Rabbi Joseph Telushkin
2018 Manhattan Jewish Hall of Fame Inductee
BIOGRAPHY
Joseph Telushkin, named by Talk Magazine as one of the 50 best speakers in the United States, is the author of Jewish Literacy: The Most Important Things to Know About the Jewish Religion, Its People and Its History. The most widely selling book on Judaism of the past two decades, Jewish Literacy has been hailed by leading figures in all the major movements of Judaism.
Rabbi Telushkin's earlier book, Words that Hurt, Words that Heal became the motivating force behind Senators Joseph Lieberman and Connie Mack's 1996 Senate Resolution #151 to establish a "National Speak No Evil Day" throughout the United States. In 2007, Telushkin's "A Code of Jewish Ethics" won the National Jewish Book Award as the Jewish book of the year.
Telushkin's The Book of Jewish Values: A Day by Day Guide to Ethical Living was the subject of a PBS special entitled Moral Imagination. His book, The Golden Land, a museum–in-a-book, tells the story of the Jewish migrations to the United States. In 2004, Toby Press published his novel, Heaven's Witness, co-written with Allen Estrin, a murder mystery which deals with the themes of reincarnation and life after death.
He has written Jewish Humor: What the Best Jewish Jokes Say About the Jews. Telushkin is also co-author with Dennis Prager of one of the most influential Jewish books published in the last forty years, The Nine Questions People Ask About Judaism, hailed by Herman Wouk as "the intelligent skeptic's guide to Judaism". In 1997, his novel, An Eye for an Eye, became the basis for four episodes of David Kelley's Emmy Award-winning ABC TV series, The Practice, and he co-wrote three additional episodes of the program.
He also co-wrote an episode of the TV series, Touched By An Angel, for Kirk Douglas, in which Mr. Douglas starred as a man who, after a lifetime of struggle with his faith, returns to God and Judaism.
Telushkin serves on the Advisory Council and Scholar's Council for the World's Jewish Museum, the iconic Frank Gehry-designed museum due to open in Tel Aviv in honor of Israel's seventy-fifth anniversary.
Rabbi Telushkin was ordained at Yeshiva University in New York, and pursued graduate studies in Jewish history at Columbia University. He resides in New York City with his wife, Dvorah Menashe Telushkin. They have four children.
He lectures throughout the United States, serves as a Senior Associate of CLAL, and on the Board of Directors of the Jewish Book Council.
