Just days after the appointment of a new dean of the Duke Chapel, the University has gained another spiritual leader.
The Freeman Center for Jewish Life confirmed this week that it hired Michael Goldman—currently FCJL’s rabbinic intern—to be the new campus rabbi. Goldman is the first person to hold the position since Spring 2002.
Jonathan Gerstl, executive director of Jewish life, said the decision to hire a rabbi stemmed from several years of discussion about the need for a Jewish religious leader on campus. With financial support from the University and private donors and advice from several community focus groups, FCJL worked with Hillel International—a global network of Jewish campus organizations—to identify candidates for the position.
Goldman was selected after a group of students and faculty interviewed the candidates this spring. Gerstl said Goldman’s combination of religious knowledge and open-mindedness made him an ideal choice for the job.
“He is very welcoming and embraces the integrity of students who choose to find their spirituality in different ways,” Gerstl said. “He’s open to helping each individual student find their own path in their search for their Jewish spiritual identity.”
Goldman will represent “the Jewish point of view” on panels and in discussions with other religious leaders, Gerstl explained. The new rabbi will also provide counseling and spiritual guidance to members of the Jewish community.
“The rabbi is not only about Friday night services,” Gerstl said. “A rabbi is about how one educates oneself in a much broader way.”
Goldman said he hopes to support the Jewish community by keeping his door open to listen to people’s needs, facilitating dialogue among students of various faiths and communicating with other campus clergy. But his most important role, Goldman explained, will be helping Jewish students “articulate their Jewish identity” and carve out their niche as a “distinct minority” at Duke.
“[I want] to deepen the community’s sense of itself, to give people access to the breadth and life of the Jewish tradition and to help people use that tradition as a guide to finding their own place in the world, whether that place has a religious character or a secular, cultural character—hopefully both,” Goldman said.
Enhancing Jewish students’ “ritual life” by creating and finding ways for them to give back to the community around them will be another of Goldman’s main priorities.
“One of the central components to living a Jewish life which is shared by Jews of every denomination and every social orientation is tikkun olam, which means ‘repairing the world,’” Goldman explained. “We feel we have a commitment to leaving the world a better place than when we were born into it.”
Praising Goldman’s “passion and experience,” senior Amanda Zimmerman, outgoing FCJL executive vice president, said the new rabbi will help unite Duke’s Jewish community—something it found difficult to do without a religious figurehead.
“A rabbi also makes the community that much more cohesive and makes it feel like we actually have a Jewish community,” she said. “In Judaism, there isn’t a pope... so communities are very dependent on rabbis for spirituality and leadership.”
Echoing Zimmerman, junior and incoming FCJL President Jeff Leibach said Goldman will be a “dynamic” addition to the various religious figures on campus.
“When groups have been called on to provide a spiritual perspective, we haven’t had that continual voice,” Leibach said. “It’ll just be really great for all of the communities to have that stable voice here and for us to have that permanent perspective.”
Zimmerman said Goldman will also be an important adviser to Jewish students as they navigate a complex “spiritual self-exploration” during their college years.
“The most important issue that we’ve been dealing with for the past four years is how to be Jewish and be a student at Duke at the same time,” she noted. “It’s really easy to have two different worlds.... There’s a middle ground he will very much help fill.”
Goldman was born in Oregon and lives in New York City with his wife and son. He has served as FCJL’s rabbinical intern for most of the 2004-2005 academic year. Goldman will receive his rabbinic ordination from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in May before officially taking his position at Duke next year.
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