9 results for "Biography"

All for the Boss: the life and impact of R' Yaakov Yosef Herman, a Torah pioneer in America : an affectionate family chronicle

Shain, Ruchoma
The bestselling classic that has touched the hearts of readers the world over, is now newly revised and expanded. This is the inspiring story of the life and impact of R' Yaakov Yosef Herman, a Torah pioneer in America, told by his loving daughter. This powerful book will enchant and uplift, and will take the reader back in time to glimpse a portrait of the great personalities of yesteryear.
Feldheim Pub 2001 446 pages

Travels with the evil inclination: a rabble-rousing renegade rebel rabbi's story of neo-pseudo-psychospiritual dissolution and re-emergence, and some really crazy stuff in between

Winkler, Gershon
According to Jewish theology, the Evil Inclination, or yetzer ha-ra, is the little voice inside us all, goading us -- against our better judgment -- to do bad things. Travels with the Evil Inclination is Gershon Winkler's hilarious account of his struggles with the Evil One and the life journey that takes him from an ultra-Orthodox upbringing in Brooklyn, New York, to an ultra-Flexidox lifestyle in rural New Mexico. Through his early childhood in Denmark and his yeshiva boyhood in Brooklyn, his years in the U.S. Army and those spent ranching in Colorado, Winkler's faith and belief undergo constant upheaval as he grapples towards a reconciliation of his passion for religious tradition with his passion for things more earthly. With irreverence and humor, Winkler tells his tale of personal spiritual dissolution and his subsequent re-emergence as a teacher and writer exploring the long-forgotten connections between Judaism and shamanism. Travels with the Evil Inclination is an inspiring and entertaining story of the unusual life of a most original man.
North Atlantic Books 2004 224 pages

A modern heretic and a traditional community: Mordecai M. Kaplan, Orthodoxy, and American Judaism

Gurock, Jeffrey S.
Mordecai M. Kaplan, the founder of the Reconstructionist movement, was the most influential and controversial radical Jewish thinker in the twentieth century. This book follows Kaplan from his earliest days as a member the New York Orthodox community, through his period of private estrangement, into his public divorce from Orthodoxy and ultimately through his many decades as reconstructionism's leader. The book is also a social history of American Orthodoxy and American Judaism over the last century.
Columbia University Press 1997 220 pages

Struggling over Israel's soul: an IDF general speaks of his controversial moral decisions

Stern, Elazar
In all the command positions that he held, General Elazar Stern knew that the role of the Israel Defense Forces was not limited solely to achieving victory on the battlefield. Many of the tasks that he undertook in over three decades of service to his country required moral courage whether it was initiating conversion courses in the IDF, laying down a hard line against disobeying orders during the evacuation of Gush Katif, or taking a stand against draft dodgers and Stern was well aware that public courage has its price. In Struggling Over Israel's Soul, General Stern tells the story of his personal battles the battles for the character and future of the IDF as the army of the people and for the character and future of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state. He candidly describes the challenges and difficulties of a being a religious soldier in a unit of non-religious soldiers, yet he openly opposes the continued service of religious soldiers in separate units. He explains why he was required to rewrite the IDF s ethical code and reveals his revolutionary plan to solve the problem of ultra-Orthodox army exemptions. This honest and frank insider s look at the Israel Defense Forces will inspire you and show you a glimpse of the true face of Israel and why Israel is worth fighting for.
Gefen Pub. House 2012 373 pages

Between the yeshiva world and modern orthodoxy: the life and works of Rabbi Jehiel Jacob Weinberg

Shapiro, Marc B.
A biography of the leading halakhic authority Jehiel Jacob Weinberg, born in Ciechanowiecz, Poland. He was the last rector of the Berlin Rabbinical Seminary. Ch. 5 (pp. 110-134), "Response to the New Nazi Government (1933-1934), " characterizes the early reaction of Weinberg to the Nazis as naive and apologetic. Weinberg helped the Orthodox Jews deal with problems of daily life under the Nazis (e.g. the ban on ritual slaughter). Ch. 6 (pp. 135-171), "The Nazi Era (1933-1945), " notes that Orthodox German Jews first adopted a policy of appeasement with the regime. With Jews excluded from general education and other aspects of German life, the role of the Seminary became more important. Weinberg had opposed Jewish emigration, and the "Kristallnacht" pogrom came as a tremendous shock to him; the Seminary was closed and most of the students and faculty emigrated. At the outbreak of the war he was in Warsaw, where he helped with communal affairs. As a Soviet citizen, Weinberg suffered less than others; in October 1941 he was transferred from the Warsaw ghetto to a detention camp in Wuelzburg, Germany, possibly in order to trade him for German citizens held captive in the USSR. He remained there until April 1945. Most of his family was murdered in the Holocaust. After the war he became head of a yeshiva in Montreux, Switzerland.
Littman Library 1999 283 pages