Fred Reiss, Ed.D.
Dr. Fred Reiss is a retired public and Hebrew school teacher and administrator. His newest works are The Comprehensive Jewish and Civil Calendars: 2001 to 2240, The Jewish Calendar: History and Inner Workings, and Sepher Yetzirah: The Book That Started Kabbalah, Revised Edition. The author may be contacted via fred.reiss@sdjewishworld.com.
The Hidden Passion and Joy of Psalms Described by Two Rabbis
Duets on Psalms: Drawing New Meaning From Ancient Words, Jack Riemer and Elie Spitz, Ben Yehuda Press, Teaneck, NJ, ©2023, ISBN 978-1-953829-62-7, p. 222, plus endnotes, $24.95.
There is a story told of a southern...
Book Puts the ‘Land’ in the Land of Israel
Anyone perusing the table of contents of Essentials of the Land of Israel by Brandon Marlon, a prolific, award-winning Canadian-Israeli author, would correctly conclude the book’s value lies in its treatment of the country’s geography. Yet, Essentials...
‘Jewish Bestiary’ Unpacks the Actual and Mystical Roles Animals Play in Our Lives
Close contact between animals and humans, according to the Hebrew Bible, happened soon after creation: God brought them before Adam to assign permanent names, and later, Eve encountered and conversed with the infamous snake....
Book Details 200 Places Around the World of Jewish Interest
The Complete Jewish Pilgrim is Howard Kramer’s fourth book in the Complete Pilgrim series. Kramer, a peripatetic, created the series by touring nearly thirty countries, forty American cities, and taking hundreds of pictures of the...
Jewish Infighting Contributed to Fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE
Intrigue, maneuvering, scheming, plotting, and murder highlight the years from Herod’s reign to the Jewish rebellion against Rome, beginning in 66. Herod, the Great, acting more like the King of the Jews than a...
Author Adopts Maimonides’ Principles as True Judaism
13 Principles of Emuna, The Timeless Foundations of Jewish Faith by Rabbi Lazer Brody, Emuna Beams Publication, ©2021, ISBN 979-8715611093, p. 175, $12.95.
Born in Cordoba in 1135, but living his adult life in Fostat (Old...
The Great Jewish Calendar Controversy
The Jewish calendar is lunisolar, New Moons start new months and periodically, seven times every nineteen years, the rabbis insert a thirty-day month, Adar I, keeping the lunar months and the seasons synchronized. The...
Book chronicles 4,000 years of Jewish leaders
Essentials of Jewish History: Jewish Leadership Across 4,000 years, Brandon Marlon, Vallentine Mitchell, London © 2020, ISBN 978-1-912676-18-7, p. 514 plus bibliography and index, $89.95.
Jewish presence across the last four thousand years of recorded...
Some Secrets of the Jewish Calendar
Although the holiday of Rosh Hashanah occurs in the seventh month of the Jewish year, it begins a new calendar year, and those observing Jewish holidays understand they are using a calendar substantially different...
What Elie Wiesel taught his students
Witness: Lesson’s from Elie Wiesel’s Classroom by Ariel Burger, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, New York © 2018, ISBN 9781328802699.
Elie Wiesel (1928 – 2016), Holocaust survivor and Nobel Prize laureate, perhaps best known for his memoir Night, and...