Meet Rabbi Ben Herman

Some people in the Milwaukee area still remember him as Benji, a student at the Milwaukee Jewish Day School and Nicolet High School.

But as of this past May, when he graduated from the Conservative movement’s Jewish Theological Seminary, he is Rabbi Ben Herman, at least one of the most recent Wisconsinites to become a Jewish spiritual leader.

Herman, 27, visited family here in June before going to start on July 1 his first full-time rabbinical position as director of congregational learning and liturgical coordinator at Congregation Anshei Israel, a congregation of about 730 memberships in Tucson, Ariz. He also met with Chronicle editor Leon Cohen. Edited excerpts of that conversation follow:

For my classmates, the big influences were youth group, USY [United Synagogue Youth], Camp Ramah — but for me it was the individual rabbis and cantors I had while growing up…

[For example,] after I finished MJDS and moved to Nicolet, I wanted to have the opportunity to continue Jewish studies. I went to my rabbi at the time, Rabbi Lee Buckman of Congregation Beth Israel. I asked if we could learn together. He said he would teach me the book of Amos…

The fact that a rabbi of a congregation of about 700 families had offered to give an hour of time every week meant the world to me. It meant to me wanting to do the same for others, as an educator, as a rabbi. To take these texts that I’m so passionate about, this tradition that is so much a part of my life and really not only live it, but also model it and learn with others.

I had always had it at MJDS. I loved the Judaic courses. I think part of it is I’ve always had love of history. I see the text through a historical lens, as part of our people’s tradition. This is what they were thinking, and this is how for hundreds and thousands of years they were developing how to best live life, how to really develop a whole system. … And it’s just fascinating to me…

It was developing gradually, but it didn’t really hit me until college [at the University of Wisconsin-Madison]. I wanted to be lawyer going into college.

I took a Hebrew course on the Jewish Enlightenment. And I learned how these Maskilim, while they were anti-rabbinical, they had this love of the Hebrew language and of the Bible. And they had this love of the land of Israel that was just profound. I kind of in my head said, if these individuals who were so secular and modern in so many ways still were connected to tradition, how much more so should I.

But I didn’t just want to have the intellectual part. Because the other part is really wanting to make a difference in people’s lives, and be able to be a generalist. That’s what I love about the rabbinate, you never know what each day is going to bring. You never know if you will have a pastoral encounter that will be life-changing. … Yes there are fixed routine components. But there are also the intangibles, just the everyday occurrences, which I find not just so wonderful but, like, freshening, reenergizing in terms of my spirit. I found this in my student internships.

You went to the JTS New York campus, except for your year in Israel. How did you enjoy the experience?

I enjoyed the depth of scholarship, especially when I had teachers who connected things to our personal lives. There was one Bible teacher in particular, Dr. Walter Herzberg, who was very good at presenting texts looking at how we would use them in a D’var Torah, how we would apply them in an education setting. That for me was not just very useful, but very powerful to be able to see….

At JTS the most valuable thing for me was the professional internships that I had. And I really tried to take advantage of them. I did a social justice, a congregational, a chaplaincy, and an educational [internship]…

For me it was a couple of things. I have family in Phoenix, and I love that region of country.

[At the congregation,] I saw that I have a wonderful senior rabbi, Rabbi Robert Eisen, who not only has a lot of experience, but is interested being a mentor. …He’s someone who is very responsive and supportive.

The other thing that I noticed when I was [interviewing] there … the congregation has a lot of lay leaders who are not only well educated, but who want to be involved in services and classes. I taught a lay-led Torah study. It was the day of a University of Arizona game, and I was told no one was going to show up, and 40 people showed up. And they were energetic, they asked interesting questions… That showed me that these are individuals I can not only teach but also learn from.

I have read articles asserting that a lot of young American rabbis and rabbinical students are feeling disaffected from Israel. Did you see this at JTS? How do you feel about it?

I think most of my classmates were strongly pro-Israel, but I definitely know there were some who were not Zionists, and went beyond being critical and just were disaffected or apathetic… And it definitely bothered me…

The congregation that I’m going to is very strongly pro-Israel… A lot of people make aliyah from the congregation. I would say one or two young people a year make aliyah. … Not all congregations are like that. I think it’s wonderful.

[The disaffection] is a real phenomenon. I think Rabbi Daniel Gordis [in his article on the subject in the June Commentary magazine] may be overstating it to a degree. But I do think it is a real phenomenon from what I’m seeing. It is still troubling, because we’re the leaders of the Jewish community. If we don’t have strong stance for Israel, who will?