Reviewing: “Meet Me in the Middle: Collected Essays on Contemporary Jewish Life” by Michael Feldstein. Independently published. 2023. English. Paperback. 380 pages. ISBN-13: 979-8851456794.

When you work for a newspaper like The Jewish Link, or if you’re an avid reader, you soon realize that the newspaper is much more than just a collection of the news stories about the shuls, schools and Jewish organizations in our region. It’s also a platform for important voices of our communities.

Michael Feldstein’s columns are a prime example. He and his wife, Sharon, live in Stamford, Connecticut. He is a direct marketing professional with over 40 years of experience, and now works as the consumer marketing director for Smart Energy in New York. Sharon is a sales coordinator and events planner for the Armon Hotel in Stamford. Their son Yosef, his wife, Hillary, and their three children live in White Plains, New York.

A few years ago Feldstein helped Jewish Link Publisher Moshe Kinderlehrer make inroads for the newspaper in the Stamford Jewish community. When he contacted Moshe a few weeks later and asked if the paper would run a column he’d written, which shared some inspiring anecdotes and observations from his life, Moshe said, “Sure!”

A month later Feldstein had another column and Moshe again welcomed it for publication. Encouraged by the responses to his initial columns, Feldstein began writing more frequently for the newspaper. His column first became a twice-monthly feature.

As Feldstein describes it, his columns offer “personal experiences I’ve had and reflections about stories that have happened to me.” He sometimes writes about current events and when he does, “I try to find a unique angle.” He also writes to share his views on issues in the Jewish community.

Feldstein’s goal is to inspire and connect with readers. “If someone can read one of my columns and identify with it, then I’ve done my job.”

Encouraged by the responses from readers and the continued support from The Jewish Link, Feldstein has collected 95 columns and published them in a book entitled “Meet Me in the Middle: Collected Essays on Contemporary Jewish Life.” The book is now available on Amazon and can be purchased for half price, at $10, until the end of November.

Most of the 95 essays in the book have been published in The Link, with a few that were published in either the New York Jewish Week or the Times of Israel online. Asked which of his Jewish Link columns attracted the greatest response from readers, Feldstein readily identified three:

First, a column published in November 2022 discussed Ryan Turrel, the basketball player at YU who was drafted by the majors and now plays in the G League. Feldstein’s column looked at the difficult challenges Turrel faces and the adaptations he makes to observe Shabbat while playing basketball professionally, and compared this to the challenges many of us face as Orthodox Jews in our own professional lives. Feldstein recalls that this column drew more than a dozen letters, with a few writers criticizing Turrel’s decision to play basketball on Shabbat and Feldstein’s support of his approach. This column won an American Jewish Press Association award and received many compliments from community members as well.

Second, one of his earliest columns, “Do the Right Thing,” published in May 2021, related an experience he had in a parking garage at work, when he thought he’d damaged a parking barrier. He reported it promptly to an attendant, who investigated the matter and found out that the barrier was already damaged. Feldstein said to the attendant, “You could have told me it was my fault,” and the attendant responded, “Yeah, but it wouldn’t have been the right thing to do.” Feldstein wrote about the virtuous cycle of honesty he’d experienced and how it gave him hope.

Finally, the column “Two Journeys, One Prayer,” published December 2021, related discussions he had with a non-yet-observant Jewish seatmate on an airplane, how she observed him recite Tefillas HaDerech, and inquired about the meaning of the prayer. She decided to adopt the prayer and apply the concepts of it in her life, as she looked for God’s help as she worked to define the direction of her own life’s journeys.

Feldstein added that in a few of his columns, he shared the anguish his family experienced in the recent untimely passing of their daughter, Tova. His new book is dedicated to her memory.

The writer shared that he has been encouraged by the many readers who have commented on his columns over the past few years; he decided to create this book as a way of making many of the columns both more accessible and available as a collection that readers can place on their bookshelves and consult with ease.

Feldstein has a book talk at Congregation Rinat Yisrael in Teaneck on Thursday November 16 and another at Congregation Agudath Sholom in Stamford on Monday November 20. A third book talk, in Riverdale, will be announced shortly.

He expressed his gratitude to Kinderlehrer and his Jewish Link colleagues, Editor and Associate Publisher Elizabeth Kratz, and Senior Editor Jill Kirsch for giving him the opportunity to write his regular column, which has now blossomed into a book.

Harry Glazer is the Middlesex County editor of The Jewish Link. Occasionally, his editors invite him to cover interesting news in other counties. He can be reached at [email protected]