Q & A With Rabbi Rick Jacobs

Rabbi Jacobs is a Reform rabbi and the president of the Union for Reform Judaism. He spent 20 years as the rabbi of Westchester Reform Temple in Scarsdale, NY. Rabbi Jacobs is married to Susan K. Freedman and has three adult children.

Q: Where are you from?

A: I was born in New York City. Then my family moved to Orange County, California, where I spent my elementary, middle school, and high school years. Then headed off to the great University of California, Santa Barbara.

Q: What was your religious upbringing like throughout your childhood?

A: I went as a little guy to a conservative synagogue in New York, my family moved to Orange County, and we joined a fairly traditional, as in traditional practice, reform synagogue. I went to summer camp at an amazing place to go to California called Camp Swig, which was phenomenal.

Q: What inspired you to become a rabbi?

A: At UCSB, I took this history of Western philosophy was a year long course. It was really intense. And the professor made these disparaging comments about Judaism, you know, basically saying it was outdated, it really wasn't relevant to the modern world. And I went to his office hours and I said, 'Professor Weball, where do you get that?' He goes, yeah, I'm not really sure, but you should find somebody who can give you a really kind of expert view of Judaism.

And that's how I got to Richard Hecht. He was still working on his PhD at UCLA, and I signed up for this guy's class. I didn't know anything about him but I walked into his class, and frankly, it was like the equivalent of him taking me by the shoulder and saying, 'sit down, you're gonna enjoy this, and we're gonna learn a lot.' I just locked in, took a year of classes there, and I would go to his office hours and want to talk more about the different issues. 


Q: What congregations have you worked with? 


A: When I was a student rabbi, I worked in Phoenix, Arizona, and I would fly every other weekend, and this was a great community of 100 households. I was like a total kid, I was 22 years old, and I was the only rabbi there... I didn't know how to do most things. It was like they'd ask me these questions and I said, you know, I'll get back to you on that, and then I'd go call one of my professors and be like 'what do I what with this?' But I loved it. I worked as an intern at Temple Isaiah, I took it as a part-time job because I was also dancing and choreographing, and began a PhD in ritual dance at NYU. So I was like trying to do a lot of different things. Then I worked there for about a decade, and then I went to the Congregation in Westchester, New York, and then I did that for 19 years.

Then I got a knock on my door to interview for this job, leading the reformed movement, and I thought, nah, I don't wanna do that. I love being a rabbi, but I went I talked, I got really excited because this would allow me to try and think of things on a broader scale. I kind of make sure Jewish life is going to be alive and engaging and thriving, and it felt to me like, you know, it needed a giant reboot. So I started that 13 years ago, and here I am. 


Q: How would you describe the core values of Reform Judaism to someone unfamiliar with it?

A: It is to always be willing to adapt and change. Reform is in our name, right? Reform means never thinking that you have the final iteration of Jewish life. I mean, look at the 3,000-plus years of Jewish life. In fact, there are major renovations or reinventions of what it means to be Jewish. 
And so I think reform has always taken the view that that's not a downside. That's a huge opportunity. When people said, you know, Kashut is only these particular practices, and we want to make sure that eating is a sacred act, but why only these, why not those as well?

So I think the willingness to think about the core principles, you know, building Judaism on deep learning and uh spiritual practice and an innate belief that every human is created in the divine image. 
Some of what makes life most meaningful are those other elements. 


Q: What role do you feel like you personally have played in the reform movement since taking on this new role of yours?

A: We see right now that more Jews are not connected to Jewish institutions than are. That's true for Hillels, synagogues, day schools, camps, and federations. There are more Jews who are coming to nothing, and I saw that. It's an urgent, urgent priority. 
Are we going to walk away and just say, 'I guess most people aren't interested, we're done,' or are we going to shrink and shrink and shrink, and the last person out turn out the lights? So I really prioritized from the beginning, this notion that the people outside weren't necessarily outside because they were uninterested, but they hadn't found something that spoke to them. 
And I related to that personally, because when I was a kid, a lot of what I experienced in my synagogue wasn't really what spoke to me, but when I looked, I found that. So we built bridges for people to come in and experience Jewish life.

One of my earliest commitments was to somebody called Audacious Hospitality, which said that we needed to be particularly welcoming of interfaith families, people who had one Jewish parent, Jews of color, LGBTQ, people with disabilities, people with different viewpoints, and so on.
I just thought the richness of that diversity would give us strength and creativity.

Q: When within the reform movement would you say that it became more accepted to have female rabbis?

A: So we ordained the first woman in 72. But you're right to ask the question about when they were really accepted? Because that first group of women rabbis had a rough go. 
When I became the rabbi up in Westchester, my associate rabbi was this amazing woman who told me, 'Rick, I know you're Mr., like gotta change everything, but I want to appeal to you that we should you should wear a robe on Shabbat. And I'm gonna tell you it's the feminist reason to wear a robe.'
I thought it was a feminist reason that we should get rid of them.

She said, 'No, I'll bet you any amount of money you've never been asked about your suit that you've worn to Temple, or the nature of your haircut. But here's the thing, I would give a high Holly service,' she told me, 'and people would not comment on my ideas or my sermon, they'd come up and talk about the blue suit that I was wearing, or why I got a different haircut.' And she said they were already treating her not like a rabbi, but somebody who was either their daughter or their colleague. She says, 'If we were robes, we would take out some of that whole visual that you're seeing people gendered in that way.' I tell you that story now, because it carries into everything I try to do.

Q: What's the biggest challenge facing the reform movement right now?

A: I think I think in some ways, one of the big challenges is our incredible diversity. 
It's our greatest strength. It can be a huge challenge. For example, like in a synagogue, you have people who are more traditional in their practice, some less so, and frankly, you still want people to feel like we're part of one community, right? 
So, kind of how do we let people make their own thoughtful choices as individuals, but still feel like we're a community, and something binds us together that that's compelling.

I think one of the things that we're really struggling with is how to reinvent that tradition and hold on to things that are timeless. Some things should not be changed, like like all humans will create the image of God, so when the current administration of the United States wants to deport, dehumanize, and demonize people. We're obligated to treat every human being as a child of God with inherent rights and dignity. 
So I just think balancing the tradition and innovation is the very place where reform Judaism has to struggle and grow.