NOTE: I was not paid to review this book. It is an unbiased and objective review. If you have a book with Jewish or Israel related content and would like me to write a review, contact me for details of where to send me a review copy of the book.

Book Review: Touching History, by Rabbi Sholom Gold

I am honored to having been given the opportunity to write a book review for Touching History by Rabbi Sholom Gold, though I don't know how I can possibly do the book justice with my review.

Touching History is perfectly named. This book is history. It is the history of Rabbi Gold and his family, and it is the history of Judaism in North America - Canada and the United States of America, and of Israel during the second half of the 20th century and early 21st century.

Rabbi Sholom Gold is one of those rare people who has the skill to tell a story and keep you captivated, and enchanted. Rabbi Gold is one of those rare people who were perfectly positioned to witness history in the making and recognize the significance of events as he witnessed them.

I don't know if he kept a detailed log every time he experienced events throughout all his years, even as a young man, or if he just has a phenomenal memory and remembers his life so vividly. Either way, Rabbi Sholom Gold lived through the most fascinating of times, and was aware enough, cognizant enough of what he was seeing and what he was part of, and retells it masterfully.

I have had the opportunity, more than once, to meet Rabbi Gold, and more often to hear him speak in public, whether in his shul or elsewhere. Rabbi Gold is passionate - about his shul and his congregants, about life, about his family, about Judaism, and needless to say, about Eretz Yisrael. That is true in real life, and it comes through perfectly in his book, Touching History. The book reads as if he is talking. I was able to close my eyes and hear his voice, hear his passion.

Touching History should be read by all. Rabbi Gold retells the most amazing experiences, of Eretz Yisrael in the early days from when he spent some time learning in yeshiva, of growing up in Jewish New York - Williamsburg, of his connections and experiences with the greatest of the rabbonim of America, and of Israel, and other leaders. He had the opportunity to meet, and have relationships with, Rav Kaminetsky, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, the Brisker Rav, various Chassidic Rebbes, Rav Ruderman, Menachem Begin, Rabbi Yosef Mendelovitz, Rav Herzog, Rav Elyashiv, Rav Pam, Rav Feinstein, Bibi Netanyahu, Mike Tress, and many many more.

Rabbi Gold was part of major experiences of Jewish life - he went to Russia to meet with refuseniks, as a spy. Rabbi Gold was arrested in Israel during protests against giving land away in peace deals. Rabbi Gold went to Oslo to protest the outside the Nobel Prize ceremony. Rabbi Gold went to the wilderness and founded yeshivot and shuls where they didn't exist, and then grew them where they did, and created Torah programming for adults.

Touching History is a fascinating, and mesmerizing at times, look at recent Jewish history.

In the book Rabbi Gold retells many stories that he experienced in his life. Some of them are humorous, some historic, some full of insight, some sad.. every emotion is played out while reading this book. I think the two that impacted me the most were:
1. when he was debating the timing of making aliyah and was unsure what to do. Rabbi Gold retells how he came to his decision. His decision was influenced by a dog. You'll have to read it to get the story.
2. Rabbi Gold muses about the role of the community rabbi, and what he does for his community. In a beautiful tribute to the community rabbi, Rabbi Gold recalls that back in the day, in the earlier portion of his career in the rabbinate, the rabbinate in the USA was dominated by rabbis that were all clean-shaven, with American names, "like Harry, Steven, Robert, or George". He describes how these men, these rabbis, went out across America and built day schools and mikvaot, and taught and did what they could to ensure the continuity and growth of the Jewish people. They were persistent, and they were passionate. And today's Judaism that we live is largely due to the valiant efforts of those "more American" rabbis. Today's rabbis, who are almost all bearded and have names like Moshe, Chaim and Yankel, are all functioning based on the efforts and successes of those earlier rabbis. Rabbi Gold writes beautifully "how much reward will be waiting for these unsung heroes who built shuls, day schools, and mikvaos across America."

Those are two pieces that impacted me more than the others, but the others, the entire book, all the experiences related, are all captivating.

Rabbi Gold brings modern Jewish history to life. At times in the book I thought to myself how fortunate he was to experience all that, and to recognize the magnitude of what he was experiencing, and to be so passionate about it for so long. And how fortunate those around him were, to be around such passion and verve.

buy Touching History on Gefen Publishing

buy Touching History on Amazon.com



NOTE: I was not paid to review this book. It is an unbiased and objective review. If you have a book with Jewish or Israel related content and would like me to write a review, contact me for details of where to send me a review copy of the book.