43.0°,
Partly Cloudy From Australia to Long Island: Congregation Beth Ohr welcomes Rabbi Rishe Groner
Growing up in the Chabad movement of Judaism, Jewish traditions and values have always been a part of Rabbi Rishe Groner’s life. Her admiration for the role that women play in Jewish culture has both influenced and guided her spiritually, throughout most of her life.
Groner, who graduated from rabbinical school at the Jewish Theological Seminary in Manhattan on May 18, will become Congregation Beth Ohr’s new rabbi on Aug. 1. The conservative synagogue in Bellmore is a lively Jewish center that merged with Congregation Beth-El of Massapequa in 2016, and with Temple Israel of South Merrick in 2019.
Groner brings with her a breadth of worldly experience, and her position at Beth Ohr signals a new beginning for the congregation, driven by traditional Jewish customs as well as different and unique ways to experience all the things people know and love about their heritage and beliefs.
Groner, 37, grew up in Melbourne, Australia, where her father is a Chabad rabbi. “Chabad is an international movement that focuses on Jewish outreach and connecting people to the Jewish community,” Groner said.
The second of 11 children, Groner moved to the United States in 2010, and in the years since has been joined by many of her siblings. Her parents are both American, and were instrumental in establishing a Chabad community in Australia, following in the footsteps of her paternal grandfather, who moved there from Brooklyn.
“I grew up with rabbis in my family, and my family was really into this Chabad concept — you give over your whole life, you give over your whole soul,” she said. “And I really struggled with that.”
In her youth, Groner said, she had a hard time understanding the segregation of males and females in traditional sects of Judaism, but as she got older, she realized just how powerful women are in the Chabad movement.
“It took me years later, until my grandmother died, and I was like, wow, I was really blessed to be in that women’s space, because it was really powerful women, doing really powerful spiritual work,” she recalled. “But it was very segregated, and I never really knew what my place was going to be.”
Groner said she always loved studying Jewish traditions in school, and in her teens, she went to Israel and met young people like herself from all over the world. “It was my first exposure to, like, there’s so many different ways to be Jewish,” she said.
Groner attended Monash University in Melbourne, where she studied business, marketing and communications. She worked in the corporate world for many years, for both Jewish and non-Jewish organizations and companies.
“I had two pieces that were sort of shaping my career,” she said. “Every time I left a job working in a Jewish place, that was very nourishing to my soul, to work in corporate, that felt a little more straightforward and simple, I couldn’t sleep at night. I always felt like, what am I doing serving a corporate goal when I really care about something bigger?”
Throughout her early adult years, Groner compartmentalized her spiritual life and her work life. But as she became more invested in Jewish festivals and celebrations that incorporated music, dance and other forms of spiritual expression, her separate lives began to meld into one. Around 2018, it became apparent to her that rabbinical school would be her next step.
The Jewish Theological Seminary in Manhattan is a conservative institution, Groner said. “I grew up in Australia, where that doesn’t really exist,” she explained. “But I really appreciated the commitment to tradition and also innovation. That’s really where I see myself — I get to have a deep knowledge of texts and liturgy and tradition, and also infuse it with innovative and new ways of doing things.”
She arrived at Beth Ohr last September as a student rabbi, after the congregation’s previous leader, Rabbi Dahlia Bernstein, left in June.
“It was a very divinely aligned opportunity,” Groner said. “I was looking for other, big opportunities, and this synagogue was actually looking at other rabbis in December and January.
“It was just one of those really good matches, where we both, you know, dated other people and decided we liked each other,” she went on. “It was really nice for me to feel like I’m at home here, and I feel like I’ve really connected to a lot of people in the community. I see where the opportunities are — I know where I want to start.”
Despite the fact that Groner had lived in Brooklyn for many years, Long Island felt a bit foreign to her. But, she said her proximity to the beach is reminiscent of her childhood in Australia, and is something she greatly appreciates.
She is working with the congregation’s cantor, Joshua Diamond, its learning and programming director, Ellen Agulnick, and its president, Joseph Weisbord, among many other key people, to begin making her ideas for Beth Ohr a reality.
“The congregation is excited to welcome Rabbi Rishe as our new rabbi,” Weisbord said. “We were impressed with her spiritual strength, warmth, intelligence and her ability to relate to students in our innovative Hebrew school. We look forward to a long and rewarding relationship with her.”
“I have a million ideas,” Groner said. “But for now, I think some things we’re focusing on is building an intergenerational community, from early childhood to teens to parents to the older generations, who have done an amazing job building this community.”
She added that she also wanted to welcome people to Beth Ohr who may not always have felt comfortable with synagogue life. “I really see an area of exciting possibility for us in bringing in different modalities of spiritual practice that is nourishing to the soul,” Groner said, “and giving people tools for dealing with this crazy world.”
