Temple Israel's Rabbi Jay Rosenbaum says goodbye

His life began in a Connecticut community founded by Jewish New York City firefighters that has a street named after a famous singer-songwriter. He grew up in a household that actively lived the Hebrew words tikkun olam, which translate to “world repair” and is interpreted to mean acting constructively and beneficially in the world.

“I was raised to be a rabbi,” said Rabbi Jay Rosenbaum, who is leaving Temple Israel of Lawrence after 19 years as the synagogue’s spiritual leader and a relationship with the temple that began in the 1970s. “My father, Mickey Rosenbaum, was president of an Orthodox synagogue in Connecticut” — Congregation Mount Moses — “a devout supporter of Israel who saw Judaism as a way to repair the world and make it a better place.”

From Lake Waubeeka, in Danbury, where the streets were named for founders’ children — including Carol Klein, later to become renowned as singer-songwriter Carole King — Rosenbaum attended high school in Brooklyn and then the Jewish Theology Hebrew Academy, finishing in 1975.

His advocacy for Jewish people has ranged from helping to found the North American Board of Rabbis, an organization that includes rabbis from every sect of Judaism; to multiple trips abroad to establish and maintain relationships with political and religious leaders, including meeting popes and Arab leaders; to creating a student exchange program as part of Temple Israel’s high school. His wife, Amy, who accompanied him on nearly all the trips, died in December.

Rosenbaum was recognized by the North American Board of Rabbis as Chaplain of the Year for his efforts with rescue workers and victims’ families at ground zero after the Sept. 11 attacks. He has served as a chaplain for a number of police agencies, including the Freeport Police Department.

“The essential mission of the Jewish people is to repair the world,” Rosenbaum said, noting those who took leadership roles in the civil rights movement and “Jews speaking out on the rights of all people,” he added, mentioning the programs he has organized over the years at Temple Israel, from celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day to model Seders that have brought religious leaders from diverse faiths together in a broad coalition to create better relationships.

Rosenbaum’s advocacy gained a fan in Nassau County Executive Laura Curran, who accompanied him on a North American Board of Rabbis trip to Berlin in commemoration of the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht, known as the Night of Broken Glass, a wave of anti-Jewish violence in Germany in November 1938 that is considered the start of the Holocaust.

“Celebrating Shabbat at a Berlin synagogue on the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht was incredibly poignant and meaningful,” Curran said in 2018. “I am grateful to Rabbi Rosenbaum and NABOR for organizing this trip, which included meetings with German government officials and a talk by Chancellor [Angela] Merkel. It was an honor to represent Nassau County, and to witness for our vibrant Jewish community.”

Nassau County adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism last month, a move that Rosenbaum wholeheartedly supported.

“Curran showed Germany and the world, as the political head of the second-largest Jewish community in New York, that she will not tolerate anti-Semitism or hatred of any kind,” Rosenbaum said, referring to both the Berlin trip and the IHRA adoption.

The Alliance’s definition of anti-Semitism states that it is “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

All Nassau County departments and officials are directed to apply the IHRA definition when complying with, and implementing and enforcing, laws or regulations that prohibit anti-Semitic discrimination or harassment.

Endeavors such as these stand out as achievements in what Rosenbaum views as his mission to teach the wisdom of the Torah and blend it with what he called the “relevant reality we are facing” in contemporary times. “Temple Israel under my leadership has maintained its position [as an advocate of social justice] and fulfilled the commandments [of the Torah],” he said, noting that the synagogue was at the forefront of an anti-Semitism march in Mineola in January 2020 that attracted more than 2,000 people.

Current Temple Israel President Douglas Segan said that Rosenbaum was “instrumental in keeping the congregation together when we couldn’t be physically in attendance” because of the coronavirus pandemic, as virtual services and programs helped to reach people in Florida and Texas.

“He always puts the needs of the congregants first, and he is very supportive of my family and families of the congregation,” Segan said. “Though he will no longer be the rabbi in the pulpit, this will still be a friendship we continue.”

When Rosenbaum was the temple’s assistant rabbi, from 1977 to 1980, he was offered the position of associate rabbi at Temple Israel of New Rochelle. He turned it down. Now, more than 40 years later, he will be the rabbi at that synagogue, leaving Temple Israel of Lawrence as rabbi emeritus. Rabbi Erik Uriarte will succeed him beginning in mid-July.

“It is much easier to build bridges than erase the plague of hate, the other pandemic we face together,” Rosenbaum said of his work. “I hope that the membership [of Temple Israel] is as proud of me as I was to be their spiritual leader and rabbi.”