The People in the Room: Rabbis, Nuns, Pastors, Popes, and Presidents

One Man’s Tireless Campaign to Breach the Divide Between Christians and Jews

This is the inspiring memoir of Rabbi James Rudin, a raw, unfiltered account of the significant events and major personalities he encountered in his effort to repair the rift between Christians and Jews that began as a fracture and has grown unchecked for years.

Rudin is a gifted storyteller and was knighted by Pope Francis for his lifetime work. He weaves intriguing prose, and you will feel you’re in the room with him in the synagogues, the churches, the Vatican, and even the White House. It is a tale of determination, tenacity, and profound optimism.

Told as a memoir, Rudin recounts his experiences as a Jewish boy growing up in post-WW2 America, a time marked by mutual suspicion between Christians and Jews, as a newly-minted rabbi, and ultimately as an advocate for authentic and transparent inter-religious dialogue in and among the Jewish and Christian communities across the globe.

You will experience with him the impotent anger of oppression and racism that marked his youth, the wide-eyed wonder and thirst for knowledge that led him to the rabbinate, and the hunger for peace amongst communities that share the same God but have committed atrocities in his name.

Armed only with his faith in humanity and the belief that there is good in all religions, Rudin boldly enters synagogues and churches across the globe weaving together a fabric of faith and fellowship. He makes a convincing argument: we are stronger together and our faiths more formidable when we do not lock ourselves in our churches and synagogues.