A PUBLICATION OF THE CANADIAN JEWISH NEWS / AUTUMN 2026 | 5787 סתיו
Task Rabbi THE GIG ECONOMY MEETS THE PULPIT
THE JEWISH MIDLIFE
CRISIS LUXER THAN LOX
Happy New Year & Shana Tova Blessings and Greetings from Jerusalem 5787 - תשפ״ז שנה טובה!
Jerusalem Foundation of Canada Board of Directors President and Chair: Joel Reitman, C.M. , Past President: Lewis R. Mitz, Vice Chair: David Golden, Vice President: Gary Grundman Vice President: David C. Rosenbaum, Treasurer: Paul Levine, Secretary: Carol Ryder, Members of the Board: David Berger, Ariela Cotler, Elliott Eisen, Heather Fenyes, Dr. Jacques Gauthier, Sarah Krauss, Connie Putterman, Danny Ritter, Cheryl Rosen, Evelyn Bloomfield Schachter, Doron Telem, Joanna Mirsky Wexler. Joseph J. Wilder, K.C., Gustavo Zentner Jerusalem has always been a city of hope - a place where many voices, traditions, and dreams come together. The Jerusalem Foundation is proud to nurture the people and places that weave together the city’s unique and vibrant fabric. As we welcome the New Year, we look toward a future where shared society, mutual understanding, and compassion continue to strengthen our city and inspire the world.
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Contents AUTUMN 2026 Feature 5787 סָָתיו
44 Task Rabbi
The rabbinate is evolving faster than ever. A key shift: the rise of the freelance rabbi. by AVI FINEGOLD
5787 סָָתיו 9
Contents AUTUMN 2026 | 5787 סָָתיו
Letter from the CEO ............. 15 Letter from the Editor .......... 17 Responsa ........................... 19
IN THE BEGINNING
57 Eating Our Feelings Eli Feldman: Sable Sandwiches by COREY MINTZ 61 Bookish: The Midlife Plot Twist A new book gently advises millennials and Gen Xers against blowing up their lives. by PHOEBE MALTZ BOVY CULTURE KLATSCH art, and community. by AVI FINEGOLD 36 Studies Show: Anarchists, Mobsters, and Museums Bulletins from academia 21 Jewish Geography 29 The Kibbitz Musician Abie Rotenberg on the relationships between faith, 69 Jewdar Forthcoming books, films, and other new releases of note.
pg 57
IF YOU ALREADY LOVE LOX, WAIT UNTIL YOU READ ABOUT SMOKED SABLE.
76 Comic
Mile End Mash Note by MIRIAM LIBICKI
ON THE COVER: Rabbi can connote the quiet and old- fashioned. To bring our story about the contemporary rabbinate to life, we decided to emphasize its modern and sometimes fragmented nature. CORRECTION: In our summer feature, “Funny, you don’t look Jewish...,” we mispelled Rivka Campbell’s name. We deeply regret the error.
ILLUSTRATION BY NAZARIO GRAZIANO/ COLAGENE, CREATIVE CLINIC
10 AUTUMN 2026
SPONSORED CONTENT
Canada’s top composition competition oers an evening of premieres and new stories at its 2026 Gala Concert
On October 15, the Azrieli Music, Arts and Culture Centre proudly presents the sixth Azrieli Music Prizes (AMP) Gala Concert at Montreal’s Maison symphonique. The event marks the summit of AMP’s 8-year program arc, featuring major new works for symphonic orchestra, choir, and soloists by the 2026 AMP Laureates: Hana Ajiashvili, Nicholas Denton Protsack, Adrian Mocanu and Dalit Hadass Warshaw. The concert will weave a rich tapestry of human experience across four premieres. You’ll witness tales of personal sacrifice in wartime Poland, unravel the modern-day meaning of a medieval riddle, rediscover the songs of 12th-century troubadours, and reflect on how listening to the land shapes our identity. Each work comes to life in the expert hands of the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal and the OSM Chorus, led by renowned guest conductor Asher Fisch and joined by outstanding soloists: sopranos Hila Baggio and Hila Plitmann, baritone Noam Heinz, cellist Ariel Barnes, and Canadian viol ensemble Les Voix humaines. At AMP’s core are its awards for Jewish music. The 2026 Commission for Jewish Music has been awarded to Dalit Hadass Warshaw, for her moving musical work “Letter from Across the River.” It tells the deeply personal story of her great-grandfather’s experience in Nazi-occupied Poland, translating his decision to choose love over freedom into music of
was awarded, their prize-winning works will receive a professional recording and two subsequent international performances. In this way, AMP builds composers’ careers and creates a legacy for these beautiful new works within the concert repertoire. As we celebrate these premieres, AMP also looks to the future. A few weeks after the Gala Concert, the music community will reconvene in Montreal to discover who will become AMP’s 2028 prizewinners. The event marks a wonderful cycle of creativity—just as four new works are shared with the world, others begin to take shape. We hope you can join us for this special announcement. Altogether, it’s a milestone year for AMP. Created in 2014 by Dr. Sharon Azrieli, CQ for the Azrieli Foundation, AMP has blossomed into Canada’s leading music composition competition and one of the most significant in the world. For more information about the Azrieli Music Prizes, visit azrielifoundation.org/amp. Azrieli Music Prizes Gala Concert October 15, 2026, 7:30PM Maison symphonique de Montréal Tickets from $30-$115; purchase at osm.ca
sweeping emotion and fierce beauty. AMP also celebrates Hana Ajiashvili, recipient of the 2026 Prize for Jewish Music, for her work “Riddle”, in which she transforms 12th-century poet Yehuda Halevi’s haunting verse into a powerful meditation on remembrance and resilience. B.C.-born composer Nicholas Denton Protsack unveils his Commission for Canadian Music, a creative engagement with the complexities of composing in Canada today. “Height of Land” for orchestra, choir, and solo cello reflects on the interconnectedness of land, water and human presence, inviting the audience to renew their relationship to the environment through living, breathing musical ecosystems. Spanish composer Adrian Mocanu engages in cultural expression that connects meaningfully with his own lived experience through the Commission for International Music. “de l’encra escafada” resurrects the long-lost voices of the trobairitz — female troubadours of medieval Provence—adding the unique sound of four violas da gamba to the orchestra and choir. Inspired by the lone surviving song of Beatriz de Dia, the work becomes an act of musical reclamation, where fragments of forgotten language and melody become living echoes of the past. The support for these four Laureates extends far beyond the Gala Concert. In addition to the substantial cash prize each
THE MILES NADAL JCC GRATEFULLY ACKNOWLEDGES THE AZRIELI FOUNDATION FOR ITS TRANSFORMATIONAL SUPPORT OF JEWISH LIFE IN DOWNTOWN TORONTO. A landmark $1.3 million gift from the Azrieli Foundation will support organizational growth at the Miles Nadal JCC. This investment is a powerful vote of confidence in the future of Jewish life in downtown Toronto and in the Miles Nadal JCC’s essential role as a hub for connection, belonging, culture, learning, wellness and community care. At a time when community and connection matter more than ever, the MNjcc is helping to strengthen Jewish life, culture and belonging across Toronto. This aligns strongly with our values at the Azrieli Foundation and we are proud to support a vision that brings people together and enriches the fabric of community life for the downtown Jewish community and Toronto as a whole.”
Naomi Azrieli, O.C.,DPhil Chair, Azrieli Foundation
This gift will strengthen the capacity, leadership and infrastructure needed to meet the evolving needs of our community and help ensure that the Miles Nadal JCC remains a vibrant and welcoming home for Jewish life in the heart of the city. With gratitude to the Azrieli Foundation for investing in the future of downtown Jewish life. Miles Nadal JCC
Miles Nadal JCC Downtown Toronto
With the generous support of our donors, The CJN can continue to provide quality, independent, and objective Jewish journalism, at no cost to our community. Thank you for supporting The CJN!
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Letter from the CEO
Celebrating the Past and Embracing the Future
A S WE GATHER WITH family and friends to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, we are reminded that this is a time of reflection and renewal. We look back with gratitude for what has been accomplished, and we look forward with hope toward what is still possible. This past year has been one of re- markable growth for The CJN across all our channels. Each week, our website, TheCJN.ca, generates tens of thou- sands of page views, our podcasts are downloaded thousands of times each, and more than 60,000 readers engage with each issue of Scribe Quarterly. Our small but dedicated team of journalists produced more than 700 original piec- es of content over the past year, ensur- ing that Jewish Canadian stories were told with nuance, vigour, and integrity. Along the way, our work was recog- nized by our peers. The CJN earned six AJPA Simon Rockower Awards for ex- cellence in Jewish journalism, including five first-place awards. We also received a gold medal from the Society of Publi- cation Designers, and were named a finalist in four major categories at the National Magazine Awards, including for Editor of the Year and Best Maga- zine — an amazing accomplishment for year one of our reimagined quarterly. While we are deeply honoured by these achievements, their true significance lies not in the awards themselves but
in what they represent: a growing appetite for thoughtful journalism, meaningful storytelling, and trusted community connection. Most importantly, these accom- plishments are a testament to the passion, talent, and commitment of our staff, contributors, volunteers, and supporters, and to the enthusiasm of our readers. Every story published, every podcast produced, and every issue delivered reflects a shared belief that strong Jewish journalism strengthens Jewish life in Canada. As we look ahead, we are energized by the opportunities before us. In the coming year, we will launch Scribe Quarterly ’s dedicated website, creating new ways for readers to engage with our award-winning magazine stories. We will reestablish arts and culture coverage, helping to celebrate the cre- ativity and diversity of Canadian Jewry. And we will continue expanding our national coverage, bringing you more frequent reporting from across Canada. Every new year begins with possi- bility. At a time when our community continues to face challenges, it is also a moment to embrace hope and strength- en connections. From all of us at The CJN, we wish you and your loved ones a sweet, healthy, and meaningful new year. Shana tova u’metuka,
MICHAEL WEISDORF CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER THE CANADIAN JEWISH NEWS
5787 סָָתיו 15
Contributors
SCRIBE QUARTERLY is a magazine about Jewish life, culture, and ideas — a reader’s guide to the contemporary Jewish world.
NAZARIO Graziano’s school notebooks spilled over with pen and pencil sketches of robots, shapes, clouds, and an array of curious creatures. He hasn’t let go of his anti-conformist spirit, and his work is a digest of images and recollections from his daily life. AVI Finegold is a barely practicing rabbi, a co-host of the podcast Not in Heaven , and a contributing editor at Scribe Quarterly . He is available to officiate weddings and funerals but not brisses. KATY Dockrill is an award-winning Toronto illustrator with over 25 years of experience. Her favourite part of the process is digging into the nitty-gritty of a brief to find the right tone, instilling humour where possible.
EDITOR IN CHIEF Hamutal Dotan
ART DIRECTOR Carol Moskot CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Phoebe Maltz Bovy
Avi Finegold COPY EDITOR
Leah Borts-Kuperman PRODUCTION MANAGER Etery Podolsky THE CJN CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Michael Weisdorf GENERAL MANAGER Kathy Meitz ADVERTISING SALES DIRECTOR Grace Zweig BOARD OF DIRECTORS Chair Bryan Borzykowski Treasurer and Secretary Sam Reitman Ira Gluskin, Jay Rosenthal Jacob Smolack, Elizabeth Wolfe FOR GENERAL INQUIRIES INFO@SCRIBEQUARTERLY.CA TO SUBMIT A LETTER TO THE EDITOR LETTERS@SCRIBEQUARTERLY.CA DONATIONS CAN BE MADE VIA THECJN.CA/DONATE WITH THE PARTICIPATION OF:
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16 WINTER 2025/2026
Letter from the Editor
The Gig-ification of the Rabbinate and Other Modern Predicaments
T
have had increasing difficult finding new leadership when their rabbis move on or retire. Enter the freelance rabbi. In a small but growing movement, people are creating new models for rabbinical education and ser- universities, denominations, and congregations that have shaped the modern rabbinate until now. In his cover story for this issue of Scribe Quarterly , contributing editor Avi Finegold (himself a rabbi not vice — ones that are generally independent of the yeshivot, installed in a pulpit) explores the causes and effects of an emerging shift in how Jewish life is organized. As we each participate in what- ever our own rituals of the season are, wherever they may take place and whoever may be involved, I hope that they all do, indeed, bring comfort and meaning. Leshanah tova, HAMUTAL DOTAN EDITOR IN CHIEF SCRIBE QUARTERLY
HIS TIME OF YEAR is known for its many meaningful, often comforting rituals: forgiveness and fresh starts, shofars and sukkot,
apples and honey. It is, relatedly, the time of year lay Jews are most likely to find themselves in syna- gogue — and by extension, you might assume, most likely to find themselves in the presence of a rabbi. This is starting to change. For about 150 years, and espe- cially in the latter half of the 20th century, there has been a particular rhythm and structure to Jewish life in the diaspora. Whether you were secular, observant, or something in between, synagogue was understood to be a pillar of communal life, and its rabbis were the obvious people to turn to if you found yourself in need of a wedding, a bat mitzvah, or some spiritual counsel. But synagogue attendance has been dropping for years (a trend exacerbated by pan- demic lockdowns), as has religious participation more broadly; at the same time, many congregations
5787 סָָתיו 17
Shana Tova U’Metukah As we gather with family and friends to welcome 5786, we are reminded that true prosperity isn’t just measured in returns, it’s found in community, purpose, and the enduring values we carry forward.
Responsa
“In a world where Jews rightly feel under siege and are inclined to circle Jewish wagons, the prejudices faced by Jews who are missing some cookie-cutter marker of ‘authentic’ Jewish identity are on the increase.”
What’s in a Name? I THOROUGHLY enjoyed Glynis Ratcliffe’s feature on Jewish ap- pearance and Jewish identity. Her archetypally un-Jewish name makes us kindred spirits. I’ve lived with the are-you- really-Jewish name game all my life despite having two Jewish parents, four Jewish grandpar- ents, and seven Jewish great- grandparents. In the world of Jewish-identity prejudices, none of this pedigree quite cancels out the fact that I have (proudly) inherited the surname of my paternal great-grandfather, a Church of England Londoner who threw his lot in with the Jewish people in 1880 when he married a girl from the East End and became the father of ten Jewish children. It seems to me that in a world where Jews rightly feel under siege and are inclined to circle Jewish wagons, the prejudices faced by Jews who are missing some cookie-cutter marker of “authentic” Jewish identity are on the increase, not diminishing. STUART ERIC WOOLLEY EDMONTON
Even More Nebbishettes I ENJOYED your article about “nebbishettes,” and being of a certain age, I would add that Bette Midler and Barbra Strei- sand were also on our radars in the ’70s and ’80s, giving more range to that archetype. There’s [another] Jewish an- gle on this archetype, and it has to do with biblical characters: Leah and Rachel. It says right in the Torah: “Jacob loved Rachel and everybody hated Leah!” (I was blown away by a lecture that fleshed out these archetypes and wrote it up in the Times of Israel. ) I watched reruns of The Mary Tyler Moore Show over COVID, and found Mary and Rhoda were avatars of these biblical characters/archetypes, to the degree that I now think of that series as a Jewish moral- ity play. ANNETTE POIZNER TORONTO JUST WANTED to mention that Ethel Mertz may be the first nebbishette, even though she was married in I Love Lucy. Of course, Lucille Ball did all kinds
of slapstick and didn’t always look like the Ziegfeld Follies girl she once was, but just the same, Vivian Vance had to look dowdi- er. Similarly, Valerie Harper, who had been a Rockette, and had a great figure, wore baggy clothing to look zaftig as Rhoda Morgen- stern, while Mary Tyler Moore of course always looked fabulous. By the time Woody Allen made Annie Hall , he was around 40 and had cleaned up his look a bit, wearing Ralph Lauren clothes, etc. Previously, he was going for the laughs and the story, and doing his lifelong imitation of Bob Hope. There, he somehow got away with being a real leading man and not just a goofball. Personally, I never found him attractive in that way, no matter who his leading lady was, and I doubt Charlotte Rampling or Goldie Hawn would really have had a relationship with him, for example. As for Absolutely Fab- ulous , Ruby Wax, who is Jew- ish, was the main writer besides Jennifer Saunders.
SUMMER 2026
EMAIL US: letters@ scribequarterly.ca Letters may be edited for length and clarity.
HELENE HARRISON VANCOUVER ISLAND
5787 סָָתיו 19
Jewish Geography BULLETINS FROM AROUND THE WORLD, BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE JEWISH TELEGRAPHIC AGENCY
A Hanukkah celebration in downtown Reykjavik, Iceland, drew the country’s foreign minister in 2025.
EUROPE’S SMALLEST JEWISH COMMUNITY GETS A HOME OF ITS OWN by JENNA GOTTLIEB COMMUNITY
UNTIL RECENTLY, Reykjavík, located near the Arctic Circle, was one of the few places in Europe where organized Jewish life did not exist: no synagogue, no ritual bath, no communal building. That changed this summer, as the Jew- ish community in Iceland opened the Beit Shvidler Jewish Center of Iceland, the country’s first-ever Jewish centre. Housed in a renovated downtown building that once operated as a bar
5787 סָָתיו 21
Jewish Geography
and, before that, the headquar- ters of a political party, the centre includes a synagogue, seminar room, kosher shop, community kitchen, youth centre, library lounge, and security centre — amenities the community has never had access to in one place. There is also a mikvah, or ritual bath, that is heated geothermally, using the abundant underground volca- nic heat that provides much of the country’s power. (Like many Jewish institutions in Europe, for security purposes, it will open only to members of the community and to visitors who reach out in advance.) “Jews here were yearning for a synagogue, for a rabbi, for some sort of a community,” says Rabbi Avraham Feldman, who moved to Reykjavík with his wife, Mushky, in 2018, “and it has been amazing to fill that need.” Community members agree. “Iceland has a higly di- verse, dispersed, and dif- fused Jewish community; given that we’re an isolated is- land, we all kind of washed up here,” says Michael Klein, who has been living in Iceland since 2020. “The Feldmans managed to pull together the resources, the building, and the work to [create] a Jewish centre that can serve not only our small commu- nity but the far larger group of visitors from all over the Jewish world who come for our natural beauty and peaceful isolation.” Historically, Jewish life in Iceland has been sparse and intermittent. Jewish traders are known to have passed through as early as the 1600s. The orga- nized Jewish presence dates to
the late 1800s, and the first practising Jew believed to have settled permanently was Fritz Nathan, a businessman who, in 1917, built what was then, at five storeys, Iceland’s tallest building. For decades afterward, Jew- ish life in Iceland survived on the efforts of a handful of dedicated volunteers who coordinated in- formal gatherings, often meeting in rented spaces or in the base- ment of Hallgrímskirkja, the country’s most recognizable church. The US Navy base in the town of Keflavík, near the international airport, occasion- ally provided Jewish chaplains until it closed in 2006. But there was still no permanent institu- tion, no resident rabbi, and no dedicated building, a gap that led some to call Reykjavík the only European capital without a synagogue. That began to change in 2018, when the Feldmans relo- cated from the United States to Reykjavík to establish a Chabad- Lubavitch presence, becoming Iceland’s first permanently sta- tioned rabbinical presence in the country’s documented his- tory. The couple started small, hosting Shabbat dinners and
holiday services out of their living room. Estimates of the community’s size hover around 300 self-identified Jews, out of Iceland’s total population of about 400,000. Momentum built quickly. In 2020, the Jewish community celebrated its first native Torah scroll, commissioned by a donor in Switzerland and completed with the help of the Icelandic congregation. A year later, the Icelandic government recog- nized Judaism as an official religion, opening the door to Jewish weddings and allowing residents to direct part of their religious tax to the community. By 2024, the community had outgrown its rented rooms and church basements and pur- chased the building that became the new Jewish centre, rough- ly tying one in Fairbanks, Alas- ka, as the northernmost Chabad house on earth. The building sits in Reykjavik’s compact down- town, just blocks from the icon- ic Rainbow Street and Harpa Concert Hall. “It’s been clear for a long time that we need a home for our community,” said one Jew- ish resident, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because not all of his colleagues know he is Jewish. (Iceland’s relative- ly small number of Jews means that there is little record of antisemitism.) “It’s not like we’ve been hiding or aren’t a strong community; we celebrate holidays together, and there are Shabbat dinners,” he con- tinued. “But I think it’s important that we have this centre. Seeing it opened is very moving and important.” JTA
“Jews here were yearning for a synagogue, for a rabbi, for some sort of a community, and it has been amazing to fill that need.”
22 AUTUMN 2026
Jewish Geography
opposed making daylight savings time permanent. The Orthodox advocacy said the later sunrise would make it difficult for obser- vant Jews to attend morning synagogue services and still arrive at work or school on time, because Jewish law prohibits reciting key morning prayers before prescribed times tied to sunrise. “The extension of DST will create an extreme hardship on observant Jews,” the organiza- tion said. “It would be extraordi- narily difficult, if not impossible, to arrive on time for a job and will affect the start time of our schools.” The Orthodox Union and the Coalition for Jewish Values have also come out against the measure. In a column for Chabad.org that didn’t take a position on the bill, managing editor Menachem Posner noted an upside to the extension of day- light savings, however: a later start time for Shabbat on short winter Fridays. “Even on the darkest day of winter,” Posner wrote, “Jews will have one more hour to prepare for Shabbat.” In its statement, Agudath Israel also pointed to the brief US experiment with year-round daylight savings time during the 1970s energy crisis, when Con- gress repealed the policy after widespread public dissatisfac- tion over dark winter mornings. The organization said it hoped the Senate would weigh the broader consequences of per- manent daylight savings time, including alternatives such as permanent standard time or retaining the current system of seasonal clock changes. JTA
FAITH ORTHODOX JEWS PUSH BACK AGAINST PERMANENT DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME by ANDREW SILOW-CARROLL
FOR MANY ORTHODOX JEWS, a typical winter weekday begins early: head to synagogue, gather in a minyan for morning prayers, then rush off to work. Orthodox Jewish groups say a US bill that would make daylight savings time permanent in that country could upend that routine by pushing winter sunrises — and the earliest permissible time for some prayers — an hour later. If passed, it would likely have ripple effects in Canada: several provinces have already gotten rid of semi-annual clock changes or are currently debating doing so; in 2020, Ontario passed legislation to move to permanent daylight sav- ings time if the US and Quebec do the same. The US House of Representatives passed the Sunshine Protection Act in June by a wide bipartisan margin. Agudath Israel of America is among the groups urging the Senate to reject the legislation when it comes before them for a vote, arguing that the change would create both public safety risks and significant challenges for Orthodox Jewish life. In a statement issued after the House vote, Agudath Israel said it understood the appeal of ending the twice-yearly clock changes but
5787 סָָתיו 23
Jewish Geography
58% of those in small communi- ties reported feeling more like- ly to be invalidated, compared with 48% of Jews overall. Jews in small communities were also less likely to express confi- dence in local law enforcement’s responses to antisemitism. Just 39% said local law enforcement takes antisemitism seriously, compared with 47% of Jews in larger communities. Leaders of small Jewish communities also feel less physically safe in Jewish spaces than their big-city counterparts: 60% of small- community leaders said they feel safe compared with 86% of com- munity leaders overall. Michele Schipper, the CEO of the Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life (ISJL), a nonprofit that supports Jewish communities across the southern United States, says security remains a challenge for some smaller congregations. “For some of those smaller com- munities, they may not be able to have personnel on site every time they’re open.” This summer, leaders from Jewish communities across the South convened at the ISJL’s annual conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, where Schipper says they discussed strategies for keeping smaller communi- ties safe. “One of the things we really did share is how important it is not to isolate ourselves in these communities, but to continually build relationships with the local community, with local law enforcement, so that when, God forbid, something happens, you’re not starting to reach out or wait for somebody to contact you.” JTA
SAFETY SURVEY: JEWS IN SMALLER COMMUNITIES FEEL LESS HEARD ABOUT ANTISEMITISM by GRACE GILSON
JEWS LIVING in smaller communities are less likely than those in large communities to feel their concerns about antisemitism are taken seriously by law enforcement and would-be allies, a new survey from the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) has found. Jews in smaller communities are “lacking a sense of allyship in the commu- nities around them,” says Mimi Kravetz, the chief impact and growth officer for JFNA. “Jews in small communities tell us that they feel deeply concerned, that they’re looking for support, that their lead- ership is looking for network and resources, because it can feel like they’re on their own.” The JFNA survey, which was compiled from its March 2025 study of Jewish life in North America, found that 22% of Jews live in small communities, defined as having fewer than 5,000 Jews living within five miles of their postal or ZIP code. Although the survey found no statistically significant difference in the antisemitism experienced by Jews in smaller and larger commu- nities, it found that Jews in small communities are more likely to feel that antisemitism is invalidated or dismissed. Among respondents,
Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson, Mississippi, in 2025.
24 AUTUMN 2026
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The Kibbitz Musician Abie Rotenberg on the relationships between faith, art, and community. by AVI FINEGOLD
“IN MY FIRST EXPOSURE TO JEWISH KIDS WHO WERE NOT RELIGIOUS, I HAD TO REALLY TRY TO UNDERSTAND WHY YIDDISHKEIT AND RELIGION WERE MEANINGFUL.”
5787 סָָתיו 29
PHOTOGRAPH BY SHLOMI AMIGA
The Kibbitz
S TARTING WITH the D’veykus album in 1973, Abie Rotenberg has penned some of the most memorable songs of the last half-century of Jewish music. Whether giving Bible verses and prayers a folk treatment or writing songs about modern life, Rotenberg has been one of the engines of contemporary music in the Orthodox world and beyond. “Acheinu,” a song released in 1990, became the anthem of the movement to free the hostages after October 7, a testament to the power of his writing and composition.
cutting edge, a folky kind of new Jewish sound. I had already written some songs. Label Sharfman and I decided to do an album together back in the early ’70s. We did the first D’veykus album, and I wrote the arrangements. I was self-taught, but they came out well and the songs were popular, and that launched me into music. But music was never my vocation. I never made a living off music. I was teaching until 1985, and afterward I went into a family business in Toronto. Music was a hobby on the side. How do you think that affected your ability to write and perform? What’s the interaction between seeing this as something you do out of love versus needing to put out albums on a regular cycle? When you don’t have a deadline, I think your material can be better. If you’re a writer and you have to come up with something, you may have to compromise at some point. I was able to be patient. I could release it whenever I wanted. I had no pressure simply because it wasn’t putting food on my table. What is it about collaborating that is clearly a creative spur for you? I didn’t write anything for anybody. It was just a question of finding which voice and which talent would best represent that song. One of the reasons I always collab- orated was that I never really had too much confidence in my own voice; I never looked at myself as being a vocalist. I was a composer. I could arrange; I could get by with a little help from my friends. So I reached out to friends who could sing. You’re one of the few serious Jew- ish musicians who has written for
Can we start with the Abie Roten- berg origin story? I was born in New York City. My father was born in Belgium, and my mother was born in Vienna. They managed to avoid going to concentra- tion camps. Growing up, most of my friends were children of Holocaust sur- vivors. Most of the people in the shul, the shtibl that I davened in, were Holocaust survivors. It was part of my environment. My wife’s parents were in the camps. Usually on yom tov , when we would all get together, we would certainly hear stories about what went on. Their family — their brothers- in-law and sisters, anyone who survived from their family — were all survivors of the camps. I have many songs related to that theme; it’s certainly part of what shaped me. My father was not a learned man. He was 19 when the war started, and it absolutely threw his life into tur- moil. But he remembered his family’s upbringing, and he loved z’mirot [tra- ditional hymns]. My mother was 15 when she had to run away; she never had a chance at a full education. But they sent me to yeshivah. I went to the Chofetz Chaim system, which very much emphasized going out and using
your talents on behalf of Klal Yisrael. The emphasis is: study, learn as much as you can, become a rabbi, become a teacher, become a community orga- nizer. Give back to the community. I became a teacher when I was 23, even before I was married. I taught for a number of years in Los Angeles in a high school. That was my first ex- posure to Jewish kids who were not religious. When I needed to commu- nicate with them, I had to really try to understand why Yiddishkeit and reli- gion were meaningful. Because you’re not just doing it simply because it was done in your home. You have to be able to convince others to embrace it and think about it. And maybe it makes you think about it yourself — if you have to articulate it. When I started as an NCSY adviser, it was one of the things that really made me the person I became. I had to be able to articulate something, and not just read it out of a book. I had already been involved in music even before I went into education. My first chevrusa in yeshivah was Label Sharfman. Label Sharfman was one of the Rabbi’s Sons [a Jewish band ac- tive in the 1960s and ’70s]. They were
30 AUTUMN 2026
The Kibbitz
And yet, so much of the music you write has a lot of secular influences: there’s baseball, Americana, coun- try music. How do you deal with that tension? It’s not a contradiction. Our music is certainly more American than Euro- pean or North African. We are what we hear. Even the rebbes who wrote nigunim , you might say they didn’t lis- ten to secular music. But they walked down the street and heard the Pol- ish marching band from around the corner. Today, you sit in the dentist’s chair. Don’t tell me you’re not listen- ing to secular music. Whatever comes in is what comes out. I grew up, thankfully, in an envi- ronment where being an American [Abie moved to Toronto in the 1980s] and adapting American values and traditions was not a contradiction to Yiddishkeit. My parents celebrated Thanksgiving in my house. They would buy a turkey. But we still went to shul, they still wanted me to go to yeshivah. It was not a contradiction. Unfortunately, there are people today who feel those things are not com- patible, but I disagree. I think they’re absolutely, totally compatible. Your novel, The Season of Pepsi Meyers , is clearly a love letter to baseball as much as it is about Judaism. I grew up with baseball in the same way. What do you think it is about baseball that engenders so much Jewish love? I have a theory about that. I think it’s because baseball is really unique. All the other sports — basketball, foot- ball, hockey — their structure is sim- ple. I’m going in one direction; you’re going the other way. It’s all very lin- ear. Baseball has no time limit and nothing to do with pushing this way or that way. It’s filled with so many possibilities. It’s just perfect for the
children. Is there anything you learned from writing for kids that shows up in your adult work? It’s not easy to write for kids. It may even be harder to write for children than for adults. The melody can be simple, the arrangement can be sim- ple. You don’t have to have a bridge and a sophisticated chord structure. But to write the right words, to say the right thing in a way that won’t of- fend this person or that person — it’s not easy to write for kids in a mean- ingful way. I noticed there’s a very large gap between the most recent Journeys album and the previous one. I think every artist has his decade,
maybe two decades if you’re lucky, where he’s really creative. The mind gets slower as time passes. I am also very selective about what I want to write about. If the song’s not going to have meaning, or some pos- itive message… It doesn’t have to be deep meaning, but it has to have some kind of meaning. Even a song like “Yeshivishe Reid,” it may be whim- sical, but there are some lessons in there. In Yiddishkeit , there are only so many themes. There are only so many things you can talk about. How many songs about faith are you going to write? You write a lot about the triumph of Jewish identity over assimilation.
5787 סָָתיו 31
PHOTOGRAPH BY SHLOMI AMIGA
The Kibbitz
“I think every artist has his
talmudic mind. There’s such a tre- mendous affinity between the Jewish mind and baseball. The lack of time limit tells you that you can always do t’shuvah . You’re behind in the game; you have two in- nings — but there’s still lots of time. A lot of your songs are an exten- sion of your teaching. There’s a constraint on what writing can do when you’re looking to educate and inspire. Are there times when you just want to write a song because it’s a beautiful story, without it need- ing a specific message? I’ve always written songs for the Jewish market. Recently, I’ve been writing some songs with the hope of possibly making some income through the secular market, which is much more accessible today because of the internet. And I’m having a blast. I have a song called “Gibberish” — a totally meaningless song. And it’s such a weight off my shoulders. I’ve been writing my whole life and every song had to mean something, had to say something. What a mechayeh it is to write something totally inane. People ask me, What is it like to be a Jewish entertainer? I tell them, I’m not a Jewish entertainer; I’m an edu- cator. I view myself as having tried to do that with my music. Are there any songs that are more personal? I was teaching in LA. We had a stu- dent in our high school who passed away, and I was tremendously affect- ed by it. We didn’t realize how ill she was. She suffered; she missed a lot of school. We always thought she was taking advantage of having a minor ailment, and it turns out it wasn’t so minor. I remember feeling devastat- ed that she passed, and second, dev- astated by guilt for having questioned
I’m old, but I needed an ending that was at least a little bit encouraging. Sometimes it takes years to find the simplest thing. Finally, it came to me: there is someone who does not forget. [The song is about an old man facing his mortality and the realization that the memories of those he lost will die with him. In the last line, he is com- forted by the knowledge that God will still remember.] People think the song is all about, Remember the Holocaust. That’s not what the song is about. The song is not, Build another Holocaust muse- um. It is about memories that nobody has, because the people are gone, their children are gone. There are so many who have no one to remember them. We have no pictures of them. We just have a name in a book. That’s all we have. Someone told me once that every- body dies two times. The first time you die is when you actually die and they bury you. The second time you die is the last time someone mentions your name. That’s right. The Talmud tells us that “the righteous are called alive even in death,” because people men- tion their names. That’s a great song idea right there. Is the next project a book or is it music-based? I was actually thinking of doing an album called Upon Further Review. In football, when they go to video review, the coach can throw a red flag onto the field. I thought of doing the same: going back and reconsidering songs that didn’t make the cut. Be- cause I have so many songs that didn’t make it. But with a different arrange- ment, maybe a different vocalist, a different style, a little bit of a more nuanced approach...
decade, maybe two decades if you’re lucky, where he’s really creative. The mind gets slower as time passes.”
her. That night I sat down and wrote “Neshomele.” I also wrote “Who Am I” within one night. Some songs took me many, many years — a few lines here and a few lines there; it took time to finally put them together. But with “Who Am I,” I received a video someone took walking around Camp Tikva, pictures of the struggle and the dif- ficulty those kids were going through, and how devoted the counsellors were to helping them. I was blown away. There’s a story about Leonard Co- hen and Bob Dylan chatting about each other’s songs. Dylan asked Co- hen how long it took to write “Hal- lelujah.” Cohen responded: A few years. Then Cohen asked, What about “Just Like a Woman”? Dylan replied: Fifteen minutes. “Memories” took me many years. I wanted to write this song, but I didn’t know how to end it. I had the lines about the numbers on the arm, about how I could never forget even though
32 AUTUMN 2026
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