Rab­bi Levi Wel­ton nev­er for­got the day he was clean­ing his guinea-pig hutch, only to turn and face a con­tin­gent of stern Hasidic elders. While cer­tain he’d bro­ken some sacred rule, what hap­pened next is just one of many lessons that taught the rab­bi that hero­ism comes in all shapes and sizes, and wis­dom often con­fronts us when we least expect it.

This heart­warm­ing, com­pul­sive­ly read­able debut mem­oir tells the sto­ry of a shy, Has­sidic boy grow­ing up in the rad­i­cal shtetl of Bez­erke­ley and the com­mu­ni­ty of eccen­tric, col­or­ful, and endear­ing char­ac­ters who become his qui­et heroes.

Both whim­si­cal and pro­found, this col­lec­tion of vignettes range from Levi adopt­ing snakes and a chick­en named ​“Fwed­wic­ka” while in the Boy Scouts, to learn­ing life secrets from a hip­pie in the Wyoming wilds. And noth­ing is off-lim­its. In fact, Levi rush­es toward dif­fi­cult top­ics head-on, tak­ing on depres­sion, addic­tion, death and even a walk on the (athe­is­tic) wild side!

Along the way, you’ll expe­ri­ence how Levi strug­gles with mod­ern life and ends up becom­ing Chas­sidic & Proud.