As of Sept. 1, Rabbi Joshua Ben-Gideon, 39, became the spiritual leader of Beth Israel Center, Madison’s Conservative synagogue.
He was born and raised in Albany, N.Y., and graduated from the State University of New York. He had grown up in a Reform synagogue and started his rabbinical training at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, but transferred to the Conservative movement’s Jewish Theological Seminary.
Before coming to Madison, he served as associate rabbi to a congregation in Fairfax, Va., for five years. His wife, Rebecca, is also an ordained Conservative rabbi. They have twin daughters, 6, and a son, 2.
The Chronicle interviewed him by telephone on Sept. 5. The following are edited and arranged excerpts of that conversation.
I read in the Madison Jewish News that your family did not belong to a synagogue until you were a teenager.
I knew I was Jewish, knew some stuff about Israel. We lit candles on Chanukah, we had a Passover seder; but I was not officially connected with the community. I did not go to a Talmud Torah or religious school.
What made your family decide to join a synagogue then?
I don’t know. We moved from one suburb of Albany to another. And something about the move instigated that in my mom. It might have had to do with my sister, who was only 3 years old at the time. Maybe my mother was going forward with her in a different way.
But you began to attend fairly regularly?
I got kind of pushed into the confirmation class in the last year. But that was a really positive thing for me, and it pulled me into the youth group…. By my senior year, I was president of the youth group. That became a very central part of my high school experience.
Do you recall what made it so appealing to you?
I think it was something I always wanted, to really have that connection with the community and to feel a part of things. I felt kind of like a double outsider, I think, until that point.
I knew I was Jewish, I knew that was a strong part of my identity in certain ways, but I wasn’t part of the official Jewish community. My friends who were Jewish were having bar and bat mitzvahs and stuff; not having that experience for myself was a little strange. But I knew I wasn’t part of the majority culture as well in certain ways.
And I think for my mom, I remember her telling me that when she walked in [at the synagogue], people were friendly and encouraging.… [T]hat warm welcome is something that is an important part of what we do, and it needs to be part of every community.
From what I read, you were thinking about a career in politics?
Political science in one way or another, either academia or in politics. Then I had this kind of [revelatory] meeting with my advisor, who said, “You know, Josh, you should go into the field in which you think you can contribute something that no one else can.”
I kind of realized very quickly that as much as I am interested in politics … that was not the contribution I wanted to be making, where I thought I could be unique.… I really felt I could bring different things to the rabbinate that would be beneficial for a Jewish community
Such as?
Well, my background certainly doesn’t hurt. Having both felt on the outside of the community and on the inside, it helps me to be aware of how we feel about making people feel comfortable with the community.
Also as someone who [has] done most of my learning as an adult, I think I have an awareness of the development of those religious instincts and inclinations toward prayer and God that not everyone has when they grow up with it….
That helps me to teach and to explain how things are connected. Also I don’t come in with as many assumptions, I think, because I didn’t grow up with the-way-that-it-always-was.
Since you started Reform, why did you become a Conservative rabbi?
I realized very quickly [at HUC] that I was just not a Reform Jew, that Reform theology didn’t speak to me anymore, and that I wanted a life that was more ensconced in tradition while at the same maintaining our connection with modernity. I think that’s really the hallmark of the Conservative movement.
How did you come to Madison?
Actually, I have had a tenuous family connection to Madison for a long time. Both of my maternal grandparents attended the university…. I had friends who went here. And then my sister attended and graduated in 2004. So I knew a little about Madison…
What plans do you have, what vision do you have of being rabbi at the Beth Israel Center?
This year especially, I’m really just looking forward to meeting and getting to know the Beth Israel community, the larger Jewish community and the Madison community in general, to become a part of it. That has to happen first. I really want to be an integral part of community.
One thing I’m going to be doing this year is having a very intense and extensive adult education program. We’re going to have a number of classes going on throughout the year, different lengths and different styles, but that are going to be both intellectually compelling, as well as that are going to help people find own way, their own sense of connection and holiness within our tradition, whether that’s prayer or study or whatever.
Will you be sending your children to the new Jewish day school there?
Yes, the girls are part of the first class. [See related photo, page 2.] That’s a very exciting development here in Madison.
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