Positivity Bias

“Growing up, my parents and teachers would tell me stories about the Lubavitcher Rebbe. These stories impacted me in a profound way, and still affect the way I see—and experience—life.”

In Positivity Bias, Rabbi Mendel Kalmenson beautifully weaves some of the stories I grew up on as well as many others, alongside rigorous research and uncommon wisdom, to provide us with a life-changing and life-enhancing perspective.”

“Through his new book, ‘Positivity Bias’, Rabbi Kalmenson brings a vital and energizing message to the Jewish world—a message of hope, positivity and optimism, which are deeply rooted in faith in G‑d and faith in the Jewish future.

May the positivity and optimism which shines through on every page fill the hearts and souls of all.”

“In a time of divisiveness and acrimony dominating our socio-political and individual realms, it is an opportune time for Mendel Kalmenson’s Positivity Bias, to enter into the world. Kalmenson elicits from the treasure-trove of the Rebbe’s teaching a philosophy of life that is more necessary now than ever before in history in a time of increased insensitivity to the other and the amplification of negativity and derision. Effectuating such a change in perspective is nothing short of realizing the potential of the Rebbe’s optimism and his boundless energy to bring humankind closer to the messianic redemption.”

“In explaining the profound theology behind the Rebbe’s relentless optimism, this beautifully written and inspiring book helps us understand how the Rebbe, working initially with a small group of battered survivors in a remote corner of Brooklyn, managed to spiritually revolutionize the post-Holocaust Jewish world. As “Positivity Bias” so compellingly reveals, the Rebbe’s optimism was so powerful precisely because it came in response to the brokenness of the Jewish people and to his own personal tragedies. Whether or not you are a Hasid of the Rebbe, Rabbi Kalmenson has given us all a gift, to be read and re-read as a companion through life.”