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Ken Brodkin: A Shul Becomes Orthodox [Outreach 5/5]

JL;DR SUMMARY Rabbi Ken Brodkin led the transition of Congregation B’nai Israel in Manalapan, New Jersey, to full Orthodox affiliation while maintaining a welcoming environment for Jews of all backgrounds. A way out west there was a fella, fella I want to tell you about, fella by the name of Jeff Lebowski.

  • At least, that was the handle his lovin' parents gave him, but he never had much use for it himself.
  • This Lebowski, he called himself the Dude.
  • Now, Dude, that's a name no one would self-apply where I come from.
  • But then, there was a lot about the Dude that didn't make a whole lot of sense to me.
  • And a lot about where he lived, likewise. But then again, maybe that's why I found the place s'durned innarestin'.
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Tags

Jewish IdentityOrthodox JudaismJewish OutreachSynagogue LifeReligious TransformationCommunity BuildingMechitzaInclusive SynagoguesCongregation B’nai IsraelKen Brodkin

Places mentioned

Israel
"but I'm definitely aware of how she uses her voice to support Israel."
Portland, Maine, United States
"particularly my grandfather, Rabbi Moshe Bekritzky, who was a rabbi in Portland, Maine, and later on, at the end of his career, in Poughkeepsie, New York."
Poughkeepsie, New York, United States
"particularly my grandfather, Rabbi Moshe Bekritzky, who was a rabbi in Portland, Maine, and later on, at the end of his career, in Poughkeepsie, New York."
Portland, Oregon, United States
"He has a fascinating story of his own. He did not grow up within the Orthodox community, but he studied in the most serious and most, I'm using air quotes, yeshivish institutions that you could ever imagine."
Elizabeth, New Jersey, United States
"So we grew up there until I was about 11 years old. We were conservative shul. You know, I went to shul every Shabbos, but- This was like really the peak of conservative Judaism in America."
Bucks County, Pennsylvania, United States
"So I grew up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and I grew up going to Jewish day school my whole life."
Manalapan, New Jersey, United States
"I'm going to be very dark on this. Please..You know, my parents are Holocaust survivors."
Brooklyn, New York, United States
"We moved to Brooklyn when I was three years old, 1957. My older brother was seven."
Highland Park, New Jersey, United States
"We met with him in Teaneck. Yeah. At a restaurant with Rabbi Zeitner."

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This podcast episode was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.
Cairo Item ID 45772
Cairo Source ID 12
Retrieved 2025-03-05 05:30:31 UTC
Curated 2025-03-07 06:13:07 UTC