On one leg or two wheels
Rabbi Joel Levenson comes to Congregation B’nai Jacob By Cindy Mindell WOODBRIDGE - If he could, Rabbi Joel Levenson would as likely be leading from a bicycle saddle as from his new pulpit at Congregation B’nai Jacob. The avid amateur cyclist and triathlete takes to heart Jewish teachings on self-care. “Our tradition challenges us to pay attention to how we treat our body, not only our spirit, in order to really take care of ourselves,” he says. “In Parshat Va'etchanan, God tells the Jewish people: ‘Take care and watch yourself scrupulously.’ The Talmud derives from this verse that a person must scrupulously guard his physical health.” Four years ago, Levenson took part in the Israel Ride, an annual 350-mile bicycle ride from Jerusalem to Eilat. Sponsored by the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies and Hazon, the event raises awareness of Israel’s environmental challenges and solutions. Levenson hopes to lead a local team on a future Israel Ride. Levenson grew up in Akron, Ohio, “going to shul and sitting in the fourth row with my bubbe and zayde every Shabbos,” spending summers at Camp Ramah in Canada, serving as regional president and international president in USY throughout high school. While attending Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, he worked as a counselor at Camp Ramah, and went on summer trips to Israel and Eastern Europe. After graduating with a BA in political science and psychology, Levenson placed two piles of applications on a table, one for law school and one for rabbinical school. “I decided that there were enough lawyers but not enough teachers of Torah,” he says. “I looked back on all I’d done and realized that I liked working with fellow Jews as part of a Jewish community, and helping to create Jewish life. So I decided to apply to rabbinical school.” Ordained in 2001 from the Jewish Theological Seminary, Levenson served as associate rabbi of Temple Beth Sholom in Cherry Hill, N.J. before taking the Woodbridge pulpit. He is a member of the Rabbinical Assembly and serves on the board of Camp Ramah in the Poconos. Levenson is married to Leora Cohen, who grew up in Livingston, N.J., where her father served as rabbi of Temple Beth Shalom from the early ‘50s until his death in 1986. The couple has a toddler, Shir. “We were looking for a synagogue and a community that we would be able to call home,” Levenson says. “B’nai Jacob is warm and welcoming and hamish. The community offers wonderful educational institutions, from our preschool and religious school to Ezra Academy. The location allows us to be close to our families. So, all the pieces fit.” Rabbi Levenson succeeds Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins, who served as interim rabbi for a year before returning to The Jewish Center in Princeton, N.J.