At first blush, Rabbi Joshua Joseph seems perfect for his new job as executive director of the Orthodox Caucus. He has smicha, worked in the business world, studied in Yeshivat Gush Etzion for four years, and is well connected in the upper echelons of the Jewish communal world. An added bonus — his young age of 31 — deepens the color.
With a second, more thorough look, though, the color morphs from red to gold, for Josh Joseph indeed seems to have the energy and desire to propel the Caucus forward as it strives to even better improve Jewish life.
“We were looking for youth, energy, a fertile imagination and vision as to where the Caucus should go,” said Fred Ehrman, the Caucus’s chairman. “We had someone who was extremely successful in eight years as executive director and Josh seems to be able to project what the Caucus is trying to accomplish.”
Joseph replaces Rabbi Basil Herring, who left in July to assume the position of executive director of the Rabbinical Council of America.
The Orthodox Caucus seeks to work on situations that exist in the Orthodox community that have not been dealt with adequately – and remedy them. Some of the issues tackled to date include Jewish divorce, agunot, and husbands won’t give a get. The Torah Ethics project has included substance abuse, special needs kids and post-traumatic stress.
“Josh will put his own imprimatur on what were going to do now and how,” said Ehrman. Joseph, a Lawrence, L.I. resident, understands first-hand the value of what the organization can do. The Caucus’s program on special needs kids was the progenitor for Kulanu, a program that now positively affects hundreds of children on the South Shore. Joseph has three children — Zachary, 4 ½; Ozzie, 2 ½; and one-year-old Maggie. The boys, both diagnosed with special needs, benefit from Kulanu’s myriad programming.
Joseph’s story is an interesting one. He was born and raised in Montreal, where his father, Howard, is the rabbi of the Spanish-Portuguese Synagogue and his mother, Norma Baumel Joseph, is dean of the Religious Studies Department at Concordia University. He graduated high school at 16 and went to study at Gush for one year before attending the University of Pennsylvania. After graduation, while driving a friend out west to graduate school, Joseph did
some soul searching.
“I realized,” he said from the Caucus’s new offices on Carman Ave. in Cedarhurst, that the year I did before in Israel didn’t really take.
“I had always been a ‘seeker.’ I had a great time in college — intellectually, socially and psychologically, but something was missing. I felt I had to give Gush and religion a second try.”
And so, though he had been on his way to a job in statistical analysis in Chicago, Joseph detoured to Israel, and what began as a six-month search turned into two years.
“I realized,? he said, ?there was a lot to learn and that if I was going to take this seriously I needed to focus on it. If I could spend three years in a fraternity, then I could spend some time learning.”
Between learning sometimes 15-16 hours a day, sometimes with Rav Ahron Lichtenstein, Rav Moshe Lichtenstein and Rabbi Menachem Leibtag, Joseph instituted “the tisch” on Friday nights, where everyone came to sing and give divrei Torah. “I just set up the vehicle,” he said, “they did all the work. I did not allow anyone in unless they would either start a song or give a d’var Torah. From that grew the feeling that ‘hey, maybe this is something I could do.'”
Two years into his studies, he fell in love with the woman who was to be his wife, Julie, and returned to the States. Within a year, they got married, honeymooned and went back to Israel where Joseph studied for his fourth year in Gush. Opportunity brought them back to the States and Joseph went to Yeshiva University and took on the assistant rabbi position at Congregation Beth Sholom in Lawrence.
Joseph entered the smicha program at YU, moved to the assistant rabbi position at Lincoln Square synagogue in Manhattan and earned his Master’s in philosophy at YU. He taught for a while and dabbled in hedge fund activities, which became a full-time job.
But last year, while Julie was pregnant with their daughter, they discovered she had a malignant melanoma. (She is now, thankfully, fine.) At the same time, one of their sons took ill and the big deal Joseph had been working on fell apart.
“All these things came together at the same time,” he said, “and I thought maybe it was time to use my smicha, get involved, make aliyah, look into teaching, or something. It was then I got a call from the placement office at YU that the Caucus was looking for someone. When I found out what they do, I realized it was an incredible opportunity.”
“It came down to three or four applicants,” said Rabbi Herring, who helped find his replacement. “We chose Josh because he is a very talented young man who has tremendous potential to contribute to Jewish life. His business and Jewish mind combined with a wonderful personality make him the right person to work with lay and rabbinic leaders.”
“The Torah Ethics project really spoke to me,” said Joseph. “Why aren’t people being good to each other? It’s very much about dealing with people’s needs and I’m about helping someone in their moment of crisis.
“We have a unique ability to bring together professionals and lay people to deal with the issues we are all facing. I want to bring in a younger crew, because if we don’t get input from the 25-40-year-olds we’re missing out on the sector that is dealing with much of Jewish life.”
On the immediate horizon for the Caucus is the Aretz Project, a comprehensive overview of the yeshivot in Israel that American students attend for a post-high school year of study. Created because, explained Ehrman, “many families send their children to Israel and sometimes those kids get a different world view,” the Caucus canvassed the Israeli landscape to better highlight what the yeshivot are really like so parents can make more educated choices. The study will be available online shortly. (See www.orthodoxcaucus.org for details.)
Other issues under consideration are singles and education, but “the list is endless,” said Joseph. “We want to set up symposia to find out what’s on people’s minds. There’s lots of room to reach people whom we’re not talking to.”
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