Over the past two decades the num­ber of cas­es of eat­ing dis­or­ders has been steadi­ly increas­ing with­in the Ortho­dox com­mu­ni­ty, like­ly reflect­ing both the growth of the com­mu­ni­ty and a rise of these dis­or­ders among its youth. In response, sev­er­al indi­vid­u­als, includ­ing Rab­bi Dovid Gold­wass­er, author of this book, have begun to work with this pop­u­la­tion, pro­vid­ing coun­sel­ing to those with eat­ing dis­or­ders as well as increas­ing aware­ness among fam­i­lies. Starv­ing Souls aims at accom­plish­ing both these goals. As the sub­ti­tle indi­cates, it is ​“a spir­i­tu­al guide to under­stand­ing eat­ing dis­or­ders— anorex­ia, bulim­ia, bing­ing” for the Ortho­dox community. 

The book is divid­ed into ten sec­tions, sev­er­al con­sist­ing of exam­ples of the kinds of coun­sel­ing Rab­bi Gold­wass­er pro­vides. This includes the first 97 pages which repro­duce an on-going e‑mail con­ver­sa­tion between Rab­bi Gold­wass­er and ​“Lisa,” a young adult who vivid­ly con­veys the anguish caused by her severe eat­ing dis­or­der. Oth­er sec­tions focus on Rab­bi Goldwasser’s spir­i­tu­al approach in reach­ing out to these young peo­ple, uti­liz­ing ref­er­ences to the Tal­mud and Jew­ish sages through the cen­turies and offer­ing a strong mes­sage of encour­age­ment and hope. Also includ­ed are descrip­tions of the mul­ti­ple types of eat­ing dis­or­ders, a ten-step pre­ven­tion pro­gram, prayers for recov­ery writ­ten by Rab­bi Gold­wass­er, three clin­i­cal tables (ide­al body weight, body mass index, the food guide pyra­mid), and a sec­tion describ­ing Ortho­dox sen­si­tiv­i­ties and prac­tices writ­ten for those who work with the Ortho­dox community. 

Undoubt­ed­ly, this book can pro­vide impor­tant infor­ma­tion and a use­ful approach for those in the Ortho­dox com­mu­ni­ty suf­fer­ing from an eat­ing dis­or­der or inter­est­ed in learn­ing about the top­ic. The use of reli­gious ter­mi­nol­o­gy and con­cepts through­out, how­ev­er, is such that the book might prove less appeal­ing to those with­out an Ortho­dox back­ground. Also, as a clin­i­cian who treats patients with eat­ing dis­or­ders, I would have pre­ferred see­ing more ref­er­ences to clin­i­cal treat­ment, both med­ical and psy­cho­log­i­cal, in the advice that Rab­bi Gold­wass­er offers. In gen­er­al, how­ev­er, I applaud Rab­bi Gold­wass­er for the work he does in the com­mu­ni­ty, includ­ing dis­sem­i­nat­ing the insights and infor­ma­tion pro­vid­ed in this book.