Editor and annotator Dunner prefaces this work with an account of its author’s spectacular life. At a young age, George Nagel, previously known as Rabbi Yechezkel Taub (born in 1895), was one of the youngest Hasidic leaders in Europe after the death of his father in 1920. The young man began to promote the immigration of religious Jews to Palestine, even paying for a sizable amount of land and bringing his followers there. However, while on a trip to the United States to secure funding, Nagel became stranded as a refugee at the start of World War II. After the war, Nagel found his followers gone, his land abandoned, and his faith all but lost. He changed his name and ultimately earned a degree in psychology at the age of 80. In lieu of pursuing a traditional graduate degree, he chose to volunteer at the Paradise Cove halfway house in California and record “day-to-day accounts of the psychiatric residents, their behavior, and interactions.” This text consists of his field notes, which are largely unedited (Dunner aims to “help Nagel’s words shine, just as he wrote them”). Nagel’s writing is genuine, raw, and frequently humorous. He celebrates both Hanukkah and Christmas; delights, in an ironic way, at being called a “good Christian”; and finds his way back to meaning, love, and faith through his work at Paradise Cove. The manuscript is easy to follow, entertaining, and, at its heart, a “bridge between…two worlds. It’s the record of a former rebbe who, though he may have lost his faith, never lost his sense of mission.” Readers will relate to this story of a man searching for “meaning, healing, and holiness in unexpected places” and marvel at the author’s extraordinary past. Nagel’s honesty and sense of light, combined with Dunner’s expert analysis, makes for an inspiring and captivating work of nonfiction.
