Fishkoff, Sue

views updated

Fishkoff, Sue

PERSONAL:

Female.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Oakland, CA. Office—JTA, 330 7th Ave., 17th Fl., New York, NY 10001. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer, editor, and journalist. Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA, a global Jewish news service), correspondent covering American Jewish issues and contributing editor coordinating coverage of the former Soviet Union. Former associate editor of a weekly newspaper in Monterey County, CA; former staff writer, Jerusalem Post.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Journalism awards from the National Newspaper Association, B'Nai B'rith World Center, and American Jewish Press Association.

WRITINGS:

The Rebbe's Army: Inside the World of Chabad-Lubavitch, Schocken Books (New York, NY), 2003.

SIDELIGHTS:

Author and journalist Sue Fishkoff is a correspondent for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) and a former staff writer with the Jerusalem Post. In The Rebbe's Army: Inside the World of Chabad-Lubavitch, Fishkoff investigates the Orthodox Jewish movement Chabad-Lubavitch, whose members attempt to make Jews more observant of their religion. Originating in Eastern Europe, in the mid-1700s, this faction of American Jewry was the fastest growing Jewish group at the turn of the twenty-first century. It has since grown to a worldwide organization fueled by the devotion of emissary couples, Lubavitcher rabbis and their wives, who are assigned to a geographical area where they commit their entire lives to furthering the group's cause and the Jewish religion. They work to make Jews more aware of their religion and enhance the significance of it in their lives. In addition to their wide-ranging preaching activities, the Lubavitchers, as adherents are known, run such charitable activities as schools, drug-rehabilitation centers, and antipoverty programs across the United States. Unconcerned with money, often living in modest circumstances, Lubavitchers found nursery schools, conduct summer camps, work to educate both children and adults, strive to bring Jewish customs into places where they may be languishing, "throw Hanukah and Purim parties, teach people how to light Shabbos candles and lay tefillin, and build new mikvahs in areas that have none," observed Mark Oppenheimer on Jbooks.com. "What other organization in the Jewish world is so concerned about making us more Jewish?," Oppenheimer asked. "Lubavitchers live simply, foregoing possessions in favor of large families and meaningful work." Fishkoff's "perceptive account explains the movement by introducing those who are a part of it," noted Ilene Cooper in Booklist, including a charismatic rabbi from Los Angeles whose telethons consistently raise millions of dollars for the group; the rabbi in charge of Harvard's Chabad House; and several of the young couples who have answered the call and willingly given their lives and futures to the service of Chabad-Lubavitch.

Fishkoff also covers some of the controversies surrounding Chabad-Lubavitch, including the group's determined adherence to the teachings and personality of their deceased rebbe, Menachem Schneerson, the seventh and currently last Lubavitcher Rebbe, who some believed was the prophesied Messiah. In other accounts, Fishkoff looks at reaction to Chabad-Lubavitch, noting how some detractors consider it little more than a cult, and how others find it embarrassing for being "too blatantly Jewish," noted David Gelernter in Commentary. Even if Chabad-Lubavitch attracts its share of critics, it remains a strong force in the Jewish world and a highly successful religious movement.

Fishkoff, Gelernter commented, "is no scholar, historian, or theologian, no kind of 'expert.' But she is a fine reporter and a warm and winning writer, and her book has so much forward momentum, the reader finds himself asking and answering the big questions for himself." A critic in Kirkus Reviews called Fishkoff's work "a well-crafted portrait of a religious phenomenon, sure to be of wide interest." Paul Kaplan, writing in Library Journal, named it "an easy-to-read examination of the many American faces of Chabad," while a Publishers Weekly contributor declared it to be a "remarkable ethnographic profile." The same Publishers Weekly contributor noted that "Fishkoff writes robustly and engagingly," providing a look at the Chabad that is "profoundly respectful, but also poignant and full of joy." Likewise, a Kirkus Reviews contributor stated that this "well-crafted portrait of a religious phenomenon" is "sure to be of wide interest."