25 Years of Impact: I Never Had a Rabbi Like Aviad Bodner

How YCT musmakh Rabbi Aviad Bodner impacted esteemed journalist Ari Goldman‘s life – in his own words.

Most pulpit rabbis I know sit on the bimah overlooking the congregation. They are a symbol of order and dignity — and they keep the services running on track.

But not Rabbi Bodner. He is a kinetic force who pings around the shul like a pinball. One minute he’s greeting a visitor, the next he’s answering a halachic question, the next he’s making an announcement about the service. That’s not to say he doesn’t daven; he does, sometimes right next to you. But he won’t sit long; he’s got things to do.

That was my experience of Rabbi Bodner during the four years he was rabbi of Congregation Ramath Orah in Manhattan. I never had a rabbi like him.

His tenure at Ramath Orah, from late 2019 to July 2023, came at a challenging time. Barely a few months in his time as our rabbi, COVID-19 hit New York with deadly force. The shul thinned out and then, by order of the city, closed its doors. I know there are a lot of things that one learns in rabbinical seminary but how to run a congregation during a pandemic is not one of them – even a place as imaginative as YCT.

Rabbi Bodner improvised. He kept us together even as we were forced to be apart.

We had zoom gatherings, zoom classes and zoom minyanim. He called to check in with each of us. And he set up outdoor minyanim for shabbat and Yom Tov. The one I attended was on the Columbia campus where I teach.

On Shabbat mornings, one of us brought a folding table, another brought a sefer Torah. We put on our tallesim, opened our siddurim and prayed. It was a scary time and we had a lot to pray for. Rabbi Bodner kept up our spirits and our energy. And he kept up his.

With time, the shul reopened and we slowly returned to indoor davening. At first, we wore masks and sat a row or two apart from one another. But soon we got vaccinated, put aside our fears and got back to normal. Rabbi Bodner was soon sitting next to us again, however briefly.

During his four years at Ramath Orah, Rabbi Bodner invigorated us collectively and individually.

He got me and several others to begin daf yomi study. And, to keep us engaged, he set up a weekly daf review class. When Rabbi Bodner decided to leave New York and take up a new position as the head of Jewish studies at the Denver Academy of Torah in Colorado, several of us implored him to keep up his weekly daf review class.

It’s now been a couple of years since Rabbi Bodner left Ramath Orah, but his influence is still felt there. Several of us still learn with him via Zoom on Monday nights. We review the week’s dappim, going over the highlights. We catch up on shul gossip. We raise halachic questions. He’s still not on the bimah. But, for many of us, he’s still our rabbi.