∎ PDF The Rabbi of 84th Street The Extraordinary Life of Haskel Besser Warren Kozak 9780060511029 Books

The Rabbi of 84th Street The Extraordinary Life of Haskel Besser Warren Kozak 9780060511029 Books

Download As PDF : The Rabbi of 84th Street The Extraordinary Life of Haskel Besser Warren Kozak 9780060511029 Books

The Rabbi of 84th Street The Extraordinary Life of Haskel Besser Warren Kozak 9780060511029 Books

I'm on something of a Rabbi kick these past few months. Happened upon this after reading "The New Rabbi" about an extremely prominent, upscale suburban Synagogue in Pennsylvania and it's search for a replacement Rabbi. Decided that I'd read this by way of counterpoint, although it was clearly going to be a completely different book. The only commonality is that both were written by journalists.

The book is the story of Haskel Besser who is an extraordinary figure. He's lead a remarkable life and witnessed a lot of changes. I thoroughly enjoying reading about him.

The main trouble with the work is that it was, well, too straight forward. The life was interesting, but the book about it less so. It's never boring. There's a more than a bit of drama from Besser's life. The writer is correct not to milk it. Somehow, though, there's no tension and the drama recedes. Perhaps some compare and contrast might have helped. You don't get a full appreciation of this individual who clearly touched many lives.

All that being said, it's still worthwhile.


Tags : The Rabbi of 84th Street: The Extraordinary Life of Haskel Besser [Warren Kozak] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Always wearing an easy smile, Hasidic rabbi Haskel Besser spreads joy wherever he goes, enriching the lives of his many friends and congregants with his profound understanding of both Orthodox Judaism and human nature. With warmth and admiration,Warren Kozak,The Rabbi of 84th Street: The Extraordinary Life of Haskel Besser,Harper Perennial,0060511028,BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY General,Biography & Autobiography,Biography Autobiography,BiographyAutobiography,Biography: general,General,Hasidism,Judaism - General,RELIGION Judaism General,ReligionJudaism - General

The Rabbi of 84th Street The Extraordinary Life of Haskel Besser Warren Kozak 9780060511029 Books Reviews

Warren Kozak has written the semi-biography of a man who is the proof that to every exception there is a cliche. Instead of the stern, austere, cold and inscrutable hasidic rabbis, Rabbi Besser comes off as a warm caring and very worldly (and involved) modern man. He is self-educated in many things and unlike most people, has an open ear for all opinions (even those he disagrees with).

He is the quintesential MENSCH in that he both knowledgeable and humble about who he is and what he knows. He doesn't try to run over you with his knowledge but lets it creep up on you. Kozak makes a major point when he talks about the Rabbi's ability to LISTEN, which is so under hyped in the 21st century where the attitude is I am an expert in " " therefore you should listen to my opinion or your an idiot.

For those who (like me) grew up with European Grandparents (mine were Viennese Jews), there is an understated remembrance of people who were thoughtful about what they said and were willing to listen to the truth behind a arguement before making up their minds. There was also a stoicism that things are the way they are and you just have to learn to live with them, things could always be worse. Rabbi Besser has made a difference in many lives because he set out to live his own as a testament to all those who came before him (and perished in spasm of hatred that is still unintelligible to most of us). G-d bless him and grant him another hundred years.
"The Rabbi of 84th Street - the Extraordinary Life of Haskel Besser," by Warren Kozak is a remarkable little biography of a remarkable man of faith and action. Mr. Kozak, a journalist by profession, writes a moving portrait of Rabbi Besser, now "an elderly Hasidic rabbi." Kozak, Jewish, but not Orthodox, is well-positioned to write this biography, explaining the history, beliefs and lifestyle of Rabbi Besser and the tight-knit Jewish community in Poland and the rest of Europe as Hitler moved to completely erase them from the planet.

A rabbi acquaintance of mine gave me the book as a Hanukkah gift. With a large pile of reading material always beckoning, I was reluctant to begin reading the biography, thinking that the story of an old Polish rabbi would hold little interest to a young American Christian - I could not have been more wrong. First of all, Kozak knows how to tell a story. Secondly, Rabbi Besser's life is at the center of some of the most momentous events of the 20th Century WWII and Hitler, the creation of the state of Israel, and the Cold War. Finally, Rabbi Besser's faith is a powerful testament, speaking volumes of his character and of the nature of the G-d we both worship in our own way.

So many of the events in Rabbi Besser's life are worth recounting; I'll mention two his narrow escape from Europe on the day Hitler invaded Poland; and his amazing partnership with Ambassador Ronald Lauder.

Kozak spends about 20 pages to set up Rabbi Besser's childhood in Poland, detailing his home life and the history of his faith, then comprising a full ten percent of Poland's population. Seeing Hitler for what he was, Besser's father liquidated some of the family business on the eve of WWII and set about to safeguard his family by moving them to British Palestine. Young Besser, then 16, was left to tie up loose ends, a job the senior Besser had full confidence he could handle. Barely getting on a Romania-bound train in Warsaw two days before the invasion, Besser headed southeast. On board, he was almost attacked by a group of mobilizing Polish soldiers until a priest intervened - the priest was earlier impressed by Besser's regard for life when he asked him about a bomb in Haifa that killed innocent Arabs. The train made it to Lwow, 100 miles short of the border with Romania, when all train service was suspended because of the "imminent war situation." Told to leave the train, which was traveling an international route, Besser did so, then quietly boarded. He was likely the only passenger on the train as it traveled for another three hours to the border. At the international boundary, Besser was almost ejected from the train by a Polish border guard who threatened to shoot him as a deserter. As the guard left to get the police, the train lurched forward a hundred yards - into Romania. Possessing a valid Romanian visa, the Romanian guards demanded a bribe; one U.S. dollar did the trick. Finally, on September 1, 1939, the 16-year-old Besser boarded a boat for the Middle East, having parted with the last of his cash.

Besser's partnership with Ambassador Ronald Lauder, the son of Estee Lauder and former American Ambassador to Austria in the 1980s, is remarkable for the lives they both touched. As Kozak writes, "Ronald Lauder thought of himself in several different ways. He was a proud American, he was a New Yorker, and he was an active Republican. He knew a great deal about business, art, and foreign and military affairs. But he never really thought of himself as Jewish." Yet, Lauder readily combined his wealth, business savvy, and connections to Rabbi Besser's own assets and the two of them set out to ease the way for thousands of Jewish refusniks - Russian Jewish emigrants previously denied exit from the Soviet Union - who found themselves in Vienna, a people without a country. Through the Ronald Lauder Foundation, Besser and Lauder worked to revitalize European Jewry, starting Jewish schools, tending historic Jewish cemeteries, and assisting refusniks.

Close to the end of the biography, Kozak tells of how badly the previous century turned out for the Jews

"The twentieth century turned out to be a terrible disappointment for many Jews," Rabbi Besser explains. "For two hundred years, Jews had finally been accepted into the world. But the modern enlightenment proved to be the first great disappointment because so many Jews who bought into it saw the end result when Europeans turned on them in the 1930s. You don't even kill insects the way they killed Jewish children.

"The second great disappointment came in Communism, which was supposed to end poverty in the world. It only created more poverty and more suffering before it finally collapsed.

"The third great disappointment came after World War II. The Germans and their collaborators were embarrassed by what they had done and the rest of the world shared part of that embarrassment for not protesting the massive genocide earlier. But now sixty years later all of those feelings of embarrassment seem to be gone and some even doubt that it ever happened.

"And, finally, the fourth disappointment happened in Israel. Herzl and the early Zionists believed that if Jews had a nation of their own, that would be the solution to anti-Semitism. Sadly it was not.

"In some ways it is the loss of faith in human beings that drives people to G-d. Usually Hasidism prospers after big tzuris (trouble)."

Warren Kozak's tale of Haskel Besser, the Rabbi of 84th Street, is well worth reading, for both Jew and Gentile.

Reviewer Chuck DeVore is a Vice President at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. He served in the California State Assemblyman from 2004 to 2010. Before his election, he was an executive in the aerospace industry. He was a Special Assistant for Foreign Affairs in the Department of Defense from 1986 to 1988. He is a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army (retired) Reserve. DeVore is the author of "The Texas Model Prosperity in the Lone Star State and Lessons for America" and the co-author of "China Attacks."
I loved reading this book. The Rabbi led an inspiring and meaningful life. We need more leaders like him, humble,kind, and one with values.

I only wish I had known him, a remarkable man and a remarkable life.
This was our book club selection
Very interesting story of a very interesting rabbi who walked in different worlds but never forgot who he was, or let the power go to his head.
A wonderful Rabbi's life captured by an outstanding author.
Rabbi Besser straddled the time of prewar Europe & postwar New York.
His experience & insights make this book a must read for anyone interested in this time period.
I'm on something of a Rabbi kick these past few months. Happened upon this after reading "The New Rabbi" about an extremely prominent, upscale suburban Synagogue in Pennsylvania and it's search for a replacement Rabbi. Decided that I'd read this by way of counterpoint, although it was clearly going to be a completely different book. The only commonality is that both were written by journalists.

The book is the story of Haskel Besser who is an extraordinary figure. He's lead a remarkable life and witnessed a lot of changes. I thoroughly enjoying reading about him.

The main trouble with the work is that it was, well, too straight forward. The life was interesting, but the book about it less so. It's never boring. There's a more than a bit of drama from Besser's life. The writer is correct not to milk it. Somehow, though, there's no tension and the drama recedes. Perhaps some compare and contrast might have helped. You don't get a full appreciation of this individual who clearly touched many lives.

All that being said, it's still worthwhile.