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Philadelphia, PA - May 2025] Rabbi Dennis S. Ross is pleased to be launching a promotional tour in support of his 2021 publication, A Year with Martin Buber: Wisdom on the Weekly Torah Portion (The Jewish Publication Society), winner of the Academy of Parish Clergy’s Top Ten Book List for Parish Ministry for “display[ing] excellence and helpfulness to clergy, who are encouraged to add the books to their libraries.”
The teachings of the great twentieth-century Jewish thinker Martin Buber empower us to enter a spiritual dimension that often passes unnoticed in the daily routine. In A Year with Martin Buber, the first Torah commentary to focus on his life’s work, we experience the fifty-four weekly Torah portions and eleven Jewish holidays through Buber’s eyes.
While best known for the spiritual concept of the I-Thou relationship between people, Buber graced us with other fundamentals, including Over Against, Afterglow, Will and Grace, Reification, Inclusion, and Imagine the Real. And his life itself—for example, Buber’s defiance of the Nazis, his call for Jewish-Arab reconciliation, and his protest of Adolf Eichmann’s execution—modeled these teachings in action.
As part of his new book tour, Ross will discuss how these teachings are more relevant than ever on the backdrop of mounting antisemitism and challenges facing Jewish communities around the world.
Publishers Weekly praised the book: “Rabbi Ross superbly distills the theology of Martin Buber..., a consequential Jewish thinker whose focus on making human interactions meaningful influenced Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘Letter from a Birmingham Jail.’ ...An invaluable entry point to a humanist thinker who sought to identify, build, and preserve ‘holiness in our daily routines’ by putting people, rather than objects, first.”
Rabbi Dennis Ross demonstrates Buber’s roots in Jewish thought and breaks new ground by explaining the broader scope of Buber’s life and work in a clear, conversational voice. He quotes from the weekly Torah portion; draws lessons from Jewish commentators; and sets Buber’s related words in context with Buber’s remarkable life story, Hasidic tales, and writing. A wide variety of anecdotal illustrations from Buber as well as the author’s life encourages each of us to “hallow the everyday” and seek out “spirituality hiding in plain sight.”
“What a pleasure A Year with Martin Buber is! People of all faiths with an interest in the Bible and bringing ‘divine wonder to the routine of daily life’ will delight in having this inspirational book as a companion.”—Rev. Debra W. Haffner, Unitarian Universalist Church in Reston, Virginia
For media inquiries, review copies, or to schedule an interview, please contact Rabbi Dennis Ross at dennis@dennisross.net.
About the author:
Rabbi Dennis S. Ross serves as an Intentional Interim Rabbi in the Greater New York City area. Rabbi Ross travels from the Greater New York City area as well. He is the author of several books, including God in Our Relationships: Spirituality between People from the Teachings of Martin Buber and All Politics Is Religious: Speaking Faith to the Media, Policy Makers, and Community. He has written for the New York Times, the Boston Globe, Forward, and other publications.
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