Brent Chaim Spodek, at The Blogs

Oct 10, 2023, 2:54 AM

Sometimes, it’s painful to love my people because of our own cruelty and foolishness. Sometimes, it's painful to love my people because the traumas we’ve endured have shaped our collective psyche in ways that will not easily heal. Sometimes, it’s painful...

Sep 28, 2022, 10:21 PM

Exiled from our souls

When the Spanish fleet conquered Mexico in the 16th century, Luis de Carvajal y de la Cueva was appointed governor of the New Kingdom of Leon. In his jurisdiction were the towns of Leon, Neuvo Almaden and Monterrey, and...

Feb 28, 2022, 11:45 PM

Carry that weight

Rabbi Brent Spodek dancing with a friend, sometime around middle school

The first and only time I tried to impress a girl by singing was when I was 15 years old. I had gone to the closing dance of my summer program with Franchesca, even though I really had a crush...

Nov 13, 2018, 6:44 PM

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Shabbat after the Law

Be connected, be still, and be satisfied -- my 3 essential principles of Shabbat do more for me than all the halacha I learned to be a rabbi

Sep 25, 2018, 9:39 PM

Becoming a Man

When I was a teenager, I had two posters on my bedroom walls -- one of Samantha Fox, the ubiquitous “pin-up girl” of the mid 1980s; the other was the iconic picture of James Dean walking through Times Square...

Aug 15, 2018, 11:16 PM

Geniza Burial as a way to teach about Death

By Bekah Starr and Rabbi Brent Spodek Inevitably, children face loss. Grandparents die, as do parents, siblings and friends. In those moments of familial grief and upheaval, it can be difficult to take the time to talk to kids, deliberately and...

Mar 27, 2018, 5:54 PM

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When they kick in your front door, how you gonna come?

'When they kick in your front door, how you gonna come? Hands on your head or on the trigger of your gun?'

Jan 24, 2017, 6:26 AM

How to outmaneuver a tyrant

Jews have been outsmarting, outrunning and outlasting tyrants - both petty and terrifying - since the dawn of human history. Here are some tips and tricks from the original Rules for Radicals, the book of Exodus. Take care of yourself. Joseph...

Oct 25, 2016, 5:51 PM

Judaism from the Inside Out

When I was growing up in southern Brooklyn in the 70s and 80s, everyone I knew was Black, Jewish or Italian. I wasn't even aware of Protestants until I was in high school and I was utterly flummoxed by the...

About Me

Rabbi Brent Chaim Spodek has been recognized by the Jewish Forward as one of the most inspiring rabbis in America, by Hudson Valley Magazine as a Person to Watch and by Newsweek as "a rabbi to watch." He is a Senior Rabbinic Fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute and a Fellow of the Schusterman Foundation. Rabbi Brent is a member of the faculty at Pardes North America and has been the rabbi at Beacon Hebrew Alliance since 2010; prior to that, he served as the Rabbi in Residence at American Jewish World Service and was the Marshall T. Meyer Fellow at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in New York. Rabbi Brent holds rabbinic ordination and a master's degree in philosophy from the Jewish Theological Seminary, where he was the first recipient of the Neubauer Fellowship. Prior to entering the rabbinate, he attended Wesleyan University and worked as a daily journalist in Durham, NC. He lives in Beacon with his wife Alison, a professor of environmental chemistry at Vassar College, and their two children.

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