Chap­ter 3: Twelve begins the day after Moshe’s meet­ing with the Hasid, where he feels invig­o­rat­ed by the recent suc­cess­es in his life. He is now mar­ried to Chona and enjoys finan­cial pros­per­i­ty, which inspires him to offer Nate, his theater’s clean­er, a sum of mon­ey. Despite Moshe’s gen­eros­i­ty, Nate turns it down, express­ing con­cern for Moshe’s reck­less spend­ing habits. He val­ues sta­ble employ­ment over quick finan­cial gains, rem­i­nisc­ing about his past when he earned well in a dance hall that now serves as a funer­al home. This con­ver­sa­tion prompts Moshe to reflect on the pos­si­bil­i­ty of open­ing his the­ater to African Amer­i­cans, a com­mu­ni­ty large­ly exclud­ed from main­stream enter­tain­ment at the time.

Chona, Moshe’s wife, who was born in Amer­i­ca, is imme­di­ate­ly sup­port­ive of the idea, brush­ing off con­cerns about the poten­tial back­lash from the local white com­mu­ni­ty. She encour­ages Moshe to pro­ceed with his plans, pro­vid­ing her char­ac­ter­is­tic opti­mism and con­fi­dence. Four weeks lat­er, Moshe takes a bold step by book­ing Chick Webb, a renowned African Amer­i­can enter­tain­er, for a per­for­mance at his the­ater. This momen­tous event marks the begin­ning of the theater’s trans­for­ma­tion into a space that not only pro­vides enter­tain­ment but also serves as a gath­er­ing place for the local African Amer­i­can com­mu­ni­ty. The deci­sion marks a sig­nif­i­cant depar­ture from the exclu­siv­i­ty of oth­er venues in Pottstown, which had his­tor­i­cal­ly catered only to white audi­ences.

Moshe’s deci­sion to open the doors of his the­ater to African Amer­i­cans brings both finan­cial suc­cess and social chal­lenges. As the the­ater flour­ish­es, Moshe’s inclu­sive ven­ture begins to attract mixed reac­tions, with some prais­ing his pro­gres­sive stance and oth­ers con­demn­ing it. He faces legal bat­tles, threats from city offi­cials, and even dis­ap­proval from his syn­a­gogue. Despite these chal­lenges, Moshe receives unwa­ver­ing sup­port from his cousin Isaac and clev­er­ly nav­i­gates nego­ti­a­tions with the build­ing own­er and local author­i­ties to keep the the­ater open. Chona’s involve­ment in local social caus­es strength­ens their resolve to cre­ate a space where peo­ple of all races could come togeth­er and enjoy enter­tain­ment with­out prej­u­dice.

How­ev­er, as Moshe’s efforts to inte­grate his the­ater push him fur­ther into con­flict with the town’s norms, he is also grap­pling with per­son­al trou­bles. Chona’s health takes a rapid down­turn, and her dete­ri­o­rat­ing con­di­tion becomes a source of great wor­ry for Moshe. He is des­per­ate to find a cure for her, torn between the ratio­nal­i­ty of med­ical treat­ment and his own super­sti­tions, espe­cial­ly after a recur­ring dream in which the num­ber twelve plays a sig­nif­i­cant role. This motif of twelve, asso­ci­at­ed with luck and com­ple­tion, has been a guid­ing influ­ence through­out Moshe’s life, and he clings to it as he seeks a mir­a­cle to save his wife.

As Chona’s con­di­tion wors­ens, Moshe’s con­nec­tion with the African Amer­i­can com­mu­ni­ty in Chick­en Hill grows even stronger. The com­mu­ni­ty, which had embraced the the­ater as a sym­bol of uni­ty, extends their sup­port to Moshe and Chona dur­ing this dif­fi­cult time. Their affec­tion for Chona, who had become an impor­tant fig­ure in their lives, is evi­dent in their ges­tures of kind­ness and sol­i­dar­i­ty. This deep con­nec­tion under­scores the theme of mutu­al respect and cul­tur­al exchange that the the­ater rep­re­sents, show­ing that true com­mu­ni­ty is built on shared human­i­ty rather than racial or social divides.

Despite the mount­ing pres­sure of Chona’s ill­ness, Moshe remains res­olute in his com­mit­ment to stay in Pottstown. He refus­es to con­sid­er relo­cat­ing, dri­ven by his belief in the val­ues of inclu­siv­i­ty, jus­tice, and com­mu­ni­ty that he and Chona have worked so hard to build. The chap­ter reach­es a poignant moment when Moshe and Isaac have a reflec­tive con­ver­sa­tion about Moshe’s unwa­ver­ing ded­i­ca­tion to Chona and the life they’ve built togeth­er. In this emo­tion­al con­fronta­tion, Moshe’s com­mit­ment to his wife and their shared vision for the future shines through. Despite the many chal­lenges they face, Moshe con­tin­ues to seek a mir­a­cle for Chona’s recov­ery, under­scor­ing his devo­tion to her and the ideals that have shaped their lives. The chap­ter con­cludes by high­light­ing the inter­sec­tion of Moshe’s per­son­al strug­gles with the broad­er, more pro­found efforts to bridge cul­tur­al divides and bring peo­ple togeth­er through shared expe­ri­ences of love, loss, and resilience.

This chap­ter high­lights the com­plex­i­ty of Moshe’s journey—his efforts to rec­on­cile his per­son­al life with his broad­er social com­mit­ments. His pur­suit of a bet­ter future for Chona and his deter­mi­na­tion to inte­grate the com­mu­ni­ty show­case his resilience and vision for a more inclu­sive world. The strug­gles and tri­umphs pre­sent­ed in the chap­ter reflect the dif­fi­cult yet reward­ing path Moshe treads, where per­son­al sac­ri­fices are made for a greater cause. Through his efforts to heal his wife, Moshe also con­tributes to the heal­ing of the broad­er com­mu­ni­ty, show­ing how inter­con­nect­ed per­son­al well-being and col­lec­tive progress tru­ly are.