Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on January 30, 2022

By Sam GelmanStraus Center Editorial and Program Officer

Maggid Booksa division of Koren Publishers Jerusalemin collaboration with Yeshiva University Press, recently published Dialogues of Love and Fear: A Rabbis Daughter, a Kess Son, and Hope for the Future by Rabbi Dr. Sharon Zewde Shalom with a foreword by Dr. Steven Fine, the Dean Pinkhos Churgin Professor of Jewish History at Yeshiva University and director of the YU Center for Israel Studies and the YU Israelite Samaritans Project.

A work of imagination and insight that addresses the fraught issues of our times in new and refreshing ways, Dialogues of Love and Fear chronicles the personal journey of Rabbi Dr. Shalom, who went from shepherd to professor, from refugee to IDF officer, and from student of a kes (religious leader) to rabbi of an Ashkenazi synagogue. The book not only brings the many facets of his identity into dialogue but also provides a window into the world of Ethiopian Jewry, their challenges, and the deep questions that every complex relationship carries with it. Covering a huge breadth of topics, this heart-warming, optimistic book offers a transformative perspective that is tolerant, accessible, and committed to Jewish tradition.

YU is proud to have partnered with Maggid books on producingRabbi Dr. Sharon Shaloms personal, powerful, heart-rendering, and spiritually profound work, said Rabbi Dr. Stu Halpern, senior advisor to the provost. Rabbi Dr. Shaloms leadership, depth of experience, and insight will inspire Jews across the globe.

Dialogues of Love and Fear not only explores the relationships between the different sectors of the Jewish community in Israel and the diaspora but is also an illustration of our relationship with God, added Alex Drucker of Maggid Book. A person is constantly striking a balance between love and fear. Whereas we might default to fearing another in some ways, when we engage in conversation with those different from ourselves, we can only grow to appreciate and to love them and what their experiences offer to Jewry as a whole. It is a privilege to bring Rav Sharon Shaloms work to an English-speaking audience, and we are sure his book will have a profound impact on all who read it.

Rabbi Dr. Sharon Zewde Shalom was born in northern Ethiopia in 1973. In 1981 his family set out on the treacherous journey from Ethiopia to Israel, and when detained in a refugee camp in Sudan, his parents sent him ahead to Israel. Separated from his parents and siblings, he was sent to live in a childrens home in Afula and informed that his parents had died. Two years later he discovered that they were in fact alive, and he was reunited with them in Israel. He went on to attend the prestigious Yeshivat Har Etzion, serve as an officer in the IDF infantry, and complete a doctorate at Bar-Ilan University.

Today, Shalom serves as rabbi of the Kedoshei Yisrael community (established by Holocaust survivors) in Kiryat Gat and is a senior lecturer in Jewish Studies and head of the International Center for the Study of Ethiopian Jewry at Ono Academic College. His first book, From Sinai to Ethiopia (2012), was influential in its defense of Ethiopian practice in the context of the wider Jewish community. In 2018 the book was awarded the Aminach Prize, which encourages creative expression related to religious Zionism. He lives in Kiryat Gat with his wife, Avital, and their five children.

To purchase Dialogues of Love and Fear: A Rabbis Daughter, a Kess Son, and Hope for the Future, click here.

Link:

Dialogues of Love and Fear: A New Book from YU Press & Maggid Books - Yu News

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