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Jujitsu Rabbi and the Godless Blonde: A True Story
by Rebecca Dana

Published: 2013-01-24
Hardcover : 288 pages
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The ultimate fish-out-of-water tale . . . A child who never quite fit in, Rebecca Dana worshipped at the altar of Truman Capote and Nora Ephron, dreaming of one day ditching Pittsburgh and moving to New York, her Jerusalem. After graduating from college, she made her way to the city to ...
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Introduction

The ultimate fish-out-of-water tale . . . 
A child who never quite fit in, Rebecca Dana worshipped at the altar of Truman Capote and Nora Ephron, dreaming of one day ditching Pittsburgh and moving to New York, her Jerusalem. After graduating from college, she made her way to the city to begin her destiny. For a time, life turned out exactly as she’d planned: glamorous parties; beautiful people; the perfect job, apartment, and man. But when it all came crashing down, she found herself catapulted into another world. She moves into Brooklyn’s enormous Lubavitch community, and lives with Cosmo, a thirty-year-old Russian rabbi who practices jujitsu on the side.
While Cosmo, disenchanted with Orthodoxy, flirts with leaving the community, Rebecca faces the fact that her religion—the books, magazines, TV shows, and movies that made New York seem like salvation—has also failed her. As she shuttles between the world of religious extremism and the world of secular excess, Rebecca goes on a search for meaning. 
Trenchantly observant, entertaining as hell, a mix of Shalom Auslander and The Odd Couple, Jujitsu Rabbi and the Godless Blonde is a thought-provoking coming-of-age story for the twenty-first century.

Editorial Review

 Amazon Best Books of the Month, January 2013: â??You meet a new person and tell yourself a story about him, except it turns out the stories are never about anyone else. They are always about you.â?? Thatâ??s just one of the pithy observations--not to mention self-aware mea culpas--in journalist Rebecca Danaâ??s winning memoir about coming to live and work in Manhattan. Like Sex and the City with less sex and more city, Jujitsu Rabbi and the Godless Blonde hilariously details how a not very observant Jewish girl from Pittsburgh ended up with an ultraconservative rabbi (and martial arts student) for a roommate, and how they each navigate this particular city of dreams. Dana comes off as a from-the-suburbs Holden Caulfield, a brainy Mary Tyler Moore, or a very dressed-down Carrie Bradshaw. Sheâ??s that irresistible. --Sara Nelson

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Member Reviews
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  "Godless without direction"by Abigale C. (see profile) 03/26/13

This was hard to read for our whole group. It would of helped if the author explained the Jewish jargon that riddles the book.

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