Alo'el's Dissent

By Salem Michael Katsh

"Daniel must battle extremists of the major religions to uncover the truth about his life"

Salem Michael Katsh

About the author

Salem Michael Katsh is a scion of a famous Jewish family that traces its lineage through generations of chief rabbis and Hebrew scholars. After attending a Jewish day school in Manhattan, he studied at the Hebrew University in Israel and graduated with the highest honors from New York University School of Law. He practiced law as a partner at Weil, Gotshal & Manges, and Shearman & Sterling. Katsh co-authored with Ira M. Millstein The Limits of Corporate Power (Macmillan 1981) and wrote more than forty articles for legal journals. Katsh has been recognized in every major survey of elite professionals—Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in the Law, Who’s Who in the World, Best Lawyers in America, and the coveted Chambers survey. He retired from the practice of law in 2017 to work full-time on writing fictional historical novels. Even as he became a leader of lawyers in his areas of specialty, he pursued varied eclectic interests—including motorcycling, mountain climbing, marathoning, competition archery, bowhunting, and spending time in his library of several thousand books on religion, mythology, and history.
He lives with his wife Robin Phillips, and their ebullient Labrador retriever, Bo, in Orient Point, NY

Alo’el’s Dissent

“Alo’el’s Dissent is a thrilling adventure story about a millennia-long search for the magical breastplate worn three thousand years ago by the high priest in the temple King Solomon built in Jerusalem. As the temple is being destroyed by Babylonian invaders, the last high priest, Zadok, hides the breastplate on Elephantine Island in Egypt. The book traces the growth of Daniel Ornstein from a boy with unnatural birthmarks into an adult who falls in love with an Israeli army captain and leads an expedition to the island to find the breastplate. In the battle royale between Daniel’s group and fanatics from the three major Abrahamic religions, his paranormal birthmarks prove the key to securing the divine artifact. His heroic actions will allow mankind to alter its basic nature, to expunge “the inclination of his heart to do evil from its youth.” (Gen. 8:21). No longer would compliance with the Tenth Commandment—thou shalt not covet– be the only commandment inherently beyond humanity’s capacity to obey.

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