Revel graduate Rabbi Chaim Strauchler ‘99YC, ‘06R, ‘06BR is the Senior Rabbi at Congregation Rinat Yisrael in Teaneck, New Jersey. He grew up in West Orange, New Jersey and is a proud graduate of YU and the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (RIETS), following in the footsteps of his mother’s father, Rabbi Gershon Romanoff, a rabbi in Hudson, NY, Chelsea, MA and Bronx, NY. His father’s parents were Holocaust survivors who moved to Minneapolis, MN after the war.
Revel News had a chance to catch up with Rabbi Strauchler to discuss his career as a shul rabbi and how his education at Revel influenced his professional and personal lives.
What was your Jewish education like as you grew up?
Throughout my childhood, I attended Congregation Ahawas Achim B’nai Jacob & David (AABJ&D) under the leadership of Rabbi Alvin Marcus. I studied at The JEC in Elizabeth, New Jersey from kindergarten through eleventh grade which was a wonderful experience with great teachers and friends. Following that, I studied at YU early admissions and then at Yeshivat Har Etzion in Israel.
What convinced you to attend Yeshiva University?
The opportunity to expand my knowledge and skills in Torah and secular studies. Both my parents are graduates of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
What led you to continue your studies at Revel?
The opportunity to study Torah with Revel faculty whom I was exposed to as an undergraduate at YU.
How do you take what you’ve learned from your studies at Revel and apply it to your role as the rabbi at Rinat?
So much of my thinking is a function of the skills and traditions that have been passed on to me. When I teach Tanach [bible] or history, it is with the frame of thinking and many of the insights that I imbibed from professors such as
Rabbi Dr. Shnayer Leiman, Dr. Barry Eichler, Rabbi Dr. Mordechai Cohen, Dr. Elisheva Carlebach, Dr. Richard Steiner, Dr. Jeffrey Gurock and Rabbi Dr. Yaakov Elman.
Can you recollect one or two experiences that would give readers a feel for the essence of your Revel experience?
As much as the classroom was critical to my Revel experience, the chance to “talk in learning” in the 5th Floor Library with fellow students in my courses as well as students who were not, was the essence of the Revel experience for me. We were a community of learners – all engaging in ideas, scholarship and a lived Jewish life on and beyond the YU campus.
What would you like to say to students considering pursuing Jewish studies at Revel?
The advanced Torah learning available only at Revel will deeply enrich your thinking and living for long into your future.
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