Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Kathie Lee Gifford Wrote A Book About Israel With A Messianic Rabbi

(JTA) — What does Kathie Lee Gifford do when she isn’t on air next to Hoda Kotb? Apparently, she visits Israel quite often.

In fact, the “Today” co-host is publishing a book co-written with a messianic Jewish rabbi on her visits to the Holy Land.

Gifford, who has said that she’d like to become a rabbi, has chronicled her past four rabbinical study trips to Israel in “The Rock, The Road, and the Rabbi: My Journey into the Heart of the Scriptural Faith and the Land Where It All Began.”

The book, which will be published next spring, ties in “insights” from Rabbi Jason Sobel about the “history and culture of the places visited.” Sobel accompanied Gifford on a recent visit to Israel.

Profits made from the book will go to Gifford’s “The Rock and Road Foundation,” which helps bring people to Israel on similar bible study trips.

Gifford was born Kathryn Lee Epstein and grew up with Jewish cultural traditions but is now an evangelical Christian.

“We were culturally Jewish on my father’s side and culturally Christian on my mother’s side,” she wrote in an essay in 2016 for Christianity Today.

A message from our editor-in-chief Jodi Rudoren

We're building on 127 years of independent journalism to help you develop deeper connections to what it means to be Jewish today.

With so much at stake for the Jewish people right now — war, rising antisemitism, a high-stakes U.S. presidential election — American Jews depend on the Forward's perspective, integrity and courage.

—  Jodi Rudoren, Editor-in-Chief 

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.