Book launch. Thursday, August 27. At The J.
For more than two decades, Rabbi Joseph H. Krakoff has helped people and families navigate some of life’s most tender and difficult moments. President and CEO of the Jewish Hospice & Chaplaincy Network and a longtime congregational rabbi, he has spent his career listening closely to stories of grief, love, gratitude and faith.
In his new memoir, The Best Day: A Memoir of Finding Joy, Inspiration, Resilience and Hope, Rabbi Krakoff shares stories and reflections centered on a simple but meaningful idea: even life’s hardest moments can open the door to gratitude, perspective and hope.
Rather than offering easy answers, The Best Day invites readers into an honest and hopeful conversation about how people move through challenge and remain open to joy. It reflects a voice shaped by years of pastoral care, where presence itself can be a source of comfort when words feel inadequate.
The title itself is a hopeful invitation. It does not pretend that pain can be neatly explained away, but suggests that meaning can emerge in unexpected places and that even difficult days may hold room for gratitude and possibility.
As the Detroit Jewish community gathers to celebrate the launch of The Best Day, the evening will be more than a book event. It will be a chance to hear from a beloved local teacher and storyteller whose work has long centered on compassion and human connection, reflect on the moments that shape us and consider where joy, resilience and hope can be found.
Five questions for Rabbi Krakoff
Before the launch, we asked Rabbi Krakoff to share more about the stories behind The Best Day, the meaning of its title and what he hopes readers take from the book.
What inspired you to write The Best Day, and why did this feel like the right time to share it?
Over fifteen years ago, I was having brunch with my friend Jeffrey Zaslow, of blessed memory, when we began talking about our shared passion for writing. That morning, Jeff strongly suggested I try my hand at crafting a book. The idea felt like a monumental undertaking, and I could never quite decide which subjects or themes to focus on. Six years later, another friend, David Crumm, a journalist for more than fifty years and former religion editor at The Detroit Free Press, invited me and Dr. Michelle Sider to publish our collaborative book, a beautifully illustrated poem titled Never Long Enough: Finding Comfort and Hope Amidst Grief and Loss, with his company Front Edge Publishing. Released on October 11, 2017, Never Long Enough has humbled us both, helping so many people as they journey through grief and contemplate their legacy.
Seeing how meaningful a book could be for people facing pain, I began to think the time had come to write the one Jeff had suggested years earlier. For close to a decade, David checked in with me annually to see if I was ready. Last summer, when he reached out, I said yes. I set out to create a memoir of stories from my personal and professional life, experiences of my own worst days and best days that had the power to enhance people’s lives. What compels me most is that what feels like our worst days can, over time and reflection, truly become our best days, if we let them. With the world feeling so dark right now and antisemitism rising across the globe, I sensed the right time for The Best Day had finally arrived.
The subtitle includes joy, inspiration, resilience and hope. How do those themes show up throughout the book?
The book is composed of eighteen chapters, plus an introduction, an afterword and a foreword by Brian Dickerson, a distinguished journalist who spent much of his forty-year career as editorial page editor for The Detroit Free Press. Each chapter centers on a different theme, so the book can be read in any order. Every chapter tells a single true story from my life, some heartbreaking and others heartwarming, a mixture of my worst days and best days. As a rabbi, it is only natural that I draw on Torah and Talmudic wisdom, yet I believe this is not only a Jewish book but a human one. The underlying idea is universal: amid some of life’s darkest moments, we can still experience joy, inspiration, resilience and hope.
What does the title The Best Day mean to you?
Working every day in end-of-life care, I have discovered even more profoundly that life is precious and every day is a gift. Making each day the best one possible is an active practice of mindfulness, resilience and intentional gratitude. It is about finding beauty in the ordinary and recognizing that joy isn’t a destination you reach but a mindset you choose.
The Best Day is about immersing ourselves in the present moment, unburdened by past regrets or future anxieties. It is about embracing both the challenges and triumphs of our journey, knowing that every moment holds the potential for meaning and shifting from simply letting a day go by to mindfully shaping the stories of our lives.
Your work has brought you into very personal moments with individuals and families. How has that shaped the stories you chose to tell in this book?
While I always guard everyone’s confidentiality, I share stories of people at their best and at their worst, including myself. I tell stories from my life that I have never really shared before. Most people don’t know that I didn’t grow up with a strong sense of being Jewish. In fact, it was the opposite. And many don’t know that I almost died from a ruptured appendix. Each of us carries personal stories that define our lives and have the capacity to strengthen us or diminish us.
I am grateful for the chance I have as a rabbi to enter people’s lives at their saddest and their most joyous moments. As I say in the book, I am grateful to everyone who has welcomed me in at those times, and I consider them among my greatest teachers.
What do you hope readers feel or carry with them after finishing The Best Day?
I hope that after finishing The Best Day, readers will develop a deeper appreciation for everyday moments and wake up with a renewed sense of gratitude and excitement to face each new day. I hope they will be compelled to communicate more honestly with loved ones and to cherish the relatively short time we are all given on this earth. And most of all, I hope that when we face the difficulties that will inevitably arise, we can experience each new day as a fresh chance to reset and begin again.
Event details: Thursday, August 27, at The J in West Bloomfield. Hosted by the Detroit Jewish Book Fair and JLearn, in partnership with Jewish Hospice & Chaplaincy Network (JHCN). Pre-Glow Reception at 6:00 PM, main event at 7:00 PM. Tickets are $36 and include a signed hardcover copy of The Best Day. Register here.
