Rabbis: The Many of Faces of Judaism

Plot

Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
There is, it seems, no shortage of rabbis who do the unexpected, and Kalinsky, official photographer at Madison Square Garden, has gathered 100, presenting their portraits and short first-person essays. Rabbis in cowboy boots, rabbis in fatigues, rabbis on cell phones, gay rabbis, rabbis who eat sushi. A Los Angeles rabbi's shirt reads "Grateful Yid," while another, from Rome, saddles-up on a motorcycle. If the premise is hokey, the essays often are not. While a high percentage here write from Long Island, Marvin Tokayer, the former Chief Rabbi of Japan, writes of his encounter with a Japanese man who revealed his self-taught mastery of Yiddish-despite never having heard it spoken. The two kibitzed a night away, exchanging cultural knowledge. Senator Joe Lieberman declares in his introduction to the book, "Beneath the differences lies an even more profound unity..." And in a "Fiddler" moment, Kirk Douglas in his foreword, calls what these rabbis do "tradition." While there's some schmaltz here, there's also a challenge to bland stereotyping.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
The official photographer at Madison Square Garden, a special photographer of the New York Mets, and the author of seven photographic books, Kalinsky here focuses on 100 influential rabbis from around the world. On the pages facing their portraits, the rabbis themselves write about their careers and their personal, spiritual, and social commitments and concerns. There are Hasidic, Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist rabbis, among them pulpit rabbis, academics, writers, administrators, a comedian, folk musicians, and a surfer. These rabbis come from both small towns and big cities, ranging from Jerusalem to Paris to Rome. Among them are Marc Gellman, the award-winning author and cohost of The God Squad television program; Yosef Hadana, chief rabbi of the Ethiopian Jews; Alvin Kass, senior chaplain of the New York City Police Department; best-selling author Harold Kushner; and Sally Priesand, the first woman to be ordained a rabbi in the United States. Their brief essays are as diverse as their backgrounds, and Kalinsky's full-page photographs capture some of the depth and color of their hearts, minds, and lives. As Senator Lieberman writes in his introduction, "Together, they help and inspire us all." Highly recommended for young adults and adults, whether Jewish or gentile.