
Toward Shabbat: Aharei Mot-Kedoshim
We have just completed the yearly succession of holidays and commemorations that take us from Pesah to Yom Hashoah to Yom Hazikaron and to Yom ...
José Rolando Matalon, B’nai Jeshurun’s senior rabbi, was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and was educated in Buenos Aires, Montreal, Jerusalem, and New York City. After his ordination at the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1986, Rabbi Matalon came to BJ to share the pulpit—and vision—of his mentor and friend Rabbi Marshall T. Meyer. They worked together to revitalize the congregation and turn its focus to prayer, learning, service, social justice, and interfaith cooperation.
After Rabbi Meyer’s death in 1993, Rabbi Matalon became BJ’s spiritual leader. He was joined by Rabbi Marcelo Bronstein in 1995 and by Rabbi Felicia Sol in 2001. With the support of Hazzan Ari Priven, Rabbis Matalon and Sol now lead a vibrant, diverse community of 1,800 households.
Rabbi Matalon’s visionary leadership has had a profound impact on the revitalization of Jewish synagogue life in the US and in Israel, his involvement in the New York, Jewish, and Israeli communities is broad and deep. He has received awards from the New York Board of Rabbis, the Jewish Peace Fellowship, the New Israel Fund, and T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights.
Rabbi Matalon is a founding co-director of Piyut North America, a partnership between B’nai Jeshurun and Hazmanah Le-Piyut in Israel, which is dedicated to the dissemination of liturgical music from Jewish communities around the world. A student of Arabic and Turkish music, Rabbi Matalon plays the oud (Arabic lute). Rabbi Matalon is married and has two daughters.
We have just completed the yearly succession of holidays and commemorations that take us from Pesah to Yom Hashoah to Yom Hazikaron and to Yom ...
“Heavenly Jerusalem, earthly Jerusalem. Never has a city been so beautiful and so blemished, so revered and so reviled, so easy to love and so ...
The week of Hanukkah mirrors the reality in our lives that, most often, human achievement comes slowly, bit by bit, with commitment, patience, and discipline. ...
The World Cup final between Argentina and France this past Sunday in Qatar was spectacular, exhilarating, and electric. Definitely not for the faint of heart. ...
An old, popular Spanish saying, “Dime con quién andas y te diré quién eres”—“Tell me who you walk with and I’ll tell you who you ...
In the early 1990s, the word spread out that we were a congregation that was open to gays and lesbians. That people didn’t have to ...
For us, today is a sad and infuriating day in America. With the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 ruling on reproductive rights, ...
The very first thing we learn about us humans in the opening chapter of Genesis is that every person is made in the image of ...
על אלה אני בוכיה For these things I do weep Lamentations 1:16 We can’t find the words that can express the enormity of horror and ...
We were shocked, dismayed, and disappointed to hear about the Supreme Court’s draft opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade. The impact will be wide and ...