europe.
Berko serves as a foil for Landsman by contrasting him in various ways. Where Landsman is messy, Berko makes the effort to clean himself up every morning. While Landsman has no family to turn to, Berko looks after his pregnant wife, Ester-Malke, and two children. Landsman sees Berko as his moral compass, which is evidenced by the concern he feels whenever Berko and his family’s lives fall under threat from the novel’s antagonists. In Chapter 35, before they visit Hertz, Landsman even apologizes to Berko for his poor behavior and resolves to do better for himself. Berko assures Landsman that he bears no ill will toward him whatsoever.
Alter Litvak
Alter Litvak is the novel’s primary antagonist. Though he isn’t directly responsible for the murder of Mendel Shpilman, his actions drive the larger conflict of the novel, which Mendel’s death is intended to disrupt.
Litvak was formerly an enforcer for Hertz Shemets’s counterintelligence operations with the FBI, specializing in demolitions. Though not formally employed by the FBI, Litvak coveted Hertz’s job, which caused him to disgrace Hertz in the Sitka press. Litvak has no motivation other than to command authority over military power. He does not believe in the ideals of the Zionist cause, but he sees it as a means to the end of waging war in Jerusalem.
The novel hints at Litvak’s inner life by referencing his wife, who died in the same car crash that caused Litvak’s mutism. Litvak is extremely private about his personal life. His mutism becomes a symbolic character trait, representing his refusal to speak his innermost thoughts and feelings. He commemorates the anniversary of his wife’s death by carrying around a memorial candle, which represents his vulnerability around her memory. Because of this symbolic association, Litvak never lights the candle since he thinks it would be equivalent to “[setting] fire to the memory of his wife” (348).
Litvak exits the narrative as the ostensible victor of the conflict. His plan is set into motion, he escapes the protagonists’ custody, and he never faces justice for his actions. Instead, Chabon implies the possibility of resolution by giving the protagonists the means to bring Litvak to justice. This anticlimactic end to Litvak’s arc reflects the difficulty of undoing Litvak’s violent actions. The point of his operation was to convince the vast majority of Sitka Jews that they were fulfilling prophecy by attacking Palestine. This only makes the problem of stopping his operation more challenging for Landsman and his allies.
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