The Jewish Journal’s cover story this week is about Rabbi David Wolpe’s new book, “Why Faith Matters,” which takes on the New Atheists.
“It’s not only written for those who doubt,” Wolpe told Tom Teicholz, “but to settle the souls of people who believe.”
The article was teased with cover art that showed an unidentified man stepping off a cliff in a bold base jump, and it got Luke Ford wondering whether that was The Journal’s editor, Rob Eshman, “taking the ultimate leap of faith.”
Rob’s response to Luke led me to a fascinating story. First, his reply:
“That’s me being pushed off a cliff by another angry letter writer. Fortunately I had my parachute on. I always wear it immediately after the paper comes out…It’s a photo service photo of a base jumper. I doubt he’s Jewish, but who knows. One of the top sky divers in the world is a nice Jewish boy from Cleveland.”
My former editor at the LA Daily News, Ron Kaye, was a nice Jewish boy and from Cleveland, but I don’t think Rob was talking about Ron. And, indeed, I was correct. Rob was speaking of Dan Brodsky-Chenfeld, who he jumped with back in 2005. (That’s Rob on the left and Dan B.C. on the right.)
Not that I wasn’t already a big fan of Rob’s, but this knowledge definitely provides added value. A portion of Rob’s death-defying column is after the jump:
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