It's a little-known fact that Elvis Presley-the most Christian icon of American pop culture-was Jewish. This book provides a behind-the-scenes account of the authors' search, from Israel to Graceland, to find the true roots of the King. With the help of a Hasidic Jewish Elvis impersonator, Dan Hartel, who performs at senior citizens' homes under the stage name "Schmelvis," and an eccentric Orthodox rabbi named Reuben Poupko, the authors trace Elvis's Jewish roots all the way to Israel.

A behind-the-scenes account of an irreverent and witty film documentary, in which the authors took an Hasidic Jewish Elvis impersonator and an Orthodox Rabbi on a trek to trace Elvis's roots all the way to Israel and then bring the good news home to Graceland.

Jonathan Goldstein is a producer with This American Life on WBEZ Radio in Chicago. His first novel, Lenny Bruce is Dead, was published in March 2001 by Coach House Books. Last summer he traveled across Canada for a CBC radio show, road.com. He has written for Saturday Night, broken pencil, Exile, and blood and aphorisms.

It's a little-known fact, but Elvis Presley - the most Christian icon of American pop culture - was Jewish. Heading the cast in a documentary about Elvis's Jewish roots are a Hasidic Jewish Elvis impersonator who performs at senior citizens' homes under the stage name Schmelvis and an eccentric Orthodox rabbi named Reuben Poupko. In the book, Schmelvis: The Jewish Roots of Elvis Presley, the film's producers Max Wallace and Jonathan Goldstein take the reader behind the scenes to recreate the strange adventures involved in the making of the documentary that took cast and crew to Israel and Graceland. The book includes the following discoveries about Elvis's Jewish background: Elvis always wore a Jewish Chai pendant; he put a Star of David on his mother's headstone; he spent his teenage years living in a predominantly Jewish Memphis neighborhood; cantorial records may have influenced Elvis's singing style; as a young man, he had a nose-job to reduce the prominence of his Jewish nose.

Jonathan Goldstein is a producer with This American Life on WBEZ radio in Chicago. He is the author of Lenny Bruce is Dead. He lives in Chicago. Max Wallace is a veteran journalist and filmmaker. He is the author of Who Killed Kurt Cobain? and Muhammed Ali's Greatest Fight. He lives in Montreal, Quebec.