Daily Podcasts Video Research

This Pennsylvania rabbi fuses liberal Judaism with Hasidic Yiddish

JL;DR SUMMARY Rabbi Cody Bahir, the new head of a Conservative congregation in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, uniquely blends liberal Judaism with Hasidic Yiddish culture. 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'.

JL;DR members get full summaries of all articles in the archive, including this one. Donate & start reading »

Tags

Hasidic JudaismJewish EducationYiddishJewish CommunityYivoConversionLiberal JudaismHasidic YiddishRabbi Cody BahirBucks County

Places mentioned

Newtown, Pennsylvania, United States
"Rabbi Cody Bahir speaking to a local Hadassah chapter at the Congregation Brothers of Israel synagogue in Newtown, Pennsylvania, in early December."
Kentucky, United States
"So how did a Kentucky-born Christian end up with a black homburg and a Southeast European accent in Yiddish?"
Monsey, New York, United States
"Bahir joined a Hasidic yeshiva in Monsey, NY and found a pair of Yiddish tutors from two different sects."
Jerusalem, Northern District, Israel
"He was encouraged by his tutors to visit specific shuls in Mea Shearim, Jerusalem, where people spoke only Yiddish."
Boro Park, New York, United States
"And, he added, AJU was culturally a lot closer to Boro Park than Kentucky."
California, United States
"He set his sights on the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, which seemed like the perfect place for a wandering Jew to land."
Tucson, Arizona, United States
"later returned to Jewish education, teaching Jewish studies at The Kehillah School, a high school in Palo Alto and K-8 students at the Tucson Hebrew Academy in Tucson, Arizona."
Taiwan
"When he saw a job ad for a rabbi in the Taiwan Jewish community, Bahir didnt hesitate: it was a perfect fit."

Support this source

This item was indexed and curated by Cairo, JL;DR's web crawler.
Cairo Item ID 70628
Cairo Source ID 35
Retrieved 2025-12-17 05:31:07 UTC
Curated 2025-12-17 08:30:38 UTC