yaakovastor – yaakovastor

About Yaakov

Yaakov Astor, founding Editor-in-Chief of Zman Magazine, has written, co-written or edited more than 30 published books and hundreds of articles. His most recent books are: Rav Avigdor Miller on Middos, Holocaust Heroes and Heroines, Awaken Your Emunah, Rav Avigdor Miller on Tefillah, Rav Avigdor Miller on Teshuvah and the Yamim Nora’im, Rav Avigdor Miller on Olam Haba and Nothing Bad Ever Happens, (re-titled, Run Rachel Run) which documents the amazing Holocaust story of his mother-in-law, Rachel Blum.

In 2014, he published The Underground, which documents the incredible and often dangerous work of the organization that sent hundreds of Torah teachers behind the Iron Curtain to educate a thirsting generation of Soviet Jews about their lost heritage.

About Yaakov

General Histrory

One of my pet subjects in history is looking for evidence of Divine Providence, which can be defined as “coincidence” so unusual that even skeptics have to take pause to consider them.

I have two books on the subject:

Jewish History

I am in the middle of a major project for Rabbi Berel Wein’s organization, The Destiny Foundation.

In the late 80’s Rabbi Wein put together, over a period of four years, 116 tapes on Jewish history. They quickly became a classic and touched all types of Jews from the very uninformed to the most scholarly.

My assignment is to take those tapes and turn them into online classes that will be offered for free on his subsidiary website: www.jewishhistory.org

Best of all these classes, which will constitute a serious Crash Course in Jewish …..

Check out my blog, “A Taste of Wein,” for class excerpts before and after sessions.

Life After Death

In 2003, my book Soul Searching was published. It set out to compare ancient Jewish teachings about the afterlife with modern scientific research into near-death experiences (NDE’s) and reincarnation, and tried to show how time and again the two seemed to be talking about the same reality.

You can find out more about the book and the Jewish idea of the afterlife at my website, Jewish Soul Searching. I have also started a new blog on the same theme.