Rabbi Rolando Matalon’s retirement marks the end of an era for B’nai Jeshurun — and for liberal Judaism

Over 40 years, Rabbi Rolando Matalon helped flip B’nai Jeshurun into one of the vital influential synagogues in American Jewish life. This month, he’s retiring.

Throughout his tenure, “BJ” developed from a struggling Higher West Aspect congregation right into a nationwide mannequin for spiritually vibrant liberal Judaism. It turned recognized for ecstatic music, participatory prayer, social justice activism and a willingness to confront a number of the Jewish neighborhood’s most divisive questions.

Matalon can also be a part of a era of leaders, now nearing or previous retirement age, who created post-Nineteen Sixties “huge tent” Jewish establishments. These had been synagogues and organizations constructed on a consensus mannequin that, nevertheless fragile, insisted Jews might unite round Israel, social motion and Jewish tradition and schooling. Lately, BJ, like many American synagogues, has seen that consensus examined by variations over Israel, the anti-Zionist and antisemitic eruptions that adopted Oct. 7, and a polarized political local weather. 

“We have to rediscover what binds us collectively in our variety,” Matalon advised me lately, after I requested him what challenges he’s leaving to the subsequent era of Jewish leaders.

Born and raised in Argentina, Matalon, 69, joined the BJ workers as a rabbinical scholar. After his ordination on the Jewish Theological Seminary, he turned assistant rabbi to his mentor, Rabbi Marshall T. Meyer, the American Conservative rabbi and activist who lived and labored in Argentina for 26 years. Meyer had returned to New York in 1984 to revive what’s America’s oldest Ashkenazi synagogue, a job Matalon and one other younger Argentine rabbi, Marcelo Bronstein, inherited after Meyer’s demise in 1993. (Three many years later, the congregation needed to rethink Meyer’s legacy when an inner investigation decided {that a} sexual assault allegation towards Meyer was credible.) 

In 1988, the synagogue gave up its affiliation with the Conservative motion to grow to be impartial. 

With Matalon as “rosh kehilla,” or neighborhood head, the synagogue turned particularly recognized for integrating Sephardic and Center Japanese liturgical music into the Ashkenazi prayer service and for fostering tough conversations round Israel, Zionism and intermarriage. Within the pre-JDate period, its Friday evening service for singles was a mecca for Jews in quest of companions. 

Matalon, who will likely be succeeded as rosh kehilla by longtime BJ Senior Rabbi Felicia Sol, says he has no intention of stepping away from Jewish religious life. He plans to launch a brand new institute underneath the BJ umbrella to assist rabbis, cantors, musicians and prayer leaders create “participatory, soulful, dynamic” prayer experiences rooted within the musical traditions of Jewish communities world wide.

He additionally hopes to spend extra time exploring New York’s various synagogues — particularly Sephardic communities. “One factor that defines me is that I cross boundaries simply,” stated Matalon, whose paternal grandparents had been Syrian Jews from Aleppo. “I really feel spiritually snug in many various locations.”

On Tuesday we talked in regards to the secret to BJ’s rebirth, how he navigated the clergy’s resolution to carry out interfaith marriages, and his response to congregants who felt he was too crucial of Israel.

The dialog was edited for size and readability.

After his ordination on the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1986, Matalon, above, served as assistant rabbi to his mentor, Rabbi Marshall T. Meyer. (Courtesy B’nai Jeshurun)

After I take into consideration BJ, I consider three issues: the revival of liberal Judaism — religiously, socially and politically, or nevertheless you would possibly need to outline it; the ability of music as a device for the spirit; and battle decision, or not less than wrestling with battle, whether or not we’re speaking about intermarriage or, now, Israel and political polarization. Do you agree with that framing, and did I miss something?

No, I believe that’s proper on. I believe these are the principle issues that outline the final 40 years. BJ was restarted after it was nearly bankrupt, financially and spiritually. BJ was on life assist when my mentor and trainer, Rabbi Marshall Meyer, got here in 1985.

He got here as a result of there was a necessity for extra Conservative synagogues in New York Metropolis, notably on the Higher West Aspect. A variety of individuals had been keen on reviving BJ and making a vibrant neighborhood there. Marshall introduced this imaginative and prescient of neighborhood and prayer and social justice together.

The imaginative and prescient was prayer and music, rebuilding neighborhood, and addressing a number of the social justice points that had been on the heart in these days: Israel-Palestine, AIDS, LGBT Jews, homelessness, starvation. We had been tackling all this stuff in a technique or one other, not within the macro image however within the micro image, and that turned BJ’s DNA.

After Marshall died in 1993, I continued BJ’s management, and I started introducing music from different Jewish communities world wide. That additionally turned a vital distinction of BJ. 

Are you able to consider a second — as a result of each synagogue desires of the sort of revival BJ had — the place you realized, “That is working”? BJ has some structural benefits; it’s on the very Jewish Higher West Aspect, to which younger Jews had been flocking within the ’80s and ’90s. However nonetheless I think about it wasn’t a given. What was the second or this system the place you realized individuals had been discovering one thing they hadn’t had earlier than?

It wasn’t sudden exponential development from yr one. It was gradual. It was constructing neighborhood, connecting individuals to individuals, making a sort of neighborhood the place individuals could be there for one another — visiting when individuals had been sick, having Shabbat dinners collectively, being there for mourners.

We had been consistently holding conferences for potential members and explaining our imaginative and prescient: that we wished a neighborhood deeply linked to 1 one other, not simply individuals who got here to providers and left, however individuals who wished to spend time collectively, wrestle with huge and small points collectively.

On Shabbat morning we had open conversations primarily based on the parsha [Torah portion]. First Marshall and I’d have a short dialogue, then we’d open it as much as everybody. Folks heard one another’s concepts, linked with one another, after which continued the conversations afterward over lunch.

Finally we developed a powerful core — individuals who had been dedicated and volunteering. We had a homeless shelter. We served lunch weekly to individuals in want, all ready by volunteers. We went out for Soviet Jewry. In 1988 we started religious gatherings for individuals with AIDS. We held a Passover seder for individuals with AIDS earlier than Pesach, after which month-to-month Shabbat lunches.

Then individuals began bringing their buddies.

In 1991, our sanctuary ceiling collapsed, and we spent a number of months within the health club on the Heschel College, which had as soon as been BJ’s neighborhood home earlier than it was offered as a result of BJ was in debt. Then we moved into the Church of St. Paul and St. Andrew on West Finish Avenue.

After we moved there, articles began getting written about us, individuals heard about us, and that’s when development turned sustained. By the mid-Nineteen Nineties we had an enormous inflow of younger individuals, most of them single.

BJ turned a spot the place individuals met one another inside a context of prayer and music and celebration and pleasure. I believe that was a turning level.

I’m glad you talked about the singles scene, which was legendary. [In 1996, the New York Times reported that singles represented more than half of the congregation.]

Sure. However that coalesced round a really sturdy core of members that had been solid over the earlier 5 or 6 years. The neighborhood was rising slowly, with a whole lot of effort, after which immediately individuals began coming from all over the place.

I don’t know if there was one particular factor, however after we moved to the church, the expansion turned sustained.

Marshall noticed the start of the expansion, however he didn’t actually see the explosion. After he died, it turned exponential. We stuffed the church and needed to create a second Kabbalat Shabbat service. My colleagues and I rotated — one would lead the early service, one the late service. Each Friday I needed to announce at residence whether or not I had the early or late service so we’d know when Shabbat dinner would occur. We had two providers for fairly a very long time, by way of the mid-Nineteen Nineties into the 2000s.

At the moment we had been actually the one possibility on the town. Later, different congregations began rising, too, and new communities opened, like Romemu, so finally there have been extra choices.

Whenever you point out choices, what had been individuals hungry for that they weren’t discovering elsewhere?

Folks had been hungry for providers that had been musical and joyful and participatory. They wished one thing partaking, not passive providers that had been prolonged and disconnected.

BJ providers had been partaking by way of music and a message of welcome. We tried to say one thing quick however related in regards to the human situation or about what was taking place on the planet — whether or not it was [Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak] Rabin’s assassination, the World Commerce Middle [attacks], or broader ethical and religious struggles individuals had been going through: loneliness, longing, neighborhood.

Folks got here to listen to that within the context of music and pleasure. There was dancing within the aisles welcoming Shabbat. There have been Shabbat dinners afterward the place individuals frolicked collectively, made buddies, met companions.

Lots of people met at BJ providers and finally got here again married.

Mtalon leads a havdalah service in 2023. Rabbi Felicia Sol, proven to his left, will succeed Matalon as BJ’s “rosh kehillah starting July 1, 2026. (Courtesy B’nai Jeshurun)

This nearly appears like a golden age, though in fact there have been all the time conflicts within the Jewish neighborhood — you talked about Rabin’s assassination, for instance. However I need to ask the way you and your management handled battle, beginning with the 2017 resolution for clergy to officiate at interfaith weddings when it was, and nonetheless is, forbidden by the Conservative motion’s Rabbinical Meeting, which you belonged to [until 2018]. 

You carried out an intense means of consulting with different rabbis and specialists, a year-long research program and small group conferences. In consequence you determined that you’d officiate underneath sure strict situations, regardless of warnings from some colleagues that you’d be crossing a “crimson line.” What insights led you to that conclusion?

One factor we found was that in historical Jewish historical past, Jewish identification was not all the time binary. It wasn’t merely “Jewish” or “not Jewish.” There was extra of a continuum. Folks belonged to Jewish households and communities with out essentially being halachically Jewish.

The second factor was that traditionally, there had been durations when individuals intermarried as a result of they had been rejecting Jewish neighborhood altogether. However in our time, many individuals intermarry whereas nonetheless wanting very a lot to stay linked to Jewish life. They need their companions concerned. Their marrying somebody non-Jewish isn’t essentially a rejection of Judaism.

Placing all that collectively, we concluded that if a pair wished to create a Jewish residence, it was extra necessary to us that they construct a Jewish life and lift Jewish kids [compared to] two Jews who had little interest in Jewish dwelling by any means.

So we stated: If a pair commits to constructing a Jewish residence, elevating Jewish kids, changing kids when vital by way of mikveh [ritual immersion] at an early age, and collaborating in Jewish neighborhood, then we might officiate. We’d not carry out a kiddushin, conventional ceremony, precisely because it had been accomplished, however a modified ceremony. The couple additionally needed to decide to a critical means of studying and engagement with the rabbi over 9 months to a yr, and sooner or later explicitly affirm their dedication to a Jewish residence and Jewish child-rearing.

What was the response, particularly amongst interfaith {couples}? Did BJ grow to be a magnet for interfaith weddings?  

One would possibly suppose individuals would then line up on the door, however that didn’t occur. The primary wedding ceremony I officiated at truly happened a yr later. Since then I’ve officiated at perhaps six or seven or eight such weddings whole over almost a decade.

All of these {couples} have remained deeply linked to the neighborhood. I don’t officiate for people who find themselves not members or not engaged in BJ life. In each case, the non-Jewish companion turned built-in into Jewish household life. The kids have both been born to Jewish moms or transformed in infancy when vital.

I believed many extra individuals would come, however as soon as you determine critical situations and expectations inside the context of neighborhood, it naturally limits the quantity.

I’m more than happy with the choice as a result of it additionally broadcast that BJ is a welcoming neighborhood that wishes to have interaction individuals reasonably than push them away. On the identical time, we didn’t remove requirements or expectations altogether. We stated: Should you’re , come and let’s have interaction significantly.

What was the influence on the congregation? Did individuals go away in protest?  

Just one particular person left, and after a few years she got here again.

One other battle that’s grow to be central — perhaps the central battle now — is Israel. This predates Oct. 7. In 2012 and 2014 a few of your congregants complained that the rabbis had staked out public positions that had been too crucial of Israel. How did you reply?

We realized over time that the congregation had grow to be ideologically various round Israel. Throughout the first 14 or 15 years of my tenure, most individuals had been fairly aligned. If there have been dissenting voices, they had been only a few.

However after the second intifada, after 9/11, and because the congregation grew extra various for a lot of completely different causes — individuals becoming a member of as a result of they liked the music, as a result of they’d buddies there, as a result of they favored the Hebrew faculty — the neighborhood modified. Folks weren’t essentially becoming a member of as a result of they shared the congregation’s political outlook on Israel.

Sooner or later this got here to a head, and we realized many congregants didn’t essentially agree with the management’s message. After a number of painful experiences, we concluded that we wanted to assist the congregation discover ways to speak about Israel.

So we created the Israel Dialogue Initiative [in 2014]. We primarily skilled ourselves as a neighborhood in how one can hear to 1 one other, how one can maintain our personal convictions with out demeaning others, how one can disagree respectfully. It was extraordinarily efficient.

Now we reside with real variety within the congregation. The rabbinic management in all probability leans considerably extra left than some congregants would like, however I believe we’ve efficiently communicated that there’s openness to dialog.

At any time when we carry audio system or panels, there may be all the time room for dialogue. It’s by no means merely: “That is the reality, and you could not query it.”

Did your individual messaging change — in sermons, public statements, political advocacy? Did you pull again?

I continued delivering my messages, however I attempted to grow to be extra nuanced and extra humble. This turned a part of our bigger dedication: to dwell inside complexity and nuance.

It’s not that I basically modified my views. However there was a interval after I turned very involved about divisiveness and about alienating individuals. I knew a few of my positions would provoke sturdy reactions. So I needed to discover ways to say what I wished to say in methods individuals might truly hear.

How do you perceive the adjustments within the congregation and in American Jewish life after Oct. 7? What feels radically completely different now?

There may be monumental worry proper now. The scenario is awfully complicated, and the dialog all over the place is awfully fraught. Folks really feel they have to suppose a thousand occasions earlier than saying or writing something. There may be worry, ache, disgrace, anxiousness. The emotional panorama is extremely delicate.

Every little thing feels extra sophisticated than ever earlier than — whether or not we’re speaking about Gaza, Iran, or political figures like [New York City Mayor Zohran] Mamdani.

BJ celebrated its congregation’s two hundredth anniversary in 2025. At left, the outdated B’nai Jeshurun synagogue on Madison Ave., in-built 1884; the present B’nai Jeshurun sanctuary in 2024, when membership was over 1,950 households. (Courtesy B’nai Jeshurun; Joseph Strauss)

At BJ we’ve remained dedicated to nuance and ethical complexity, and my colleagues will proceed that work rigorously and sensitively. We additionally stay dedicated to bringing ahead Israelis and Palestinians who nonetheless need dialogue and peace. Even when these voices appear marginal, we need to amplify them and transfer them towards the middle.

That has all the time been a part of BJ’s mission.

Let me ask particularly about anti-Zionism amongst youthful Jews. Is there a crucial mass of anti-Zionism inside the synagogue?

No, not inside the congregation itself. However there are kids of congregants who’re uncovered to anti-Zionist concepts, and I imagine very strongly that we have to have interaction them reasonably than push them away. We have to expose them to nuance and complexity and genuinely wrestle with them.

You’ll discover a typical theme right here: Whether or not we’re speaking about individuals with AIDS, interfaith {couples}, or anti-Zionist younger Jews, my intuition is all the time engagement. Maintain individuals contained in the neighborhood and inside dialogue. Discover widespread floor. Don’t shut doorways.

I really feel equally in politics extra broadly. There are issues Mayor Mamdani says that I strongly disagree with, and issues I agree with. However I assist sustaining engagement with him and his administration, particularly round antisemitism.

Disengagement is a horrible mistake.

Should you had been starting your rabbinate proper now, what would fear you most about American Jewish life? And what alternatives would you attempt to seize?

I’d be very fearful in regards to the monumental divisions inside the Jewish neighborhood, particularly the rising rupture between Israeli Jews and American Jews. A paradigm that outlined Jewish life for many years is breaking up. We’re getting into a brand new paradigm, and we have to work out what comes subsequent.

Whenever you speak about a damaged paradigm, can I recommend what you would possibly imply? Israeli and American Jews had been united behind the thought of a democratic Jewish state — and the liberal American Jewish majority felt they might rally round Israel as a result of it represented their values. That connection has frayed as the results of more and more right-wing governments in Israel.

Precisely. And past that, we believed we had been one unified Jewish neighborhood. Sadly, Israel turned the first organizing drive of Jewish identification. I say “sadly” not as a result of I’ve something towards Israel, however our unifying issue was once Judaism itself — Torah, spirituality, spiritual life. As soon as Israel turned a supply of inner division as a substitute of unity, the neighborhood began fragmenting. Israel stays an important a part of Jewish identification, but it surely —or antisemitism — can’t be the one factor holding us collectively.

We have to rediscover what binds us collectively in our variety.

What are the probabilities?

The Torah, prayer, music, research — these are profound sources, however we’re not bringing them totally to bear on the ethical and religious crises we face. A lot communal consideration is concentrated on Israel, antisemitism and geopolitics that we’re neglecting the religious and moral sources of Judaism itself.

We have to carry individuals again to prayer, studying, track, and rediscovery of the sweetness and depth of Jewish custom.

The views and opinions expressed on this article are these of the creator and don’t essentially replicate the views of JTA or its dad or mum firm, 70 Faces Media.