Fred Reiss, EdD

Tanya, the Masterpiece of Hasidic Wisdom: Sections Annotated and Explained by Rabbi Rami Shapiro, Skylight Paths Publishing, Woodstock, NY (Forward by Rabbi Zalman M. Schachter-Shalomi); ISBN 978-1-59473-275-1, ©2010, $16.99, p. 165, plus appendices,  Available in Kindle edition By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California — Jews were the middlemen between the gentry and the underclass in

Jerusalem’s Traitor: Josephus, Masada, and the Fall of Judea by Desmond Seward, Da Capo Press, Cambridge, MA; ISBN 978-0-306-81807-3, ©2009, $28.00, p. 275, plus maps, endnotes, and selected bibliography By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California — Desmond Seward, noted historian and author, in his newest book, Jerusalem’s Traitor provides us with a biography of Joseph

Rashi by Elie Wiesel. Translated from the French by Catherine Temerson, Nextbook ISBN 978-0-8052-4254-6, ©2009, $22.00, p. 90 plus chronology, glossary, and bibliography. By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California — One would be hard pressed to find a greater Jewish authority than Rabbi Shlomo ben Yitzhak, known to the world as Rashi. Many religious questions

Kiss Every Step by Doris Martin with Ralph S. Martin, Booksurge Publishing, ISBN 978-1-4392-5606-0, ©2009, $14.95, 222 pages By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California — The year is 1939. Hitler tells the Reichstag that if war erupts, the Jews will be exterminated. Eichmann is placed in charge of the Prague branch of the Jewish Emigration

Empowered Judaism: What Independent Minyanim Can Teach Us About Building Vibrant Jewish Communities by Rabbi Elie Kaunfer, Jewish Lights Publishing, ISBN 978-1-58023-412-2, ©2010, $18.99, p. 161 + appendices.  By Fred Reiss, Ed.D. WINCHESTER, California–The word minyan in Jewish ritual corresponds to the idea of a quorum. Minyan means having at least ten men assembled together

Yehuda Halevi by Hillel Halkin, Nextbook/Schocken, New York;  ISBN 978-0-8052-4206-5, ©2010, $25.00, p. 353. By Fred Reiss, Ed.D WINCHESTER, California– Give me the names of three medieval Jewish poets …  Okay, I’ll take just two … Can you name just one? If you’re like most people, all you heard was the sound of silence. Our

Scribal Culture and the Making of the Hebrew Bible By Karel van der Toorn, Harvard University Press, Cambridge ISBN 978-0-674-03254-5, $18.95,  265 pages  plus 125 pages of notes and selected bibliography By Fred Reiss, Ed.D WINCHESTER, California — Who wrote the Hebrew Bible, that is, the so-called Old Testament? Jewish tradition says that Moses wrote