Page 19 - HaMizrachi Australia Sukkot 5781

“The Torah comes alive

when you move to Israel”

Serving for 33 years as Rabbi of Congregation Ahavath religiously observant at the time. My
Torah in Englewood, New Jersey, Rabbi Shmuel Goldin father, however, persisted and sought
grew the congregation from 350 families to nearly 800 her out, promising to become fully
families, making Ahavath Torah one of the largest Ortho- observant, which he did. Rabbi Yaakov
Kamenetsky married them a year
dox congregations in America. Throughout his rabbinic later, under a tree in the Adirondacks.
career, Rabbi Goldin served for decades as an instructor of
Bible and Philosophy at Yeshiva University and occupied We grew up in a home that success-
numerous national leadership positions, including two fully merged the different views of
my grandfathers; our home was very
terms as president of the Rabbinical Council of America. open-minded but also very frum. I, and
After retiring in 2017, Rabbi Goldin and his wife Barbara all of my siblings, are orthodox; though
moved to Israel to continue to teach, write, and volunteer. I consider myself a centrist, compared
While visiting his family in the United States, we asked to my siblings, I’m a left-winger!
Rabbi Goldin to reflect upon his time in the rabbinate, the The dual influences of my grand-
future of Religious Zionism in America and his new life in fathers shaped my approach to life
Israel. and also to the rabbinate. I wanted to
remain within the traditional world
of halachah, but at the same time be
hank you for the Gospels in-depth, revealing major open-minded and bring in as many
taking the time inconsistencies), and the Dictionary of people as I could. My kids have fol-
to talk together American Underworld Lingo (co-authored lowed suit, taking different paths
today! Let’s with three convicts). within orthodoxy.
start by telling
us about your Rabbi Avraham “Alter” Poplack, my But the truth is, I never made a con-
Tchildhood and other grandfather, was much more rig- scious decision to become a pulpit
how you ultimately came to be one idly Orthodox. Immigrating to Seattle rabbi; I was also interested in pursu-
of the leading pulpit rabbis in the in the 1920s, he became a significant ing clinical psychology. I was studying
figure in the Jewish community, serv-
United States. at Yeshiva University and wanted to
ing as an educator for countless young continue learning Torah, so I studied
My two grandfathers were significant men and women. He had been a room- for semicha. After getting engaged to
influences in my life. My zaide Rabbi mate and close friend of Rabbi Yaakov Barbara, I explored two jobs: teaching
Hyman E. Goldin was an open-minded, Kamenetsky in the Slobodka Yeshiva at Flatbush High School or moving to
renaissance Rabbi. Immigrating to and was instrumental in bringing California to become Rabbi Maurice
America in 1900, he taught himself Rabbi Yaakov and his family to Amer- Lamm’s youth director at Congregation
English, earned a law degree, opened ica in 1937. When my zaide made Aliyah Beth Jacob. Rabbi Lamm was inter-
a Jewish camp and a hotel in the to Bnai Brak, I remember Rabbi Yaakov viewing people for the job at the Wal-
Adirondack mountains, served as and his rebbetzin coming to see him dorf Astoria Hotel. I said to Barbara:
the principal of several Jewish off at the boat. When zaide Poplack “We’re not moving to California, but
schools, was a prison chap- visited us, he always tested me on I’ve never seen the inside of the Wal-
lain, and authored roughly Gemara, which I didn’t particularly dorf Astoria!” On the day of the inter-
fifty books, including his like, though I liked it when he said he view, I was shopping for the engage-
translation of the Kitzur was proud of me. ment ring with my sister. In the middle
Shulchan Aruch and the of Manhattan, my yarmulke blew away,
first Rabbi’s Handbook My parents came from very different and we couldn’t find it. I told my sister:
backgrounds and met at Blue Sky
(Madrich). He also wrote “I’ll get a new yarmulke before the inter-
The Case of the Nazarene Lodge Hotel, my zaide Goldin’s hotel view, but do me a favor and buy me a
in the Adirondack Mountains. My
Reopened, a treatise in hat so I can cover my head until then.”
trial form, putting the mother, Pearl Poplack, was working as So she bought me a ridiculous brown
a nanny at the hotel when she met my
Jews on trial after cen-
turies of persecution father, Isaac Goldin. They fell in love, corduroy hat that was two sizes too
but my mother ended the relationship
big, and we continued shopping for
(for which he studied
at summer’s end, as my father was not the ring. But as it turned out, we were
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