A brother murdered. A truth buried. When faith, freedom and obedience collide, one woman risks everything to remain true to herself and to the brother she loved.

When Yehudit’s beloved brother Mordechai is found murdered, her search to know what happened upends her world. In his life, Mordechai—disaffected merchant, outspoken skeptic—secretly defied expectations his family, religion, and the Ghetto community placed on one of their own, and limits imposed by gentile Venice. As Yehudit exposes conflicts that shaped Mordechai’s final weeks, she increasingly must challenge restrictions and controls on her life as a woman. Yehudit’s determination to find and speak the truth set her on a collision course with her family and the entrenched Ghetto power structure.

What Was Forbidden is inspired by an inscription in the Venice Ghetto commemorating the death of Mordechai Baldosa. The plot is set against the true backdrop of two historical movements—one political, the other religious—each of which ignited hopes of freedom but in diametrically opposite ways, a conflict which reverberates to the present day.

Buy Paperback Now