Michael L. Feshbach

Apply for a Blog

Jun 26, 2024, 12:27 AM

Hang Ten? A rabbi objects to the Ten Commandments

The first commandments of civic engagement are to see the humanity in others, and to assume good intentions on the part of those with whom you have disagreements. Even in the midst of controversy and hyper-partisanship, it is often...

Jun 10, 2024, 8:16 AM

A Rabbi Goes To Church: What Christians Should Know about Israel at this Moment

Remarks to Margate Community Church, Margate, New Jersey June 9, 2024 Friends, I want to express my deep gratitude to you, and to your wonderful pastor, for the invitation to be with you this morning. Reverend Ney is certainly familiar with,...

Apr 19, 2020, 6:54 PM

April Showers and May Flowers – Renewal to Come

I am haunted, for a moment, by Leonard Cohen. It is his song, “Who By Fire.” His radical revision of the High Holy Day prayer Netaneh Tokef asks who we will lose, in the coming days. He asks, about...

Jan 31, 2020, 7:34 PM

To See Clearly and Love Fiercely

One recent morning I found myself reading, sequentially, columns by Max Boot, Jennifer Rubin, and Michael Gerson, and nodding my head in agreement. When I realized the identities of the authors, I felt a particular kind of satisfaction, one...

Jan 2, 2019, 6:35 PM

Borders, Nations and States: Wisdom from Amos Oz

It is, as we look at the calendar most of us use, a new year. Welcome to 2019 CE. But other than marking the circling of the sun, is one day really any different than the one before? This marker,...

Nov 1, 2018, 4:35 AM

Won’t you be my neighbor?

The new television comedy The Neighborhood takes an old trope – the first African American family moving into a white neighborhood – and turns it on its head. In this case, a white family moves into a black neighborhood. ...

Oct 8, 2017, 10:49 PM

Shelter from the Storm — Hurricanes and Holy Days I: The Eye of Irma and Backhand of Maria

I went to Church this morning. I needed it. But more on that later. I came very close to eating a pepperoni pizza the other day, for the first time since 1982. But I will share that moment.. well, in my...

Aug 20, 2017, 8:20 AM

Darkness when there should be light: reflections on recent events in light of the looming North American Solar Eclipse

The Source of our Help: From Charlottesville to Charlotte Amalie Standing Between Re'eh and Shoftim, On the Eve of a Solar Eclipse. Esa Aynai El HeHarim, Ma’ayin Yavo Ezri? Ezri, Me’im Adonai, Oseh Shamayim Va’aretz I lift up my eyes to the heavens; what is the source of...

Jul 30, 2017, 10:19 AM

A local tradition meets an ancient Jewish custom: Two observances come together

When Hurricane Supplication Day coincides with Judaism's saddest day, it's all about vulnerability and prayer

Aug 6, 2016, 10:10 AM

E-mail and I-Thou

Wise words, from an ancient tradition: לְעוֹלָם יְהֵא אָדָם יְרֵא שָׁמַֽיִם בְּסֵֽתֶר וּבַגָּלוּי וּמוֹדֶה עַל הָאֱמֶת, וְדוֹבֵר אֱמֶת בִּלְבָבוֹ One should always revere God… in private and in public, admit/profess the truth, and speak truthfully to oneself. Or, to put the matter another...

Load more

About Me

Michael L. Feshbach is the Rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel, in Northfield, NJ. He came to New Jersey in 2022, after five years as Rabbi of the Hebrew Congregation of St. Thomas in the United States Virgin Islands -- the second oldest synagogue in the Western Hemisphere. He is a Senior Rabbinic Fellow of the Shalom Hartman Institute. Previously he had been Senior Rabbi of Temple Shalom in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and had also served congregations in Buffalo, New York, Erie, Pennsylvania and Boca Raton, Florida. While in Erie, Rabbi Feshbach taught at Allegheny College and served as the summer rabbi for the Hebrew Congregation of Chautauqua, New York. Rabbi Feshbach is the author of several articles and book chapters. Born in Silver Spring, Maryland, he attended Haverford College and the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, where he was ordained in 1989. He is married to Julie Novick. They have three grown children: Benjamin, Daniel and Talia.

Contact Me