Rabbi Joseph Krakoff Kicks Off 75th Detroit Jewish Book Fair

Special Book Fair Kickoff

This year’s Detroit Jewish Book Fair will be held from Sunday, Oct. 25, to Monday, Nov. 16. However, a special event will launch the 2026 Book Fair on Thursday, Aug. 27. Rabbi Joseph Krakoff will speak about his new book The Best Day: A memoir of finding joy, inspiration, resilience and hope. Drawing on his personal life and his heartfelt experiences with patients of the Jewish Hospice and Chaplaincy Network, The Best Day explains how even mistakes and sad events can become opportunities for learning, self-improvement and gratitude.

Rabbi Krakoff Discusses The Best Day

In the book’s first chapter, Rabbi Krakoff explains why he wrote it — as a response to a frequent question about how he stays happy and maintains his faith given the challenges of helping people and their families at life’s end. He responds, “The answer is that happiness is a lifelong spiritual journey of reclaiming our resilience when bad things occur — and fully appreciate the wonderment of the good things that happen as well.”

The book explains how he learned from experiencing personal ups and downs — some traumatic — and guiding others through painful times. He credits the help he received from those who cared about him and belief in “a God who will never abandon us” as the foundation of his resilience.

Each chapter includes a quotation from a Jewish text that offers comfort as individuals are challenged by life. He explains, “Seeking to live our best days as often as possible doesn’t deny that worse days exist — it asks what we can do with our challenges and struggles and how over time we can allow them to positively transform us.” Instead of focusing on why a “bad day or situation is happening to me,” he suggests focusing on the possibilities of learning, growth and strengthening that can result.

“Transformation from a worst day to a best one begins with honesty when we admit: ‘This is hard, but this moment doesn’t get to define my life.’ Acceptance isn’t surrender — it’s the starting line,” Rabbi Krakoff explains.

When negative or sad events occur, Rabbi Krakoff says that people can be very hard on themselves. “A worst day does not define our identity. Instead of believing: ‘I’m a failure,’ we can say, ‘I missed the mark today.’ One describes who we are and the other describes what happened. This is an enormous difference,” he observes.

He recommends taking some time to grieve but “not allowing ourselves to stay there.”

Rabbi Krakoff adds that it’s important not to alienate ourselves from our community. “On our worst days, we must seek to find just one victory … Sometimes helping someone else reminds us that we still have something valuable to give others.”

The opening event featuring Rabbi Krakoff will be held on Thursday, Aug. 27, with a pre-glow reception at 6 p.m. and his remarks at 7 p.m. Tickets are $36 and include a signed hardcover copy of his book. Registration and additional information is available at jlive.app/events/16079. The location for this and other events will be provided with tickets.

Highlights of Upcoming Book Fair Programs

Other Book Fair programs will be held from Sunday, Oct. 25 - Monday, Nov. 16. Featured speakers will include:

• Author Christopher Gorham, Matisse at War: Art and Resistance in Nazi Occupied France, in conversation with Jill Shaw, Detroit Institute of Arts, Curator of European Art, 1850-1970. This event is co-sponsored by The Zekelman Holocaust Center and will be held on Sunday, Oct. 25.

• On Monday, Nov. 16, Mandy Silverman, author and social media personality aka Mandylicious will discuss her new book Twisted: A New Approach to Challah, Babka, and Other Twisty Breads, including a baking demonstration and tasting. Silverman is known for her innovative approach to traditional Jewish baking. She has developed more than 550 recipes while running her bakery in Massachusetts and teaching baking classes.

Lauren Marcus Johnson, senior director of cultural arts at The J, which presents the Jewish Book Fair, noted that copies of the speakers’ books will be available to attendees at a discount. Proceeds will help support the Jewish Book Fair.

About Rabbi Krakoff

Rabbi Krakoff, a Los Angeles native, graduated from Bucknell University in Pennsylvania. He earned master’s degrees from the University of Judaism in Los Angeles and the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) where he was ordained in 1998. As a rabbinical student, he interned at Sloan Kettering Hospital in New York. Last year he received an honorary doctorate from JTS.

Rabbi Krakoff served as Congregation Shaarey Zedek’s rabbi for 16 years. In 2014, he became a community outreach and education consultant for Jewish Hospice and Chaplaincy Network and then its president and CEO. Rabbi Krakoff and his wife, Susan, have three grown children.