Satan's Synagogue

The Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel. Another Holocaust survivor named Pfefferkorn. The author of the Gospel According to Mark. The ministry of Jesus Christ. The 1st century historian Josephus. Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria. An obscure writer named Brian Josepher. Their stories, and others, intersect in this chronicle spanning 2,000 years. Part historical text, part fictional story - or what the author calls a faux history - this story begins when the author Brian Josepher publishes a critical biography on Elie Wiesel. The "unauthorized" nature of the book, the controversy, exposing the legend behind the man, leads to a kind of stardom. The book becomes a cultural event and heavy sales for the author follow. Something else follows. Death threats. The author goes into hiding. He chooses Jerusalem. There, he discovers a lost manuscript after doing some digging in the cemetery on the Mount of Olives. That manuscript, originally published in the immediate aftermath of the Book of Mark, greatly influenced the New Testament. It called into question the motivations of the evangelist named Mark. It exposed the legend behind the prophet Jesus Christ. But that manuscript also shined a light on its own author. Who really was Josephus and how did he stoke his own legend at the expense of the man? This faux history then unearths histories both large and small. It's aim, to find some truth in the incredible complexity that is history, follows a circuitous route: from Brooklyn to Austria to Jerusalem to Nazareth, from Elie Wiesel to Auschwitz to The Holocaust, from Mark to Jesus to Josephus, from Josephus to Joseph to Josepher. Oh, and there's a bicycle ride made through Galilee and old Phoenicia, known as the Tour de Josephus. On these pages, discoveries are everywhere.