irelushltin
The Accidental Star

his father, Shlomo, was a rabbi (though a practicing
accountant), and a second cousin was Detroit's Rabbi
Morris Adler of Congregation Shaarey Zedek (see
accompanying story). But young Joe Telushkin, grow-
ing up in Brooklyn, mainly wanted to be a writer.
Being a rabbi was in the picture, but it wasn't a priori-
ty
"When I was in college, the areas that interested
me were writing, law and being a rabbi," he recalls,
his accent still resonant of Flatbush sidewalks. "But I
realized that Judaism was such a passion for me that if
I chose another profession, that would be my voca-
tion and Judaism would be my avocation, so there
was an advantage to being a rabbi."
Even after his ordination from New York's Yeshiva
University Rabbi Telushkin appeared to be on his
way to an academic career. He was on the verge of
receiving a doctorate at Columbia when a book he
had co-written with a high school friend, Dennis
Prager — Eight Questions People Ask about Judaism
(later released as Nine Questions People Ask about
Judaism) — started to become a popular success.
The book was something of an accident. Rabbi
Telushkin and Prager were active in the movement to
free Soviet Jews. In the course of their lectures, they
realized they were hearing many of the same questions
about Judaism, regardless of the audience. In
response, they put together a book and self-published
it in 1975. Over the course of five years, it sold a
respectable 30,000 copies and was picked up by the
publishing house Simon and Schuster in 1981.
By that time, Rabbi Telushkin was serving as the
education director of the Brandeis-Bardin Institute, a
Los Angeles-based Jewish education center, where his
friend Prager was executive director. The two collabo-
rated on another work — Why the Jews?• The Reason
for Anti-Semitism — but both left the institute in
1983. (Prager, ever blunt, acknowledges differences
with the BBI board.) Prager embarked on a career as a
Los Angeles radio talk-show host; Rabbi Telushkin
headed for Israel.
The rabbi supported himself with his writing for
the next four years, and returned to the U.S. when his
father fell ill. Back in New York, Rabbi Telushkin met
Dvorah Menashe, a former assistant to Isaac Bashevis
Singer. The two married in 1988.
Rabbi Telushkin never stopped writing or lectur-
ing, continually committed to outreach. As the '90s
began, he wrote a series of books that would make his
name: Jewish Literacy; Jewish Humor; Jewish Wisdom;
Words. That Hurt, Words That Heal. Many of the
books came out of lectures and seminars he had been
presenting for years, and they fed a craving among

A Popular Tradition

Rabbi Joseph Telushkin isn't the first Jewish
scholar to write books for popular consumption
— nor is he, the first to taste popular success.
• Despite deeply Jewish characters and
themes, novels by Rabbi Chaim Potok have
become national bestsellers. His works include
The Chosen (1967), My Name Is Asher Lev
(1972) and Davida's Hal) (1985), as well as
the non-fiction success, Wanderings: Chaim
Potok's History of the Jews (1978). An ordained
Conservative rabbi, he ascribes his popularity
to the universal appeal of literature.
"Literature transcends boundaries and divi-
sions," he said in October 1999. "The whole
point ... is to get into another world, one very
different from yours."
• Rabbi Harold S. Kushner became famous
in 1981 with his book "When Bad Things
Happen to Good People." The book, prompt-
ed by the fatal illness of one of Rabbi Kushner's
children, became an international bestseller. It
has been translated into 12 languages. Rabbi
Kushner, the rabbi laureate of Tempk Israel in
Natick, Mass., followed When Bad Things hap-
pen with other examinations of evil, guilt and
happiness. He has become a popular speaker,
_particularly on the business circuit.
• Rabbi Benjamin Blech became known to
a wider audience with appearances on televi-
sion's Oprah and his authorship of The

Complete Idiot's Guide to Jewish History and
Culture for Macmillan/Alpha Books' popular
Idiot's Guide book series. He has since written
two follow-ups. "These books reach out to
everybody," he said "People are not offended
by the tides, but rather consider it a way of
saying that no matter what level you're at
you'll be able to learn."
• Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski, a psychiatrist,
established a following with his series of self-
help books on thinking patterns, marriage, self-
esteem and spirituality. They include Liff Too
Short!: Pull the Plug on Self-Defeating Behavior
and Turn on the Power of Self-Esteem (1995).
His occasional collaborations with the late
"Peanuts" cartoonist Charles M. Schulz didn't
hurt his popular status either.

— Todd Leopold

•

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Jews to look inward, to better understand their faith.
"There were rabbis that were doing work similar to
mine in the 1930s, when there was much less open-
ness to this message. Jews then were going through a
period of adjustment to American assimilation," •
Rabbi Telushkin says. "In the past, there was a larger
percentage of Jews that were perhaps committed; but
there was a feeling that things were being lost. And
now there's a great openness."
"His ethical writing is of such a style that I find it
inspirational," says Rabbi Michael Berger, a professor
of Jewish studies at Atlanta's Emory University.
"I feel he is immensely sensitive and practices what
he preaches ... I've met people in Atlanta who had
him as a teacher or lecturer, and they were moved lit-
erally to change their lives due to what Joe [Rabbi
Telushkin] said."

.

Getting Around

Rabbi Telushkin spends about 90 days a year on the
road. It may not seem like much, but he's got children
at home in New York, and his schedule can be
exhausting: New Orleans one weekend, Savannah
another, a quick trip to Indianapolis to address a din-
ner. One weekend a month he's in Los Angeles, as
rabbi of the Los Angeles based Synagogue for the
Performing Arts. Then there are the articles, the books
and the scripts: always something else to write, some-
place else to be.
But the outreach comes naturally, he says. "I've
been able to fulfill a lot of dreams. I love doing differ-
ent types of writing, and I've been given the opportu-
nity," he says. "Obviously, I'm motivated — also,
because I do want to find different ways to get my
message out."
One of those ways has been by writing for televi-
sion. Rabbi Telushkin has co-written several episodes
of The Practice on ABC and an upcoming episode of
Touched by an Angel on CBS.
His start in the medium is a classic Hollywood story.
In addition to his non-fiction work, Rabbi Telushkin
has published three mystery novels starring a rabbinic
sleuth. A few years ago, he was discussing the third
book in the series, An Eye for an Eye, with former CBS
executive Jeff Sagansky, a congregant at the Synagogue
for the Performing Arts. Sagansky liked the book and
sent it to a friend, writer-producer David E. Kelley of
L.A. Law (NBC) and Picket Fences (CBS) fame.
After some delay, Kelley asked that the book be
turned into a script, which Rabbi Telushkin wrote
with a colleague, Allen Estrin. The script eventually

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