The outside-the-box rabbi

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Paul Hoffman is engaging, quick with a joke and passionate about teaching, especially when it comes to the Torah. In other words, he was exactly the right man to become rabbi for the South Shore Jewish Center, a conservative synagogue which serves about 120 families.

“I’m an outside-the box rabbi,” said Hoffman, 60. “I think I bring a fresh perspective.”

As rabbi of the Congregation B’nai Israel in Freeport since 2005, Hoffman would often pause while singing from the Torah, switch from Hebrew to English and emphasize a particularly important passage. It is not the traditional way, Hoffman said, but it suits his disposition as a teacher. And it helps to draw people in.

“I think doing these passages in English helps me relate to people,” Hoffman said. “I think it’s most important to be flexible and to fulfill people’s needs.”

Steve Diamond, vice president of the South Shore Jewish Center, agrees. “He is a very dynamic guy, with a very inclusive personality. He’s great with building relationships, great with kids.”

Prior to becoming rabbi at the Congregation B’nai, Hoffman was Ba-al k’riah, Hebrew for “the master of reading,” during services at the Oceanside Jewish Center, Plainview Jewish Center, the Temple Israel of Long Beach, Temple B’nai Shalom of Long Beach, the Lido synagogue of Lido Beach and the Temple B’nai Shalom of Lido Beach. He is also a teacher at heart, and continues to work with children with special needs, specializing in working with students with autism, tourettes, dyslexia, ADD and ADHD.

The South Shore Hewish Center, which was formed when the Island Park Jewish Center and Congregation Beth Sholom of Long Beach merged in 2012, attracts about 200 families during the High Holidays, Diamond said, but would like to have a higher turnout on a regular basis. Diamond thinks Hoffman will help in that regard.

“Rabbi Hoffman invites more interaction. He brings people into conversation, and I think that fulfills a need,” Diamond said. “I think he could attract young families with kids.”

Hoffman also has an inclusive outlook when it comes to intermarried parents at bar mitzvahs. Tradition says that a non-Jewish person should not go on the bima when the Torah is present, but Hoffman said “to have a parent read a prayer or psalm from the pews isolates him and is not a heimish thing to do.” Hoffman decided that as long as the Torah is covered, the non-Jewish spouse could come on the bima and talk to the child, bless the child and read a prayer.

Hoffman was ordained as Rabbi at the Academy for Jewish Religion in Riverdale in 2010. He studied at the Joel Braverman Flatbush Yeshiva in Brooklyn from nursery school through high school, received his B.A. from Tufts University and did his graduate work at St. John’s.

The South Shore Jewish Center will officially introduce him as rabbi on September 1.