Philip Graubart

Philip Graubart (born 1962) – San Diego-based Conservative Rabbi, educator and author. His novels frequently blend mystery with deep theological inquiry, using the detective genre to explore the complexities of Jewish history and identity. Many of his stories, such as Here There Is No Why, center on a central investigation—often the suspicious death of a prominent Jewish figure—that serves as a vehicle for exploring larger historical traumas. Graubart is noted for his “rabbi-sleuth” protagonists (e.g., in Rabbis and Gangsters  and its sequel Women and God) who use rabbinic logic and moral reasoning to solve crimes within Jewish communities. Motifs of “Jewish extraterrestrial existence” appear in his sci-fi fable, Planet of the Jews, which uses space as a metaphor for the Diaspora and the search for a safe homeland. In Silwan, his American Jewish protagonist tackles a murder mystery embedded in the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. [Google/AI]

Graubart, Philip, (Planet of the Jews [pb, Creative Arts Book Co., 1999] 978-0887391866

Graubart, Philip, (Rabbis and Gangsters  [pb, Exile Editions, 2012] 978-1550962987

Graubart, Philip, (Silwan [pb, Inkwater Press, 2016] 978-1629013930

Graubart, Philip, (Women and God [pb, Olympia Publishers, 2020] 978-1788308502

Graubart, Philip, (Here There Is No Why) [hc, Koehler Books, 2024] 979-8888244876 [pb, Koehler Books, 2024] 979-8888244852