Jack Canfield - Chicken Soup for the Jewish Soul: 101 Stories to Open the Heart and Rekindle the Spirit

What People Are Saying About
Chicken Soup for the Jewish Soul...

The people who made chicken soup a synonym for healing love now have a heartwarming book of their own. Read it and kvell!

Rabbi Harold Kushner
author, Living a Life That Matters

I defy anyone to read this book and not be moved to tears several times. This is a stunning collection of stories that will make you want to be a blessing in the lives of all the people you encounter. What more could one ask fora book that actually makes one want to be a better person!

Rabbi Joseph Telushkin
author, The Book of Jewish Values:
A Day-by-Day Guide to Ethical Living

If Jewish humor and wisdom need nourishing, Chicken Soupfor the Jewish Soul will feed it. It is the traditional food for the soul and for the mind, whether served in a bowl or in a book.

Bonnie Lipton
national president, HadassahWomens Zionist
Organization of America

Wisdom, intelligence and resourcefulness, but above all, a particular sort of gentle humor, have enabled the Jewish people to survive thousands of years of adversity. These are wonderful stories, reflecting joy and sorrow and warmth, and the authors have compiled them with great sensitivity, affection and thoughtfulness.

Ronald S. Lauder
chairman, Conference of Presidents of
Major American Jewish Organizations

Chicken Soup for the Jewish Soul covers so many aspects of the Jewish experience, it touches us deeply. What a wonderful read for Jew and non-Jew alike.

Abraham H. Foxman
national director, Anti-Defamation League

When the worlds miseries and sheer ugliness threaten to overwhelm as they too often doour best defense is to recall the kindness of which we are capable. This lovely book, a collection of examples of humanity and humaneness at their most basic levels, is a valuableand inspiringrefutation to those who think our condition hopeless. One story a dayespecially on a gray day and your spirit will be lifted.

Leonard Fein
founder, Mazon: A Jewish Response to Hunger
author, Against the Dying of the Light

My family reads these stories out loud to each other. We laugh. We cry. We hug. A family that eats chicken soup together will remain culinary Jews. A family that reads Chicken Soup together will remain part of an enduring tradition that has transformed the world with its humor, passion and generosity of spirit.

Alan M. Dershowitz
Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
author, Supreme Injustice: How the High Court Hijacked Election 2000

Chicken Soup for the Jewish Soul is a book that you need to own. In the wisely chosen stories, we meet no less than ourselves at our best. It will inspire, excite and transform you. What more can a person ask for?

Rabbi Marc Gafni
author, Soul Prints

Chicken Soup for the Jewish Soul serves wisdom for and from the ages, informed by horror and humor, by lessons of the battlefield and of the kitchen table. It will nourish anyones faith.

United States Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr.

These personal stories from every corner of the world inspire us with their tales of the small everyday miracles that have nourished Jews since time immemorial. They speak to the nobility of Jewish ethics, the Jewish passion for life and the universal dignity of the human soul.

Rabbi Irving Greenberg
president, Jewish Life Network
author, The Jewish Way and Living in the Image of God

With all the turmoil and violence in contemporary culture, here is a book that provides rest and nourishment for our souls.

Susannah Heschel
Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies, Dartmouth College

The Jewish soul has nourished us Christians for two thousand years. Now we get the Chicken Soup version. It is life-giving, edifying and graceful. All people will be enriched by these words that so beautifully capture the essence and the joy of what it means to be a Jew.

Bishop John Shelby Spong
author, Liberating the Gospels:
Reading the Bible with Jewish Eyes

A heartwarming and edifying work; guaranteed to make you feel better.

Gideon Patt
president and CEO, Israel Bonds
former Minister of Science and Minister of Tourism,
State of Israel

A great collection. Inspiring tales, uplifting stories and great jokes. They make us cry; they make us laugh. And if laughter is the best medicine, this book is a cure for the common cold. Its truly delightful.

Bernie Marcus
Chairman of the Board, The Home Depot

Chicken Soup for the Jewish Soul not only nourishes and warms the soul, as a good bowl of chicken soup should (not too much salt please), but I found that it both inspired me and filled me with pride for the legacy given me by my fellow Jews.

Rudy Boschwitz
United States Senator 19781991

This serving of Jewish soul food is a collection of poignant and touching anecdotes, true life accounts of hashgacha pratitGods intervention in ones personal history. The editors are to be congratulated for their efforts in amassing these delicious morsels for the mind, tidbits of Jewish life.

Limor Livnat
Minister of Education, State of Israel

This book is a masterpiece. I laughed and cried and wished for more. May it warm the hearts of many and serve as a living legacy for our people. Were my grown sons still small, I would read them a story from this precious book every night, over and over again. It would be a complete education in lifeits joys and sorrowsand how an unseen hand with a great sense of humor works magic in our lives through our love of one another.

Joan Borysenko
author, Inner Peace for Busy People

These stories are like a steaming bowl of chicken soup on a cold, rainy daythey make you feel warm inside, and you want to come back for more!

Linda Gradstein
NPR correspondent in Jerusalem

I had never thought of that Greco-Roman term of soul as being Jewish, but Chicken Soup for the Jewish Soul gives it the materiality it needs! These are great stories for people of every culture.

The Reverend Dr. Ross H. Trower
former Chief of Chaplains, U.S. Navy (ret.)

Chicken Soup for the Jewish Soul offers a wellspring of inspiration to help us celebrate in our moments of joy and fortify us in our moments of deep despair. There are moments when the experiences of the stories are as powerful as a prayer... and from every page into every soul, there is healing.

Debbie Friedman
composer, singer

CHICKEN SOUP
FOR THE
JEWISH SOUL

Stories to Open the Heart
and Rekindle the Spirit

Jack Canfield
Mark Victor Hansen
Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins

Health Communications, Inc.
Deerfield Beach, Florida

www.hcibooks.com
www.chickensoup.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Chicken Soup for the Jewish soul : stories to open the heart and rekindle the spirit / [compiled by] Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Dov Peretz Elkins.

p. cm.

eISBN-13: 978-0-7573-9642-7 eISBN-10: 0-7573-9642-9

1. Jewish way of lifeAnecdotes. 2. Spiritual lifeJudaismAnecdotes. 3. Interpersonal relationsReligious aspectsJudaismAnecdotes. I. Canfield, Jack, date. II. Hansen, Mark Victor. III. Elkins, Dov Peretz.

BM723 .C45 2001