Fred Reiss, EdD

The Jewish Gospels by Daniel Boyarin;  ISBN 978-1-5955846-8-7©2010, $21.95, p. 200, including notes and index By Fred Reiss, Ed.D WINCHESTER, Callifornia –Thanks to the Jewish general and historian Josephus and the Greco-Jewish philosopher Philo, we know a great deal about the internecine spiritual arguments among the Jews from the mid-second century BCE through the end […]

From Within the Tent: The Haftarot by Rabbi Daniel Z. Feldman and Stuart W. Halpern, Editors; Yeshiva University Press, New York; ISBN 978-161-329-0316 ©2011, $29.95, p. 719 By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California– Ezra and Nehemiah, prophet and governor respectively, introduced the first public reading of the Torah, the Five Books of Moses, in the late

  Yom Kippur Readings: Inspiration, Information, Contemplation by Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins, Editor; ISBN 978-1-58023-438-2 ©2011, $19.99, p. 311 plus Sources By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California — Why is Yom Kippur different from all other holidays? On all other holidays synagogues have a meager attendance, but on Yom Kippur they are filled to over

The God Upgrade: Finding Your 21st-Century Spirituality in Judaism’s 5,000-Year-Old Tradition by Rabbi Jamie S. Korngold, Jewish Lights, Woodstock, VT; ISBN 978-1-58023-443-6 ©2011, $15.99, p. 129 plus Appendix By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. Fred Reiss, Ed.D WINCHESTER, California — The Jews of seventeenth century Amsterdam repudiated Baruch Spinoza and his philosophy, which rejected much of traditional

Nachas Ruach: Torah-Based Psychotherapy and Tools for Growth and Healing by Dr. Naftali Fish, Targum Press, Brooklyn, NY; ISBN 978-1-56871-50099-9 ©2011, $29.95, p. 304 plus bibliography By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California–Abraham J. Twerski, M.D., founder and medical director emeritus of Gateway Rehab, in Pittsburg, PA, relates in an opening letter to the book Nachas

Jesus of Nazareth, Holy Week: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection by Joseph Ratzinger, Ignatius, San Francisco;  ISBN 978-1-58617-500-9 ©2011, $24.95, p. 293 plus appendices By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California–Nearly two thousand books on the Amazon website are linked to the words Jesus and Passion. With so many books one might wonder

Beginnings: The First Love, the First Hate, the First Dream… Reflections on the Bible’s Intriguing Firsts by Meir Shalev, Translated from the Hebrew by Stuart Schoffman, Harmony Books, New York; ISBN 978-0-037-71718-4 ©2011, $25.00, 295 pages By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California– Americans relish someone accomplishing something first! Do you remember who flew the first airplane? How

The Jew is Not My Enemy: Unveiling the Myths That Fuel Muslim Anti-Semitism by Tarek Fatah, McClelland & Stewart, Toronto; ISBN 978-0-7710-4783-1 ©2010, $24.95, p. 208 plus notes, bibliography, and index Reviewed by Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California — Like most people with an Internet account, I receive quite a few emails each day. Most