The Yiddish Policemen's Union
First edition cover
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| Author | Michael Chabon |
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| Cover artist | Jacket design by Will Staehle |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English, some Yiddish |
| Genre | Novel, science fiction, alternative history, detective fiction |
| Publisher | HarperCollins |
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Publication date
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May 1, 2007 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) |
| Pages | 414 pp (first edition, hardcover) |
| Awards | Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel (2008) |
| ISBN | (first edition, hardcover) |
| OCLC | 73140283 |
| 813/.54 22 | |
| LC Class | PS3553.H15 Y54 2007 |
The Yiddish Policemen's Union is a 2007 novel by American author Michael Chabon. The novel is a detective story set in an alternative history version of the present day, based on the premise that during World War II, a temporary settlement for Jewish refugees was established in Sitka, Alaska, in 1941, and that the fledgling State of Israel was destroyed in 1948. The novel is set in Sitka, which it depicts as a large, Yiddish-speaking metropolis.
The Yiddish Policemen's Union won a number of science fiction awards: the Nebula Award for Best Novel, the Locus Award for Best SF Novel, the Hugo Award for Best Novel, and the Sidewise Award for Alternate History for Best Novel. It was shortlisted for the British Science Fiction Association Award for Best Novel and the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel.
The Yiddish Policemen's Union is set in an alternative history version of the present day. The premise is that, contrary to real history, the United States voted to implement the 1940 Slattery Report, that recommended the provision of land in Alaska for the temporary refugee settlement of European Jews who were being persecuted by the Nazis during World War II. The novel's divergence point from real history is revealed in the first dozen chapters to be the death of Anthony Dimond, Alaska Territory delegate to the U.S. Congress, in a car accident; Dimond was one of the congressmen responsible for preventing a vote on the report. It imagines a temporary independent Jewish settlement being created on the Alaskan coast. As a result, two million Jews are murdered in the Holocaust instead of six (as in the real world).
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