I was born in the Bronx and raised in Yonkers, NY. I went to public school and three times a week attended afternoon Hebrew School, where I learned, like all other kids of my generation, how to read Hebrew with absolutely no understanding. Memories from Hebrew school? Leaving class to listen to the Yankees world series game on my transistor radio; and Steven Steinlauf coming dressed in a Holy Cross sweatshirt with a BIG cross on it to bar mitzvah class in the sanctuary.
If you press me on it I might remember something that we were actually taught.
My father and I sang in the synagogue choir. I still have the siddur I was given as a thank you, dated January 1961. It’s one of those with the ornate metal covers. My father loved liturgical music, and it is the music that would bring me back to the tradition many years later. When I was 9 years old, I sang a solo on the stage at Madison Square Garden in NYC with the Sam Sterner Concert Choir, a professional Jewish choir. On Passover and the High Holidays we sang at the mecca of the Catskills, Grossinger’s. (I have a signed photo of Jennie Grossinger – ask me if you’d like to see it)
When Renée and I perform I tell a story about that experience, guaranteed to make you scream with laughter. I was also a “vimale boy”, and if you have any clue what that means, you win a prize!
Don’t you love Bar Mitzvah pictures from the 60’s? By the time this picture was taken I had already been in five different productions of the Broadway musical Oliver, had made a commercial for Cue toothpaste, and appeared at the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center in Street Scene. My mother of blessed memory, accompanied me as we travelled all across the US, until I played the role of the Artful Dodger in the Vancouver Festival Society production. I’ve got old movies of me in it if you’d like to see it.
When I was 17 I auditioned for the Broadway re-make of Hair. To my disappointment (and my mother’s relief), I didn’t get cast.
I was the first of my musician friends to own a Fender Rhodes. I played in rock bands, folk bands, jazz bands, and of course gave my grandmother a lot of nachas when I played and sang in the living room! Despite my musical talents, I graduated from SUNY New Paltz (name drop alert: I played Woody Allen’s character in “Play it Again Sam” alongside John Turturro – I’ve got a picture if you’d like to see it) with a graduate degree in elementary education (my mother told me to have something to fall back on)
From 1977 – 1985 I served as music director of the Living Stage Theater Company at Arena Stage in Washington, DC. It is truly amazing how close the mission of that company was to my mission now as a rabbi. Although I didn’t know it at the time, it is where I learned what it means to be an “eved haShem”, a servant of the Divine.
I am so blessed and I thank G!d every day for the gifts I was entrusted with. I look back in wonder and gratitude at all the blessings in my life: (starting from most recent)
- Co-founder The MultiFaith Storytelling Institute
- Founder DC’s Jewish Renewal community, Minyan Oneg Shabbat – to my knowledge the only existing exclusively online Zoomagogue
- Received Rabbinic smicha (ordination) from ALEPH as rabbi and mashpia (spiritual director) Serve on ALEPH faculty.
- Served as rabbi and/or hazzan at many congregations, both near and distant (Adath Yisrael in Merion Station, PA; Har Shalom in Ft. Collins, Co; and in the DC area Adas Israel, Kol Shalom, and Bethesda Jewish Congregation)
- Served as Scholar in Residence (with my wife Renée) at over 150 synagogues throughout the US and Canada (Jewishstorytelling.com)
- Invited to teach and lead services at LimmudFest in England and Limmud NY.
- Led my band playing over 1000 simchas in the local DC area and across the US
- Wrote and performed 2 original musical plays (Kennedy Center, Smithsonian,
Air & Space Museum) - Raised three amazing children (hey, I can kvell a little, it’s my website), and now am Saba to the 7 year old Daria and 4 year old Adam.
