Incredible! By Nachman Seltzer

pumpernickle

Sun, Apr 24 2016, 11:56 pm

Just wanna share that I read it over yom tov and was mesmerized! Its a true account of Rabbi Yossi Wallis now CEO of Arachim. It has so much interesting details and amazing facts. Would definitely recommend it!!

PinkFridge

Sun, May 01 2016, 8:06 am

sourstix wrote:

Can you share some of it? Pleeeeease I would love something inspiring thanks

Rabbi Wallis often tells the story of what the catalyst that led him back was. He was a successful Israeli businessman, in line for some takeout for supper that night, and was about to buy "basar lavan" (pork) when he remembered the story of his grandfather, who died on the eve of liberation in WWII rather than eat pig meat publicly.

Like most of the major stories in the book, there are multiple layers to the story, with great pains taken to authenticate the wild twists.

But the book doesn't start there. It starts in Spain, where R' Wallis, already frum and with Arachim, authenticates a family legend that his family descended from Marranos. His great....grandfather was killed in the Inquisition's last auto de fe in the late 1600s.

He then tells his story, how his parents, Holocaust survivors, started off in E"Y right after the war, moved to the US for parnasa, then back to E"Y.

He then tells his parents' stories (largely, his father's). His parents' story is...incredible, really. Then goes back to his own story, which is pretty interesting, from gang leader in the Bronx to college graduate and businessman, ultimately to heading Arachim.