My Jesus Year: A Rabbi’s Son Wanders the Bible Belt in Search of His Own Faith

Part memoir, part spiritual quest, part anthropologist’s mission, Benyamin Cohen’s My Jesus Year is a humorous, personal, ultimately inspirational exploration of Evangelical Christianity by the son of an Orthodox Rabbi on his journey through America's Bible belt. Winner of the Georgia Writer Association’s Georgia Author of the Year Award, selected by Publishers Weekly as one of the Best Books of the Year and by USA Today as one of the Top Eight Books to Help Rekindle the Hanukkah Spirit, My Jesus Year is an unorthodox and unforgettable search for universal answers and common truths.

One day a Georgia-born son of an Orthodox rabbi discovers that his enthusiasm for Judaism is flagging. He observes the Sabbath, he goes to synagogue, and he even flies to New York on weekends for a series of "speed dates" with nice, eligible Jewish girls. But, something is missing. Looking out of his window and across the street at one of the hundreds of churches in Atlanta, he asks, "What would it be like to be a Christian?"

So begins Benyamin Cohen's hilarious journey that is My Jesus Year—part memoir, part spiritual quest, and part anthropologist's mission. Among Cohen's many adventures (and misadventures), he finds himself in some rather unlikely places: jumping into the mosh-pit at a Christian rock concert, seeing his face projected on the giant JumboTron of an African-American megachurch, visiting a potential convert with two young Mormon missionaries, attending a Christian "professional wrestling" match, and waking up early for a sunrise Easter service on top of Stone Mountain—a Confederate memorial and former base of operations for the KKK.

During his year-long exploration, Cohen sees the best and the worst of Christianity— #8212;from megachurches to storefront churches; from crass commercialization of religion to the simple, moving faith of the humble believer; from the profound to the profane to the just plain laughable. Throughout, he keeps an open heart and mind, a good sense of humor, and takes what he learns from Christianity to reflect on his own faith and relationship to God. By year's end, to Cohen's surprise, his search for universal answers and truths in the Bible Belt actually make him a better Jew.

“An insightful, moving, and hysterical journey about finding one’s faith -- no matter the faith. Ultimately, it helps us understand something we probably should have known all along: Jew, Christian, Muslim -- we’re all the same and we’re all looking for the same answers. The beauty of Cohen’s very funny memoir is that he never panders to his audience. While he’s an outsider looking in, he’s an outsider with the warmest of hearts and the purest of intentions. A fantastic and very human memoir.” - Jonathan Kesselman, writer/director of The Hebrew Hammer

“Only an extremely talented son of a rabbi married to a now-converted-to-Judaism daughter of a minister could have written this remarkable book -- deeply moving, inspiring, informative and, surprisingly enough, humorous as well. Benyamin Cohen takes us on a journey of enlightenment about other faiths that allows us to finally realize how and why he has found his own path that links him to the God of his ancestors and his people.” - Rodger Kamenetz, author of The History of Last Night's Dream and The Jew in the Lotus

“Cohen’s witty and trenchant observations on identity and interfaith relations are like an early Christmukkah present.” - Rob Kutner, author and writer for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

“Cohen is a Jack Kerouac searching for a way back to his own faith on the Bible Belt’s gospel road.” - Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“[Cohen] retells his journey with humor and wit.” - Kansas City Jewish Chronicle

“If there’s a prodigal son on your Hanukkah gift list, Cohen’s book, subtitled, ‘A rabbi’s son wanders the Bible Belt in search of his own faith,’ could be the book to get.” - USA Today

“Cohen’s experiences were certainly different from mine, but the life lesson—that there is a lot Christians and Jews can learn about themselves from the other—was the same.” - Christianity Today

“Orthodox Jews who have gotten past the cover with the “J” word on it have read the book and recommended it to fellow members of the tribe.” - The Jerusalem Post

“My Jesus Year stirs together keen-eyed journalism and a spiritual quest to create a book that can be read both for its heartfelt examination of one man’s religous faith and as a revelatory tour of the landscape of Christian life in the U.S. today. ” - Shelf Awareness

“This hysterical book is literally one of those ‘laugh out loud’ books that can be imitated, but never duplicated.” - The Atlanta Jewish Times Online

“Cohen is an engaging writer and his book is very well worth reading.” - The Jewish Voice and Opinion

“Cohen’s prose is insightful, filled with wit, warmth, and wonder.” - Jewish Book World

“This is the story of how Cohen got his Jew back.” - The Atlanta Jewish Times Online

“Cohen’s experiences have been quite different from mine, but the life lesson -- that Christians and Jews can learn a lot about their own faiths from the other -- is the same.” - The Jewish Journal

“Cohen spends a year on a fascinating and thought-provoking inter-faith exploration. The resulting witty memoir should appeal to Christians and Jews alike (as well as Wiccans, Jains and Bahais, for that matter).” - A.J. Jacobs, author of The Know-It-All and The Year of Living Biblically

“After 30-odd years of speculating that the sun shines brighter on the church side of the street, and 52 weeks of an Oz-like journey, his yarmulke turned out to have the same power as Dorothy’s red shoes. A delicious olio of guilt, longing, surprise, wonder, unease and of course humor, Cohen’s quest has universal appeal. One need not be Jewish, Christian or even a seeker to enjoy this wonderful loop around the Bible Belt.” - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A delicious olio of guilt, longing, surprise, wonder, unease and of course humor, Cohen’s quest has universal appeal. One need not be Jewish, Christian or even a seeker to enjoy this wonderful loop around the Bible Belt.” - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Cohen writes that what he learned from the year’s spiritual journey was that there are many paths people take to find faith in God and there are more similarities than differences in various religions. “Hanging out with Jesus has made me a better Jew,” he writes. Amen to that.” - Booklist