The star of Aben Kandel’s tref satire of Hollywood Jews, erotic hypocrisy and religious showmanship, Rabbi Marvin Burns of Los Angeles’ Temple Beth-El, gleefully raises funds to build his dream synagogue, “a million-dollar temple…as elaborate and magnificent and costly as Sid Grauman’s Chinese Theater,” amidst a melee of divided Jews, forever renegotiating the terms of their sexual and cultural assimilation. As controversial upon its publication in 1931 as it is today, Kandel’s classic roman à clef of Rabbi Edgar Magnin of the Congregation B’nai B’rith (today’s Wilshire Boulevard Temple), long out of print, will be sure to offend, amuse, and provoke Jews and gentiles alike.

Book 003 in our collection features an introduction by Kenneth Turan and a previously unpublished transcription of Rabbi Edgar F. Magnin’s Eulogy for Paramount Pictures studio boss Adolph Zukor. Original cover art by Aidan Yetman-Michaelson.

Paperback / 264 pages / 6 x 9 in.

ISBN: 978-1-7359811-2-3

$20