Rabbi Harvey vs. the Wisdom Kid by Steve Sheinkin

It’s a bit of a riff on the great Gene Wilder 1979 movie “The Frisco Kid,” but in the film, Wilder’s Rabbi Avram was only passing through the West on his way to start a congregation in San Francisco. True, the premise is absurd on its face - Rabbi Harvey inhabits a world in which none of the residents of the fictional 1840s frontier town of Elk Spring questions having a rabbi as the sheriff, spiritual leader, therapist and all-around best friend. Take the lonesome topography of the Wild West, add in a bit of Biblical wisdom and a soupçon of Hollywood iconography and, in essence, you have the world of Rabbi Harvey. “The Wisdom Kid”), this plot has more momentum than a runaway stagecoach on a mountain road.īut it’s more than just a great yarn. Starting with a seemingly innocent act of saving a drowning man’s life and moving with quarter horse speed to the climactic (though gun-free) “High Noon”-style showdown with Rabbi Ruben (a.k.a. The Wisdom Kid,” is perfect for the big screen because it’s a full-length, well-plotted graphic tale. “It’s against character, I suppose, but the look is right.”Ĭasting aside, the latest saga, “Rabbi Harvey vs.

“Someone suggested Adam Sandler as Harvey, but I don’t know,” said Sheinkin, whose prior books in the series are the collections, “The Adventures of Rabbi Harvey” and “Rabbi Harvey Rides Again” (both from Jewish Lights Publishing). The cult hero of a generation of Jewish boys, Park Slope author Steve Sheinkin’s Talmud-spouting Wild West lawman rides again this month, in a new full-length graphic novel that is practically daring a film studio to finally make a hero out of this man in a black hat. Finally, Rabbi Harvey is made for Hollywood.

Rabbi Harvey vs. the Wisdom Kid by Steve Sheinkin