Joseph Telushkin Books In Order

Publication Order of Rabbi Daniel Winter Mysteries Books

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Jewish Encounters Books

Publication Order of Touchstone Book Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Rabbi Joseph Telushkin

Rabbi, scholar, and spiritual leader, Joseph Telushkin, is a highly recognized and incredibly well respected author of many non-fiction books as well as a handful of fiction novels. His writing are varied as they relate to Jewish Literacy, Jewish ethics, and Jewish history.

Rabbi Telushkin, born on New Year’s Day in 1948 in New York, NY, was raised in Brooklyn, NY. As a student at Columbia University he was writing about the Jewish situation and was a student activist, particularly in regards to the struggle of Soviet Jews.

As a leading author on Judaism, Rabbi Telushkin has written on varied topics such as Jewish literacy, history, and practices. He wrote Jewish Literacy: The Most Important Things to Know About the Jewish Religion, Its People and Its History, which, for over two decades, has been widely considered one of the most authoritative and best-selling books on Judaism.

Words that Hurt, Words that Heal was the inspiration for the 1996 Senate Resolution #151, authored by Senators Joseph Lieberman and Connie Mack. This established a “National Speak No Evil Day” in the United States. The goal: a twenty-four hour day in which Americans would go without saying any unkind or unfair words, to or about anyone.

Considered a Renaissance man, his talents are widely recognized. His writing of The Book of Jewish Values: A Day by Day Guide to Ethical Living was the inspiration behind the year 2000 PBS program Moral Imagination: A Day by Day Guide to Ethical Living.

Rabbi Telushkin is a highly sought after public speaker and has been an invited guest at meetings, seminars, and lectures all over the world. Talk Magazine named him one of the fifty best speakers in the United States. As recent as 2022 he has been sought out as a speaker and there is a wide variety of old and recent videos of the rabbi on YouTube.

Not just a writer of Jewish theology, his talents have extended even to writing an episode of Touched by an Angel (television series). “Bar Mitzvah” guest-starred Kirk Douglas as a man who, after a struggling his entire life with God and his faith, returns to God.

Rabbi Telushkin’s novel An Eye for an Eye was the basis of David Kelley’s TV series “The Practice”. Four episodes were produced from this story.

Over a period of two decades, Rabbi Telushkin wrote a series of mystery novels based on a character of his creation: Rabbi Daniel Winter. In the first Rabbi Daniel mystery, The Unorthodox Murder of Rabbi Moss, Rabbi Winter finds himself the primary suspect of the murder of Rabbi Moss. Rabbi Moss was an ardent hard-liner feminist, evidently with many enemies, had been run down in the street. Daniel, not one to be content to let the police sort it out, he begins his own investigation. He’s risking his own life as now he’s crossing many of Rabbi Moss’ former enemies.

Dr Noah Stark, is the psychiatrist to LA’s most respected, rich, and powerful peoples. Not the usual suspects who seem likely to get into a crazed frenzy and crush their shrink’s head. It happened and it seems likely a patient did it. The Final Analysis of Dr. Stark brings back Rabbi Daniel Winter, this time attempting to analyze this violent crime.

Rabbi Daniel usually tends to the souls of his congregation and avoids discovering dead bodies. Now he’s analyzing the Who’s Who of LA to try to figure out why Dr. Stark’s head was smashed in. Rumors are flying around town, all questioning Dr. Stark’s level of professionalism, and the good doctor’s appointment book is missing. Daniel knows nothing about this murder is kosher.

In another story set in Los Angeles, Rabbi Daniel Winter is reluctantly pulled into another homicide. An Eye for an Eye tells the sordid tale of a celebrity photographer, prominent in the LA area who is shot and killed. Whoever did it thinks they have a very good reason. The photographer was acquitted of murdering his girlfriend, Donna Braun, a beautiful, young law student. The police attach themselves to the most obvious suspect, her father. Daniel is hired to defend Donna’s father. Daniel now has to navigate through the LA celebrity scene and find the real murderer.

Once again, the Los Angeles cops take the easy route and nab the first easy suspect and Rabbi Daniel Winter is on the hook again, struggling to defend himself against another unjustified murder charge.

Rabbi Telushkin’s The Unorthodox Murder of Rabbi Wahl has Daniel trying to develop his more worldly abilities for investigation. LA has its share of murders, however when a female rabbi, a radical nun, and a female minister are all found dead after appearing on Rabbi Daniel Winter’s radio show, once again, he’s the number one suspect.

There could easily be other suspects, after all, Rabbi Myrna Wahl was considered a strong feminist, along with the other women. That’s bound to rub people the wrong way. Daniel has another challenge to his defense. He’s falling for the woman detective assigned to the case. That could work for him. Or work against him. Oy vey.