From 1995 to 2003, Rabbi Daniel Kohn received approximately 1,300 questions about Judaism as a member of AOL’s “Ask a Rabbi” team.
The questions came from Jews and non-Jews alike. Some wrote in asking about the best way to blow a shofar. Others wanted to know how to talk to a teenage son who, after years of Hebrew school, declared there was no God.
Kohn answered every single one of them.
Now, nearly 300 of his favorite questions and answers are included in his recently published book titled “Jewish FAQs: An Internet Rabbi’s Answers to Frequently Asked Questions About Judaism.”
The 474-page book grew out of Kohn’s participation in “Ask a Rabbi,” an early Internet joint venture between AOL and the Jewish Bulletin of Northern California (now j.).
Kohn has gone on to become the rabbi-in-residence at Contra Costa Jewish Day School, a post he has held for the past five years. He is also a guest rabbi at Congregation Gan HaLev in San Geronimo, and previously worked at Congregation Kol Shofar in Tiburon.
But he has never forgotten about his “Ask a Rabbi” days.
“The process became my ongoing professional Jewish experience,” said Kohn, who’ll be talking about his new book and his “Ask the Rabbi” days in three upcoming local appearances. “I learned so much in the process of receiving questions and endeavoring to answer them.”
Kohn heard about AOL’s “Ask a Rabbi” in 1995, when he was living in New York and teaching at a Jewish high school.
The coordinators of the project needed rabbis from all different denominations to volunteer to answer any and all questions. In exchange, rabbis would get a free account from the 1990s Internet giant once known as America Online.
Kohn, a Conservative rabbi, was forwarded questions from all sorts of curious people, and his answers were posted to the “Ask a Rabbi” forum for AOL members.
Often, Kohn posted a response to a question immediately. But sometimes questions were more complex, and he needed to sift through his Jewish bookcase.
He always crafted an answer within 48 hours, usually quicker — even when the questions were a bit strange.
Rabbi Mark Diamond, who was the coordinator of the “Ask a Rabbi” team, remembers being asked, “I am a Wiccan marrying a Jew. How can you advise me in terms of wedding customs?”
“Nothing in my rabbinical education prepared me for that,” said Diamond, then-rabbi at Temple Beth Abraham in Oakland. Diamond delegated the questions to Kohn and 19 other volunteer rabbis from all streams of Judaism.
“I am very proud of the transdenominational nature of ‘Ask a Rabbi,’ ” Diamond said. “I don’t see much of that on the Web anymore.”
In “Jewish FAQs,” Kohn revises and rewrites many of his responses, elaborating on the core Jewish issue at hand. Kohn hopes his book will be used as a go-to reference guide for all things Jewish. He includes an index of questions for easy reference, a general index, and a glossary of Hebrew, Yiddish and Aramaic terms.
There are also two never-before-published essays about kashrut and Passover (the two topics about which Kohn received the most questions).
Kohn, who lives in Mill Valley with his wife, Deborah, and their three children, has written several books on Jewish topics.
He said his hope for “Jewish FAQs” is that the book “becomes a basic introductory volume about Judaism for anyone interested in Jewish life, whether they’re Jews by choice, active in the Jewish community or [someone] outside of it who wants to learn about Judaism.”
“Jewish FAQs: An Internet Rabbi’s Answers to Frequently Asked Questions About Judaism” by Rabbi Daniel Kohn (474 pages, Xlibris, $31.49 hardcover, $21.24 paperback)
Rabbi Daniel Kohn will speak about “Jewish FAQs” at 10 a.m. Oct. 18 at the Lefferts Jewish Community Library, San Rafael, and Nov. 22 at Congregation Netivot Shalom, Berkeley.