Writing

Rabbis need to write a lot – letters, essays, sermons, articles, Torah commentaries, responses to religious questions, speeches and more. I write a lot – and have done since I was young; I write because I have to. Seriously.  Some brief examples I have enclosed to this website. The ideas come and they need to be worked on, teased out, sometimes checked against other ideas and facts – and written down. Thank heavens for laptops!

'Tales of the Chutzper Rebbe – a Selection from the Acidic Anthology' – this first appeared in 1997 in California (pub. 'Alef Design'). It includes tongue-in-cheek parodies of some of the classic Chasidic tales which are so often so earnestly cited.... A second edition with the same illustrations by Paul Palnik is now available on Amazon:  2020:  ISBN: 979-867-593694-6

'99 Fragen zum Judentum' – appeared from 2001 in three editions (the third in 2005), with a German translation by Götz Elsner; It is still available. Also as an e-book. This paperback atttempts to answer, in a light yet comprehensive manner, the questions which so frequently come up in interfaith encounters.

(Gütersloher Taschenbuchverlag, ISBN 978-3-587906423-9)

The English version is ''99 Questions About Judaism'' (2020)  ISBN 979-856-4438841.  138pp. ''Why do Jews also answer a Question with a Question?'' ''So nu, Why shouldn't Jews always answer a Question with a Question?''

This book has also appeared in Italian as '99 domande sull'Ebraismo',

Gribaudi, Milan, 2004, EAN: 9788871527475
 

'Auf das Leben' is a book of rabbinic short stories, translated into German by Miriam Pressler and illustrated by Oliver Weiß, published by Goldmann Verlag, München, 2008, ISBN 978-3-442-31185-9. This has also appeared in Korean. The German version is currently only available second-hand but I hope to produce a second edition soon; the English version will hopefully be expanded with companion volumes as resources allow.

Some of the stories, published in "Auf das Leben", but also some new ones, were published as 'Tales from the Rabbi's Desk'  Vol. 1 (Kulmus Publishing, London 2015; ISBN 978-0-9880539-2-2; 208 pp.) Of these stories I can say that they are not exactly 'true' but they are 'authentic' – they are based on the things one experiences as a Rabbi, but I have modified and altered the stories to make those concerned less identifiable.

Now added and available from Amazon are.

Volume 1 (second edition) 2020.  ISBN 979-8-69531-580-6.

Volume 2 (second edition) 2020.  ISBN 979-8-69540-752-5.

Volume 3. 2020.  ISBN 979-8-55722-452-9.

Volume 4. 2021.  ISBN 979-8-75552-698-2.

Volume 5 is in preparation. 

A PERSONAL BIOGRAPHY OF RABBI DR. ERICH BIENHEIM  is available in English (2020. ISBN 9798668247134) (on Amazon) and in German (RABBINER DR. ERICH BIENHEIM. EINE PERSÖNLICHE BIOGRAPHIE)  (Hentrich & Hentrich 2019; ISBN 978-3-95565-356-9.  Erich Bienheim (1898-1962) came from Duingen, a small village in northern Germany; He studied in Berlin, then was ordained asnd served as a Rabbi in Darmstadt until the events of 1938. Following incarceration in Buchenwald he was released and fled to England from where he was deported to Australia on the infamous 'S.S. Dunera'. He was able to return and eventually became Rabbi in Bradford Synagogue where he taught a very young Walter Rothschild his 'Alef Bet' before sadly dying of cancer. Having left no children and no books I felt it was important to give the man - my first Rabbi and a  colleague - a memorial biography from the pieces of information still available.

CRYPTIC TALES FROM THE CRYPT is a collection of 33 short memoirs ('Memoirs of an Undertaker's Undertakings' or 'My Apprenticeship with Death') by Mr. Henry Longbottom, a former Apprentice at Thistlethwaite & Sons, Funeral Directors, somewhere in Yorkshire, as told to Walter Rothschild of the Shadley Local History Society. What happened to the boat on the Lake? How does one arrange a Viking Funeral? How are Postmen buried? And many more experiences vividly brought...er... to life.   ISBN 979-858-768707-3

THERE'S TROUBLE DOWN AT T'PITCH

 26 vivid stories of football as played by the classic teams Huddersfax City and  Cleckheckmondsedge Rovers through rain, hail, snow, fog and yet more rain in the gory glory (and very muddy) days of the past. As Told By a Father to his Son. Eeh bah goom but men were men in them there days an' they 'ad Balls to kick an' all. 

ISBN 979-858.728139-4

'Der Honig und der Stachel' is a thick textbook (432 pages) covering almost everything one could wish to know about Judaism but presented from a realistic Reform or Liberal European perspective – so many of the Guides to Judaism are either Orthodox and/or American and do not reflect the realities of life here. It appeared in Gütersloher Verlag, 2009, ISBN 978-3-579-06528-1.

'The Bookcase of Sherlock Holmes' is a small e-book with three segments in English and forms a 'different' tongue-in-cheek view of Sherlock Holmes and his faithful partner Dr. John Watson and the Victorian London in which they lived and worked – with its weather, its crowds, its lowlife and shady corners.

It also exists in two Volumes as 'THE SECRET BOOKCASE OF SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE SUPPRESSED MEMOIRS': 

Vol. 1: ISBN 979-868-062099-1

Vol. 2: ISBN 979-869-027644-7

From the Introduction: ''All those who have carefully read the splendid accounts of Dr. John Watson concerning the intelligence, insight and integrity, the deductive and didactic powers of his erstwhile colleague and friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes, will be aware that we have, at best, only a small fraction of their story. These two English gentlemen pursue their parallel careers with but occasional mention of domestic matters; Holmes remains a bachelor in a fitting bachelor apartment, suitably convenient for The Regents Park and all the opportunities for bachelor life that may be offered there. Watson, as a medical man through and through, cannot help but mention from time to time the pharmacological habits of his friend - habits that, though perhaps acceptable at that period, would nowadays earn more than a raised eyebrow.  .......... 

       It is clear that thete is much that we are not told and for decades scholars have struggled in a vain endeavour to elucidate more of the lives of these gentlemen. Now, through one of those strange sendipital coincidences upon which we so often rely, there has come to light a bundle of yellowing manuscripts in an ancient desk that was being disposed of as the former offices of 'Strand Magazine' were being demolished for redevelopment. These stories, it appears, composed and edited from his notes and then submitted by Dr. Watson according to his usual practice, were in fact suppressed by the then-Editor, as unsuitable for publication. On reading them we can perhaps see why, for they cast our characters in positions of ambiguity and doubt that could be considered to undermine their moral integrity - an integrity upon which so much of their careers rlelied. Elements of Homles' youth. background and private tastes are revealed which may shock those readers who had never considered to contemplate that no-one springs fully-formed and wholly perfect into this world.  

     In view of the years that have passed, it is considered that there is no danger in revealing now the contents of these manuscripts....''

Only for those with a sense of humour, these tales include gripping accounts of the Rabbi who lost (and regained) his Faith, the Archbishop who desired to convert in secret, the Missing Suit of Shaatnez-Free Cloth and many more besides......

In 2015 I rewrote the English text, expanding and modifying it, and this was published in 2016 as 'The Honey and the Sting', - ''for all who want to learn, and all who want to learn more'' - in hardback, softback and e-Book formats. Pub. JVFG, London, 2016, ISBN 978-1-910752-15-9 (paperback) (there are different numbers for different versions.)