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In the novel, The Fixer, the author, Bernard Malamud,
presents to us a poor Jewish handyman living in Russia
during the early 1900’s,   before the Russian
revolution had begun.   Destroyed by his wife’s
disavowal, Yakov Shepsovitch Bok leaves his shtetl in
search of opportunities for a better life.   After a
few months of desperate searching, Yakov sneaks out of
the ghetto to look for work among the goyim.   As he
searches the streets, he stumbles upon a man who lay
drunk on the floor. Yakov immediately recognizes a pin
on the man’s coat as belonging to the anti-Semite
organization called the Black Hundreds. Putting his
doubts behind him, Yakov decides to help the fat
Russian.   Not aware of Yakov’s origins, the Russian
offers him a job as a reward.   The job, however,
requires him to live in a district prohibited to Jews.
Out of desperation, Yakov agrees.   Only a few months
later, honest, hard-working Yakov, is caught.
Authorities had found out he is a Jew. Less than a
week before that, however, an awful murder had been
committed and they accuse Yakov of being the murderer,
when in fact the true killer is the young boy’s own
mother. Yakov is charged with murder for religious
purposes.   They believe the Jewish community needed
the blood to bake into the matzos for Passover as a
symbol of the remembrance of the crucifixion of
Christ.  
        Yakov Bok is Jewish man in his early thirties. He
describes himself as “ a fixer by trade, it’s a poorer
trade than most, and formerly for a short time I was a
soldier in the Imperial Army.   In fact, to tell you
the truth, I’m not a religious man, I’m a
freethinker.”   He believes he has had such bad luck,
that it is useless to pray to G’d, and therefore he is
more of an atheist, or a freethinker, than he is a
Jew.   He states he is a Jew only “by birth and
nationality,” though nobody understands what is meant
by that....