Rabbi Andy Shugerman

Interview:

Rabbi Shugerman is a new face to the Florida region, but an old friend of The Jewish Theological Seminary. A graduate of two JTS graduate schools, he received a master of arts degree from the William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education in 2008 and was ordained by The Rabbinical School in 2009; he served as a Legacy Heritage Fund Rabbinic Fellow last year.

Rabbi Shugerman is a dynamic and innovative community organizer with a record of energizing communal worship and grappling with tough challenges in places such as post-hurricane New Orleans, the West Bank, and the Los Angeles County Jail.

You studied at The Davidson School and The Rabbinical School. What brought you to JTS?

I came to JTS for the unique environment at The Davidson School, where my course work and teaching, my classmates, mentors, and instructors all provided me with countless opportunities for growth and reflection. I will always think of The Davidson School as my first home at JTS—my roots—and The Rabbinical School as the place that gave me wings to become a spiritual leader and a representative of the next generation of Conservative Judaism.

In your final year at The Rabbinical School, you were a Legacy Heritage Fund Rabbinic Fellow, working to revitalize the only remaining Conservative congregation in post-hurricane New Orleans, but you were also working in community organizing long before your involvement with JTS.

My success this past year at Shir Chadash (in Metairie, Louisiana) came largely from effective partnerships that I built with lay leaders, synagogue staff, other clergy, allies in Greater New Orleans, and Rabbi Steven Rein, the other Legacy Heritage Fund Rabbinic Fellow serving the congregation. That theme of partnership has defined my path in becoming a rabbinic educator: coleading the rebuilding projects in inner-city New Orleans with college students for Jewish Funds for Justice, cofounding JamDaven with Davidson School classmates, co-teaching Muslim-Jewish relations for Abraham's Vision (on whose advisory board Chancellor Eisen serves), and coleading High Holy Day services at JTS last year and elsewhere throughout rabbinical school.

I approach the task of expanding the network of JTS supporters as an extension of organizing, as a labor of love, building relationships with and between individuals whose values and interests JTS shares.

You cofounded and performed with JamDaven and you were a cantorial soloist with IKAR, a Jewish spiritual community in Los Angeles. What is it about music? How does music affect your Judaism?

My mentor, Rabbi Sharon Brous, would often say while we were founding and establishing IKAR that davening is more an art than a science. It involves experiences that transcend the rational mind, impulses that come from intuition and yearning, gestures that express emotions, and thoughts that defy words. Music, especially when employed with prayer, opens my heart and allows me to explore the many voices of our tradition in harmony.

I especially appreciate this perspective as my own musical repertoire has grown from traditional melodies to include more contemporary tunes and genres. My band, JamDaven, and I composed and performed gospel, folk, and bluegrass settings for different texts in Jewish liturgy. That naturally developed from our love of a wide variety of musical styles and from a shared belief that we can and should enjoy going to a minyan. One of our professors at JTS remarked after attending a service we led that never before had she not wanted the minyan to end—it was that richly meaningful and seriously fun.

Now you're coming to Florida to work for and represent JTS. What are you looking forward to?

I am deeply honored that JTS asked me to represent the institution in Florida and across the Southeast. I am passionate about the particular vision of JTS for Conservative Judaism and its universal mission to serve Jews of all denominations in the twenty-first century. I see that balance in my own education at JTS, as I studied Jewish education in a pluralistic environment within The Davidson School and completed my rabbinic training under the very big tent of The Rabbinical School, in which I found the full diversity of practices and beliefs within the Conservative Movement.

I am very excited to share the insights of my own spiritual journey and the fruits of my labor to become a rabbi and educator, but I am most looking forward to building relationships with and expanding the network of individuals who came to know and love Rabbi Matt Berkowitz, in whose footsteps I am following. I hope to share my great enthusiasm for JTS with those who have not yet encountered what makes it such a wonderful institution and how it can provide tremendous resources for communities well beyond New York City.

Rabbi Shugerman can be reached at (561) 852-3454 or anshugerman@jtsa.edu.

Press Release:

Rabbi Andy Shugerman, a talented and passionate Jewish educator, has been named rabbinic fellow of The Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS). Based out of JTS's Florida regional office in Boca Raton, he began his new position on July 1.

Rabbi Shugerman is responsible for both formal and informal educational outreach, including study groups, special programs, and synagogue educational events and lectures. He was ordained last month by The Rabbinical School of JTS and earned a master's degree from JTS's William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education in 2008. Rabbi Shugerman received his BA from Brandeis University, where he majored in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies.

As a student at JTS, Rabbi Shugerman developed his skills and talents as an educator while teaching Jewish studies at the Rodeph Sholom School and Muslim-Jewish relations at the Abraham Joshua Heschel High School, both in New York City. He was also selected to participate in the prestigious Legacy Heritage Fund Rabbinic Fellows program, through which he helped to revitalize Congregation Shir Chadash of Metairie, Louisiana, a community still recovering from hurricanes Katrina and Gustave.

Combining his love of education and music, Rabbi Shugerman was a founding member of JamDaven, a band he formed with Davidson School classmates that developed new approaches to prayer through music and meditation. He also served as a scholar-in-residence at the Charles E. Smith Day School of Rockville, Maryland, and led college students in rebuilding homes in New Orleans with Jewish Funds for Justice.

Prior to coming to JTS, Rabbi Shugerman studied at the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem while working for the Masorti (Israeli Conservative) Movement and attended the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in Los Angeles. While in California, he assisted Rabbi Sharon Brous, a JTS alumna, in founding IKAR, a spiritual community that has been nationally recognized for its innovative approach to Judaism.