The Best Boy in the United States of America: A Memoir of Blessings and Kisses

Hilarious and heartfelt, Ron Wolfson’s moving memoir is the inspiring tale of a Hebrew school dropout from Omaha, Nebraska, whose surprising journey to become a visionary leader of American Jewry is filled with stories of tradition, romance and loss. Called-and called to be- the best boy in the United States of America by a beloved Zaydie (grandfather), he writes of growing up in a warm Jewish family, celebrating holidays, working in the family grocery store, navigating adolescence and enjoying (too much) Jewish foods that begin with the letter k. He encounters the merchants of Omaha, among them the colourful Mrs. B, who built the largest furniture store in America, and meets the famous oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffett. Groomed to be an entrepreneur, he unexpectedly becomes an educator while in college, marries his junior high school sweetheart, transforms his own young family into a laboratory for creative Jewish living and discovers his true passion-teaching a post-Holocaust generation how to embrace a joyous Judaism in the family, the synagogue and the community. With laugh-out-loud humour and profound poignancy, Ron’s true stories illuminating the Jewish experience in late-twentieth-century America will resonate with the boomers who lived it and with their adult children who seek to shape stronger families, create compelling communities and take individual spiritual journeys that lead to a life of joy and laughter, meaning and purpose, belonging and blessing.