‘My Story’ Bestseller Returns to Store Shelves

After selling out in just a matter of days, JEM’s My Story is back in stock, and right in time for Tishrei.

My Story is a stunning work in which 41 individuals open the door to their private experiences with the Rebbe, as recorded by the My Encounter with the Rebbe oral history project. The book allows you to step into their stories of connection, comfort and care, told in vivid, first-person detail.

Since its publication and speedy sell-out, My Story has received rave reviews and wide acclaim. “I’m reading and crying,” wrote Mrs. Vivi Deren of Stamford, CT, “I can’t remember being so deeply moved. Thank you so much for the magnificent work that you do. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

“We were pleasantly shocked at the speed at which all 6,000 copies of the book were sold,” says Rabbi Yechiel Cagen, director of the My Encounter with the Rebbe project. “We resolved to get them back in bookstores as fast as humanly possible, seeing the incredible demand from the public.”

A popular gift item, My Story has appealed to people across the spectrum of the Jewish community. Many Shluchim have given them out as gifts to their community members. Said Mr. Alex Troy, “I started the book today and cannot put it down.  The stories of the Rebbe’s profound influence on so many Jews, each unique, inspired me. I asked myself: what would the Rebbe have said to me, had I been blessed to have had an audience with him?  Because of the excellent writing, I could see the Rebbe’s penetrating eyes and hear his many astute questions in my imagination.  If only I could have met him…”

Said Mrs. Daniella Lowinger, “Reading the experiences made me feel a connection with the Rebbe I have not known in any other way. As I read these stories, I feel that although I did not meet or know the Rebbe…he knew me. And that moves me to tears.”

“ [My Story] is not a book of personal feelings, reflections and observations about the Rebbe. It is an experience with the Rebbe,” Said Rabbi Yehuda Shemtov of Yardley, PA. “Somehow the stories chosen are indeed My Story; not only of those who are relating them, but for the reader, too. It touches mind, heart, and soul at once. It reaches young, old, chasid, and non-chasid at once. Inspiring, educational and spiritual.”

Enriched with complementary family pictures, archival documents and portraits from The Living Archive, My Story looks and feels like a coffee table book, but is filled with fascinating, beautiful and inspiring stories. “It’s like a rich dessert, “says Rabbi Gershon Schusterman, “You have to savor it, a little at a time.”

Summing up the volume, best-selling author Rabbi Joseph Telushkin writes, “Evidence of [the Rebbe’s] utterly original way of understanding and solving problems, and his loving concern are rooted on page after page of this book. Virtually every story here will make you think, and there are many that will make you cry.”

Order the book online for yourself or as a gift in time for Tishrei at: jemstore.com or in a fine Judaica store.