

Biography
José Rolando Matalon, B’nai Jeshurun’s Senior Rabbi and Rosh Kehillah (Head of the Community), 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 with his mentor, 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 Rabbi Rebecca Weintraub and Hazzan Ari Priven, Rabbis Matalon and Sol now lead a vibrant, diverse community of 1,950 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 (now Global Piyut Music), a partnership between B’nai Jeshurun and Invitation to 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 and his wife have two daughters and two grandsons.
Articles Written by
Rabbi Roly Matalon


We Cry Out
The theme of the American Jewish Committee event at the Capital Jewish Museum on Wednesday evening was entitled “Turning Pain into Purpose.” It featured members ...

The Struggle for Freedom in Times of Fear
I mostly remember the experience of fear. Fear of calling the attention of the security forces. Fear of being in the wrong place at the ...

Our Work in the Next Four Years
Next Monday, January 20, as we honor the life and legacy of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Donald Trump will be inaugurated for his ...

What happens now?
“What happens now?” Like many of you, I have been mired in this question since the morning of November 6. What will happen with our ...

Condemning the Assassination Attempt on Former President Trump
We join people of all faiths and political persuasions in condemning the assassination attempt on former President Trump. We are grateful that the former president ...

Some Thoughts on Yom Yerushalayim—Jerusalem Day
In 1970, when I was 14 years old, I visited Israel for the first time with my family. I had read Leon Uris’s Exodus a ...

Where Is Home?
I have been in Buenos Aires this week visiting my father. Though we FaceTime every day, it is a special joy to hug him, to ...

Looking Beyond the Present Moment
I am a hopeful person by nature, an “optimist against my better judgment,” as Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel once said. Like so many, since October 7 ...

A Rabbinic Word
There’s a famous concept called the butterfly effect, which says that the seemingly small or trivial actions we take now can spread in larger and ...

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 ...

Toward Shabbat: Ki Tissa
“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 ...

Add More Light: Rabbi Roly Matalon
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. ...

Toward Shabbat: Miketz
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. ...

Toward Shabbat: Vayera
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 ...

The Origins of the LBGTQ+ Community at BJ: A Conversation
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 ...

Our Response to the Overturning of Roe v. Wade
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, ...

Toward Shabbat: Bemidbar
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 ...

Uvalde, Texas: There are no more words, only tears.
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 ...

Response to the future of Roe v. Wade
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 ...

Toward Shabbat: Tazri’a
Heschel articulated the devastation of 1943 in the following terms: "There has never been so much guilt and distress, agony, and terror. At no time ...

Toward Shabbat: Vayak’hel
For two years, the pandemic has forced us to disconnect from the lives we used to live. We are all fatigued, and discouraged by the ...

Toward Shabbat: Yitro
What are we supposed to do with so much fear? We are in the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, frustrated and beyond tired of ...

Toward Shabbat: Vayehi
There were a few minutes within one of the concerts—a strange work based on mystical texts set to a combination of Persian music with rock, ...

In the Era of Culture Wars: What We Can Learn From the Story of Joseph and His Brothers
Everyone and every group is involved in their own pain: in the righteousness, the misfortune, the suffering of their own group, in the victimhood of ...

Toward Shabbat: Vayetze
It has been a darker week since daylight saving time ended last Sunday. Night now comes so early, and it lasts longer than day. And ...

Toward Shabbat: Bereshit
For many years now, I have been quite obsessed with the origins and the story of my family. Before arriving in Argentina in the early ...

Why We Are Using More Inclusive Language on Our Membership Forms
This year, we made some small but significant changes to our membership forms. We are expanding the language options for gender identity: evolving the choices ...

Responding to Antisemitism
We strongly condemn the tragic spike in targeted, antisemitic incidents happening all across the world, including in our country and city, against individuals and Jewish ...

Responding to Antisemitism
We strongly condemn the tragic spike in targeted, antisemitic incidents happening all across the world, including in our country and city, against individuals and Jewish ...

Responding to Antisemitism
We strongly condemn the tragic spike in targeted, antisemitic incidents happening all across the world, including in our country and city, against individuals and Jewish ...

Responding to Antisemitism
We strongly condemn the tragic spike in targeted, antisemitic incidents happening all across the world, including in our country and city, against individuals and Jewish ...

Responding to Antisemitism
We strongly condemn the tragic spike in targeted, antisemitic incidents happening all across the world, including in our country and city, against individuals and Jewish ...

Responding to Antisemitism
We strongly condemn the tragic spike in targeted, antisemitic incidents happening all across the world, including in our country and city, against individuals and Jewish ...

Toward Shabbat: Bamidbar
On Sunday evening we will begin our celebration of Shavuot. May they be quiet days of rest, of breath-taking and reflection, and of receiving the ...

Toward Shabbat: Aharei Mot-Kedoshim
“Rise up, Judge of the earth, give the arrogant their requital. How long shall the wicked, Adonai, how long shall the wicked exult?”—Psalm 94:2-3 Tuesday, ...

Our Statement on the Guilty Verdict from the Derek Chauvin Trial
Today our justice system found the man who killed George Floyd guilty. But our hearts are still heavy. The conviction today is one small victory ...

Our Statement on the Guilty Verdict from the Derek Chauvin Trial
Today our justice system found the man who killed George Floyd guilty. But our hearts are still heavy. The conviction today is one small victory ...

Our Statement on the Guilty Verdict from the Derek Chauvin Trial
Today our justice system found the man who killed George Floyd guilty. But our hearts are still heavy. The conviction today is one small victory ...

Our Statement on the Guilty Verdict from the Derek Chauvin Trial
Today our justice system found the man who killed George Floyd guilty. But our hearts are still heavy. The conviction today is one small victory ...

Our Statement on the Guilty Verdict from the Derek Chauvin Trial
Today our justice system found the man who killed George Floyd guilty. But our hearts are still heavy. The conviction today is one small victory ...

Our Statement on the Guilty Verdict from the Derek Chauvin Trial
Today our justice system found the man who killed George Floyd guilty. But our hearts are still heavy. The conviction today is one small victory ...

Toward Shabbat: Vayikra
Who will ever forget the fear of the Angel of Death, roaming outside? We worked hard to elude him, and still do, by isolating, masking, ...

Toward Shabbat: Mishpatim
משנכנס אדר מרבין בשמחה When the month of Adar arrives, we increase in joy. —Babylonian Talmud Ta'anit 29a When the month of Adar arrived last ...

Toward Shabbat: Shemot
In stark contrast to 2020—a year of horror and despair—2021 is a year full of hope. We have arrived, at long last, to the end ...

Toward Shabbat: Vayishlah
7:45AM- I turn my computer on and sign into Zoom. I put on tallit and tefillin and recite a couple of quiet prayers in preparation ...

Toward Shabbat: Vayera
This was said to be the election of a lifetime, the most consequential and fateful of presidential elections in a very long time, maybe ever.

Responding to the Crisis of Homelessness
Homelessness has been a painful, difficult and persistent issue in New York City since the 1970's, and there are presently more people experiencing homelessness in ...

Responding to the Crisis of Homelessness
Homelessness has been a painful, difficult and persistent issue in New York City since the 1970's, and there are presently more people experiencing homelessness in ...

Responding to the Crisis of Homelessness
Homelessness has been a painful, difficult and persistent issue in New York City since the 1970's, and there are presently more people experiencing homelessness in ...

Responding to the Crisis of Homelessness
Homelessness has been a painful, difficult and persistent issue in New York City since the 1970's, and there are presently more people experiencing homelessness in ...

Responding to the Crisis of Homelessness
Homelessness has been a painful, difficult and persistent issue in New York City since the 1970's, and there are presently more people experiencing homelessness in ...

Responding to the Crisis of Homelessness
Homelessness has been a painful, difficult and persistent issue in New York City since the 1970's, and there are presently more people experiencing homelessness in ...

Tuning our Souls for Teshuvah
This poetical and musical experience with Rabbi Roly Matalon, Lizzie Leiman Kraiem, Rabbi Uri Kroizer, Hazzan Yair Harel, and Dan Nadel (guitar) will engage us ...

Tuning our Souls for Teshuvah
This poetical and musical experience with Rabbi Roly Matalon, Lizzie Leiman Kraiem, Rabbi Uri Kroizer, Hazzan Yair Harel, and Dan Nadel (guitar) will engage us ...

Tuning our Souls for Teshuvah
This poetical and musical experience with Rabbi Roly Matalon, Lizzie Leiman Kraiem, Rabbi Uri Kroizer, Hazzan Yair Harel, and Dan Nadel (guitar) will engage us ...

Tuning our Souls for Teshuvah
This poetical and musical experience with Rabbi Roly Matalon, Lizzie Leiman Kraiem, Rabbi Uri Kroizer, Hazzan Yair Harel, and Dan Nadel (guitar) will engage us ...

Tuning our Souls for Teshuvah
This poetical and musical experience with Rabbi Roly Matalon, Lizzie Leiman Kraiem, Rabbi Uri Kroizer, Hazzan Yair Harel, and Dan Nadel (guitar) will engage us ...

Tuning our Souls for Teshuvah
This poetical and musical experience with Rabbi Roly Matalon, Lizzie Leiman Kraiem, Rabbi Uri Kroizer, Hazzan Yair Harel, and Dan Nadel (guitar) will engage us ...

Find Your Waze to the Light: Our High Holy Days Journey
Today is Rosh Hodesh Elul—the beginning of the month before the High Holy Days. So, as we do every year, our community embarks, individually and collectively, ...

Homelessness in our Community
Over the past few weeks, a controversy has erupted on the Upper West Side regarding the temporary use of local hotels to shelter men experiencing ...

We Will Do and We Will Listen
The Jewish community, our community, has a sacred calling to truly become a holy community, honor the dignity and equality of all, and embody the ...

We Will Do and We Will Listen
The Jewish community, our community, has a sacred calling to truly become a holy community, honor the dignity and equality of all, and embody the ...

We Will Do and We Will Listen
The Jewish community, our community, has a sacred calling to truly become a holy community, honor the dignity and equality of all, and embody the ...

We Will Do and We Will Listen
The Jewish community, our community, has a sacred calling to truly become a holy community, honor the dignity and equality of all, and embody the ...

We Will Do and We Will Listen
The Jewish community, our community, has a sacred calling to truly become a holy community, honor the dignity and equality of all, and embody the ...

We Will Do and We Will Listen
The Jewish community, our community, has a sacred calling to truly become a holy community, honor the dignity and equality of all, and embody the ...

Our High Holy Days Plans (2020)
And so while it is clear we cannot celebrate the Yamim Nora’im together in person this year, the BJ community will come together as one, ...

Our High Holy Days Plans (2020)
And so while it is clear we cannot celebrate the Yamim Nora’im together in person this year, the BJ community will come together as one, ...

Our High Holy Days Plans (2020)
And so while it is clear we cannot celebrate the Yamim Nora’im together in person this year, the BJ community will come together as one, ...

Our High Holy Days Plans (2020)
And so while it is clear we cannot celebrate the Yamim Nora’im together in person this year, the BJ community will come together as one, ...

Our High Holy Days Plans (2020)
And so while it is clear we cannot celebrate the Yamim Nora’im together in person this year, the BJ community will come together as one, ...

Our High Holy Days Plans (2020)
And so while it is clear we cannot celebrate the Yamim Nora’im together in person this year, the BJ community will come together as one, ...

Welcome Rabbi Rebecca Weintraub
Ever since Rebecca’s visit to our community in January, we have been excited at the possibility of her joining us as assistant rabbi. Becca was ...

Welcome Rabbi Rebecca Weintraub
Ever since Rebecca’s visit to our community in January, we have been excited at the possibility of her joining us as assistant rabbi. Becca was ...

Welcome Rabbi Rebecca Weintraub
Ever since Rebecca’s visit to our community in January, we have been excited at the possibility of her joining us as assistant rabbi. Becca was ...

Welcome Rabbi Rebecca Weintraub
Ever since Rebecca’s visit to our community in January, we have been excited at the possibility of her joining us as assistant rabbi. Becca was ...

Welcome Rabbi Rebecca Weintraub
Ever since Rebecca’s visit to our community in January, we have been excited at the possibility of her joining us as assistant rabbi. Becca was ...

Welcome Rabbi Rebecca Weintraub
Ever since Rebecca’s visit to our community in January, we have been excited at the possibility of her joining us as assistant rabbi. Becca was ...

A Time of Pain and Fury
These are days of pain, rage, and fury. The vicious murder of George Floyd—a veritable lynching—is the latest of a long chain of murders of ...

Toward Shabbat: Bamidbar
In a time of unprecedented “normals” and as new paradigms emerge, we need the Torah to awaken our imagination, creativity, and courage.

Toward Shabbat: Shemini
To save human life is to do God’s work. You—doctors, nurses, technicians, EMTs, nursing home aides, pharmacists—are God’s messengers in the battle between life and ...

Coronavirus Update: March 15
We have learned that a member of the BJ community has tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. We have temporarily closed the BJ campus, and ...

Coronavirus Update: March 12
We have made the very difficult decision to suspend all in-person programming other than prayer, and we will limit in-person participation in Shabbat Services to ...

Coronavirus Update: March 10
Find the latest information about the impact of COVID-19 on our community.

Coronavirus Update: March 9
Learn about important updates regarding upcoming programs and protocols. The March 9 Purim Afterparty is canceled; other Purim services and programs will continue as planned.

Coronavirus Update: March 6
With new information regarding the coronavirus and its presence in New York City and within the NYC Jewish community emerging by the hour, we want ...

Toward Shabbat: Tetzaveh
I have just returned from a trip to Israel and Berlin. It was important to me to pray all three daily services—shaharit, minhah and arvit—with ...

Toward Shabbat: Bo
The events marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz came to a close this week... With this momentous anniversary behind us, a new ...
