The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon

In this context, Landsman’s superiors explain, murder investigations are undesirable. Sitka’s Jews hope to retain their autonomy. President, an evangelical Christian who wants the Jewish Diaspora to return to the hellishly divided region of Palestine. “Reversion” is the stated policy of the U.S. government is due to decide whether Sitka will cease to be a Federal District and “Revert” to the control of the Alaskan state government. However, before they are able to make any headway, their superiors order them to shut the investigation down. Landsman and his half-Jewish, half-Tlingit Native Alaskan partner, Berko Shemets open an investigation. Drinking heavily and estranged from his wife, he is living in the Hotel Zamenhof, where an identified male victim is found murdered. Detective Meyer Landsman, Sitka Police Department, is down on his luck.

It was shortlisted for several more, including the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel. The Yiddish Policemen's Union won many awards for science-fiction writing, including the Nebula Award for Best Novel, the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, and the Hugo Award for Best Novel. In this context, Sitka detective Meyer Landsman is ordered not to investigate a murder, in order to avoid bad publicity, but he presses ahead with the investigation anyway. However, this year, the American government is due to return control of Sitka to the state government of Alaska. As a result, Sitka-now a thriving, Yiddish-speaking metropolitan area-is the center of the Jewish Diaspora. In the alternative-history novel, The Yiddish Policemen's Union (2007), American author Michael Chabon imagines that during World War II, Jewish refugees were settled in Sitka, Alaska and that the State of Israel was destroyed in 1948.

The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon