Identity Theft Read Online Free Page B

already killed scores of Muslim soldiers. We Jews, those of us who are still alive, have gathered in the great synagogue hoping against hope for mercy, but I can already smell the smoke. Soon, we will all be dead.
    “We’ve heard stories of these Christians who have come from every corner of Europe all the way to Jerusalem. If the rumors are true, and we pray to God they are not, the Crusaders have pillaged and slaughtered whole Jewish communities all along their way. We were told they were coming to
liberate the Holy Land
from the
Muslim infidels
. And truth be told, the Muslims have not been too kind to the Christians here in Jerusalem. Churches have been destroyed and over the centuries Muslims have murdered scores of them. The Christians had apparently had enough. But what does that have to do with me? I am not a Muslim!
    “Their religious leaders, we’re told, have promised them that if they die in battle, all their sins will be forgiven and they’ll go to Heaven 1 —because they are serving Jesus Christ. But
where will I go if I die today?
I’m scared.
    “We have always gotten along with our Muslim over-lords—at least in my lifetime. They haven’t persecuted us. In fact, my father Isaac and my older brother Michael fought valiantly with the Muslims to protect Jerusalem. Those Muslims are now dead—slaughtered one after another by the Crusaders as they broke into the city.
    “They arrived in early June and surrounded our walls. Jerusalem is an isolated city, barely protected by its ramparts and surrounded by mountainous deserts. Once they encompassed us, we knew it was only a matter of time before they would break through. We could get no food into the city and they poisoned our water supplies. In mid-June, as I was helping the fighters on the wall, we could see them, see their large banners with huge crosses on them. That is their symbol. It’s painted on their shields and sewn onto their tunics.
    “Finally, two days ago around midnight, just over a month after their arrival, they broke through our defenses and took the city. While some escaped, I don’t think there is a single living Muslim left in Jerusalem. As soon as they stormed through the gates, the Christians began to kill everyone around them, indiscriminately—men, women, and children, Jews and Muslims alike. There was blood everywhere. Bodies are stacked one upon another wherever you look. I have never seen anything like it—so much death. The stench is unbearable. People begged, they pleaded for their lives, but the Crusaders showed no mercy. The last image their victims saw was the vivid cross worn by their killers. It was as if these men were possessed.
    “Our family, along with about 1,000 other Jews, has taken refuge in the great synagogue. Actually, the Crusaders’ leader, Godfrey de Bouillon, drove us in here. This de Bouillon, it is said, is hoping to kill every Jew because he is convinced that every Jew is responsible for the death of Jesus. I don’t know much about the New Covenant, but I thought it was a book about love and forgiveness, not killing and murder. Did this Jesus go around butchering women and children as His so-called followers are doing? And what does a thirteen-year-old boy, just bar Mitzvah’d, have to do with the death of a Jew over 1,000 years ago?
    “Not that it matters what I think. Death has invaded our city. Hope is all but gone. They are mercilessly cruel. They have already murdered thousands of Jews throughout the city in the past twenty-four hours. We are the only ones left.
    “How could it be that less than a month ago I was celebrating my bar Mitzvah at the Western Wall of the Temple Mount? I never dreamt that I wouldn’t see my fourteenth birthday. Such a day it was, reading from the Torah and chanting the blessings. They told me I became a man that day. Little did I know how quickly that would be the truth. Instead of playing with my friends or helping my father in our shop, I was supplying