Fred Reiss, EdD

Fred Reiss, Ed.D

Fred Reiss is a retired educator and a freelance  writer based in Winchester, California.

His books, available on Amazon, include:

* Public Education in Camden, N.J.: From Inception to Integration

* Reclaiming the Messiah

* Sepher Yetzirah: The Book that Started Kabbalah

* The Comprehensive Jewish and Civil Calendars: 2001-2240.

* The Jewish Calendar: History and Inner Workings

* The Standard Guide to the Jewish and Civil Calendars: A Parallel Jewish and Civil Calendar from 1899 to 2050 With Parashiyyot and Haftarot and Candle-Lighting Times for Selected Cities 

Why Do Weeks Have Seven Days and Why is the Seventh Day Holy?

Genesis opens with God ceasing His work on the seventh day (Gen. 2:2-3), and then Shabbat never appearing again as day of rest until after the Exodus and the collection of manna (Ex. 16:23). Levenson brings to bear his own insights and knowledge on the subject, together with the thoughts and theories of other scholars endeavoring to understand the ancient meanings and observances of the Jewish Sabbath. [Fred Reiss, Ed.D]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish Religion, Staff and Bylined Contributors

Torah Study Method: Inquiry, Intention, Exploration, Reflection

Author Adina Allen finds tension between the millennia of rabbis and scholars who create and pontificate biblical interpretations and Moses’ exhortation to the wandering Israelites that understanding Torah is not beyond anyone’s reach (Deut. 30:11-14) [Fred Reiss]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish Religion, Staff and Bylined Contributors

Combined American and Hebrew Calendar Book Makes Planning Easy

He has put together a joint Hebrew and Gregorian calendar and planner, in which Jewish and American holidays are listed on a day-by-day basis along with listings of candle lighting times for the start of Shabbats and Jewish holidays as well as what Torah portions will be read in synagogues around the world on each Saturday. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Fred Reiss, EdD, Israel, San Diego County, Staff and Bylined Contributors, USA

The Hidden Passion and Joy of Psalms Described by Two Rabbis

Most identify the Book of Psalms as a collection of Jewish hymns, prayers, and poems mostly focusing on praising and adoring God. Rabbis Jack Riemer and Elie Spitz, co-authors of Duet on Psalms, with their long careers as pulpit rabbis recognize for too many, reciting psalms is a perfunctory exercise, spoken without passion and devoid of their intrinsic meaning. [Fred Reiss, Ed.D]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish Religion

Some Little-Known Jewish Calendar Facts

The Jewish calendar is a lunisolar calendar because the Torah requires Passover to fall in “Hodesh Ha-Aviv,” the month of spring. If the Jewish calendar were not linked to the seasons, ruled by the Sun, the Jewish calendar would retrogress about 11 days a year, or one season every eight years. The calendar achieves this balance by adding thirty-day month 7 times every 19 years, a scheme learned during the Babylonian captivity and taught by the Greeks. Rosh Hashanah falls early or late every year compared to the secular calendar because these “make-up days” are sometimes added two years and sometimes three years apart, rather than annually. [Fred Reiss, Ed.D]

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Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish History, Jewish Religion

Surveying the Full Range of Jewish Life

The Book of Jewish Knowledge, Rabbi Yanki Tauber, ed., The Rohr Jewish Learning Institute, Brooklyn, NY, ©2022, ISBN 978-1-63668-012-5 p. 432, plus Appendices, $69.75. By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California – Is it feasible to adequately convey the skills, information, and wisdom acquired by the Jewish people who, after nearly 4,000 years of living in

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish History, Jewish Religion

Book Puts the ‘Land’ in the Land of Israel

Essentials of the Land of Israel, Brandon Marlon, Vallentine Mitchell, London, ©2022, ISBN 978-1-91267-686-6, p. 186, plus biography and index, $69.75. By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California – Anyone perusing the table of contents of Essentials of the Land of Israel by Brandon Marlon, a prolific, award-winning Canadian-Israeli author, would correctly conclude the book’s value

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, Middle East, Travel and Food

‘Jewish Bestiary’ Unpacks the Actual and Mystical Roles Animals Play in Our Lives

“A Jewish Bestiary: Fabulous Creatures from Hebraic Legend & Lore,” by Mark Podwal; The Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, PA, ©2021; ISBN 9780271091730; 70 pages, plus bibliography; $14.86. By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California – Close contact between animals and humans, according to the Hebrew Bible, happened soon after creation: God brought them before

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish Religion

Book Provides an Ideological Scaffolding of Jewish Life

“Why Do Jewish? A Manifesto for 21st Century Jewish Peoplehood,” by Zack Bodner; Gefen Publishing, Jerusalem, ©2022; ISBN 978-965-7023-68-6; 196 pages, plus references and index; $18.00. By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California – Prognostication is very difficult, particularly as it pertains to the future. Zack Bodner, having extensive background in Jewish communal life and currently

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, Judaism

Berdichevsky’s Yiddish Stories Collected and Retold in English

Journalist, scholar and author M. Y. Berdichevsky (1865 – 1921) wrote for two different audiences. For the intelligentsia he wrote in Hebrew and German; for unsophisticated Eastern European Jews, he chose Yiddish, the language of the shtetl, small towns comprised mostly of Jews. Raised in Medzhibozh, western Ukraine, by his Hasidic father, the town’s rabbi, he spent his youth immersed in Judaism, but also began reading books produced in the Haskalah, Jewish Enlightenment, whose goals included preservation of Jewish heritage, revival of Hebrew, and integrating Jews into the ambient secular culture. [Fred R. Reiss, Ed.D]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, International

Jewish Infighting Contributed to Fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE

Intrigue, maneuvering, scheming, plotting, and murder highlight the years from Herod’s reign to the Jewish rebellion against Rome, beginning in 66. Herod, the Great, acting more like the King of the Jews than a Jewish king, ascended to the throne in 37 BCE. His rule lasted forty-one years. [Fred Reiss, Ed.D]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, International, Jewish History, Middle East

‘Torah IQ’ Provides More Than 1,000 Questions and Answers

The first of the two Torah sections presents twenty questions for each parashah (weekly Torah reading), such as, in parashat Chayei Sarah he asks, “Who in the Torah had 13 children? And in parashat Shoftim, “Which word is an acronym for the four types of leaders in Israel mentioned in parashat Shoftim?” The second of the two Torah sections offers 169 general Torah questions. For example, “Why did Paroh (Hebrew for Pharoah) change Joseph’s name?” and “What is the only birthday party mentioned in the Torah?” [Fred Reiss, Ed.D]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, Jewish Religion, Trivia, Humor & Satire