"Two Rabbis, One Broken Heart"
If you’re from outside New York and are not (yet) familiar with the work and soul of Rabbi David Ingber, you should be.
Rabbi Ingber is Senior Director for Jewish Life and Senior Director of the Bronfman Center at 92NY (the 92nd Street Y). He also serves as the founding rabbi of Romemu, the largest Renewal synagogue in the United States. Rabbi Ingber founded Romemu in NYC in 2006, following his ordination by Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, Founder of the Jewish Renewal movement.
Over the past decade-plus, Romemu has grown into a weekly home for thousands of people, a growing membership of over 1,000 in its two physical locations (Manhattan and Brooklyn), and a growing online global membership. Rabbi Ingber also founded Romemu Yeshiva, the first fully egalitarian Yeshiva (immersive learning center), dedicated to mystical and meditative Jewish learning and practice.
Raised Modern Orthodox in New York, Rabbi Ingber studied at Ramaz, Yeshiva University, Beit Midrash L’Torah, Yeshivat Chaim Berlin, and Yeshivat Chovovei Torah Rabbinical School. He also studied philosophy, psychology and religion at New York University.
Deeply learned and profoundly soulful, Rabbi Ingber is the kind of person with whom every conversation leaves you knowing more and thinking more deeply. A number of weeks ago, when Israel was already deep into this war, Rabbi Ingber and I got together at my home in Jerusalem and within a short period, our conversation had meandered to how each of our worlds has, in many ways, collapsed since October 7.
In the progressive, renewal world, Rabbi Ingber has been a unique voice in calling out the way in which the American left abandoned Jews at their moment of need. While many rabbis have pointed to this phenomenon, I haven’t heard anyone speak about it as clearly and as honestly — or as courageously — as has Rabbi David Ingber.
In Israel, of course, our beliefs in our security, in the notion that Zionism could keep the worst of Europe at bay, our trust in the IDF, and much more have come crumbling down. Yes, Israel has also been witness to extraordinary things since October 7, but to deny that we are emotionally devastated, some Israelis even feeling crushed, would be dishonest.
Since I was headed to New York shortly after we got together in Jerusalem, Rabbi Ingber and I thought it would be fruitful to have an open conversation about the ways in which each of our worlds has crashed in recent months. We had that conversation at the 92nd Street Y a few weeks ago.
The 92nd Street Y has graciously granted us permission to share the recording of the conversation with subscribers to Israel from the Inside. You can access the video recording on the 92nd Street Y archive here, or below, you can listen to an audio version as a podcast.
A very brief excerpt of our conversation follows. Again, the full recording can be seen here, thanks to the generosity of the Y and of Rabbi Ingber and his colleagues.
As noted above, if you prefer to listen to the audio version, here’s the podcast mp3:
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Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade.If you’re just joining us, Israel from the Inside typically posts a written column on Mondays and a podcast on Wednesdays. That is obviously irrelevant for the time being.
We’ve delayed all the podcasts that were ready to go, because the people whose stories they tell deserve to tell them when we all have the bandwidth to hear. Hopefully, that will return some day.
For the three weeks beginning Sunday, December 17th, we will be posting a bit less, as people in the United States will be on vacation, traveling and the like, and here in Israel, as some reservists are being rotated out of units, those of us who could not leave while our kids were/are at the front, will be using the time to visit kids abroad.
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