Alan Jacobson still remembers bringing money to put in the turquoise tzedakah box passed around at his Hebrew school in Queens.
He remembers his parents discussing the Jewish tradition of tzedakah.
So when he wrote his first published novel, “False Accusations,” it was only natural that tzedakah would be an important thread. Dr. Philip Madison, the main character, is a philanthropist and president of the fictional Consortium for Mental Retardation.
Set in Sacramento, the book is a thriller about a prominent orthopedic surgeon with a sterling reputation who finds his life turned inside out when he’s accused of rape and, later, murder.
Jacobson, who will be discussing his book at various Bay Area locations in January, describes Madison as “a philanthropic individual with a good soul.”
Tzedakah is a fiber that continues to run through Jacobson’s life, too. Today he is head of the Sacramento-area Jewish federation’s long -range planning committee.
“My wife and I have made a commitment to donate not only money but time to the Jewish community,” he said. “If you can’t do something to support your community, you can’t rely on other people to do it.”
Jacobson, 35, moved to Sacramento in 1987 because he felt it would he easier to find work as a chiropractor. But he found a much more hidden Jewish community than the one he grew up with in New York City.
“Sacramento has a very weak Jewish identity,” he said. “My wife’s co-workers kept asking her what church she was getting married in. These people were ignorant about what Judaism was.”
Ironically, that lack of visibility is what inspired Jacobson to get involved with Sacramento’s Jewish community. “Growing up in New York it’s all around you, but you take it for granted and you may not get involved the way you would out here.”
While his own family members celebrated Jewish holidays, they were not religious. However, they did pass along a love of books.
“My father collected books,” he said. “I think it’s a consistent value in Judaism whether you’re Reform, Orthodox, whatever, that learning, knowledge are very important.”
As a student at Queens College, he majored in English, although he never thought about writing for a living. “It was never a dream of mine to make a living as a writer because I’d always been told you can’t.”
Instead, it was his dream to become a chiropractor. At 14, chiropractic care ended his painful bouts with migraine headaches. Inspired by this experience, he went to Palmer College of Chiropractic West — then located in Sunnyvale.
Three years ago he embarked on his first novel, which has not yet been published. “False Accusations,” published by Commonwealth, is his second effort.
Though the protagonist, Madison, isn’t Jewish, his lawyer, Jeffrey Hellman, is. The character has some basis in “Jewish people that I have known and grown up with. He’s a bright, committed individual whose friendship with the accused surgeon [is] foremost in importance to him.”
In the spirit of tzedakah, Jacobson will be donating some of the proceeds from his book sales to various Bay Area Jewish community centers.