Mitch Albom's latest book inspired by local roots & Rabbi Lewis

Ah, the memories!

MITCH ALBOM Mitch Albom was awash in them as he recalled growing up in Haddon Township before he was catapulted into the international limelight as the author of "Tuesdays With Morrie," and then several more critically acclaimed books.

"I loved my childhood in South Jersey," said Albom, who enjoyed reminiscing about places like Genova's Pizza on the White Horse Pike and McMillan's Bakery, where the donuts have never been duplicated.

Albom will tell you that back in his South Jersey boyhood, he was definitely not

known as a writer. "It was somewhat of an effort for me to write, although I loved to tell stories," said the author who honed that skill in a family of three kids competing for attention, and in a noisy extended family in which everyone, it seemed, had a story to tell.

His South Jersey boyhood taught Albom to appreciate simple things, including small town sports rivalries between Haddon Heights and the "enemy," Collingswood, and to play football along Newton Creek. "I can remember just lying on the grass looking at the sky. It was all quite idyllic."

But no one—least of all Albom himself—could have guessed that this kid from a small South Jersey town would go on to Brandeis and ultimately become a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist for the "Detroit Free Press," a nationally-syndicated radio host for ABC who also regularly appears on ESPN's Sports Reporters—let alone an author whose books have reached people around the world.

But it's South Jersey— specifically one of its most beloved and respected rabbis— that is one of the main strands of Albom's latest book, "Have A Little Faith," which chronicles the author's path to delivering the eulogy for the late Rabbi Albert Lewis of Temple Beth Sholom in Cherry Hill.

Albom will be back in the Delaware Valley on Tuesday, Sept. 29 for a special fundraising evening where the Lewis family will be present. The event, similar to those he will be doing around the country, will benefit the Rabbi Lewis Memorial Fund at Temple Beth Sholom as well as several other causes.

"When I was a kid, Rabbi Lewis was just the most awesome figure, recalled Albom, who first encountered the rabbi when he was taken to Shabbat services by his parents. "He was not G-d, of course, but he was the next closest thing…" wrote Albom in his book. "If I saw him coming down the hallway, I ran…I felt tiny in his presence and I was certain he could view all my sins and shortcomings…"

So several years ago, when Rabbi Lewis reunited with his former student after a speech Albom had made, and asked Albom whether he would deliver the eulogy at the rabbi's funeral, the author was stunned. The rabbi was not dying eight years ago, yet still, he made the request.

"After a few days, I called him up and said that I'd honor his request—but only if I could come to know him as a man," recalled Albom, who admittedly had lapsed in his own religious life, largely through apathy.

At around the same time, Albom became interested in another religious man, this one a black pastor in Detroit, the author's current home. Pastor Henry Covington was a man whose roots were in the poorest of environments. He was a man with a criminal record who had admittedly broken every one of the Ten Commandments, then regained his footing through deep faith. And he was having a profound impact on the lost souls around him in depressed Detroit.

"The two men could not have been more different, yet faith, for both of them, was the touchstone to it all. So I decided to tackle a book about both men and, in the process, about my own odyssey and reawakening to faith," explained Albom.

"Have a Little Faith" was a labor of love—but a labor nonetheless. His experience in taping his dying professor, the beloved Morrie of "Tuesdays With Morrie," stood Albom in good stead. So did his subsequent books, "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" and "For One More Day," all of them explorations of how we live and die, and of human yearnings.

But as Albom will readily admit, each book became its own unique journey for the author, and "Have A Little Faith" clearly did, too. "As I studied these two men and their lives, I could feel my own perspective changing—I was seeing faith from a different angle."

This latest book, hopes Albom, will get people from all walks of life thinking about how much all faiths have in common and how powerful a tool faith can be.

Albom did go on to deliver the eulogy at Rabbi Albert Lewis' funeral. But as "Have A Little Faith" chronicles, he did it knowing and loving a man who was no longer an awesome stranger.

"What began as a book about two men—a wonderful rabbi and a wonderful pastor— ended up changing my life along the way," said Albom. "As I say in the forward to the book, 'This is a story about believing in something, and about the two very different men who taught me how.'"

"An Intimate Evening with Mitch Albom" will take place on Tuesday, Sept. 29 at 7:30 p.m. at the Park Hyatt Hotel at the Bellevue in Philadelphia.

There will be a VIP reception at 6:30 p.m. Special guests in a living room setting discussion will include NBC sports commentator Bob Costas, James McBride, author of "The Color of Water," and Philadelphia's own Angelo Cataldi of WIP Sports Radio. Members of the Lewis family will also attend.

Proceeds from the event will benefit the Rabbi Lewis Memorial Fund, Project H.O.M.E., and Jewish Family and Children's Service of Philadelphia.

For tickets and information, contact Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000. .