KOZAK, Warren 1951–

PERSONAL: Born 1951, in WI.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, HarperCollins 10 E. 53rd St., 7th Floor, New York, NY 10022.

CAREER: Journalist and writer for network news anchors.

AWARDS, HONORS: Benton fellowship, University of Chicago, 1993.

WRITINGS:

The Rabbi of 84th Street: The Extraordinary Life of Haskel Besser, HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2004.

Also contributor to numerous media outlets, including PBS, NPR, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post.

SIDELIGHTS: On the day World War II broke out, young Haskel Besser and his family fled Poland for Palestine, fearing the rising tide of anti-Semitism that was engulfing their homeland. Eventually they moved to the United States, where Besser grew up to be one of New York's most beloved Hasidic rabbis, as well as a commercial real-estate developer, like his father. In 1988, network news journalist Warren Kozak met Besser, and the two developed a warm friendship that inpired Kozak to become Besser's biographer.

The Rabbi of 84th Street: The Extraordinary Life of Haskel Besser recounts Besser 's relatively happy childhood growing up in a home that was a meeting place for European intellectuals as well as a place devoted to piety. The rise of Nazism shattered this world, and Kozak's "loving, simply written portrait," in the words of Library Journal reviewer Herbert E. Shapiro, chronicles the journey that ultimately took Besser to a small synagogue in Manhattan's upper west side, where the octogenarian has continued to start his day teaching a class on the Talmud at 6:30 a.m. In addition to the rabbi's spiritual influence, Kozak also provides insights into the man's intellectual strengths, such as his library filled with 1,000 books and his encyclopedic knowledge of classical music. In short, according to a Publishers Weekly contributor, "Kozak's inspiring and poignant biography of this legendary man is a wonderful concoction of fascinating details and enlightening stories."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, July, 2004, George Cohen, review of The Rabbi of 84th Street: The Extraordinary Life of Haskel Besser, p. 1802.

Library Journal, July, 2004, Herbert E. Shapiro, review of The Rabbi of 84th Street, p. 90.

Publishers Weekly, May 10, 2004, review of The Rabbi of 84th Street, p. 53.

ONLINE

HarperCollins Web site, http://www.harpercollins.com/ (February 23, 2005), "Waren Kozak."