Shmuel Burstein
Rabbi Shmuel L. Burstein (born in 1957) is a historian and a holocaust writer.
Biography
Burstein was born in December, 1957 to Irving and Rhoda Burstein in Bronx, New York. He earned his semicha at Bais Medrash Al Shem Rabbi Shlomo Breuer in New York, in 1982, after learning for several years at Ner Israel Rabbinical College in Baltimore, Maryland. He studied under Rabbi Yaakov Weinberg. He went on to gain a Master's degree from the Bernard Revel School of Jewish studies in 1991, and is a Doctoral candidate in the Azrieli School of Education of Yeshiva University.
Burstein has a Masters degree in Medieval Jewish history. His most recent work focuses on the period of the Holocaust. He has taught and given lectures across North America and in Israel. He taught at the Ramaz School in New York City for years, where he was known for his acute understanding of history. During his earlier stay in the North Shore Hebrew Academy, in Great Neck, New York, Burstein started to write a book on the Holocaust for young adults. In the summer of 2000 he published his book known as The War Against God and His People.
In 2001 he began teaching at Yavneh Academy of Paramus were he currently teaches.
The War Against God and His People
His book, The War Against God and His People (ISBN 1568711581), sold very well in its first year. The book starts with a view of the Jewish world of Eastern Europe. It then goes through the rise of Nazism in Germany and World War II. It describes, with painstaking detail, the horrors, of the holocaust. The book ends with a reflection on humanity and a discussion on how Jews must work to perfect themselves.
The book is considered a must-need by most Jewish High Schools. The book is geared towards young Jewish adults that do not know much about the holocaust or what was lost. The book tries to inform young people of the great calamities that were caused by the Nazis and how these horrors can be stopped.
Burstein currently lives in Monsey, New York with his wife and four children.