My Pashtun Rabbi

On the cusp of Ramadan, as the hot August sun was beginning its evening descent ushering in the Holy Month, David Eden, the newly hired "journalist expert" at United Arab Emirates University, stood on the side of the deserted road in downtown Al Ain dripping sweat and hopelessly trying to hail a taxi. As he cursed his circumstance and was about to give up, a battered Corolla pulled to the curb.

Sometimes a chance encounter can change your life forever. Rarely is it with someone so different and from such a dissimilar world. Even scarcer still is when it touches your heart and soul, and becomes weaved into your life's fabric. But that's what happened when an expat Pashtun taxi driver from North Waziristan picked up an expat American Jewish journalist the evening before his first class.

Could it be insha'Allah, "God's will," that brought these two disparate souls together? Or was it beshert, "Destined to be?" And if that was the case, "Who" destined it?
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My Pashtun Rabbi" chronicles David Eden's time as the "journalism expert" at UAE University during the 2008-2009 school year as the world's economy collapsed and war erupted in the Middle East. What's more, David's Jewish identity was unknown to his students, faculty, and nearly everybody. What would happen when they found out? How would the fact he was Jewish effect his relationships with his students and friends as the truth is revealed?

That's the heart of "My Pashtun Rabbi" as David Eden takes you inside his classes, introduces his students, befriends a prominent Emirati family, and goes on adventures, including a camel ranch, the world's richest horse race, a labor camp and a journey into the heart of Yemen. He went to "see for himself" to better understand the relationship between Jews and Muslims and make up his own mind. And he did.