Benyamin Cohen

My Jesus Year

A Rabbi’s Son Wanders the Bible Belt in Search of His Own Faith

Talking Points

As founding editor of Jewsweek magazine and current editor of American Jewish Life magazine, Cohen has made connections with many editors at a variety of Jewish (The Forward, New York Jewish Week) and non-Jewish (Esquire, New Yorker, Los Angeles Times) publications. In a Woody Allenesque way, Cohen can write and speak with trenchant humor about being the son of an Orthodox Rabbi in some of the most unlikely situations.

Description

Ben Cohen is the Atlanta-born son of an Orthodox Rabbi who takes a year wandering the wilderness of America’s Bible Belt to investigate Christianity in its many weird and wonderful forms. In an effort to come to terms with his own flagging enthusiasm for the proscriptions of his Orthodoxy, Cohen takes multiple leaps of faith in this humorous yet sincere account of his experiences. Whether it’s in the mosh-pit at a Christian rock concert, seeing himself on the JumboTron of a Black Baptist service, the solitude of a bicycle trip with a young Mormon missionary, the excitement of a Christian “professional” wrestling meet, or at Jay Bakker’s (son of Jim and Tammy Faye) punk ministry “Revolution” - it meets in a nightclub - Ben is determined to find out for himself why Christians seem so excited about Christianity. To Cohen and the reader’s surprise, his search for universal answers and common truths in America’s Bible Belt, actually makes him a better Jew.