Rabbis of the Garden State

Winner of the 2026 NEIA National Indie Excellence Award

In the suburbs of New Jersey, where temple gossip flows like Manischewitz wine, eleven-year-old Andy becomes entangled in a whirlwind of maternal quirks and religious intrigue. His mother’s bizarre obsession with Rabbi Landy transforms their once-quiet life above a candy store into a tale of surprises.

Andy’s world features a colorful cast: a fiery sister, an invisible brother, a precociously sexual savant best friend with green teeth, and a foul-mouthed neighbor who rivals the 50-Foot Woman. As he navigates from confusion to understanding, his journey is filled with humor and heartfelt moments.

When forced into yeshiva with the rabbi’s insufferable sons, Andy becomes drawn to his magnetic Talmud teacher, Rabbi Loobling. His exploration of faith, desire, and family secrets unfolds from the streets of the Garden State to the halls of college, revealing the complex adults around him.

Rabbis of the Garden State delivers a sharp look at synagogue life laced with teenage yearning. This powerful portrayal of suburban Jewish life in the ’60s is both funny and moving. As Andy transitions to adulthood, the mysteries of childhood unravel, exposing secrets and deep truths about family, faith, and the unexpected twists of love. Daniel Meltz’s beautifully crafted debut novel captures the spirit of an era and delves into the timeless questions of belonging, belief, and the complicated relationships that shape us all.

Praise for Rabbis of the Garden State

“Roll over Philip Roth and Saul Bellow. Poet Daniel Meltz has written a Jewish growing-up/coming-of-age novel that will knock your socks off. Wry, hilariously funny, deftly touching, emotionally accurate about being an adolescent, a perfect piece of sociology about suburban Jewish families and their complicated relationship to religion and its leaders, Rabbis of The Garden State is also swooningly, deliciously, romantically—gay!”
—Felice Picano, author of Ambidextrous: The Secret Lives of Children

“Rabbis of The Garden State is an absolute joy from beginning to end. Fresh and funny and charming, it brings to mind Holden Caulfield if he had had a sense of humor and gone to yeshiva. It concerns a divorced mother and her eleven-year-old gay son, both struggling with forbidden loves in the not-so-swinging 1960s. It mines those secret spaces of childhood as a bright-but-awkward gay kid experiences those first longings for other boys (and one hot rabbi) while at the same time learns that his out-of-control mother might be schtupping a different rabbi…who also happens to be her (fake) psychoanalyst. The most delicious and poignant mayhem ensues. I loved every minute of it!”
—Blair Fell, best-selling author of The Sign for Home and writer for Queer As Folk

“Entertaining as hell.” —Oren Rudavsky, director of The Treatment and Hiding and Seeking

“With an F in Deportment from his sixth-grade teacher and a dangerously needy mother, whip-smart Andy Baer at the outset of “Rabbis of the Garden State” Is riding “the line between brat and delinquent” (this state of affairs doesn't include what he does with the skeevy Georgie Garr downstairs). As Andy comes of age in the lubricious 60s and 70s, both mother and son fall obsessively in love with rabbis who cross the line. Can they be stopped? Against a screen of priceless period detail—Maypo, The Man from U.N.C.L.E, The Secret Storm, anyone?—Meltz detonates hilarious and bitter truths about sex, family, and mercy in his marvelous fiction debut.” —James McGruder, author of Vamp Until Ready

Dan Meltz was raised in the low-rent reaches of Jersey, 16 minutes from Times Square. He's lived in New York City for fifty years. His stories have appeared in "CrossConnect," "Columbia Review" and the "Jewish Writing Project." His poems have appeared in "American Poetry Review," "Best New Poets 2012," " Jewish Quarterly," "Mudfish," "Salamander," "upstreet" and lots of other journals. He is a retired technical writer and teacher of Deaf young people. He has a B.A. from Columbia (no honors) with a major in English. His book of poems, "It Wasn't Easy to Reach You," was published by Trail to Table in 2025. "Rabbis of the Garden State" is his first novel. His longtime partner Mike Rendino is an award-winning playwright.